10 Times Doctor Who Refused To Give Fans What They Wanted
We just want Doctor Who Confidential back, is that so much to ask?
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00:00 Sometimes, Doctor Who delivers us the glorious gift of fan service,
00:04 which we did cover in a recent video.
00:06 However, sometimes this happens.
00:08 So, with that in mind, then, I'm Ellie with Who Culture,
00:11 here with 10 times Doctor Who refused to give fans what they wanted.
00:15 Number 10, bringing back Susan.
00:18 If it's not the Rani, it's the Doctor's granddaughter Susan,
00:22 whom fans want to return to Doctor Who.
00:24 There have been references to the Doctor's family in the new series,
00:27 but to date, she's not returned.
00:29 Now, some fans thought that the woman from the end of time was Susan,
00:33 rather than the Doctor's mother, as Russell T Davies had intended.
00:36 Peter Capaldi even mentioned possibly seeing the Doctor's granddaughter again
00:39 in an interview while he was playing the Doctor.
00:42 Capaldi's love of being photographed with classic companions
00:44 on the Doctor Who set only fuelled a desire to see Susan and her grandfather reunited.
00:49 The granddad bit between the Doctor and Bill in Knock Knock
00:52 and the photo on the Doctor's desk at the university
00:55 only seemed to hint to viewers that a Susan return was imminent.
00:58 And then when David Bradley's appearance as the first Doctor was revealed,
01:02 it was surely a shoe-in that Susan would return for the final Christmas special.
01:06 Whether it was a deliberate troll or not,
01:08 the reintroduction of Bill in Twice Upon a Time takes slightly too long,
01:12 especially as everyone already knew that Pearl Mackie was coming back.
01:15 But as the figure emerged from the shadows,
01:18 fans could be forgiven for anticipating that this could have been
01:21 the return of Carol Ann Ford.
01:23 Perhaps one day she'll come back.
01:25 Number nine, the return of the Rani.
01:28 What do Sarah Lancashire, Keighley Hawes, Michelle Gomez, and Barbara Flynn
01:31 all have in common beyond being Doctor Who guest actors?
01:35 They've also all been mistakenly believed to be playing
01:37 a new version of the Rani in New Who.
01:40 Despite having only appeared in two stories and a Children in Need special,
01:44 Kate O'Mara's performance is so memorable
01:46 that the character has become beloved within Doctor Who fandom.
01:49 So much so that any female guest cast announcement
01:53 has been met by fervent speculation that the actor involved
01:56 will be playing the Rani.
01:58 This reached a head when Michelle Gomez was revealed
02:00 to be a female incarnation of the Master rather than the Rani.
02:03 "Why turn the Master into a woman when there's an evil Time Lord female
02:06 right there?" complained the fandom.
02:08 Well, probably because the rights to the character were held
02:11 by classic Doctor Who writers Pip and Jane Baker, who first created her.
02:15 The husband and wife writing team are no longer with us,
02:18 so it's unclear where that leaves the character now.
02:20 Regardless of boring legal things like rights,
02:23 you can expect to see Gillian Anderson's inevitable casting
02:26 opposite Shuti Gatwa linked back to the villainous Time Lord geneticist.
02:29 Number 8. Paul McGann as The Doctor in 2005
02:34 The 2003 announcement of Doctor Who's return was incredibly exciting
02:38 for fans as the show celebrated its 40th anniversary year.
02:41 Once the initial excitement died down, thoughts turned to whether or not
02:45 this would be a continuation or a remake.
02:48 Strangely, that debate continued throughout the first series
02:51 in some dark corners of the internet, right up until the Tenth Doctor
02:54 was reunited with Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 in Season 2.
02:58 One of the key stumbling blocks for fans was the fact that Paul McGann
03:01 wasn't involved in the new show.
03:03 This was seen as hugely disrespectful by some and a missed opportunity by others.
03:07 Some fans were particularly flummoxed by the idea that they wouldn't get
03:10 to see McGann regenerate into Christopher Eccleston.
03:13 And when McGann did return in 2013, they saw him regenerate
03:17 into John Hurt instead.
03:18 Of course, Russell T Davies was right to stick to his guns.
03:21 Paul McGann had been the Doctor in novels, audio dramas,
03:24 and comic strips since 1996.
03:27 What would you do with all those already existing stories?
03:30 In not establishing exactly what happened to the Eighth Doctor,
03:33 Russell T Davies spun a mystery that gave the Doctor an intriguing
03:36 and emotional backstory for new audiences, while providing intriguing
03:40 teases for fans about the state of the Doctor Who universe during
03:43 the Doctor's absence from our screens.
03:45 Number 7, bringing back the Christmas special.
03:49 Doctor Who was a huge part of the BBC's Christmas Day schedule
03:52 for over a decade.
03:53 The Voyage of the Damned, which starred Kylie Minogue,
03:56 was watched by over 13 million people.
