For over six decades, Doctor Who has transported audiences across time and space, but a significant chapter from 1979 remained incomplete due to industrial action. New revelations from a BBC Sounds documentary, Doctor Who: Lost in Cambridge, detail how a strike at the broadcaster prevented the finishing of episodes filmed in the university city.
The uncompleted story, titled ‘Shada’, was written by local author Douglas Adams and featured Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor. Production teams arrived in Cambridge following a narrative in which the Doctor, alongside his companion Romana and the retired Time Lord Professor Chronotis, battled the villainous alien Skagra, who sought the secrets of the prison planet Shada.
Marcus Hearn, editor of Doctor Who Magazine, shared insights from his father, who worked as a porter at Clare College during the shoot. Hearn recounted that Baker struggled to master punting on the River Cam and frequently fell into the water. His father was tasked with providing blankets and brandy to help calm the actor, who was reportedly in a difficult mood during filming.
Although most on-location shooting was finished in Cambridge, including scenes at Emmanuel and Clare Colleges after St John’s College denied the BBC permission to film there, the project was halted when BBC staff went on strike. Les McCallum, a design assistant on the production, described returning to the studios after lunch to find the doors locked and chained.
“We never saw the finished product, and they couldn’t get the actors to come back again because they were contracted on other series or other shows, and that’s why it never got finished,” McCallum explained.
The loss of the episode became a legendary mystery for fans. When the show celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1983, producer John Nathan-Turner needed footage for the special ‘The Five Doctors’. With Tom Baker declining to appear, the BBC retrieved the surviving fragments of ‘Shada’ from the archive and wove them into the anniversary story.
It was not until 2017, 36 years after the original shoot, that Baker and Lalla Ward returned to record missing dialogue. The project was eventually released as a partially animated reconstruction, finally completing Adams’ vision.
Douglas Adams and Tom Baker were a brilliant combo. It’s a shame industrial action ruined the shoot.
Does anyone know if the animated version really captures the original tone, or feels cheap?
Thirty-six years?! That is an agonizing wait for fans. So glad they finally completed it.
I never realized the strike was the sole culprit. The brandy detail is hilarious though.