10 Doctor Who Deleted Scenes That Should Have Been Left In
Hey Doctor Who, why you deleting so much amazing Twelfth Doctor stuff?!
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00:00In a show like Doctor Who, there are plenty of ideas that never make it to the screen.
00:04Kate Stewart and Unit featured in early drafts of Flatline, for instance, and The Master
00:08wasn't always part of Spyfall.
00:10Some ideas get further and are cut after being filmed, and while not every deleted scene
00:15has made it into the public domain, some of the ones that have deserve to make it past
00:19the editor.
00:20I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 Doctor Who deleted scenes that should have
00:25been left in.
00:2610.
00:27You Get One Detour – Daleks in Manhattan Martha Jones doesn't really become a fully
00:32fledged companion until well into Series 3.
00:35For the first six episodes, she's just a temporary TARDIS traveller.
00:39But it is easy to forget this, and that might be because a crucial scene was cut.
00:44At the end of Smith and Jones, the Doctor offers Martha a single trip.
00:48At the start of Gridlock, he stretches that definition to include a trip to the past and
00:52a trip to the future, before returning her home in the Lazarus Experiment.
00:57But first, Martha gets another trip back in time, to 1920s New York.
01:02Well, how come?
01:03Originally, an explanation was given on screen, in the form of a TARDIS interior scene cut
01:08from the start of Daleks in Manhattan.
01:10This lasts for almost two minutes and sees Martha coaxing the Doctor into taking a cheeky
01:15detour.
01:16The scene was cut for two reasons, for time, and because it was felt that the episode had
01:20two openings, the TARDIS scene and the scene outside the Statue of Liberty.
01:24With the TARDIS scene being less integral to the narrative, it was the one that had
01:28to go.
01:29Structurally, the episode probably works better for it, but it's a scene that really should
01:33exist in some form, given how important it is to Martha's journey.
01:38It would be a neat addition to the story, should it ever get novelised, for example.
01:429.
01:43You Don't Like Christmas?
01:44The Time of the Doctor
01:45Frustratingly few deleted scenes have been released from the 11th Doctor's era, but
01:50we do have a short clip from his final story to enjoy.
01:54The scene in question comes from the beginning of the episode and takes place outside Clara's
01:58block of flats, which, fun fact, was one of the locations used for Rose Tyler's home
02:02at the Powell Estate.
02:03It bridges the gap between Clara's reunion with her boyfriend in the TARDIS and the moment
02:08she introduces him to her family.
02:10On the surface, it's pretty superfluous, offering nothing more than a few extra jokes
02:14about Clara's Christmas dinner and the Doctor being naked, but on closer inspection, this
02:19scene has lots going for it.
02:21For one thing, it contains the only reference to Christmas crackers in the first half of
02:26the story, laying the groundwork for the role they'll play in the third act.
02:30It also features some pretty impressive directorial flourishes, such as the unusually low opening
02:34shot which frames Matt Smith's sonic screwdriver flick against the sunny skies.
02:39It's a lovely moment between the 11th Doctor and Clara.
02:42Given how little time they spend together during the rest of the story, and how short
02:45their time in the TARDIS was overall, we can't help but wish that this scene had been left
02:49in.
02:502.
02:51And Chameleon Cameo – The Awakening
02:53Touted as the next big thing by producer John Nathan-Turner, robotic companion Chameleon
02:59was swiftly exiled to the TARDIS following his debut.
03:02The prop's unreliability made it pretty much impossible to incorporate Chameleon into
03:06most stories.
03:07However, plans were afoot to briefly include him in an additional serial, namely Season
03:1321's The Awakening.
03:14This appearance was limited to one scene and involved very little movement, thus working
03:19around the prop's limitations.
03:21It saw a suspicious Tegan encounter Chameleon fiddling around with the ship's innards.
03:26To avoid rehiring original voice actor Gerald Flood, the tones of Peter Davison and Mark
03:31Strixson were used instead.
03:33This was accounted for by Chameleon's chameleonic tendencies.
03:36The moment added nothing to the plot overall, and so, when The Awakening was found to be
03:40significantly overrunning, it was an easy bit to cut.
03:43This had the unfortunate side effect of completely removing Chameleon's contribution to the
03:48story, however.
03:50Whether you love him or loathe him, Chameleon deserved better, and this scene would have
03:53helped give him a bit more of a presence during his short time on the show.
03:587.
