10 Doctor Who Deleted Scenes That Would Have Changed Everything
If even half of these happened, Doctor Who would've been quite different indeed.
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00:00 It's no secret that TV shows like Doctor Who chop and change a lot between the scripting
00:04 phase and the end result.
00:06 And Doctor Who is no exception to this rule.
00:08 While some of these amendments are minor, like the companion standing a centimetre to
00:13 the left, or there's seven Daleks in the scene instead of six, or David Tennant appears
00:17 because he often does do that, some were so huge that they would have changed the course
00:22 of the show.
00:23 And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Who Culture, here with 10 Doctor Who deleted
00:28 scenes that would have changed everything.
00:32 Number 10.
00:33 A load of pants in the Shakespeare Code.
00:35 In this underrated series three adventure involving Big Billy Shakespeare, witches,
00:40 and a missing play, a subtle piece of comedy plays out.
00:43 Martha, who is head over heels for the Doctor, is left embarrassed when he obliviously offers
00:48 to share a bed with her.
00:49 It's cringy enough as it is, but unfortunately for poor Miss Jones, this scene was nearly
00:54 a lot worse.
00:56 The original version saw the Tenth Doctor strip down to his undies, no really, before
01:01 getting into bed.
01:03 This makes the situation a million times more embarrassing for Martha, and for the audience
01:07 watching at home.
01:08 Thankfully, the scene was rewritten, because the creators deemed it inappropriate.
01:13 You don't say.
01:14 Tenn already gets a ton of flack for his treatment of Martha, so just imagine what the backlash
01:19 would have been to him showing off his budgie smugglers right in front of her.
01:23 Considering the more sensitive world we live in today, what might have seemed like harmless
01:27 comedy in 2007 could have seriously come back to bite the show in the… well, you know
01:33 where.
01:34 You almost saw it.
01:35 Number 9 - Playing Capaldi off in The Zygon Inversion
01:39 Peter Capaldi is, not to mince words, a bloody good actor.
01:44 Capable of comedy, drama, and everything in between, the Scot commands the screen in everything
01:50 he does, and his time as the Doctor was no exception.
01:53 Perhaps his finest piece of acting came in the Series 9 episode "The Zygon Inversion".
01:58 During a tense standoff between Kate Stewart and a Zygon disguised as Clara, the Twelfth
02:02 Doctor unleashes a tirade against them both, all about the dangers and futility of war.
02:08 It's a moving, timeless speech, framing conflict as a pointless endeavour while promoting the
02:14 positives of diplomacy.
02:15 Capaldi delivers every line perfectly, balancing the character's rage with the guilt of the
02:20 Doctor's past actions on the battlefield.
02:23 But as good as the finished product is, more of this monologue exists.
02:27 According to writer Peter Harness, the speech was scripted to be way longer than it actually
02:31 was, with sections of it cut from the final episode.
02:34 Capaldi himself read some of the dropped lines at a convention in New Zealand in 2015.
02:40 You can't have too much of a good thing, though.
02:42 The speech is perfect as it is, and an elongated version would have risked ruining one of the
02:47 greatest moments in the show's history.
02:50 Number 8 - This is the BBC in The Keys of Marinus
02:54 First Doctor serial, The Keys of Marinus, isn't about our heroes being locked out of
02:59 their houses, but rather a quest to restore a supercomputer.
03:02 It also very nearly revealed a key part of the Doctor's origin story.
03:06 In an early version of the story, the Doctor revealed why he and granddaughter Susan were
03:10 on Earth during the events of An Unearthly Child, the very first Doctor Who serial, and
03:15 why he was in a bit of a grump during that time.
03:18 The TARDIS scanner was broken, typical, and it was only showing images in black and white.
03:23 So who does the Doctor turn to in his time of need?
03:26 Why the British Broadcasting Corporation, of course.
03:29 The Doctor was on Earth visiting the BBC, seeking help to fix the TARDIS scanner.
03:34 He would, however, find them infernally secretive.
03:37 This is all kinds of meta, especially when you take into account that The Keys of Marinus
03:41 is in black and white, not colour.
03:44 Knowing that the Doctor had visited the actual BBC would have been a bonkers idea.
03:49 But this sequence was removed before filming.
03:52 Probably for the best.
03:53 Number 7 - Wardrobe Malfunction in Twice Upon a Time
03:57 Sticking with the first Doctor now, and his reinvention at the hands of David Bradley.
