List of posthumous releases

Occasionally, there have been releases that have occurred posthumously.

Death of a cast member
The only televised Doctor Who story to have been broadcast after the death of a cast member is The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Jean Conroy, who played one of the women in the wood died on 14 November 1964, seven days before the broadcast of episode one. Her untimely death also meant she was altogether the first person associated with the franchise to pass away.

The BBC Radio production Slipback was released from July to August 1985 after the death of Valentine Dyall who voiced Slarn in the story. Dyall passed away on 24 June that year and is more well known among Doctor Who fans for portraying the Black Guardian in the television series.

Fan film Devious and the audio story Zagreus (the latter featuring audio from the former) were released after the death of Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee who died on 20 May 1996. Zagreus was released in November 2003 and a segment of Devious was released on the DVD release of The War Games which occurred on 6 July 2009.

The three finished stories of the fifth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures were released after the death of lead actor Elisabeth Sladen, who played the titular character, Sarah Jane Smith. The final three stories in the series were left unproduced due to her death, leaving several plot threads unresolved. Sladen died on 19 April 2011 and the series was broadcast in the October of that year.

The Last Post was released posthumously after the death of Caroline John who played Liz Shaw. John died on 5 June 2012 and Last Post was released on 25 October the same year. Further plans to feature Rowena Cooper as Emily Shaw alongside John were scrapped.

The entirety of the second series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures was released posthumously after the death of Mary Tamm, who portrayed Romana I. Tamm died on 24 July 2012 and the seven stories in the series were released monthly from January to July 2013.

The War Doctor audio series was brought to an abrupt end when John Hurt (who played the War Doctor) passed away. The fourth and final anthology, Casualties of War which contained three stories was released on 23 February 2017 a month after Hurt’s death on 25 January.

The Bad Penny, which was released on 16 May 2018 was a posthumous release for Keith Barron who played Lord Tulip in that story. Barron died on 15 November 2017.

Following the death of Trevor Baxter who portrayed George Litefoot on 16 July 2017 a special Jago & Litefoot release, Jago & Litefoot Forever was released as a tribute on 24 May 2018. Baxter featured through audio clips from a library of sixty days of previous studio recordings.

Death of a crew member
The Target novelisation, Doctor Who and the War Games was published on 25 September 1979. Its author, Malcolm Hulke died on 6 July earlier in that year.

Writer Robert Holmes died on 24 May 1986, before he could complete his contributions to The Trial of a Time Lord season. The Mysterious Planet, the opening story of the season which was penned by Holmes was broadcast throughout September. Part one of The Ultimate Foe was broadcast on 29 November. His unexpected death meant that Pip and Jane Baker had to write the second and final part of the story; other complications led to Holmes' intended conclusion to the story being changed. He remains the only writer of televised Doctor Who to die before an episode they penned was broadcast.

Two other Target novelisations: The Reign of Terror and The Rescue (published on 20 August 1987 and 21 January 1988 respectively) were released after the death of their author, Ian Marter which occurred on 28 October 1986.

Rennigan's Record was a short story written by David Whitaker in 1980 originally intended to be part of a never-completed collection of original short stories. It was published posthumously in DWM 200 on 13 May 1993. Whitaker had died years previously on 4 February 1980.

Adaptions
Posthumous releases are more common for adaptions of stories where the story has been adapted and released after the death of the original writer.

The Lost Stories was a range by Big Finish Productions adapting unproduced television stories for audio. Stories of this nature include: The Nightmare Fair, (after the death of Graham Williams) Leviathan, (after the death of Brian Finch) The Destroyers, (after the death of Terry Nation) Hexagora, (after the death of Peter Ling) The Guardians of Prophecy, (after the death of Johnny Byrne) The Masters of Luxor, (after the death of Anthony Coburn) The Dark Planet, The Queen of Time, Lords of the Red Planet, (all after the death of Brian Hayles) and The Mega (after the death of Bill Strutton). Similarly, The Stageplays was a range by Big Finish that adapted stageplays for audio. Of these, The Curse of the Daleks was released after the deaths of original writers, David Whitaker and Terry Nation.

In 2017, the unfinished Shada was completed with animation for DVD release. By the time of this release original writer Douglas Adams, director Pennant Roberts, producer Graham Williams, production unit manager John Nathan-Turner, and costume designer Rupert Jarvis had all died. Additionally, the actors who portrayed Chronotis, K9 and Wilkin (Denis Carey, David Brierley, and Gerald Campion respectively) had all died.

The 2017 Christmas special, Twice Upon a Time featured scenes originally written for in 1966's The Tenth Planet. The writers of these scenes, Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis had died decades before.