- 21 hours ago
We just want Doctor Who Confidential back, is that so much to ask?
Category
đź“ş
TVTranscript
00:00Sometimes, Doctor Who delivers us the glorious gift of fan service, which we did cover in
00:05a recent video. However, sometimes this happens. So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with
00:10Who Culture, here with 10 times Doctor Who refused to give fans what they wanted.
00:16Number 10, bringing back Susan. If it's not the Rani, it's the Doctor's granddaughter
00:21Susan, whom fans want to return to Doctor Who. There have been references to the Doctor's
00:26family in the new series, but to date, she's not returned. Now, some fans thought that the woman
00:31from the end of time was Susan, rather than the Doctor's mother, as Russell T Davies had intended.
00:36Peter Capaldi even mentioned possibly seeing the Doctor's granddaughter again in an interview while
00:40he was playing the Doctor. Capaldi's love of being photographed with classic companions on
00:45the Doctor Who set only fuelled a desire to see Susan and her grandfather reunited. The granddad
00:50bit between the Doctor and Bill in Knock Knock and the photo on the Doctor's desk at the university
00:55only seemed to hint to viewers that a Susan return was imminent. And then, when David Bradley's
01:00appearance as the first Doctor was revealed, it was surely a shoo-in that Susan would return for
01:05the final Christmas special. Whether it was a deliberate troll or not, the reintroduction of Bill
01:10in Twice Upon a Time takes slightly too long, especially as everyone already knew that Pearl
01:14Mackie was coming back. But as the figure emerged from the shadows, fans could be forgiven for
01:19anticipating that this could have been the return of Carol Ann Ford. Perhaps one day,
01:24she'll come back.
01:25Number 9. The Return of the Rani
01:27What do Sarah Lancashire, Keely Hawes, Michelle Gomez and Barbara Flynn all have in common beyond
01:33being Doctor Who guest actors? They've also all been mistakenly believed to be playing a new
01:38version of the Rani in New Who. Despite having only appeared in two stories and a Children in
01:43Need special, Kate O'Mara's performance is so memorable that the character has become beloved
01:48within Doctor Who fandom. So much so that any female guest cast announcement has been met by
01:54fervent speculation that the actor involved will be playing the Rani. This reached a head when
01:59Michelle Gomez was revealed to be a female incarnation of the Master rather than the Rani.
02:03Why turn the Master into a woman when there's an evil Time Lord female right there, complained the
02:08fandom? Well, probably because the rights to the character were held by classic Doctor Who
02:12writers Pip and Jane Baker, who first created her. The husband and wife writing team are no longer
02:17with us, so it's unclear where that leaves the character now. Regardless of boring legal things
02:22like rights, you can expect to see Gillian Anderson's inevitable casting opposite Shuti Gatwa linked back
02:27to the villainous Time Lord geneticist. Number 8. Paul McGann as the Doctor in 2005
02:33The 2003 announcement of Doctor Who's return was incredibly exciting for fans as the show celebrated
02:40its 40th anniversary year. Once the initial excitement died down, thoughts turned to whether or not this
02:45would be a continuation or a remake. Strangely, that debate continued throughout the first series
02:51in some dark corners of the internet, right up until the 10th Doctor was reunited with Sarah
02:56Jane Smith and K-9 in Season 2. One of the key stumbling blocks for fans was the fact that Paul
03:01McGann wasn't involved in the new show. This was seen as hugely disrespectful by some and a missed
03:06opportunity by others. Some fans were particularly flummoxed by the idea that they wouldn't get to see
03:11McGann regenerate into Christopher Eccleston, and when McGann did return in 2013, they saw him
03:16regenerate into John Hurt instead. Of course, Russell T. Davies was right to stick to his guns.
03:21Paul McGann had been the Doctor in novels, audio dramas, and comic strips since 1996. What would
03:27you do with all those already existing stories? In not establishing exactly what happened to the
03:328th Doctor, Russell T. Davies spun a mystery that gave the Doctor an intriguing and emotional
03:37backstory for new audiences, while providing intriguing teases for fans about the state
03:42of the Doctor Who universe during the Doctor's absence from our screens.
