Trivia / Scream of the Shalka

• Milestone Celebration: Released on the series' fortieth anniversary, it was intended to be the official revival. The revival announcement reduced it to an non-canon Alternate Universe tale.
• Self-Adaptation: Paul Cornell wrote both the series and its novelization.
• Troubled Production: They had a difficult time getting this into production in the first place, with the planned format of three four-part serials being cut down to one story released in six parts. Paul Cornell tried to email the script to the producers whilst on holiday, but it failed to arrive, and the only accessible copy was on Cornell's home computer - resulting in the producer breaking into Cornell's house to retrieve it, as they couldn't wait for him to return to the UK. Then a journalist from Doctor Who Magazine was sent to the recording studio to cover the production for the magazine but was inadvertently locked in a cupboard; the article that was written as a result was sent by Russell T Davies to the 2005 TV series' publicists as an example of "how not to do it". Finally, the TV series' return was announced before "Shalka" started, meaning the Shalka Doctor was reduced to non-canonical status before he'd even appeared.
• What Could Have Been:
  • This story was originally have been intended to have been a "season" of three separate four-part stories, but it got cut down.
  • Despite this, there were still hopes of further stories being made, but then a different part of The BBC announced a full-scale live-action Doctor Who Revival.
  • Paul Cornell subsequently revealed in interviews what the Shalka!Doctor's backstory would have been: at some point after the TV movie, the Doctor made a return visit to Gallifrey, fell in love with the daughter of the then Lord President, and settled down to stay there. However, an enemy culture then attacked Gallifrey and laid it to waste, forcing the surviving Time Lords to retreat entirely into the Matrix. The Doctor's girlfriend/wife was killed in the process, and the Master pulled a Heroic Sacrifice in an attempt to fight the aliens, impressing the Doctor so much that he retrieved the Master's mind from the Matrix and put it in a new robot body. Blaming the Doctor for his failure to prevent the devastation of the planet and the death of his daughter, the President then exiled the Doctor from Gallifrey and forced him to work as the Time Lords' last representative in the physical universe.
• Word of Gay: Believe it or not, all the innuendo was completely accidental and Cornell wrote this Doctor as asexual. When he realised how the fans were interpreting the story, though, he really liked the theory that the Doctor and the Master were an item, and has since stated that they were indeed banging.

---