• 2 days ago
If even half of these happened, Doctor Who would've been quite different indeed.

Category

📺
TV
Transcript
00:00It's no secret that TV shows like Doctor Who chop and change a lot between the scripting
00:05phase and the end result, and Doctor Who is no exception to this rule.
00:09While some of these amendments are minor, like the companion standing a centimetre to
00:13the left, or there's seven Daleks in the scene instead of six, or David Tennant appears
00:17because he often does do that, some were so huge that they would have changed the course
00:22of the show.
00:23And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 Doctor Who deleted
00:28scenes that would have changed everything.
00:32Number 10.
00:33A load of pants in the Shakespeare code.
00:35In this underrated series three adventure involving Big Billy Shakespeare, witches,
00:40and a missing play, a subtle piece of comedy plays out.
00:43Martha, who is head over heels for the Doctor, is left embarrassed when he obliviously offers
00:48to share a bed with her.
00:50It's cringy enough as it is, but unfortunately for poor Miss Jones, this scene was nearly
00:55a lot worse.
00:56The original version saw the Tenth Doctor strip down to his undies, no really, before
01:01getting into bed.
01:03This makes the situation a million times more embarrassing for Martha, and for the audience
01:07watching at home.
01:08Thankfully, the scene was rewritten, because the creators deemed it inappropriate.
01:13You don't say.
01:14Tenn already gets a ton of flack for his treatment of Martha, so just imagine what the backlash
01:19would have been to him showing off his budgie smugglers right in front of her.
01:24Considering the more sensitive world we live in today, what might have seemed like harmless
01:28comedy in 2007 could have seriously come back to bite the show in the…well, you know where.
01:34You almost saw it.
01:35Number 9.
01:36Playing Capaldi off in The Zygon Inversion
01:40Peter Capaldi is, not to mince words, a bloody good actor.
01:44Capable of comedy, drama, and everything in between, the Scot commands the screen in everything
01:50he does, and his time as the Doctor was no exception.
01:54Perhaps his finest piece of acting came in the Series 9 episode The Zygon Inversion.
01:58During a tense standoff between Kate Stewart and a Zygon disguised as Clara, the Twelfth
02:03Doctor unleashes a tirade against them both, all about the dangers and futility of war.
02:09It's a moving, timeless speech, framing conflict as a pointless endeavour while promoting the
02:14positives of diplomacy.
02:16Capaldi delivers every line perfectly, balancing the character's rage with the guilt of the
02:21Doctor's past actions on the battlefield.
02:23But as good as the finished product is, more of this monologue exists.
02:27According to writer Peter Harness, the speech was scripted to be way longer than it actually
02:31was, with sections of it cut from the final episode.
02:35Capaldi himself read some of the dropped lines at a convention in New Zealand in 2015.
02:40You can't have too much of a good thing, though.
02:43The speech is perfect as it is, and an elongated version would have risked ruining one of the
02:48greatest moments in the show's history.
02:50Number 8.
02:51The BBC in The Keys of Marinus
02:55First Doctor serial The Keys of Marinus isn't about our heroes being locked out of their
02:59houses, but rather a quest to restore a supercomputer.
03:03It also very nearly revealed a key part of the Doctor's origin story.
03:07In an early version of the story, the Doctor revealed why he and granddaughter Susan were
03:11on Earth during the events of An Unearthly Child, the very first Doctor Who serial, and
03:16why he was in a bit of a grump during that time.
03:19The TARDIS scanner was broken, typical, and it was only showing images in black and white.
03:23So who does the Doctor turn to in his time of need?
03:26Why the British Broadcasting Corporation, of course.
03:29The Doctor was on Earth visiting the BBC, seeking help to fix the TARDIS scanner.
03:34He would, however, find them infernally secretive.
03:37This is all kinds of meta, especially when you take into account that The Keys of Marinus
03:42is in black and white, not colour.
03:44Thinking that the Doctor had visited the actual BBC would have been a bonkers idea, but this
03:49sequence was removed before filming.
03:52Probably for the best.
03:537.
03:54Wardrobe Malfunction in Twice Upon a Time
03:57Sticking with the first Doctor now, and his reinvention at the hands of David Bradley.
