The 'New' Doctor Who – An Animated Series

Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation.

An animated Doctor Who series was planned by Nelvana. Concept art was drawn by Ted Bastien, but the series was never produced.

In 1990, following the cancellation of the live action series, the BBC approached the Canadian animation house Nelvana to propose an animated continuation of the show. The cartoon series was to feature an unspecified Doctor incorporating elements of various BBC series Doctors and was not to be oriented to a younger audience than the live action series but was intended to be a continuation of the cancelled series but in animated form in order to save costs but with design elements that would promote merchandise sales.

According to Bastien: "We went through a lot of development on it, then we were scripting and storyboarding it and about 4 scripts had been written. It happened really fast".

Concept art was prepared depicting several possible versions of the Doctor modelled on actors such as Peter O'Toole, Jeff Goldblum and Christoper Lloyd with elements of the wardrobes of previous Doctors and new versions of allies such as K-9 and enemies such as the Daleks and Cybermen. The Master was to be " half man, half robot with a cybernetic bird accessory and a face modelled after Sean Connery." The show was also to feature female companions from Earth, and space battles which the BBC would not have been able to afford for the live action series.

The series would have been Nelvana's biggest show to date, however, according to Bastien, "it was pulled out from under us" after a British animation studio told the BBC that it could do what Nelvana intended for a much lower price. The project did not proceed further and no pilot was produced. (REF: The Nth Doctor)