Shada

I'm not one to believe in fate, nor entrust the well-being of my day to whether or not Russell Grant says it's okay to go out and get the milk, but it seems uncanny that only the very best Doctor Who stories fall victim to serious strike action and risk becoming lost, unmade legends. "Enlightenment" is the best original story of Season 20, and "Greatest Show in the Galaxy" an undoubted highlight of Sylvester McCoy's second season - both could easily have become stillborn classics. But would we have really believed in each one's greatness had they not been made? Likewise it just seems too good to be true that "Shada" was one of the truly sparkling stories of Season 17, a happening that's mightily convenient in the same way most of the missing stories of the sixties are notoriously so much better than the ones we've got.

And yet all the signs point to "Shada" being something a bit special - even just going by the existing footage and script. Tom and Lalla punting down the cam and a hidden Time Lord prison are already better ideas than anything in "Destiny of the Daleks" or "Creature from the Pit". And ironically enough, they'd saved all the money up during those cheap stories that did get made, only to lose it all in having to pay Neame, Carey and company for work that never even got finished. The only story it would have been more gutting to have had cancelled would have been "City of Death", the other expensive one. But then, can you see any other Season 17 story occupying Shada's throne? Can you imagine Tom Baker excitedly narrating the missing bits of "The Horns of Nimon", which might have consisted entirely of characters running up and down changing corridors. "And Janet Ellis was APPALLED!"

"Shada" is paradoxically the best and the worst story of the Season that could have been cancelled, because it's so befitting of the inevitable legacy that followed the tale in the years afterwards. Would Big Finish have re-recorded "Creature from the Pit" with Paul McGann and an all-star cast including Andrew Sachs as Torvin and Susanah Harker as Lady Adrasta? It's difficult to see any of the missing bits in another story from being as tantalising as those in "Shada" were, suggesting that exactly the right/wrong bits were recorded to assist the post-cancellation legacy of the story as well. We wind up with hardly any shots of Skagra, one of a Krarg and nothing at all of Shada. Because the story happens to centre around the search for a long, lost forgotten secret, it's also a mystery that is never uncovered thanks to unmade filming sessions. What might we have lost on another story? No footage of the Bandits headquarters? The legendary missing scene where the Doctor and Romana play 'scissors paper stone' with Commander Sharrell? It's possible that David Gooderson's never-to-be-repeated Davros performance from "Destiny" might have fuelled some mythical speculation, but unlike Christopher Neame you only need one scene there to prove he's not actually very good.

The only thing that counts against "Shada", as with any legend, is the eventual re-surfacing and demystification. Now, all those great unrecorded scenes suddenly count against it, and there are further problems with the video as well. Some dubious music, despite a reasonable effort to duplicate Dudley Simpson from Keff, and some rubbish photographs as a substitute for the model work. In fact, both the original model work and music exist, but were unavailable for the release. Then there's a less than thrilling performance from Victoria Burgoyne and a general feeling that they filmed all the boring bits first. And it just doesn't work does it? Immersion in a Doctor Who story depends on uninterrupted suspension of disbelief, which is impossible while flashing continually back to Tom at Momi every time something exciting happens. Poor old Shada.

Still, like the missing episodes, you feel that Doctor Who would not be quite the same without the mystery surrounding this little ragged hole in its tapestry. And, although to blame fate would be silly, you also feel that no other story had quite the clout to be a missing classic in the same way "Shada" did.