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We just want Doctor Who Confidential back, is that so much to ask?
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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.
03:46Number 7. Bringing back the Christmas special
03:48Doctor Who was a huge part of the BBC's Christmas Day schedule for over a decade.
03:54The Voyage of the Damned, which starred Kylie Minogue, was watched by over 13 million people.
03:58When Chris Chibnall took over Doctor Who, the Christmas special became a New Year special instead,
04:03and fans have demanded the show return to Christmas Day ever since.
04:07The shift to New Year actually made a lot of sense at the time. In recent years, New Year's
04:12Day has been when the BBC launches its flagship new dramas. For example, Stephen Moffat and Mark
04:17Gatiss' Sherlock regularly debuted on New Year's Day. So rather than being a sign of the BBC's lack
04:23of interest in Doctor Who, it's a sign that the show's seen as a flagship drama rather than appointment
04:28television for the whole family. But that's definitely a problem, especially as the show should always be
04:33striving to reach a new, younger audience.
04:36Number 6. A Rose Tyler spin-off
04:38When Doctor Who's 2005 relaunch proved to be a massive hit, the BBC began thinking about spin-offs.
04:45This led to the creation of both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood. But those discussions
04:50with Russell T Davies led to some other potential projects. One of these was a kids' show about the
04:55Doctor's youth on Gallifrey. But Russell T Davies rightly vetoed this idea on the basis it would have
05:00removed the Who from Doctor Who. Another spin-off that would have fared much better with fans was
05:05the mooted Rose Tyler Earth defence. Set in a parallel Earth from season 2, it would have focused on the
05:11Tylers' new lives as they protected the parallel world from all manner of baddies. Russell T Davies
05:16had already planned to bring the more action-hero version of Rose back for season 4, so a spin-off show
05:21would have been the perfect way to build toward it. In the end, however, Russell T Davies decided not to
05:26take the project further, believing that if the Doctor wasn't able to see what Rose was up to,
05:30then the general audience shouldn't either. However, years later, Big Finish decided that
05:35if fans couldn't see these adventures, then they could hear them instead in a series of box sets.
05:40Number 5. The Return of Doctor Who Confidential
05:43When Doctor Who Confidential was good, it was David Tennant interviewing Stephen Moffat about their
05:48respective childhoods as Scottish Doctor Who fans. When Doctor Who Confidential was bad, it was
05:53extensive 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 back
06:08in 2011 due to budgetary issues. It was replaced by behind-the-scenes featurettes and Doctor Who The
06:14Fan Show that would both appear on the official Doctor Who website or its YouTube channel.
06:19Doctor Who Confidential was often a fascinating insight into the making of the show, and the
06:24decisions 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
06:39What's That Coming Over The Hill? The more likely replacement for Confidential is a post-episode
06:43chat show like Talking Dead or After Trek. 4. 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
07:15their companions interacting with the cast of Eastenders. Dimensions in Time, a 3D charity
07:20sketch for children in need, got a lot of unfair stick from fans who wanted this darker, grittier
07:25Doctor Who anniversary that had been previously promised. And yet, as anyone who's read the
07:29script will tell you, Doctor Who may have had a lucky escape from the Dark Dimension. At least
07:33in Dimensions in Time, each of the Doctors get a decent share of screen time. In the Dark Dimension,
07:38the majority of the Doctoring is done by an older Tom Baker, because the fourth Doctor
07:42was prevented from regenerating. They probably felt that Tom Baker was more of a draw for
07:46audiences, which may have been the case, but the plot of the considerably longer The Dark
07:51Dimension is just as convoluted and nonsensical as Dimensions in Time. Worse still, it wouldn't
07:56have featured Frank Butcher or the Mitchell Brothers. If you are interested in finding out
08:00more about this unmade movie, then 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
08:28psychological trauma from the Time War, a story that paired the Ninth Doctor with an equally
08:32battle-scarred brigadier would have been fascinating. Sadly, it wasn't to be. The brigadier was always
08:37in Peru, which increasingly sounded like a euphemism for actor Nicholas Courtney's ill health. He did get
08:42to appear in the Sarah Jane Adventures, and was due to appear alongside David Tennant in another
08:47Sarah Jane Adventures episode, but unfortunately Courtney was too ill to take part, sadly dying
08:52months later. When 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
09:02and Kate Stewart from Missy's machinations. There was also a brief vocal cameo in Flux,
09:07but it doesn't make up for the fact that this legendary Doctor Who character never got to share
09:12a scene with any of 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 a
09:24single 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,
09:53but to be fair to him, he's not the only showrunner who loves a Dalek. Classic Doctor
09:57Who had regular large gaps between Dalek stories, with only two Dalek serials in Tom Baker's entire
10:03seven-year run. The Daleks are great, obviously, but absence makes the heart grow fonder. It would
10:08be amazing if, after their appearance in Jodie Whittaker's finale, they don't appear for a few
10:13years. Returning in full strength toward the end of Shooty Gat was run, potentially. However,
10:18whether it's for contractual or audience engagement reasons, you can expect 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
10:53was the TARDIS that the Doctor and Clara used to escape Gallifrey in Hellbent. Then there's the
10:57first Doctor's TARDIS in Twice Upon a Time. And finally, in Fugitive of the Jadoon, the Ruth
11:02Doctor has a variation on the classic TARDIS interior. Each time the classic console room
11:07appears, it looks considerably cooler than whatever one the incumbent Doctor is currently occupying.
11:12It's appeared in the modern run so many times now that any suggestion it wouldn't work on modern
11:17telly loses all credibility. Let's hope they finally take the plunge and put Shooty's Doctor
11:22in this design classic.
11:24And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments
11:28below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
11:32bell so you never miss a Who Culture video. While I've got you, I'd just like to say a massive
11:36thank you for helping us pass the 100k mark. You are all amazing! Also, head over to Twitter
11:42and follow us there at Who Culture. And I can be found across various social medias just
11:46by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong
11:51herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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