04:02In the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon a Time, the 12th Doctor meets his original self
04:08as played by Bradley.
04:09The two have a chin-wag, rescue a soldier, and then go their separate ways to regenerate
04:14into a new form.
04:16Regeneration is the subject of this entry, as Twice Upon a Time almost answered a question
04:20about the process that had gone unanswered for decades.
04:24When the first Doctor regenerated into the second Doctor in the 10th planet, he famously
04:28changed clothes too.
04:30This has been a question mark for all this time, but Twice Upon a Time almost explained
04:35it away.
04:36Writer Stephen Moffat confirmed this in an interview, but he never actually revealed
04:40what the answer was going to be, because the scene was cut.
04:43This could have potentially been a huge deal, revealing something about regeneration that
04:47we didn't know before, while also solving a decades-old plot hole.
04:52Of course, now that we've seen the 13th Doctor's regeneration also feature a clothes
04:56change, maybe some answers are imminent.
04:59Or maybe Neil Patrick Harris is just messing with us.
05:026.
05:03The Voice of Reason in The Bells of St. John
05:06The Bells of St. John is the episode where the Doctor finally meets the proper version
05:11of Clara Oswald after running into two different incarnations of her, Jenna Coleman earning
05:16the triple paycheck there.
05:17What a boss!
05:18In the episode, the 11th Doctor meets Clara in modern day London after she is given the
05:23TARDIS's phone number by a mysterious woman.
05:26That woman would turn out to be Missy, the latest incarnation of the Master who first
05:30appeared in the next series.
05:32However, a deleted moment almost gave her a bigger part to play in this episode, in
05:37which she is merely referred to as the woman in the shop.
05:40Towards the end of the story, the Doctor would have received another phone call.
05:44Rather than trying to sell him insurance, the voice on the other end would have instructed
05:47him to trust this new version of Clara, and to take her with him.
05:51An alternate version of this scene would have had the voice telling the Doctor, run you
05:55clever boy, and save her, echoing one of Clara's most iconic phrases.
06:01While Missy presumably wouldn't have been revealed here, incorporating her in such a
06:05direct way would have made a great tease for what was to come.
06:08Admittedly, this would have been totally unnecessary, which is likely why it was cut.
06:135.
06:15Liquid Courage in Father's Day
06:17In Father's Day, Rose Tyler asks the 9th Doctor to take her back to the day of her father's
06:22death, so she can be with him when he dies.
06:25Instead, she ends up saving him, creating a paradox with disastrous consequences.
06:30Later on, Rose's dad Pete does the right thing and jumps in front of the car that was meant
06:35to kill him in the first place.
06:37But flinging yourself in front of a moving vehicle isn't an easy task.
06:41As such, Pete very nearly had some extra help, as he was, at one point, going to be shown
06:46taking a swig of wine.
06:47However, a lot of kids watched Doctor Who, and drawing a link between consuming alcohol
06:52and bravery was not a message the BBC wanted to send its young audience.
06:56This moment would have also changed how we viewed Pete's sacrifice, one of the strongest
07:00emotional beats of this series.
07:02Consequently, the wine scene was cut, though if you look closely, Pete can actually be
07:07seen taking a swig of drink right before his final conversation with Rose, so fragments
07:12of this scene did actually survive.
07:144.
07:15More Than Meets The Eye in Survival
07:18Survival is perhaps the most ironically named Doctor Who serial of all time, as it was the
07:23final one to air during the show's original run.
07:26At one point in time, the serial was also set to drop this massive bombshell.
07:31Thank heavens it didn't, as fans would have been waiting almost two decades for a
07:34follow-up.
07:35The revelation in question would have come from the Seventh Doctor, while in conversation
07:39with the Master at the very end of the serial.
07:42After a battle on the planet of the Cheetah People, both characters were originally supposed
07:47to transport back to Earth, where the Master would accuse the Doctor of not being a Time
07:52Lord anymore.
07:53Shockingly, the Doctor would have revealed that his nemesis was right.
07:57He would go on to say that he had evolved into something new, and that he was now multi-talented.
