'Doctor Who': 5 One-Off Stories That Also Deserve A Sequel

WARNING! SPOILERS for Doctor Who 15x03/2x03, ‘The Well’.

After weeks teasing a connection to a past episode, fans were delighted with the reveal that Doctor Who 2x03/15x03, ‘The Well’, was a sequel to the classic Tenth Doctor episode, ‘Midnight’. Forty thousand years after the events of that episode, while seeking another reading for their Time Vindicator to get Belinda home, The Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda inadvertently join a squad of soldiers investigating a loss of communication with a mining colony, only for The Doctor to eventually realize that the planet is Midnight. Worse, the entity that tormented him so many years ago is still around and causing havoc.

Whovians have both hoped for and dreaded the possibility of a 'Midnight' sequel, fearing it could never live up to the original episode. These fears appear unfounded, with 'The Well' earning mostly positive reviews. This has in turn lead to some fans looking back on other one-shot Doctor Who stories or villains that deserve to be revisited.

1. 'The Shakespeare Code'

In the series two episode, 'The Shakespeare Code' The Tenth Doctor and his soon-to-be companion Martha Jones arrive in 1599 to attend the first performance of William Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost. They learn that he is writing a sequel, Love's Labours Won, but then discover that he is under a spell from the witch-like alien Carrionites, who plan to use the play's words to summon more of their kind to Earth. The Doctor helps thwart the plan, but all copies of Love's Labours Won are lost.

Some fans believe a sequel or similar story to 'The Shakespeare Code' could provide an avenue for Doctor Who to explore the stories of other pieces of lost media, perhaps even poking fun at the many lost episodes of Classic Who.

2. 'Silence In The Library'/'Forest of the Dead'

'Silence in the Library'/'Forest of the Dead', a two part story in Doctor Who's fourth series, has become iconic for two major reasons. One, of course, was that it marked the first appearance of The Doctor's future wife, River Song, and the other being the episode's villains, the creepy, flesh-eating Vashta Nerada.

Dust-sized and able to seek refuge in between book pages, the Vashta Nerada wreak unholy havoc, decimating the team accompanying River to investigate the library, until The Doctor and River negotiate a deal, leading to River's heartbreaking sacrifice to rescue the 'saved' residents of the planet on which the Library is located.

Prior to 'The Well' being revealed as a 'Midnight' sequel, some fans speculated that the episode could feature the return of the Vashta Nerada. Some still hope they will someday, with their use in Big Finish's 'Classic Doctors, New Monsters' line acting as proof of their recurring villain potential. There could also be story potential in River Song's continued existence as a Data Ghost, an idea touched on in 'The Name of The Doctor' that is currently being explored in Big Finish's 'The Death and Life of River Song' line.

3. Amy's Choice

The Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves caught between two different realities, one in which they are trapped in a powerless Tardis slowly freezing to death, and the other, apparently five years later, where Amy and Rory are happily married and expecting a child, but dangerous invading aliens have replaced Leadworth's aging population. They must decide which scenario is real to prevent a deadly outcome, with the ordeal presided over by the creepy, manipulative Dream Lord.

Eventually, once resolved, it was revealed that the events were caused by a psychic pollen falling into the Tardis engine, but the episode ends on an ambiguous and unsettling note, with some fans believing the Dream Lord was an unconscious manifestation of The Doctor's dark side. Many believe such a concept to be ripe for a a sequel.

4. Sleep No Morew

Presented in a Found Footage format, 'Sleep No More' sees The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald join a rescue mission to the Le Verrier lab space station, from which researcher Gagan Rassmussen has sent a distress call. Rasmussen. Rasmussen is the inventor of the Morpheus pods, devices that allow hours worth of sleep to be condensed to fifteen minutes, but the process has mutated the user's rheum (eye mucus/crust), into carnivorous monsters that devoured most of the Space Station's crew.

The rescue team are also mostly slaughtered. The mission is revealed to be a trap, and Rasmussen plans to spread Morpheus, and the Sandmen, to other planets. The Doctor believes he has thwarted the plot, escaping with Clara and lone crew survivor Nagata, only for the final moments to reveal that Rassmussen buried the Morpheus code in the tape, and that anyone who watches the footage, including viewers of the episode, risks infection.

'Sleep No More' marks one of the few occasions that The Doctor loses, but worse, loses without knowing that he lost. Many fans have therefore wondered if the Sandmen may come back to haunt him.

5. The Return of Doctor Mysterio

While building a special device in New York City on Christmas Eve, 1992, The Twelfth Doctor befriends a young boy named Grant. After accidentally swallowing a wish-granting stone intended for The Doctor's device, Grant receives superpowers. When The Doctor returns in 2016, Grant has become a superhero known as The Ghost, who helps The Doctor thwart an evil plot by shady company Harmony Shoal.

On the one hand, 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio', like most Doctor Who Christmas specials, is a fun, self-contained story. However, superhero adventures provide a lot of potential content, leading to some Whovians expressing an eagerness to see The Ghost again.

Perhaps, with the success of 'The Well', more sequel episodes will be considered in the future.