10 Doctor Who Mistakes Confirmed By The Creators
There's one Doctor Who moment that haunts Steven Moffat to this day...
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00:00Look, we all make mistakes.
00:01You make mistakes.
00:02I make mistakes.
00:03The Doctor makes mistakes.
00:04Still, it's not often you hear the cast and crew actually acknowledge the things that
00:09went wrong with the show, but sometimes they do.
00:11I'm Ellie for WhoCulture here with 10 Doctor Who Mistakes Confirmed by the Creators.
00:1710.
00:18Clara being too passive
00:19Companions are meant to evolve during their time in the TARDIS.
00:22As the Thirteenth Doctor tells her fam in Arachnids in the UK, you're not going to
00:26come back as the same people that left here.
00:29Only has this been quite as true as with Clara.
00:31The Clara of Series 7 is almost a completely different character to the Clara of Series
00:368 and 9.
00:37This radical reinvention was largely down to the Impossible Girl arc, which dominated
00:41her first run of adventures.
00:43Making the companion the series arc was an interesting idea on paper, but in practice
00:47it created problems, as Stephen Moffat has admitted.
00:50He said,
00:51One of the difficulties with her Impossible Girl story was that she wasn't actually
00:54a participant in it, because she didn't actually know about the mystery.
00:58It was always the Doctor fussing about it.
01:00She was completely oblivious until the very end, so it doesn't change her hugely.
01:03Moffat adjusted in Series 8 and made Clara a much more active character going forward,
01:08though some would argue that he overcorrected.
01:10I would be one of those people.
01:129.
01:13Susan's squandered potential
01:15As the Doctor's first on-screen companion, Susan holds a special place in Doctor Who
01:19history.
01:20She was also his granddaughter and an alien in her own right, but sadly this is something
01:24the writers quickly seem to forget.
01:26Following a promising introduction in An Unearthly Child, Susan was treated more as
01:30a human teenager than a Time Lord, playing second fiddle to the other leads.
01:34It's a great frustration looking back, not least for the woman who played her.
01:38Reflecting on her decision to leave the series, Carol Ann Ford recalled that,
01:41It had become so repetitive.
01:43For a large part of the time, Susan was arriving somewhere with her grandfather and the other
01:47two, being told not to get into danger, having them come and get her out of danger, then
01:51flying off again.
01:52In the meantime, I was watching visiting actors do really interesting stuff.
01:57Carol Ann Ford wanted Susan to be a much more interesting character.
01:58She came to the show as a trained dancer, acrobat, swimmer, and horse rider, but was
02:02given no opportunity to use these talents in the script.
02:05She was also told Susan would have telepathic powers and a cool wardrobe, neither of which
02:10happened.
02:11Given that was 60 years ago, it's probably too late to make amends, though who knows
02:15what the future holds?
02:16This is Doctor Who, after all.
02:188.
02:19Redacting Wild Blue Yonder
02:20Speculation for the 60th specials was dominated by the mysterious middle instalment, Wild
02:25Blue Yonder.
02:26This was a deliberate move from Russell T. Davis, who wanted to take one of the episodes
02:30and quote, try to reveal nothing about it.
02:32This approach extended to all aspects of promotion, with trailer clips obscured by static and
02:37redacted text, and three redacted actors in the cast list.
02:41But did it work?
02:42Well, that depends on who you ask.
02:43The secrecy did successfully preserve the plot and the villains, however it also allowed
02:47fans to get carried away with their own theories, with many convinced that past doctors and
02:52companions would appear.
02:53Even Russell T. Davis is conflicted.
02:55He explained to the official Doctor Who podcast,
02:57This is actually the simplest one of the lot.
02:59That's why I kept it secret, but I wonder if that's had an unfortunate effect and
03:03made it disappointingly simple.
03:05Ultimately, he had the right idea, but some of the marketing was still needlessly secretive.
03:10Did Isaac Newton and Mrs. Maradu, characters who don't appear beyond the pre-titles,
03:14really merit the redacted treatment?
03:17Perhaps we'll be able to appreciate the mavity of this decision one day, but as it
03:20stands, we're not convinced.
03:227.
03:24Resolution was a new type of festive special, not so much a coda to Series 11 as a second
03:29finale.
03:30Chris Chibnall would be the first to admit that Series 11's actual finale was fairly
03:34lacklustre.