03:59Rickston's Vone – Voyage of the Damned
04:01Voyage of the Damned was, at the time, the longest episode of the revived series by far,
04:06clocking in at 71 minutes.
04:09The record has since been beaten by The End of Time Part II, The Day of the Doctor, Deep
04:13Breath, and The Power of the Doctor.
04:15So, the original edit was still deemed to be too long, and various cuts had to be made.
04:21One of the most puzzling omissions concerns Rickston's Slade, and his phone-like device,
04:25which was creatively named a Vone.
04:27When we first see Slade, he's using his Vone to instruct an unseen lackey.
04:31As a result, attentive viewers might have wondered why he didn't try to call for help
04:36when the ship was wrecked in a meteor shower.
04:38Originally, this question was accounted for, with Slade remarking to the other survivors
04:43that his Vone was no longer working, and the Doctor deducing that they therefore have
04:47no chance of sending an SOS.
04:49Speaking on the Series 4 DVD and Blu-ray box set, Russell T. Davis explained that those
04:54lines made the scene too complicated, but admitted that, for the sake of clarity, they
04:59perhaps should have remained.
05:00And given how short the cut sequences were, less than 30 seconds combined, we can't help
05:06but agree.
05:076.
05:08Tenth Planet Reconstruction – Twice Upon a Time
05:10Twice Upon a Time is another one of those episodes that was notoriously over-length.
05:15Reportedly, the first edit ran for 90 minutes.
05:19It was longer than Dunkirk, Stephen Moffat recalled in one interview, and I mean the
05:23historical event, not the movie.
05:25Most of his missing material is yet to surface, though some of it was reinstated in Paul Cornell's
05:302018 novelization of the story.
05:33Furthermore, the story's director, Rachel Talalay, has since reassured fans that nothing
05:37major was lost.
05:39There's one case that we'd beg to differ, however.
05:41The episode opens with a thrilling recap of the first Doctor's final story, The Tenth
05:46Planet, combining archive footage and newly shot material.
05:50As broadcast, this sequence features a mere handful of new shots, but as the accompanying
05:55episode of Doctor Who Extra revealed, much more of the story was re-enacted than what
06:00we saw on screen.
06:01Most tantalizingly of all, the revamped Mondasian Cybermen costumes from World Enough and Time
06:06and The Doctor Falls were pressed back into service, allowing the team to restage some
06:11of the Tenth Planet's action pieces on a 21st century budget.
06:14Sure, all the montage as it stands is tighter and gets to the action quicker, but would
06:19it really have hurt to include just a few more seconds of the reshot Tenth Planet?
06:23It would have made many a fan's Christmas.
06:265.
06:27Far More Than Just Another Time Lord – Remembrance of the Daleks
06:31As is now common knowledge, 7th Doctor script editor Andrew Cartmel made it his mission
06:36to bring more mystery to the Doctor via the so-called Cartmel Master Plan.
06:41This would have revealed the Doctor to be a reincarnation of a being known as The Other,
06:46who, together with Rassilon and Omega, played a vital role in the formation of Time Lord
06:51society.
06:52It would, in effect, have given him god-like status.
06:55The plan could never be fully realized due to the show's untimely cancellation in 1989,
07:00but various seeds were planted in the final stories of the show's original run, hinting
07:05that there was more to the Doctor than meets the eye.
07:08Most notorious of all is a line from Remembrance of the Daleks that ended up on the cutting
07:12room floor, with the Doctor explicitly referring to himself as Far More Than Just Another Time
07:18Lord.
07:19It's a line that's gained such iconic status that you'd be forgiven for thinking it did
07:22appear on television, but alas, it did not, reportedly because producer John Nathan-Turner
07:27was concerned about its religious connotations.
07:30It absolutely should have remained in.
07:324.
07:33Cyber Surprise – Journey's End The end-of-series cliffhanger became a staple
07:38of the first RTD era, with almost every finale leading into that year's Christmas special.
07:43Parting of the Ways had the Tenth Doctor's debut, Doomsday had Donna Noble's surprise
07:48appearance, Last of the Time Lords had the Space Titanic, and Journey's End had a soaking
07:53wet Doctor stripped down, just to his shirt, mind you, and mope around the TARDIS.
07:57But this wasn't always the way.
07:59In fact, as written and filmed, the episode's closing scene saw the Doctor Inspector Reading
08:04on the TARDIS scanner, while failing to notice two Cybermen creeping up behind him.
08:09What?!
08:10This scene would have led directly into the next Doctor, with the brief appearance of
08:13the Cybermen explained as them falling through the vortex.
