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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
00:18If it's not the Rani, it's the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, whom fans want to return
00:23to Doctor Who. There have been references to the Doctor's family in the new series,
00:27but to date, she's not returned. Now, some fans thought that the woman from the end of time was
00:32Susan, rather than the Doctor's mother, as Russell T Davies had intended. Peter Capaldi even mentioned
00:37possibly seeing the Doctor's granddaughter again in an interview while he was playing the Doctor.
00:42Capaldi's love of being photographed with classic companions on the Doctor Who set only fueled a
00:47desire to see Susan and her grandfather reunited. The granddad bit between the Doctor and Bill in
00:52Knock Knock and the photo on the Doctor's desk at the university only seemed to hint to viewers that
00:56Susan return was imminent. And then, when David Bradley's appearance as the first Doctor was
01:01revealed, it was surely a shoe-in that Susan would return for the final Christmas special.
01:06Whether it was a deliberate troll or not, the reintroduction of Bill in Twice Upon a Time
01:11takes slightly too long, especially as everyone already knew that Pearl Mackie was coming back.
01:16But as the figure emerged from the shadows, fans could be forgiven for anticipating that this
01:20could have been the return of Carol Ann Ford. Perhaps one day she'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 version
01:38of the Rani in New Who. Despite having only appeared in two stories and a Children in Need special,
01:44Kate O'Mara's performance is so memorable that the character has become beloved within Doctor Who fandom.
01:49So much so that any female guest cast announcement has been met by fervent speculation that the actor
01:56involved will be playing the Rani. This reached a head when Michelle Gomez was revealed to be a
02:00female incarnation of the Master rather than the Rani. Why turn the Master into a woman when there's
02:05an evil Time Lord female right there, complained the fandom. Well, probably because the rights to the
02:10character were held by classic Doctor Who writers Pip and Jane Baker, who first created her.
02:15The husband and wife writing team are no longer with us, so it's unclear where that
02:19leaves the character now. Regardless of boring legal things like rights, you can expect to see
02:24Gillian Anderson's inevitable casting opposite Shuti Gatwa linked back to the villainous Time Lord geneticist.
02:30Number 8. Paul McGann as the Doctor in 2005
02:34The 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
02:45this would 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 McGann
03:01wasn't involved in the new show. This was seen as hugely disrespectful by some and a missed opportunity
03:06by others. Some fans were particularly flummoxed by the idea that they wouldn't get to see McGann regenerate
03:12into Christopher Eccleston, and when McGann did return in 2013, they saw him regenerate into
03:17John Hurt instead. Of course, Russell T Davies was right to stick to his guns. Paul McGann had been
03:22the Doctor in novels, audio dramas, and comic strips since 1996. What would you do with all those
03:28already existing stories? In not establishing exactly what happened to the 8th Doctor, Russell T Davies
03:34spun a mystery that gave the Doctor an intriguing and emotional backstory for new audiences, while providing
03:39intriguing teases for fans about the state of the Doctor Who universe during the Doctor's absence
03:44from our screens. 7. 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 over
04:00Doctor 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. In recent
04:11years, New Year's Day has been when the BBC launches its flagship new dramas. For example, Stephen Moffat
04:16and Mark Gatiss' 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 television
04:28for the whole family. But that's definitely a problem, especially as the show should always be striving to reach
04:34a new, younger audience. 6. A Rose Tyler Spinoff
04:38When Doctor Who's 2005 relaunch proved to be a massive hit, the BBC began thinking about spinoffs.
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 spinoff that would have fared much better with fans was
05:05the mooted Rose Tyler Earth defence. Set in the parallel Earth from season two, 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
05:20four, so a spinoff show would have been the perfect way to build toward it. In the end,
05:24however, Russell T Davies decided not to take the project further, believing that if the Doctor
05:28wasn't able to see what Rose was up to, then the general audience shouldn't either. However,
05:33years later, Big Finish decided that if fans couldn't see these adventures,
05:37then 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
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 three in the
05:58morning. However, 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
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.
06:46Number 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 sketch
07:20for children in need, got a lot of unfair stick from fans who wanted this darker, grittier Doctor
07:25Who anniversary that had been previously promised. And yet, as anyone who's read the script will tell
07:30you, Doctor 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,
08:14in bringing back old elements. The Autons were the first villains, and Unit briefly appeared in
08:19Aliens of London and World War 3. And yet, despite this, the legendary head of the organisation,
08:24Alastair 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
08:33Brigadier would have been fascinating. Sadly, it wasn't to be. The Brigadier was always in Peru,
08:38which increasingly 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
08:52months later. When the Brigadier did eventually reappear in Doctor Who, it was in the hugely
08:57controversial Death in Heaven, in which the character's corpse was reanimated as a Cyberman
09:02to save the Doctor and Kate Stewart from Missy's machinations. There was also a brief vocal cameo in
09:07Flux, but it doesn't make up for the fact that this legendary Doctor Who character never got to share a
09:12scene with any of the 21st Century Doctors.
09:142. 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 Waters of
09:35Mars. And Matt Smith's second series didn't have a Dalek story, but a wrecked Dalek popped up to have its
09:40brain examined by the Doctor in The Wedding of River Song. There's just no escaping the Daleks, and these
09:45small cameos run the risk of lessening their impact when they return. Chris Chibnall was
09:50criticised for featuring the Daleks in each of his New Year specials, but to be fair to him, he's not the
09:55only showrunner who loves a Dalek. Classic Doctor Who had regular large gaps between Dalek stories, with only
10:00two Dalek cereals in Tom Baker's entire seven-year run. The Daleks are great, obviously, but absence makes the
10:07heart grow fonder. It would be amazing if, after their appearance in Jodie Whittaker's finale, they
10:12don't appear for a few years. Returning in full strength toward the end of Shooty Gat was run,
10:17potentially. However, whether it's for contractual or audience engagement reasons, you can expect to
10:21see them sooner or later. 1. The Classic TARDIS Interior
10:26Modern TARDIS interiors have covered the full spectrum of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
10:31However, none of them have ever been able to live up to the sleek, classic white room from the original
10:371963 to 1989 run. This wouldn't be so bad if the show didn't continue to tease fans by showing how
10:43good that interior looks on modern TVs. Fans first got a look at the classic TARDIS interior, of sorts,
10:49in 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
10:57Doctor's TARDIS in Twice Upon a Time. And finally, in Fugitive of the Jadoon, the Ruth Doctor has a
11:03variation on the classic TARDIS interior. Each time the classic console room appears, it looks
11:08considerably cooler than whatever one the incumbent Doctor is currently occupying. It's appeared in
11:13the modern run so many times now that any suggestion it wouldn't work on modern telly loses
11:17all credibility. Let's hope they finally take the plunge and put Shooty's Doctor in this design
11:23classic. And 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 bell
11:33so you never miss a Who Culture video. While I've got you, I'd just like to say a massive thank you
11:37for helping us pass the 100k mark. You are all amazing. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us
11:42there at Who Culture. And I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie
11:47Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Who Culture. And in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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