03:35The version of the Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos that went before cameras was actually a first
03:39draft.
03:40He told Doctor Who magazine in 2022,
03:42I really attacked Resolution, so hopefully I made up for it with that one.
03:46Many would agree, but there was one thing that fans took issue with.
03:49The fact that the Daleks were completely absent from the marketing.
03:53Instead, promotion focused mostly on Jodie Whittaker's scarf.
03:57This allowed the reveal of the Dalek to be a surprise, but it also meant that the episode
04:01potentially lost whole swathes of viewers by not showing it off ahead of broadcast.
04:05Even Chibnall concedes that this might not have been the best strategy.
04:09He said,
04:10We were torn between keeping it a secret or not, and I'm not sure that we got that call
04:13right.
04:14Thankfully, Revolution of the Daleks put the villains front and centre in the marketing.
04:18It was a have-your-cake-and-eat-it approach, allowing the defence drones to make a splash
04:22without detracting from the episode they appeared in.
04:24Win-win.
04:256.
04:26Four to Doomsday's froggy failings
04:28Four to Doomsday saw the Fifth Doctor go up against new foes, the Abankans, but not everyone
04:33was convinced by how they came across on screen.
04:35Cast and crew included.
04:37Stratford Johns, who played their leader, Monarch, had initially leapt at the chance
04:41to play an evil space frog, feeling that it would help him overcome typecasting, but when
04:45he was presented with a solid mask to wear, Johns refused on the grounds that it would
04:49limit his performance.
04:50In one interview, he recalled phoning the director and saying,
04:53If you've got ideas like that, why don't you get another fat actor?
04:56If nobody can recognise me, there's no point paying my money.
04:59As a compromise, a thin latex mask was agreed upon, but even then Johns was disappointed,
05:04believing he looked unrecognisable.
05:05Meanwhile, writer Terence Dudley had different reservations about the Abankans.
05:10Having envisaged the creatures as completely frog-like, rather than humanoids with frog
05:14heads, he was dismayed with how they were depicted, later describing the story as a
05:18quote,
05:19Travesty.
05:20Sadly, Dudley died long before It Takes You Away was broadcast, but on that basis, we're
05:25sure he would have been delighted by the Solid Track's ultimate form.
05:28Johns, not so much.
05:305.
05:31Series 9 Stale Opener
05:32In a show that's been going as long as Doctor Who, it's important to offer jumping on
05:36points for new viewers, usually by introducing new leads.
05:40In recent years, almost every series has abided by this logic, and in fact, on only
05:44four occasions, has a main cast been carried over in its entirety.
05:48Series 6, Series 7, Series 9, and Series 12.
05:51Series 6 and 12's openers had different, unique selling points by way of overseas shoots.
05:56Series 7's first chapter also featured scenes shot abroad, plus every Dalek ever, and it
06:01also technically saw new companion Clara make her debut, which leaves Series 9 as something
06:06of an outlier.
06:07The trailers had quite literally promised the same old, just the Doctor and Clara Oswald
06:11in the TARDIS, with no new characters to look forward to.
06:14Even the return of Davros wasn't publicised in advance.
06:16Stephen Moffat has since admitted that this was a mistake, recalling that, I quote, I
06:21feel as though I slightly fumbled it by not having a new thing.
06:24This is one of the reasons Series 10 ended up being so new, despite being Moffat's
06:28last.
06:29It's also why he opted to introduce Bill in the pilot rather than the 2016 Christmas
06:33special.
06:344.
06:35RTD's Shelved Sequel
06:37Russell T Davies' first era as showrunner saw at least one classic villain return each
06:41year.
06:42In 2005 we had the Autons and the Daleks, in 2006 we had the Cybermen, in 2007 we had
06:47the Macra and the Master, in 2008 we had the Sontarans and Davros, and in 2007 we had Rassilon
06:54and the Time Lords.
06:55But as RTD has since lamented, he never wrote an out-and-out classic series sequel, as Chris
07:00Chibnall did for the Silurians and Stephen Moffat did for the Great Intelligence.
07:04I'd have run the old episodes on BBC3 all week, then shown the sequel on the Saturday,
07:09he said in 2020, citing 1977's Image of the Fendal as a story ripe for revisiting.