08:17As documented in the writer's tale, Russell T. Davis felt that it was important to end
08:21the series on an upbeat note, but Doctor Who magazine writer Benjamin Cooke thought that
08:26this cyber scene detracted from the tragic end to Donna's story, and on reflection, RTD
08:31agreed with him.
08:32Personally, I also agree.
08:34So consequently, the cliffhanger was abandoned, and a new ending was shot many weeks later
08:39during production of the next Doctor.
08:41RTD has since admitted that part of me thinks we should have done this, and it's not hard
08:46to see why.
08:47After all, who doesn't love a good what?
08:49What?
08:50WHAT?!
08:513.
08:52Clara's Theme – The Pilot
08:54The Twelfth Doctor's guitar featured prominently across Series 9, but was mostly absent from
08:59Series 10, save for cameos in The Pyramid at the End of the World and Twice Upon a Time.
09:03It also made an off-camera appearance in series opener The Pilot, with the Doctor knocking
09:08out a few bars of Beethoven's Fifth, but originally, it was set to make a much more
09:12substantial appearance in the episode.
09:14During the montage that makes up the Doctor's It Means Life lecture, we see Bill and Heather
09:19bump into each other in the student bar.
09:22As scripted, this was part of a longer sequence, which saw the Doctor also present playing
09:26his guitar in the background.
09:28This led into another deleted scene where Bill asks the Doctor what he was playing.
09:32I forget, he tells her.
09:34However, to any eagle-eared fan, the tune is instantly recognisable as Clara's Theme.
09:39This sequence was likely cut to make the Doctor's lecture and the episode as a whole more punchy,
09:44but it absolutely should have been included.
09:47It would have given the Doctor another chance to show off his guitar playing, while simultaneously
09:51playing tribute to Clara Oswald.
09:53What's not to love?
09:54Unless you're not a fan of Clara, in which case, just appreciate Murray Gold's music?
09:592.
10:00Old Agatha, The Unicorn and The Wasp Sometimes, in spite of everything, whole
10:04subplots end up on the cutting room floor.
10:07This is one of those cases, and by far the biggest cut on this list.
10:11Originally, The Unicorn and The Wasp was framed with scenes of an old Agatha Christie on her
10:16deathbed, a narrative device the woman herself would no doubt have approved of.
10:20The first of these sees Christie recalling her encounter with the Doctor, but struggling
10:24to remember the details.
10:25I've written so many mysteries, she tells her nurse.
10:29Before I die, I have to solve mine.
10:31At the episode's end, things come full circle, with the Doctor and Donna returning to tell
10:36her the truth.
10:37These scenes appear on the Series 4 DVD and Blu-ray, with RTD recalling that they read
10:42very well on the page, but didn't work so well in the edit, making the story feel like
10:47it was taking place in the past tense.
10:49It's hard to argue with this reasoning, but it's a shame that they couldn't have
10:53been included somehow, perhaps as a prequel or a mini-sode.
10:57Deleted scenes featuring actors and sets otherwise absent from a whole story are always the most
11:02tantalising, don't you think?
11:041.
11:05Plague Doctor, The Woman Who Lived In The Woman Who Lived, Ishilde is reunited
11:09with the Doctor, 800 years after they first met.
11:13But all is not well.
11:14Ishilde has come to feel trapped by her life of immortality, imploring the Doctor to take
11:20her with him.
11:21And after reading her diaries, specifically an entry about the devastating loss of her
11:24children during the Plague, he begins to understand why.
11:28What you might not have realised is that the Doctor already knew about this tragic chapter
11:32of Ishilde's life, because he was actually there.
11:35This deleted cutaway shows Ishilde passing a Plague Doctor in the street.
11:39The figure remains silent, watching Ishilde as she goes before removing their mask to
11:44reveal themselves as none other than the Doctor, looking much more bedraggled than
11:49usual.
11:50There are multiple reasons why this scene should have been left in.
11:52For starters, it adds more depth to Ishilde's story, and shows us a lesser-seen side of
11:57the Doctor too.
11:58It would have also allowed us to add another costume variant to the Twelfth Doctor's
12:02already substantial wardrobe, and one-off costumes are always the most exciting.
12:06Well, that's everything for this list, but fear not.
12:09There are plenty of other deleted scenes from Doctor Who, so why not check out 10 Doctor
12:13Who deleted scenes you need to see?
12:16In the meantime, I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye
12:20sweeties.