why was the Lost Stories range ended?

IIRC it was because they ran out of adaptable stories (ie stories that didn't exist as an idea scribbled on a napkin (ie "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It")).

It's a shame, as Is love to have heard Lucarotti's version of "Ark in Space" or the orginal versions of "Pyramids" and "Morbius".

The infamous Fry episode perhaps?

BF had done all the ones that could be fully adapted.

The remaining ones either had rights issues or not enough material to create a workable story.

Regards

mark687

The thing is there are plenty of stories that would probably have sold really well they could've adapted.
You could have a full version of Shada directly based off the script featuring 4. There's also Illegal Alien and Lost In The Dark Dimension. I know they can't adapt the Ultimate Evil (due to rights) or Yellow Fever, but there are still plenty of full scripts from the 4th Doctor's era. There's Child Prodigy (Season 17), The Dogs Of Darkness (18/19), Shylock (17/18), Erinella (17/18), (possibly) Fires Of The Starmind (13), (possibly) Invasion Of The Veridans (18), Killers Of The Dark (15), The Lost Legion (14), Nightmare Planet (13), Sealed Orders (18), Space Station (12) and the Tearing Of The Veil (17/18) that all have complete scripts.
As for new Who there's a story set in Pompeii (although that would be the 3rd time that's happened), a Paul Abbot episode, Century House, A Midwinter's Tale, The 1920s, The Suicide Exhibition and the JK Rowling episode just from Russell's era. And at least half of them have potential to be Lost Stories, now.
At the end of the day, I think they just weren't doing well from a sales perspective during the final series.

I never specified which had potential. That was one that probably wouldn't. I was more referring to Century House and the 1920s.

In fact, after reading the latest Complete History I've changed my mind. The Chelonian space war planned for the Easter Special that later became Planet of the Dead sounded amazing.

On the plus side, a lot of these ambiguous premises often become springboards for authors' works that are otherwise wholly original. One example for the former would be the Rani using a university as a front for her experiments, a premise unique to both Network and The Rani Elite, respectively. Another could be JNT's premise for Mel's introduction story where the main villain plans to crash the stock market that is quite possibly used for Davros with TAI. Kit Pedler's Genesis of the Cybermen may even have been the inspiration for Spare Parts.

Another possibility is that these lost stories are taken by their original authors and evolve into entirely new beasts. Ed Young's Night Thoughts for the Main Range technically counts as a Lost Stories adaptation as it was considered for Season 27 or maybe 28 at one stage. The wonderful Loups-Garoux was originally pitched as a Five/Tegan/Nyssa story before years and years later it was resculpted to become a Five/Turlough story. Outside of Big Finish, Cat's Cradle was transformed into Time's Crucible, Animal into Warlock, and Avatar into White Darkness.

Rarely do these stories simply lie sleeping. We often get to see them in one form or another.

Do those scripts still exist at this late date, though? And are they suitable for adapting? And are they any good? And wouldnt it be cheaper to hire a writer to invent a new story, not adapt an old one that they'd have to buy?

It's also worth pointing out there are plenty of versions of "Shada" already; "Illegal Alien" was done as a novel; and "The Dark Dimension" simply isn't worth doing. The script is illicitly out there online, and if you read it you'll find out that practically nothing happens, and the stuff that happens doesn't make sense. Also, you may struggle to find any Doctors willing to perform it!