We’ve got new Doctor Who coming up in the form of this December’s Christmas special and Jodie Whittaker’s season 11 that’s currently in production, but we’re also getting some new old Doctor Who, as well. That’s because an abandoned story from 1979, which has gained legendary status over the years, is finally being completed using animation.
Titled “Shada,” the six-part storyline was set to be the third and final Doctor Who episode from iconic sci-fi scribe Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy). However, due to strike action at the BBC, production was interrupted halfway through and never resumed.
Nearly forty years later, though, the cast of the story have been reunited and chief among them is Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor himself who played the role from 1974-1981. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, it’s also been revealed that the 87-year-old actor is going to reprise his role in the flesh as part of the production.
This is technically the third time Baker has returned to Doctor Who since regenerating into Peter Davison. First off, he turned up in non-canon multi-Doctor special “Dimensions in Time,” which aired as part of the 1993 Children in Need celebrations. More recently, though, Baker played a mysterious character known as the Curator in 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor.”
To complete the journey back to the past, the producers of “Shada” filmed Baker in a recreation of his TARDIS, shot the scenes on vintage 1970s cameras and even got hold of a model of the Doctor’s faithful dog K-9 to boot. Pretty awesome, eh?
Doctor Who “Shada” is available on digital download in the UK from today and arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 4th.