07:15He said,
07:16Imagine, Return of the Fendal, back in the ruins of Fetch Priory, ancient evil stirs,
07:21Wanda Ventham reincarnated, I was so determined not to look back too much I think I missed
07:25a trick there.
07:26Of course, it's entirely possible that Return of the Fendal, or another sequel, will become
07:30a reality in Russell's second era.
07:32The Fendal could even be The Boss, or The One Who Waits.
07:35You heard it here first, folks.
07:37Just in case it happens.
07:383.
07:39The Sitcom Snog
07:40Series 5 is rightly heralded as one of Stephen Moffat's best, but there's one scene that
07:44sticks out like a sore thumb, the end of Flesh and Stone when Amy kisses the Doctor.
07:48It's not the first time the companion has kissed the Doctor, but in most other cases
07:52the circumstances were different.
07:54There was a plot reason, as was the case for Martha and Donna, or an implied romance with
07:58the Doctor to begin with, for Rose and Astrid.
08:01Flesh and Stone gives us something different, a companion forcing herself onto the Doctor,
08:05in her bedroom, on the night before her wedding, to another man.
08:08It wasn't exactly a great scene to begin with, but it's aged terribly, and even Moffat
08:12agrees, citing it on more than one occasion as his single biggest misstep.
08:16I played it for sitcom-style laughs, he admitted to Doctor Who Magazine, and it doesn't work.
08:21Brilliant episode up till that point, and then I screw it up with sniggering sex comedy.
08:25It rankles me to this day, he said in another interview, because it's just wrong.
08:30I'd say this is one to fix in the novelisation.
08:32If he ever does one.
08:332.
08:34The Plasmaton Problem
08:35There's nothing worse than an unconvincing monster, and the Plasmatons rank as one of
08:39the most unconvincing of all.
08:41They were envisaged as powerful, amorphous henchmen, and the whole point of the costume
08:45was to hide the human shape, but they were blatantly just men in suits.
08:49No thought was given to the actor's eye lines either, so they couldn't move independently,
08:53save for the odd bit of lumbering.
08:55As the big bads of the Fifth Doctor's first finale, they failed spectacularly, a fact
08:59the man himself is under no illusion about.
09:01They were just nothing at all, Peter Davison recalled.
09:04It was just one more indignity that was heaped upon the story.
09:07It was a real symbol that the BBC had run out of money.
09:10What can we do for these Plasmatons?
09:12Let's just make them lumps of polystyrene.
09:14It's a trend that continued in the Fifth Doctor's other finales, with the execution
09:18of Chameleon and the Magma Beast also leaving a lot to be desired.
09:22However, the case of Androzani featured one of the show's most enduring villains in
09:26the form of Sharaz Jek.
09:27Every cloud, I guess.
09:291.
09:30Matt Smith's Regeneration Regrets When Peter Davison was cast as the Doctor,
09:33Patrick Troughton advised him to do no more than three seasons in the past.
09:37It's an unwritten rule that generally sticks, as was the case when Matt Smith exited after
09:42Series 7.
09:43Stephen Moffat has since revealed that Series 8 was pitched as an 11th Doctor run, with
09:48many of the same elements present, the Doctor questioning if he was a good man and some
09:51other characters, i.e. Missy, trying to tempt him to a darker path.
09:55It's not known how far these plans got, or how late in the day Matt Smith confirmed
09:59his intentions.
10:00Whatever the case, there was a feeling that the time of the Doctor was a slightly lacklustre
10:05end to the 11th Doctor's era, and that certain plot points were wrapped up rather hurriedly,
10:09and the man himself would seem to agree.
10:11Was it the best episode it could be, Smith said in an interview?
10:14I don't know.
10:15Maybe, maybe not.
10:16I was proud of the body of work up to that point, but I think everything can always be
10:19better.
10:20Is this him throwing shade at the time of the Doctor, or something more?
10:23An admission that he should have stayed for that fourth series after all?
10:26Either way, he seems less than satisfied with his Doctor's ending.
10:29Well, you know how to fix that, Matt Smith.
10:31Come back in a cameo role.
10:33Come back in a cameo role.
10:34Did anyone else hear that?
10:36And there you have it.
10:37Make sure you also check out 10 times Doctor Who reused footage and hoped you wouldn't
10:41notice.
10:42In the meantime, I've been Ellie for WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye
10:46sweeties.