03:58 When Chris Chibnall took over Doctor Who, the Christmas special
04:01 became a New Year special instead, and fans have demanded the show
04:05 return to Christmas Day ever since.
04:07 The shift to New Year actually made a lot of sense at the time.
04:10 In recent years, New Year's Day has been when the BBC launches
04:13 its flagship new dramas.
04:15 For example, Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss' Sherlock regularly
04:18 debuted on New Year's Day.
04:20 So rather than being a sign of the BBC's lack of interest in
04:23 Doctor Who, it's a sign that the show's seen as a flagship drama
04:27 rather than appointment television for the whole family.
04:29 But that's definitely a problem, especially as the show should
04:32 always be striving to reach a new, younger audience.
04:35 Number 6, a Rose Tyler spin-off.
04:39 When Doctor Who's 2005 relaunch proved to be a massive hit,
04:43 the BBC began thinking about spin-offs.
04:45 This led to the creation of both the Sarah Jane Adventures and
04:48 Torchwood.
04:49 But those discussions with Russell T Davies led to some
04:51 other potential projects.
04:53 One of these was a kids' show about the Doctor's youth on
04:55 Gallifrey.
04:56 But Russell T Davies rightly vetoed this idea on the basis it
04:59 would have removed the Who from Doctor Who.
05:02 Another spin-off that would have fared much better with fans was
05:05 the mooted Rose Tyler Earth Defence.
05:07 Set in a parallel Earth from season two, it would have focused
05:10 on the Tylers' new lives as they protected the parallel world
05:14 from all manner of baddies.
05:15 Russell T Davies had already planned to bring the more
05:18 action hero version of Rose back for season four, so a
05:20 spin-off show would have been the perfect way to
05:22 build toward it.
05:24 In the end, however, Russell T Davies decided not to take the
05:26 project further, believing that if the Doctor wasn't able to
05:29 see what Rose was up to, then the general audience
05:31 shouldn't either.
05:32 However, years later, Big Finish decided that if fans couldn't
05:35 see these adventures, then they could hear them instead in a
05:38 series of box sets.
05:40 Number 5, the return of Doctor Who Confidential.
05:44 When Doctor Who Confidential was good, it was David Tennant
05:47 interviewing Stephen Moffat about their respective
05:49 childhoods as Scottish Doctor Who fans.
05:51 When Doctor Who Confidential was bad, it was extensive footage
05:54 of actors standing around in padded jackets in quarries at
05:57 three in the morning.
05:58 However, it was a show that tapped into the fascination
06:01 Doctor Who fans have with how the show is made, and its
06:04 absence is keenly felt to this day.
06:06 Confidential was cancelled by the BBC back in 2011 due to
06:10 budgetary issues.
06:11 It was replaced by behind the scenes featurettes and Doctor
06:14 Who the Fan Show that would both appear on the official Doctor
06:17 Who website or its YouTube channel.
06:19 Doctor Who Confidential was often a fascinating insight
06:22 into the making of the show and the decisions of those
06:25 involved, so it's easy to see why fans miss that
06:28 level of engagement.
06:29 Rumours currently circulate that Confidential will return
06:32 for the second Russell T Davies era, but fans shouldn't
06:35 expect a return to the glory days of classic monster
06:38 montages set to What's That Coming Over the Hill.
06:40 The more likely replacement for Confidential is a post
06:43 episode chat show like Talking Dead or After Trek.
06:46 Number four, a proper 30th anniversary special.
06:50 Doctor Who had been off the air for almost four years as it
06:53 approached its 30th anniversary in 1993.
06:56 Fans hadn't given up hope on the show returning, though,
06:58 especially when news broke of a feature length straight
07:01 to video movie.
07:02 Doctor Who in the Dark Dimension had an incredibly
07:05 complicated, troubled production and never made it
07:08 as far as filming.
07:09 With a proper Doctor Who anniversary special now quashed,
07:12 fans had to make do with the surviving five doctors and
07:15 their companions interacting with the cast of Eastenders.
07:17 Dimensions in Time, a 3D charity sketch for children in
07:20 need, got a lot of unfair stick from fans who wanted this
07:24 darker, grittier Doctor Who anniversary that had been
07:26 previously promised.
07:27 And yet, as anyone who's read the script will tell you,
07:30 Doctor Who may have had a lucky escape from
07:32 the Dark Dimension.
07:33 At least in Dimensions in Time, each of the doctors get a
07:36 decent share of screen time.
07:37 In the Dark Dimension, the majority of the doctoring is
07:39 done by an older Tom Baker because the fourth doctor was
07:42 prevented from regenerating.
07:44 They probably felt that Tom Baker was more of a draw for
07:46 audiences, which may have been the case.
07:48 But the plot of the considerably longer The Dark
07:51 Dimension is just as convoluted and nonsensical as
07:54 Dimensions in Time.
