Editing Shada (Doctor Who) (section)

==Production==
Originally, writer [[Douglas Adams]] presented a wholly different idea for the season's six-part finale, involving the Doctor's retirement from adventuring. Facing resistance from producer [[Graham Williams (television producer)|Graham Williams]], Adams chose to avoid work on a replacement, under the expectation that time pressures would eventually force the producer's hand and allow his idea to be used. Ultimately, however, Williams forced Adams to conceive a new story as a last-minute replacement, which became ''Shada''.

Under the original remit, Williams intended the story as a discussion about the death penalty, specifically how a civilisation like the Time Lords would deal with the issue and treat its prisoners.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

As composed by Adams, the story was scheduled to span six 25-minute episodes. Location filming in [[Cambridge]] and the first of three studio sessions at [[BBC Television Centre]] were completed as scheduled;<ref name="Southall" /> however, when the scheduled second studio block was due to start, it fell foul of a long-running technicians' dispute at the BBC.<ref name="Dicks" /> The strike was over by the onset of rehearsals for the third recording session, but ultimately the studio time was redirected to other higher-priority Christmas programming, leaving the serial incomplete.<ref name="Ley" />

Following the departure of Williams from the role of producer, attempts were made by new producer [[John Nathan-Turner]] to remount the story; for various reasons, however, this never transpired. Consequently, in June 1980, the production was formally dropped. It is estimated that only 50% of the story was filmed.<ref name="Southall" />

After the production halt, Adams expressed a low opinion of the script and was content to let it remain obscure, turning down offers to adapt the story in various forms. He once claimed that when he had signed the contract allowing the script's 1992 release (accompanying the serial's [[VHS]] reconstruction), it had been amongst a pile of papers sent over by his agent, and that he was unaware of what he was agreeing to.<ref name="Simpson" />

In 1983, footage from ''Shada'' was used in "[[The Five Doctors]]", the 20th Anniversary special. [[Tom Baker]], the fourth actor to play the Doctor, had declined to appear in the special, and the plot was reworked to explain the events in the scenes.<ref name="Dicks" />

===Cast notes===
[[Denis Carey (actor)|Denis Carey]] was subsequently cast as the [[eponym]]ous Keeper in Tom Baker's penultimate story, ''[[The Keeper of Traken]]'' (1981), and also appeared as the Borad's [[Avatar (computing)|avatar]] in ''[[Timelash]]'' (1985).