The Clock (Doctor Who)
The Clock was an unproduced 1966, four-part Doctor Who adventure serial written by David Ellis for the First Doctor, Polly, and Ben,[1] and was proposed for Season 4.[2]
Synopsis
The Doctor, Polly, and Ben discover a clock in the TARDIS, which is causing disastrous results to time itself. Some how, they encounter strange effects with the structure of historical and present day events, and discovering that the clock is causing disruptions with the time of Doctor, Ben, and Polly waking up the same morning, and the same day in a flashback- striking at noon, including other destinations. The Doctor then tries to throw the clock into a sun and are both free from the clock’s time-trans.
Production
Ellis was commissioned to write a story to feature new coming companions Polly and Ben under the title, The Clock. The story Ellis wrote only reached the storyline stage and he couldn't proceed the project further due to other Doctor Who projects he was busy with, such as writing mysterious, estalgic, exploring the unknown- Doctor Who stories to surprise viewers. David Ellis submitted the story around January 1966, but was rejected by story editor Gerry Davis on April 4, 1966,[3][2] alongside Ellis's other four-parter, The Ocean Liner.[2] Ellis moved on to write later stories with Malcolm Hulke, such as, The People Who Couldn’t Remember,[2] submitted in April 1966[2] after the abandonment of The Clock, but was soon rejected by Davis again in June 15, 1966.[2] The storyline of The Clock may have been rejected by Davis due to it being too similar with Terry Nation’s The Daleks' Master Plan, and the plot becoming to complicated.
References
- ^ Doctor Who: The Handbook: The First Doctor- James Walker, Stephen; J Howe, David- retrieved since 1992
- ^ a b c d e f A brief history of Doctor Who stories- The Lost Stories (The First Doctor)- Patrick Sullivan, Shannon
- ^ A comprehensive history of the First Doctor’s untold stories (Part two)- Wholmes, Harbo- YouTube- retrieved January 30, 2020