04:02 In the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon a Time, the 12th Doctor meets his original self
04:07 as played by Bradley.
04:09 The two have a chinwag, rescue a soldier, and then go their separate ways to regenerate
04:14 into a new form.
04:15 Regeneration is the subject of this entry, as Twice Upon a Time almost answered a question
04:20 about the process that had gone unanswered for decades.
04:23 When the first Doctor regenerated into the second Doctor in the 10th planet, he famously
04:28 changed clothes too.
04:30 This has been a question mark for all this time, but Twice Upon a Time almost explained
04:35 it away.
04:36 Writer Stephen Moffat confirmed this in an interview, but he never actually revealed
04:39 what the answer was going to be, because the scene was cut.
04:43 This could have potentially been a huge deal, revealing something about regeneration that
04:47 we didn't know before, while also solving a decades-old plot hole.
04:52 Of course, now that we've seen the 13th Doctor's regeneration also feature a clothes
04:56 change, maybe some answers are imminent.
04:59 Or maybe Neil Patrick Harris is just messing with us.
05:02 Number 6 - The Voice of Reason in The Bells of St. John
05:06 The Bells of St. John is the episode where the Doctor finally meets the proper version
05:11 of Clara Oswald after running into two different incarnations of her.
05:15 Jenna Coleman earning the triple paycheck there.
05:17 What a boss!
05:18 In the episode, the 11th Doctor meets Clara in modern day London after she is given the
05:22 TARDIS's phone number by a mysterious woman.
05:25 That woman would turn out to be Missy, the latest incarnation of the Master who first
05:30 appeared in the next series.
05:31 However, a deleted moment almost gave her a bigger part to play in this episode, in
05:37 which she is merely referred to as "the woman in the shop".
05:40 Towards the end of the story, the Doctor would have received another phone call.
05:43 Rather than trying to sell him insurance, the voice on the other end would have instructed
05:47 him to trust this new version of Clara, and to take her with him.
05:51 An alternate version of this scene would have had the voice telling the Doctor "Run, you
05:55 clever boy, and save her", echoing one of Clara's most iconic phrases.
06:01 While Missy presumably wouldn't have been revealed here, incorporating her in such a
06:05 direct way would have made a great tease for what was to come.
06:08 Admittedly, this would have been totally unnecessary, which is likely why it was cut.
06:13 5.
06:14 Liquid Courage in Father's Day
06:17 In Father's Day, Rose Tyler asks the 9th Doctor to take her back to the day of her father's
06:22 death, so she can be with him when he dies.
06:25 Instead, she ends up saving him, creating a paradox with disastrous consequences.
06:30 Later on, Rose's dad Pete does the right thing and jumps in front of the car that was meant
06:34 to kill him in the first place.
06:36 But flinging yourself in front of a moving vehicle isn't an easy task.
06:40 As such, Pete very nearly had some extra help, as he was, at one point, going to be shown
06:46 taking a swig of wine.
06:47 However, a lot of kids watched Doctor Who, and drawing a link between consuming alcohol
06:52 and bravery was not a message the BBC wanted to send its young audience.
06:56 This moment would have also changed how we viewed Pete's sacrifice, one of the strongest
07:00 emotional beats of this series.
07:02 Consequently, the wine scene was cut, though if you look closely, Pete can actually be
07:07 seen taking a swig of drink right before his final conversation with Rose, so fragments
07:12 of this scene did actually survive.
07:14 4.
07:15 More Than Meets The Eye in Survival
07:18 Survival is perhaps the most ironically named Doctor Who serial of all time, as it was the
07:23 final one to air during the show's original run.
07:26 At one point in time, the serial was also set to drop this massive bombshell.
07:31 Thank heavens it didn't, as fans would have been waiting almost two decades for a follow-up.
07:35 The revelation in question would have come from the Seventh Doctor, while in conversation
07:39 with the Master at the very end of the serial.
07:42 After a battle on the planet of the Cheetah People - yep, that's a thing - both characters
07:46 were originally supposed to transport back to Earth, where the Master would accuse the
07:50 Doctor of not being a Time Lord anymore.
07:53 Shockingly, the Doctor would have revealed that his nemesis was right.
07:57 He would go on to say that he had evolved into something new, and that he was now multi-talented.
