Doctor Who has just undergone a major series revamp to great success, with millions thrilling to Jodie Whittaker’s debut adventures as our new Time Lord.
There’s precedent for this sort of thing, of course: the show got an overhaul in 2010 as new lead actor Matt Smith and new showrunner Steven Moffat embarked on a new era together, while another huge changed occurred back in 1970, with the show swapping Patrick Troughton for Jon Pertwee, black-and-white for colour, and space-faring adventures for a series of stories which saw the Doctor stranded on Earth.
But perhaps no relaunch was more important, more anticipated, than Doctor Who‘s return to television in 2005. After 16 years off the air – bar a one-off television film – the legendary sci-fi returned to BBC One amid a flurry of publicity, with more than 10 million of us tuning in.
Christopher Eccleston’s haunted ninth Doctor, Billie Piper’s bright, courageous and throughly modern companion Rose, heightened emotional stakes… all the elements worked together to deliver the Beeb an enormous hit.
But it could all have been very different.
Here’s all the ways those first 13 episodes almost went off on a totally different path, from casting to scripts to a total absence of Daleks.
1. A very different Doctor
Eccleston was at the helm of the TARDIS for that 2005 series – before passing the keys over to David Tennant – but other actors were also considered to help transform Doctor Who from tabloid punchline to blockbuster drama.
Charged with reviving the show’s fortunes, showrunner Russell T Davies enquired about Hugh Grant’s availability, telling Digital Spy years later that he suspected the offer never made it past Grant’s agent.
Eccleston then expressed an interest, taking RTD by surprise, and the rest is Who history.
2. Rose by another name
Billie Piper made the part of Rose Tyler her own, the former pop star having then recently re-established herself as an actress with roles in 2004 TV movie Bella and the Boys and a modern-day version of the Canterbury Tales.
But, of course, she wasn’t the only actress in contention. Georgia Tennant – then Georgia Moffett – is said to have met Russell T Davies and his team during casting, but, aged just 19, missed out on account of being too young. (Of course, three years later, she’d play Jenny in 2008 episode ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’, where she met future husband David Tennant.)
Sherlock‘s Louise Brealey also went up for Rose, testing alongside Christopher Eccleston, but described it as her “worst audition” in a later interview with What’s On Stage.
Brealey, who previously worked as a journalist, had interviewed Eccleston for a magazine article, but claimed that her editor “crowbarred a couple of less-than-flattering comments” into the final piece. Eccleston remembered. Awkward.
3. Wot, no Daleks?
Having believed his arch-enemies wiped out in a devastating Time War, the Doctor encountered a lone survivor in 2005’s ‘Dalek’ and later faced off against the revived race in two-part finale, ‘Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways’.
However, rights issues almost scuppered plans to bring back Doctor Who‘s most famous monsters, with Russell T Davies devising a similar-ish (but original) opponent to be used instead: “Future-Humans” that were cyborgs integrated into mechanical spheres.
Permission to use the Daleks was eventually granted. but, never one to let a good idea go to waste, Davies revisited his other concept in the form of series three villains The Toclafane.
4. Paul Abbott’s bizarre episode 11
‘Boom Town’ was actually a replacement episode, written at short notice by RTD after Shameless and No Offence writer Paul Abbott had to drop out of writing a Doctor Who due to other commitments.
Much as we admire the work of BAFTA-winning writer Abbott, it sounds like this was no bad thing. In a hugely creepy twist, his planned episode would have revealed that Rose’s entire life had been manipulated by the Doctor in an attempt to create a perfect travelling mate.
Given that the whole concept makes our Time Lord hero come off as a manipulative, borderline-misogynist control freak, we’re not exactly sore that the idea never made it to screen.
5. The big Star Trek crossover
No, seriously.
Back in 2009, Davies revealed that one of his few regrets upon hanging up his showrunner hat was never being able to pull off a crossover between, arguably, the two greatest science-fiction TV shows of our time.
“I would have loved to have done a Star Trek crossover,” he told the Times. “The very first year, we talked about it. Then Star Trek finally went off air. Landing the TARDIS on board the Enterprise would have been magnificent.”
Again, perhaps it’s for the best – Davies did acknowledge that there would’ve been a huge “battle” between himself and Star Trek: Enterprise‘s script department over the content of the episode.
6. The JK Rowling-written episode
© Walter McBride/WireImage
You might have heard the story that Davies’ first idea for Doctor Who‘s 2008 Christmas special was to have the Doctor meet JK Rowling – playing herself – with the pair battling wizards and witches.
David Tennant wasn’t fond of the idea, feeling it sounded like a spoof, so Davies quashed it to placate his leading man. Years earlier, though, RTD had approached Rowling to contribute a script for the series.
In the book The Writer’s Tale, he revealed: “Back in 2004, I asked JKRowling to write an episode… though she politely declined.” (She was busy writing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the time.)
7. David Tennant is cast – but not as the Doctor
A decision that changed not only Doctor Who‘s 2005 run, but the future of the series as a whole.
Gabriel Sneed, an undertaker who appeared as a supporting character in the series’ third episode ‘The Unquiet Dead’, was eventually played by Alan David, a Welsh actor in his 60s.
Originally though, the character was intended to be a good deal younger – with writer Mark Gatiss eyeing his actor pal David Tennant for the part. Tennant lost out, though, when the decision was made to age the part up.
It was a blessing in disguise. Tennant – who’d previously worked with Russell T Davies on BBC Three’s Casanova – was announced as the tenth Doctor on April 16, 2005, one week after ‘The Unquiet Dead’ went out on BBC One.
Source: Read Full Article