08:02However, producer John Nathan-Turner decided not to include these lines, feeling they were
08:07too explicit in how they hinted at a different past for the Doctor.
08:12It goes without saying that meddling with the Doctor's backstory would have huge ramifications
08:16for the show.
08:17That said, considering how little an impact the Timeless Child has had, maybe not.
08:223.
08:23Here Comes The Bogeyman in Hide
08:25The episode eventually called Hide went through a surprising number of changes before it hit
08:30the small screen.
08:31Written by Luthor creator Neil Cross, Hide was originally called Phantoms of the Hex,
08:37which is a much cooler name, but let's not dwell on that.
08:40Instead of the crooked man villain that ended up appearing in the actual broadcast, the
08:44episode almost contained a throwback to Gallifrey's distant past.
08:48Cross wanted the villain to be the Lost Lord, an ancient Time Lord locked in a prison called
08:52the Hex.
08:53The Lost Lord had been stuck there so long that he had become a myth, basically Gallifrey's
08:58very own bogeyman, so the Doctor would have been seriously spooked when he learned that
09:03he was real.
09:04In the end, the plot was drastically changed to feature the two crooked men searching for
09:09each other in a 1970s mansion.
09:11While the end result was fine, imagine how much more exciting Hide would have been if
09:16it had introduced a brand new Time Lord.
09:19Even after all these years, there's still so much about Gallifrey we don't know, so
09:24getting little nuggets like this every so often would go a long way towards making the
09:28planet more interesting.
09:30Also, Lost Lord sounds like a punk band, and that is exactly the sort of energy Doctor
09:35Who needs.
09:362.
09:37Brigadier Consequences in Battlefield
09:41Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the Brigadier to his mates, was one of the most stable parts
09:46of Doctor Who's original run.
09:48Though he appeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008, his last proper appearance in Doctor
09:53Who was in the final season serial Battlefield, and this was very nearly his final appearance
09:58full stop.
09:59The original plan for this serial, as approved by Nicholas Courtney himself, would have seen
10:04the Brigadier sacrifice himself during a battle with the Destroyer of Worlds.
10:08He would have called in an airstrike against the creature, getting himself killed in the
10:12process.
10:13This would have changed so much about the show.
10:16Not only would we not have got the Brig's appearances in the Sarah Jane Adventures or
10:20potentially in the Big Finish audio dramas, but we would have had to accept that one of
10:24the most beloved characters in the entire series died a brutal death.
10:28Thankfully, the Brigadier's life was spared when the creators couldn't go through with
10:32it.
10:33Quite right, too.
10:341.
10:35What's in the Pit in The Impossible Planet and the Satan Pit
10:38Matt Jones's first and only Doctor Who credit is a highly underrated one, and first introduces
10:44us to recurring aliens, the Ood.
10:46Oh, and we also discover that the actual devil is real.
10:49But the Ood, though, they're adorable!
10:52The action revolves around a planet orbiting a black hole, and the dangers that lie beneath
10:56its surface.
10:58Trapped under the planet is a horrifying beast called The Beast.
11:01Geez, guys, try a bit harder next time, eh?
11:08The Pit wasn't always going to be Satan's humble abode, however.
11:12In fact, at one point, the creative team had absolutely no idea what was going to be
11:15down there.
11:16Many ideas were pitched as to who or what would be dwelling in the cave.
11:20Intriguingly, Davros, the creator of the Daleks, was considered for a time, as was the Doctor's
11:26mortal enemy, the Master.
11:28As we now know, both of these iconic villains would appear in New Who over the next few
11:32years, so just imagine how different Doctor Who would have been if one of these iconic
11:37enemies was just stuck in a hole somewhere.
11:40Considering how integral the Master would become to RTD's first run, including him
11:44here would have changed the course of the Tenth Doctor's tenure.
11:47It's a fascinating alternate timeline, that's for sure.
11:50And that concludes our list.
11:52If you think we missed anything, then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're
11:55there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell so you never
11:59miss a WhoCulture video ever again.
12:01I've been Ellie, with WhoCulture, and in the words of RiverSong herself, goodbye, sweeties.

Recommended