Part of the Big Finish Unbound series.
What If?... Doctor Who did not materialise as a television series and was only an idea in someone's head? Featuring plenty of meta comments and Self-Referential Humor to the current fandom. Starring Derek Jacobi and written by Robert Shearman.
In 1963, Martin Bannister was an aspiring and talented writer for the stage. By 2003, his career has all been forgotten. Worse, it seems that he's literally losing his mind and unable to write much of anything - save for an adventure in time and space involving an old man, his granddaughter, and two of her schoolteachers that gradually becomes closer and closer to real life.
Of course, reality isn't that much better for Martin. He's arrogant, rude, and worst of all, stuck in a nursing home. When his son, Phillip (who Martin accidentally calls Ian), informs him that they had his mother's funeral without him, Martin can only chuckle at the irony that his second wife actually outlived his third.
As what he writes and thinks and what he sees and hears begin to blend into each other, Martin becomes progressively more unsure of what is real and what isn't. Is he sadly going senile, or is he truly the Doctor? He'll definitely know the truth soon...
This story provides examples of:
- Black Comedy: It is a Shearman play, after all.
- Bookends: Before the order of the stories was switched, this was originally intended to be the Grand Finale to the Unbound series, and as such shares many similarities with the first Unbound, "Auld Mortality". Both are about a struggling writer penning stories about travels in time and space as the Doctor, and being reunited with a family member as they begin to get fiction and reality confused. They also both feature alternate First Doctors. However, in "Auld Mortality" the main character actually is the Doctor, whereas Martin just believes himself to be.
- In a way, this story could be seen as a dark parody of the other. This story's ending is a dark mirror of that story's, with Martin believing himself to be leaving in the TARDIS with Susan (as the Doctor did in "Auld Mortality"), as the story all but outright says he suffocated to death in a wardrobe. The TARDIS being disguised as a wardrobe is also mentioned in "Auld Mortality" as a theoretical possibility.
- Cardboard Prison: It's unclear since Martin is undergoing a major Sanity Slippage by this point, but within Martin's Doctor Who, the Doctor and Susan appear to simply walk out of the Supreme One's dungeons. Of course, this is all metaphorical, and represents Martin leaving his imaginary Doctor Who characters for the real world.
- Darker and Edgier: Invoked by Martin's delusions. The Doctor's stories start becoming grimmer and more macabre - Barbara and Ian eventually die of radiation poisoning.
- Downer Ending: Martin's Sanity Slippage reaches critical mass and he loses himself to his delusions. "The Doctor" chooses to resume his travels with "Susan," which results in Martin locking himself within the wardrobe and presumably suffocating to death.
- Ghost Planet: The Doctor and his companions arrive on one of these in Martin's Doctor Who.
- Hates Their Parent: Martin's son Phillip has nothing but disdain for his father, who left him and his mother from youth. Phillip kills a guinea pig and passes off its ashes as those of his late mother's so he has an excuse to visit Martin (so he can see his grandson), who's Sanity Slippage has started by this point.
- Large Ham: The Supreme One in Martin's Doctor Who.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Since Martin can't remember whether Sydney Newman was Canadian or Australian, his imaginary version keeps switching between the two accents.
- Sanity Slippage: Premise of the drama. Martin Bannister spends the story slowly going mad due to his obsession with Doctor Who. Eventually his perception runs dry and he starts thinking he is the Doctor.
- Self Referential Humour: Runs on this.
- Stylistic Suck: Martin's version of Doctor Who.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To The Singing Detective.
- Would Hurt a Child: Martin extremely violently slaps his grandson Tom after he refuses to get into the wardrobe that Martin believes is a TARDIS. Of course, Martin isn't in his right mind at this point, and immediately regrets it afterwards.