08:02 However, producer John Nathan-Turner decided not to include these lines, feeling they were
08:07 too explicit in how they hinted at a different past for the Doctor.
08:12 It goes without saying that meddling with the Doctor's backstory would have huge ramifications
08:16 for the show.
08:17 That said, considering how little an impact the Timeless Child has had, maybe not.
08:21 3.
08:22 Here Comes The Bogeyman in Hide
08:25 The episode eventually called Hide went through a surprising number of changes before it hit
08:29 the small screen.
08:31 Written by Luthor creator Neil Cross, Hide was originally called Phantoms of the Hex,
08:36 which is a much cooler name, but let's not dwell on that.
08:39 Instead of the crooked man villain that ended up appearing in the actual broadcast, the
08:43 episode almost contained a throwback to Gallifrey's distant past.
08:47 Cross wanted the villain to be the Lost Lord, an ancient Time Lord locked in a prison called
08:52 the Hex.
08:53 The Lost Lord had been stuck there so long that he had become a myth, basically Gallifrey's
08:58 very own bogeyman.
08:59 So, the Doctor would have been seriously spooked when he learned that he was real.
09:04 In the end, the plot was drastically changed to feature the two crooked men searching for
09:09 each other in a 1970s mansion.
09:11 While the end result was fine, imagine how much more exciting Hide would have been if
09:16 it had introduced a brand new Time Lord.
09:19 Even after all these years, there's still so much about Gallifrey we don't know, so
09:24 getting little nuggets like this every so often would go a long way towards making the
09:28 planet more interesting.
09:30 Also, Lost Lord sounds like a punk band, and that is exactly the sort of energy Doctor
09:35 Who needs.
09:36 2.
09:37 Brigadier Consequences - Battlefield
09:41 Alastor Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the Brigadier to his mates, was one of the most stable parts
09:46 of Doctor Who's original run.
09:48 Though he appeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008, his last proper appearance in Doctor
09:53 Who was in the final season serial Battlefield, and this was very nearly his final appearance
09:58 full stop.
09:59 The original plan for this serial, as approved by Nicholas Courtney himself, would have seen
10:04 the Brigadier sacrifice himself during a battle with the Destroyer of Worlds.
10:08 He would have called in an air strike against the creature, getting himself killed in the
10:12 process.
10:13 This would have changed so much about the show.
10:15 Not only would we not have got the Brig's appearances in the Sarah Jane Adventures or
10:19 potentially in the Big Finish audio dramas, but we would have had to accept that one of
10:24 the most beloved characters in the entire series died a brutal death.
10:28 Thankfully, the Brigadier's life was spared when the creators couldn't go through with
10:31 it.
10:32 Quite right, too.
10:33 1.
10:34 What's in the Pit - In the Impossible Planet and the Satan Pit
10:38 Matt Jones' first and only Doctor Who credit is a highly underrated one, and first introduces
10:44 us to recurring aliens, the Ood.
10:46 Oh, and we also discover that the actual devil is real.
10:49 But the Ood, though!
10:50 They're adorable!
10:51 The action revolves around a planet orbiting a black hole, and the dangers that lie beneath
10:56 its surface.
10:57 Trapped under the planet is a horrifying beast called The Beast.
11:01 Geez, guys, try a bit harder next time, eh?
11:08 The Pit wasn't always going to be Satan's humble abode, however.
11:11 In fact, at one point, the creative team had absolutely no idea what was going to be down
11:16 there.
11:17 Many ideas were pitched as to who or what would be dwelling in the cave.
11:20 Intriguingly, Davros, the creator of the Daleks, was considered for a time, as was the Doctor's
11:25 mortal enemy, the Master.
11:28 As we now know, both of these iconic villains would appear in New Who over the next few
11:32 years.
11:33 So just imagine how different Doctor Who would have been if one of these iconic enemies was
11:37 just stuck in a hole somewhere.
11:40 Considering how integral the Master would become to RTD's first run, including him
11:44 here would have changed the course of the Tenth Doctor's tenure.
11:47 It's a fascinating alternate timeline, that's for sure.
11:50 And that concludes our list.
11:51 If you think we missed anything, then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're
11:55 there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell so you never
11:59 miss a WhoCulture video ever again.
12:01 I've been Ellie, with WhoCulture, and in the words of RiverSong herself, goodbye, sweeties.