03:467. Bringing Back the Christmas Special
03:48Doctor Who was a huge part of the BBC's Christmas Day schedule for over a decade. The Voyage of the
03:54Damned, which starred Kylie Minogue, was watched by over 13 million people. When Chris Chibnall took
04:00over Doctor Who, the Christmas special became a New Year special instead, and fans have demanded the show
04:05return to Christmas Day ever since. The shift to New Year actually made a lot of sense at the time.
04:10In recent years, New Year's Day has been when the BBC launches its flagship new dramas. For example,
04:16Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss' Sherlock regularly debuted on New Year's Day. So rather than being a
04:21sign of the BBC's lack of interest in Doctor Who, it's a sign that the show's seen as a flagship drama
04:27rather than appointment television for the whole family. But that's definitely a problem,
04:31especially as the show should always be striving to reach a new, younger audience.
04:366. A Rose Tyler Spinoff
04:38When Doctor Who's 2005 relaunch proved to be a massive hit, the BBC began thinking about
04:44spinoffs. This led to the creation of both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood. But those
04:49discussions with Russell T Davies led to some other potential projects. One of these was a kids' show
04:54about the Doctor's youth on Gallifrey. But Russell T Davies rightly vetoed this idea on the basis it would
04:59have removed the Who from Doctor Who. Another spinoff that would have fared much better with
05:04fans was the mooted Rose Tyler Earth Defence. Set in the parallel Earth from Season 2, it would have
05:10focused on the Tylers' new lives as they protected the parallel world from all manner of baddies.
05:15Russell T Davies had already planned to bring the more action-hero version of Rose back for Season 4,
05:20so a spinoff show would have been the perfect way to build toward it. In the end, however,
05:25Russell T Davies decided not to take the project further, believing that if the Doctor wasn't able to see
05:29what Rose was up to, then the general audience shouldn't either. However, years later, Big
05:34Finish decided that if fans couldn't see these adventures, then they could hear them instead in
05:38a series of box sets. Number 5. The return of Doctor Who Confidential
05:43When Doctor Who Confidential was good, it was David Tennant interviewing Stephen Moffat about
05:48their respective childhoods as Scottish Doctor Who fans. When Doctor Who Confidential was bad,
05:53it was extensive footage of actors standing around in padded jackets in quarries at 3 in the morning.
05:58However, it was a show that tapped into the fascination Doctor Who fans have with how the
06:03show is made, and its absence is keenly felt to this day. Confidential was cancelled by the BBC
06:08back in 2011 due to budgetary issues. It was replaced by behind-the-scenes featurettes and
06:14Doctor Who The Fan Show that would both appear on the official Doctor Who website or its YouTube
06:18channel. Doctor Who Confidential was often a fascinating insight into the making of the show,
06:24and the decisions of those involved, so it's easy to see why fans miss that level of engagement.
06:29Rumours currently circulate that Confidential will return for the second Russell T. Davies era,
06:34but fans shouldn't expect a return to the glory days of classic monster montages set to What's
06:39That Coming Over The Hill. The more likely replacement for Confidential is a post-episode
06:43chat show like Talking Dead or After Trek.
06:464. A Proper 30th Anniversary Special
06:49Doctor Who had been off the air for almost four years as it approached its 30th anniversary in
06:551993. Fans hadn't given up hope on the show returning, though, especially when news broke
07:00of a feature-length straight-to-video movie. Doctor Who in the Dark Dimension had an incredibly
07:05complicated, troubled production and never made it as far as filming. With a proper Doctor Who
07:10anniversary special now quashed, fans had to make do with the surviving five Doctors and their
07:15companions interacting with the cast of EastEnders. Dimensions in Time, a 3D charity sketch for
07:20children in need, got a lot of unfair stick from fans who wanted this darker, grittier Doctor Who
07:25anniversary that had been previously promised. And yet, as anyone who's read the script will tell you,
07:30Doctor Who may have had a lucky escape from the Dark Dimension. At least in Dimensions in Time,
07:35each of the Doctors get a decent share of screen time. In the Dark Dimension, the majority of the
07:39Doctoring is done by an older Tom Baker, because the fourth Doctor was prevented from regenerating.
07:44They probably felt that Tom Baker was more of a draw for audiences, which may have been the case,
07:49but the plot of the considerably longer The Dark Dimension is just as convoluted and
07:53nonsensical as Dimensions in Time. Worse still, it wouldn't have featured Frank Butcher or the
07:58Mitchell Brothers. If you are interested in finding out more about this unmade movie,
08:02then be sure to check out our video covering just that.
