Doctor Who: 10 Great Ideas That Went Absolutely Nowhere
The Fugitive Doctor? More Captain Jack? These are some of Doctor Who's biggest wasted ideas.
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00:00 Do you ever get that feeling when you're watching a great TV show and a storyline starts
00:04 to unfold that really does have some great potential, and then all of a sudden it gets
00:08 completely forgotten about?
00:10 Well, Doctor Who is no exception.
00:12 So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 great ideas that
00:17 went absolutely nowhere in Doctor Who.
00:21 10.
00:22 Gwen's Ancestry
00:23 Gwen Cooper is a no-nonsense, arse-kicking member of the Torchwood team.
00:28 She started off as a police officer and then stumbled across Captain Jack Harkness and
00:32 his gang and eventually joined them to fight those alien threats that the Doctor doesn't
00:36 quite get round to.
00:38 However, this was not the first time Whovians had seen her face.
00:42 In a third episode of New Who, the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler travel to Cardiff in 1869,
00:47 where they encounter ghost-like aliens called the Gelf and Charles Dickens.
00:51 They also bump into Gwyneth, a clairvoyant servant played by Eve Miles, who also plays
00:57 Gwen Cooper in Torchwood.
00:59 This was actually addressed when the Tenth Doctor meets Gwen in series 4, and he deduces
01:04 that she is from an old Cardiff family and through something called spatial genetic multiplicity,
01:09 she has the same face as her ancestor.
01:12 While the showrunners could have done something with this, Gwen's connection to her psychic
01:16 forebear is never mentioned again.
01:19 What could have been an interesting storyline exploring the connection between Gwen and
01:23 Gwyneth was instead a quick line to get around a case of double casting.
01:27 9.
01:28 The Minister of War
01:29 Who would have thought that a throwaway line would have caused so much trouble?
01:33 In the two-part story Under the Lake and Before the Flood, the Doctor encounters a number
01:37 of underwater miners who he must protect from an army of ghosts.
01:40 And one of the miners is a woman named O'Donnell, who is a big fan of the Doctor.
01:45 She reels off all of his greatest hits, recounting the times that he saved the Earth from danger.
01:50 She tells him about Harold Saxon, the moon being an egg, and the Minister of War.
01:55 But the Doctor is just as confused by this as we are, and asks O'Donnell who that is.
01:59 However, he stops himself, realising that this is an adventure that is yet to come.
02:03 Under the Lake and Before the Flood came out in 2015, and fans are still waiting to find
02:09 out who the Minister of War is.
02:11 Some have theorised that it could be the Master, Amiga, or the Warlords, but for now, they
02:16 are just guesses.
02:17 At this point, it does feel unlikely that we'll ever get a follow up to this, or maybe
02:21 there were never any plans for one and we all just need to get a life.
02:25 8.
02:26 Ryan's Dyspraxia
02:27 Dyspraxia is a disorder that can affect a person's motor skills and coordination.
02:31 It's a severely underrepresented condition in the media, which is what made the announcement
02:36 of Ryan Sinclair so exciting.
02:38 Played by Tosin Cole, Ryan accompanied the 13th Doctor between 2018 and 2021.
02:44 He lost his mother at a young age, has a frosty relationship with his father, and he has dyspraxia.
02:49 Now showrunner Chris Chibnall did everything right when creating the character, and he
02:53 even consulted charity The Dyspraxia Foundation on how Ryan should be portrayed.
02:58 The initial buzz surrounding the character achieved its goals of drawing attention to
03:02 the condition, but as time went on, mentions of it in the show got less and less common.
03:07 Basically, Ryan only had dyspraxia when the plot called for it, and the rest of the time
03:11 he acted as if it didn't affect him at all.
03:13 This is such a shame, as the show had the opportunity here to shed some light on this
03:17 relatively obscure condition.
03:18 Now, yes, they did drum up some initial interest in the subject when Ryan's character was
03:22 first revealed, but they didn't really do anything meaningful with it in the actual
03:26 show other than trying to portray the connection between Ryan and Graham as he taught him to
03:31 ride a bike.
03:32 7.
03:33 Jackie Tyler in Survival
03:36 Now this is something that is completely fan-driven, and hasn't actually been explored, set up,
03:41 or even hinted at by the show itself.
03:43 Well, at least not intentionally.