07:55 Worse still, it wouldn't have featured Frank Butcher or
07:58 the Mitchell Brothers.
07:59 If you are interested in finding out more about this
08:01 unmade movie, then be sure to check out our video
08:04 covering just that.
08:05 Number three, bringing back the Brigadier.
08:08 Even though it was a reboot, Russell T.
08:10 Davies' 2005 revival of Doctor Who wasted no time in
08:14 bringing back old elements.
08:15 The Autons were the first villains, and Unit briefly
08:18 appeared in Aliens of London and World War Three.
08:21 And yet, despite this, the legendary head of the
08:23 organisation, Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, never
08:26 appeared in the new series.
08:27 Given the Doctor's psychological trauma from the
08:29 time war, a story that paired the ninth doctor with an
08:32 equally battle-scarred Brigadier would have
08:34 been fascinating.
08:35 Sadly, it wasn't to be.
08:36 The Brigadier was always in Peru, which increasingly
08:39 sounded like a euphemism for actor Nicholas
08:41 Courtney's ill health.
08:42 He did get to appear in the Sarah Jane Adventures and
08:44 was due to appear alongside David Tennant in another
08:47 Sarah Jane Adventures episode.
08:48 But unfortunately, Courtney was too ill to take part,
08:51 sadly dying months later.
08:53 When the Brigadier did eventually reappear in
08:55 Doctor Who, it was in the hugely controversial Death
08:58 in Heaven, in which the character's corpse was
09:00 reanimated as a Cyberman to save the Doctor and Kate
09:03 Stewart from Missy's machinations.
09:05 There was also a brief vocal cameo in Flux, but it
09:08 doesn't make up for the fact that this legendary
09:10 Doctor Who character never got to share a scene with
09:12 any of the 21st century Doctors.
09:15 Number two, Resting the Daleks
09:17 Everyone loves the Daleks, right?
09:19 Well, not exactly.
09:21 Since the show returned in 2005, there hasn't been a
09:24 single Doctor Who series that hasn't featured the
09:27 Daleks in some capacity.
09:28 Now, there was no Dalek special during David Tennant's
09:31 final year, but one still did a flyby in a flashback
09:34 during the Waters of Mars.
09:36 And Matt Smith's second series didn't have a Dalek
09:38 story, but a wrecked Dalek popped up to have its
09:40 brain examined by the Doctor in the Wedding of
09:42 River Song.
09:43 There's just no escaping the Daleks, and these small
09:46 cameos run the risk of lessening their impact
09:48 when they return.
09:49 Chris Chibnall was criticised for featuring the
09:51 Daleks in each of his New Year specials.
09:53 But to be fair to him, he's not the only showrunner
09:56 who loves a Dalek.
09:57 Classic Doctor Who had regular large gaps between
09:59 Dalek stories, with only two Dalek serials in Tom Baker's
10:02 entire seven-year run.
10:04 The Daleks are great, obviously, but absence makes
10:07 the heart grow fonder.
10:08 It would be amazing if after their appearance in Jodie
10:11 Whitaker's finale, they don't appear for a few years.
10:13 Returning in full strength toward the end of Shooty
10:16 Gap was run, potentially.
10:17 However, whether it's for contractual or audience
10:20 engagement reasons, you can expect to see them
10:22 sooner or later.
10:23 Number one, the classic TARDIS interior.
10:26 Modern TARDIS interiors have covered the full spectrum
10:29 of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
10:32 However, none of them have ever been able to live up
10:34 to the sleek, classic white room from the original
10:37 1963 to 1989 run.
10:40 This wouldn't be so bad if the show didn't continue
10:42 to tease fans by showing how good that interior looks
10:45 on modern TVs.
10:46 Fans first got a look at the classic TARDIS interior
10:48 of sorts in The Day of the Doctor, when it glitches
10:51 into the War Doctors console room.
10:52 Then there was the TARDIS that the Doctor and Clara
10:55 used to escape Gallifrey in Hellbent.
10:57 Then there's the first Doctor's TARDIS in Twice
10:59 Upon a Time.
10:59 And finally, in Fugitive of the Jadun, the Ruth Doctor
11:02 has a variation on the classic TARDIS interior.
11:05 Each time the classic console room appears, it looks
11:08 considerably cooler than whatever one the incumbent
11:10 Doctor is currently occupying.
11:12 It's appeared in the modern run so many times now that
11:15 any suggestion it wouldn't work on modern telly
11:17 loses all credibility.
11:18 Let's hope they finally take the plunge and put
11:21 Shoo-T's Doctor in this design classic.
11:24 And that concludes our list.
11:26 If you think we missed any, then do let us know
11:28 in the comments below.
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11:35 While I've got you, I'd just like to say a massive thank
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11:48 I've been Ellie with Who Culture.
11:49 And in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.