08:053. Bringing Back The Brigadier
08:08Even though it was a reboot, Russell T Davies' 2005 revival of Doctor Who wasted no time in
08:14bringing back old elements. The Autons were the first villains, and Unit briefly appeared in
08:19Aliens of London and World War III. And yet, despite this, the legendary head of the organisation,
08:24Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, never appeared in the new series. Given the Doctor's psychological
08:28trauma from the Time War, a story that paired the Ninth Doctor with an equally battle-scarred
08:33would have been fascinating. Sadly, it wasn't to be. The Brigadier was always in Peru, which
08:38increasingly sounded like a euphemism for actor Nicholas Courtney's ill health. He did get to
08:43appear in the Sarah Jane Adventures, and was due to appear alongside David Tennant in another Sarah
08:47Jane Adventures episode, but unfortunately Courtney was too ill to take part, sadly dying months later.
08:53When the Brigadier did eventually reappear in Doctor Who, it was in the hugely controversial
08:57Death in Heaven, in which the character's corpse was reanimated as a Cyberman to save the Doctor and
09:03Kate Stewart from Missy's Machinations. There was also a brief vocal cameo in Flux, but it doesn't
09:08make up for the fact that this legendary Doctor Who character never got to share a scene with any
09:13of the 21st century Doctors. Number 2. Resting the Daleks
09:17Everyone loves the Daleks, right? Well, not exactly. Since the show returned in 2005, there hasn't been
09:24a single Doctor Who series that hasn't featured the Daleks in some capacity. Now, there was no Dalek
09:30special during David Tennant's final year, but one still did a flyby in a flashback during the
09:35Waters of Mars. And Matt Smith's second series didn't have a Dalek story, but a wrecked Dalek
09:39popped up to have its brain examined by the Doctor in The Wedding of River Song. There's just no
09:44escaping the Daleks, and these small cameos run the risk of lessening their impact when they return.
09:49Chris Chibnall was criticised for featuring the Daleks in each of his New Year specials, but to be fair to
09:54him, he's not the only showrunner who loves a Dalek. Classic Doctor Who had regular large gaps between
09:59Dalek stories, with only two Dalek serials in Tom Baker's entire seven-year run. The Daleks are great,
10:05obviously, but absence makes the heart grow fonder. It would be amazing if, after their appearance in
10:10Jodie Whittaker's finale, they don't appear for a few years. Returning in full strength toward the end of
10:16Shooty Gatwa's run, potentially. However, whether it's for contractual or audience engagement reasons, you can
10:21expect to see them sooner or later.
10:23Number 1. The Classic TARDIS Interior
10:26Modern TARDIS interiors have covered the full spectrum of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
10:32However, none of them have ever been able to live up to the sleek, classic white room from the
10:36original 1963-1989 run. This wouldn't be so bad if the show didn't continue to tease fans by showing
10:43how good that interior looks on modern TVs. Fans first got a look at the classic TARDIS interior of
10:48sorts in The Day of the Doctor, when it glitches into the War Doctor's console room. Then there was the
10:53TARDIS that the Doctor and Clara used to escape Gallifrey in Hellbent. Then there's the first Doctor's TARDIS in
10:58Twice Upon a Time. And finally, in Fugitive of the Jadoon, the Ruth Doctor has a variation on the classic
11:04TARDIS interior. Each time the classic console room appears, it looks considerably cooler than whatever one the
11:10incumbent Doctor is currently occupying. It's appeared in the modern run so many times now that any suggestion it
11:16wouldn't work on modern telly loses all credibility. Let's hope they finally take the plunge and put
11:21shooties Doctor in this design classic. And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any,
11:27then do let us know in the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe
11:31and tap that notification bell so you never miss a Who Culture video. While I've got you, I'd just like
11:36to say a massive thank you for helping us pass the 100k mark. You are all amazing! Also, head over to
11:42Twitter and follow us there, at Who Culture. And I can be found across various social medias just by
11:46searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself,
11:51goodbye, sweeties.
Recommended
8:41
|
Up next
13:37
11:36
16:36
2:15
1:30
3:40
2:33
10:13
10:09
12:52
9:00
11:19
10:37
10:34
12:56
23:25
13:21
Be the first to comment