03:44 Still, it's such a brilliant idea, so we thought it deserved a bit of a shine.
03:48 It revolves around actress Michelle Martin, who holds a very special distinction in Doctor
03:53 Who history.
03:54 Now, obviously not counting the two leads of Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, her
03:58 character was the last person to speak in 1989's Survival, the final serial in Classic
04:04 Who before it was taken off the air.
04:06 But what's extra notable about this is that her nameless neighbour character bears a striking
04:10 resemblance both in appearance and personality to Jackie Tyler, a character who was introduced
04:16 in the next regular episode of Doctor Who in 2005.
04:19 It's insane to think that someone with such Jackie Tyler energy was the very last guest
04:25 character seen in Classic Who, and though the opportunity was there for the show to
04:29 confirm that they're the same person, that opportunity has never been taken.
04:33 Obviously, this isn't a huge glaring flaw or anything like that, but it would have been
04:37 a brilliant way to further strengthen the bridge between the classic and modern eras.
04:41 Plus, it does actually make sense in-universe.
04:44 Jackie was born in 1967, putting her in her early 20s during the events of Survival.
04:50 And the neighbour also lives in Perivale, London, which isn't actually that far away
04:53 from Jackie's Powell Estate home in the 2005 revival.
04:57 But alas, this is pure headcanon for now.
05:01 6.
05:02 Thirteen's Fobwatch
05:03 The finale of Flux saw the Thirteenth Doctor hide a Fobwatch containing her lost memories
05:08 deep within the TARDIS, which was a strange decision considering that her whole mission
05:12 in this series was to uncover the truth about her past.
05:15 But okay, fair enough.
05:16 Clearly, showrunner Chris Chibnall was just saving the watch for a future story, right?
05:20 Well, no.
05:21 Eve of the Daleks and Legend of the Sea Devils came and went without so much as even a mention
05:26 of it, and with the Thirteenth Doctor now having regenerated, it's unlikely that this
05:30 plot thread will ever be revisited.
05:32 And that's so frustrating, and also such a shame.
05:35 Think of the craziness that could have unfolded were the Doctor to dive into that watch's
05:39 secrets.
05:40 To learn more about Gallifrey, the Division, and the Doctor's own history.
05:44 The watch could have even served as a way to revisit previous Doctors.
05:47 Chibnall invented a way to bring back classic Doctors in The Power of the Doctor through
05:52 The Guardians of the Edge, even though he already had a solution sitting right there.
05:57 At the very least, the watch could give us more memories of the Doctor's missions with
06:01 Carvanista, and more screen time with that good doggo wouldn't go amiss.
06:05 5.
06:06 The Paternoster Gang
06:08 Appearing out of nowhere in the series' sixth episode of Good Man Goes to War, the
06:12 Paternoster Gang aided the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors in various quests.
06:17 Madame Vastra the Silurian, her human wife Jenny, and their Sontaran butler Strax appeared
06:21 five times on television, including a Christmas special, the hundredth episode of New Who,
06:27 and the Twelfth Doctor's first adventure.
06:29 Despite putting minimal effort into explaining where they came from and how they first met
06:33 the Doctor, the show gave the gang a decent treatment once they were established.
06:37 Events were tentatively discussed for a spin-off starring the trio, but Stephen Moffat vetoed
06:41 the idea in fear of overexposing audiences to Doctor Who content.
06:45 Haha, how times have changed.
06:47 They have lived on in the form of audio stories, novellas, and magazines, but a lot of potential
06:53 was left on the table by not giving them their own show.
06:56 The group was tailor-made for a kid-friendly series in the vein of the Sarah Jane adventures,
07:00 but it just wasn't meant to be.
07:02 But maybe times are changing.
07:05 4.
07:06 The War Doctor
07:07 First things first, John Hurt as the War Doctor looks absolutely incredible.
07:11 Rugged and worn down by the weight of combat, dressed in raggedy clothes and wearing a grizzled
07:17 expression on his face, this version of the Time Lord gives off major John Wayne vibes,
07:22 an old gunslinger back in town for his final shootout.
07:25 The Elephant Man actor played the role as part of the show's 50th anniversary special
07:29 The Day of the Doctor, where it's explained that he committed atrocities during the Time
07:34 War and that his future incarnations have shunned his memory out of shame.
07:38 A star like John Hurt was always going to be hard to tie down, but it would have been
07:42 fantastic to see the War Doctor in more than one story.
07:46 They managed to get him to commit to Merlin.
07:48 He was used brilliantly in The Day of the Doctor, so this is more a case of untapped
07:52 potential rather than a flat out wasted idea.
07:54 But just think how awesome it would have been to explore his days in the Time War in greater
07:59 detail.
08:00 With John Hurt's passing in 2017, the role could be recast for a spin-off or standalone
08:05 episode, like David Bradley as the First Doctor.
08:08 So come on Russell, another spin-off on the way?
08:11 Number 3 - Captain Jack's Missing Years
08:14 Despite some negativity that might have been floating around John Barrowman in recent years,
08:18 Captain Jack Harkness remains one of the most beloved creations from the New Who era.
08:23 An immortal conman from many centuries in the future, a Jack appearance alongside the
08:28 Ninth or Tenth Doctors was always a treat, and he even resurfaced during the Thirteenth
08:32 Doctor's tenure, busting her out of space prison.
08:35 As explored in the Torchwood series, Jack is a multi-faceted character who has done
08:40 and seen a lot across his never-ending life.
08:42 But he's actually missing two entire years of his memory, as explained in the episode
08:47 The Doctor Dances.
08:48 Those years were wiped from his mind by the Time Agency, his former employers, and despite
08:52 this posing some very intriguing questions about the future face of Bo, the characters
08:56 never really seemed very interested in finding out more about them.
09:00 He doesn't even pursue these memories in the Big Finish audio series, which usually
09:04 mops up loose ends from the TV show like some sort of plot janitor.
09:08 But with Barrowman sadly seeming out of the picture when it comes to Doctor Who, those
09:12 two years might just remain a mystery for the rest of Jack's life.
09:16 So basically forever.
09:18 Number 2 - The Fugitive Doctor
09:20 Jo Martin first appeared as Ruth Clayton in the episode Fugitive of the Jadoo.
09:25 A seemingly normal woman, Ruth's world is turned upside down when the rhino-headed
09:29 aliens invade her hometown in search of her.
09:32 She eventually discovers that she isn't Ruth Clayton at all, she's actually a version
09:36 of the Doctor from some unknown point in their timeline.
09:39 It's believed that this fugitive version of the character is from their very distant
09:43 past, before their time as the First Doctor.
09:46 However, as of right now, we still don't really know an awful lot about this incarnation
09:50 of the Doctor.
09:51 The Fugitive Doctor has mainly appeared in projections and holograms since her first
09:55 appearance, which has been thoroughly unhelpful when it comes to learning more about her.
09:59 Jo Martin is brilliant in the role, and it would be so great to see more of her.
10:03 But considering that things like this don't tend to pass from showrunner to showrunner,
10:07 it's unlikely that RTD will choose to explore the Fugitive Doctor further.
10:11 We also want to know where she got that coat from, because that thing is snazzy.
10:16 Number 1 - The Cartmel Masterplan
10:18 Andrew Cartmel was a script editor on Doctor Who between 1987 and 1989, during the seventh
10:25 Doctor era of the show.
10:26 Alongside other writers like Mark Platt, Cartmel devised several plots to help bring some mystique
10:31 back to the show and turn around its falling ratings.
10:34 These ideas have been dubbed the Cartmel Masterplan by fans.
10:38 Regrettably, the Masterplan never saw the light of day, as Doctor Who was cancelled
10:41 before the new storylines were put in place.
10:44 And this is hugely disappointing, as these plans sounded amazing.
10:48 Cartmel planned to make the Doctor a demigod, one of Gallifrey's founding fathers alongside
10:53 Rassilon and Omega.
10:54 He also planned to introduce an alter ego called The Other, a shadowy figure deeply
10:59 connected to the planet's past.
11:01 Fragments of these ideas made it into episodes of the TV show Pre-Cancellation, as well as
11:05 other media like books, but this all came too late to save the show, which was confined
11:10 to the television wastebin until 2005.
11:13 Would the Cartmel Masterplan have rescued Doctor Who?
11:16 Well, it's impossible to say, but the potential that it had makes it one of the most intriguing
11:21 what-ifs in the show's storied history.
11:23 And that concludes our list.
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11:42 I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye,