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For over 60 years, Doctor Who has graced our screens, but its journey hasn't always been smooth. This video explores the behind-the-scenes struggles and near-cancellations that almost wiped the Doctor from television history.
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00:0010 Moments That Almost Killed Doctor Who
00:0210. Doctor Who Almost Ends Before It Starts
00:06The earliest example of Doctor Who's near-demise comes before the show had even aired a single episode.
00:13Let's all travel back to 1963.
00:15The Beatles are top of the music charts, Cleopatra is dominating the box office,
00:19and it feels like the universe is doing everything it can to stop Doctor Who getting made.
00:23The show's first ever episode was actually completely scrapped after being recorded,
00:27with co-creator Sidney Newman feeling that the Doctor was a bit too unlikable and the overall
00:32pace was too slow. Meanwhile, the controller of BBC Television at the time, Donald Bavistock,
00:38the man who originally tasked Sidney Newman with creating the Tea Time family show that would
00:42become Doctor Who, was more than a little bit concerned about how much it would cost to bring
00:47all of time and space to life. Initially, he agreed that four episodes would be produced,
00:52later extending this to 13. That further commitment didn't last long, however,
00:56as Bavistock had clearly punched the numbers into an abacus and come to the conclusion that
01:00the BBC simply couldn't afford to produce any more Doctor Who. In October 1963, he sent a memo to the
01:07producers which read,
01:08Such a costly serial is not one that I can afford for this space in this financial year.
01:14You should not therefore proceed any further with the production of more than four episodes.
01:19Fortunately, after a few crisis meetings and a bit more number crunching,
01:22Doctor Who was given the green light. Again, when the producers figured out they could make the show
01:27a little bit more cheaply. Newman's famous description of Bavistock as very keen but worried
01:32about money certainly does sound accurate, doesn't it?
01:35Number 9. William Hartnell's Departure
01:37Whenever an actor decides it's time to hand in their keys to the TARDIS and leave the show,
01:43they regenerate. It's an iconic aspect of Doctor Who and has made it possible for the series to
01:47continue with the same character, often played by a charming Scotsman, for well over six decades.
01:53One actor leaves, another takes their place, and you have a brand new Doctor. It's a perfect
01:58characteristic of Time Lord biology that makes it possible, but it wasn't always part of the show.
02:03In fact, before there was even any talk of a second Doctor, there was a time when there wasn't
02:08actually a plan to keep the series going once original Doctor William Hartnell left.
02:12As one of Hartnell's final companions, Annika Wills explained in 2016, quote,
02:17We knew Bill was going to finish, that he was gone, and then there were discussions.
02:22Okay, is that the end of the show or shall we have another actor? Shall we have an actor who
02:26looks like Bill or shall we have a completely different actor? Fortunately, the decision was
02:30of course made to continue the show with a new lead actor, which itself raised a whole new crop of
02:35concerns. Would the public accept her new Doctor once Hartnell left? Hartnell was the Doctor,
02:40so it was anyone's guess. Those concerns were swiftly put to rest when Patrick Troughton's
02:45amazing, charismatic take on the character gave Doctor Who new life, earning it a stay of execution
02:51for the next three years.
02:538. A Colourful Transition
02:56After the concept of regeneration was introduced, Patrick Troughton played the role for a few
03:01wonderful years. Doctor Who had found a means of continuing even after the lead actor departed,
03:06so it seemed possible that it could keep going indefinitely. Unfortunately,
03:10the reality of the situation made that less and less likely, as Troughton got closer to leaving
03:14the show. With ratings dwindling towards the end of his tenure, the BBC seriously considered ending
03:20Doctor Who in 1969, with the possibility of replacing it with a revival of Nigel Neal's
03:26Quatermass serials from the 1950s. Soon, though, it was decided that Doctor Who would soldier on for at
03:31least another year, transitioning into colour television and casting a new Doctor in the form of
03:36John Pertwee. But even then, its troubles weren't over. After Pertwee's first year in the role,
03:42there was yet another talk of binning Doctor Who off, with producer Barry Letts even beginning work
03:47on a potential replacement show called Snowy Black about a displaced Australian cowboy.
03:52This period of uncertainty didn't last long, however, with BBC higher-ups determining that
03:56Pertwee's first season had performed well enough for the show to continue.
04:01Number 7. Doctor Who in Distress
04:04Doctor Who managed to continue through five regenerations of The Doctor before it ran into
04:10its most dangerous dance with cancellation. Colin Baker was brought on to play The Doctor in 1984,
04:15and he knocked out his first season with the belief he would return for a second. But in 1985,
04:21midway through the transmission of season 22, the BBC announced that Doctor Who would be going on
04:25hiatus. The reasons for this were numerous, from falling ratings to a perceived overly violent tone
04:32for the series. But the biggest was simply that BBC higher-ups just didn't like the show.
04:36This was the grimmest things had looked for Doctor Who in its 20-plus year history,
04:41and the creation of an infamously terrible charity single called Doctor in Distress,
04:46designed to plead for the show's return, did little to move the needle. This hiatus resulted in the
04:51abandonment of several storylines, all of which were outlined for Baker's second season. And though
04:56the show did of course return in 1986, in some ways the damage had already been done. Colin Baker
05:01was soon fired, and public perception of Doctor Who was at an all-time low. The end of the show,
05:06though avoided here, felt more inevitable than ever.
05:10Number 6. Survival, or lack thereof.
05:14In November and December of 1989, Doctor Who aired a serial titled Survival, which is ironic
05:20because this was the final story before the show was cancelled. And yes, Doctor Who was
05:24actually cancelled this time. But seeing as it eventually did return, this cancellation still
05:29only stands as a moment that almost killed the series entirely. You know what, it's our list,
05:35we can count it if we want to. So what happened? Well, Doctor Who was competing with soap opera
05:39juggernaut Coronation Street, which was pulling a ton of ratings away from the show. Battlefield Episode 1,
05:45which aired earlier in the same season as Survival, only drew in 3.1 million viewers,
05:50a record low for Doctor Who at the time. Coupled with the aforementioned disdain for Doctor Who from
05:56BBC higher-ups, and the reasons to stop production of the show were more plentiful than reasons to
06:01carry on. And so production was halted at the end of Season 26, with co-leads Sylvester McCoy and
06:07Sophie Aldred informed that their contracts for future seasons were not being renewed. McCoy recorded
06:12the Doctor's closing monologue on the 23rd of November 1989, the 26th anniversary of when the
06:18show began. This effectively ended Doctor Who for good. And as far as anyone knew at the time,
06:23that was it. There wasn't a crystal ball and certainly no TARDIS to tell the millions of fans
06:27of the series that the Doctor would eventually return. So as far as anyone was concerned,
06:32Doctor Who was done. While this was obviously bleak at the time, Doctor Who wasn't actually away for
06:37too long in the grand scheme of things. Although when it did return, it wasn't exactly with a bang.
06:43Which leads me to number 5, The Star Spangled TARDIS.
06:48Doctor Who's cancellation in 1989 didn't sit well with a lot of people. It was an incredible show
06:53that had endured for a quarter century, so there were a lot of fans who weren't happy to see it
06:58go.
06:58The show had also built up a decent fanbase in the United States, which ultimately worked in its favour.
07:03A collaboration between Universal Studios, the Fox Network and the BBC made it possible for the
07:09Doctor to return in 1996, in the form of a TV movie. Starring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor and
07:16continuing the story of the show, this movie served as a backdoor pilot for a potential
07:21American-funded series. Essentially, if enough people watched the TV movie, then a new Doctor Who
07:26series would be greenlit. Unfortunately, the movie didn't perform as well as the American companies
07:31involved would have liked, and it wasn't picked up for a full series. The TV movie only drew around
07:365.5 million viewers in North America, falling short of internal targets, while even its 9 million
07:42UK viewers was less than the BBC had anticipated. The seven-year hiatus between the 7th and 8th
07:48Doctors apparently wasn't long enough. Doctor Who yet again entered a state of production limbo,
07:54with no firm signs of the show ever returning to our screens again.
07:59Number 4. The 2005 revival that almost never was.
08:04Today, we know the 2005 revival of Doctor Who was a resounding success, so it's hard to imagine that
08:10it was almost squashed before it hit our screens. But it was. In June 2004, less than a year before
08:16the
08:169th Doctor would explode his way onto television, newly appointed Director General of the BBC,
08:22Mark Thompson, who clearly hates fun, made it one of his first ports of call to try and axe the
08:27first
08:27series of Doctor Who before it entered production. It would appear that this request came down from
08:32Doctor Who's old nemesis, Michael Grade. Grade, at this point, was chairman of the BBC Board of Governors,
08:39and was one of the people involved in Doctor Who's hiatus and near cancellation in the mid-1980s.
08:44Luckily, it was quickly determined that things were simply too far along and that cancelling Doctor Who
08:49at this stage would represent a significant waste of time and resources. But just think how different
08:54things could have turned out if Thompson had got the job a few months earlier and had been able to
08:59put a stop to our favourite show about a madman with a box. There'd have been no Day of the
09:03Doctor,
09:03no Blink, no Heaven Sent, and no Love and Monsters. Actually, you know what? Maybe Thompson had a point
09:08with that last one. Actually, no. You know what? Love and Monsters gets too much hate. It's not that bad.
09:143. The End of a Time Lord When Doctor Who relaunched in 2005 with
09:19Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor, it managed to score big in terms of ratings,
09:24and the series was born again. Unfortunately, Eccleston only stuck around for one series and
09:29was replaced by the inimitable David Tennant. While Eccleston managed to build a great deal of
09:34buzz around the relaunch, Tennant's tenth Doctor took the show to another level. His performance was
09:39amazing and struck an incredible chord with the public, becoming the face of the show for several
09:45years before deciding it was time to leave the TARDIS on the 1st of January 2010 in The End of
09:50Time Part 2. At this time, the word cancel was being spoken a lot, because it wasn't just Tennant
09:57leaving. Russell T. Davis, the showrunner who breathed new life into Doctor Who, was also departing.
10:02With both of them departing at the same time, the BBC was concerned about the series' long-term prospects,
10:08as Steven Moffat explained in 2014, quote,
10:12I think there were plans maybe to consider ending it. David owned that role in a spectacular way,
10:17so the idea that Doctor Who could go on at all in the absence of David was a huge question.
10:22According to Moffat, it was Russell T. Davis who actually saved the show by telling the BBC,
10:26plain and simple, quote, you are not allowed to end it. And it would seem that they listened. Clearly,
10:32Russell felt that there was lots more absolute content to come.
10:362. Flux nearly wipes out Doctor Who itself
10:40The Doctor is used to battling monsters and aliens week in, week out. But in 2020,
10:45they faced a new kind of enemy, a global pandemic. With Doctor Who already contending with a
10:51frustratingly infrequent release schedule in the latter half of the 2010s, the last thing it needed
10:56was a huge-scale shutdown of production. But that's exactly what it got when COVID-19 hit and made it
11:02impossible to film anything for a period of time. Showrunner Chris Chibnall has since revealed that
11:06the BBC had serious questions about whether or not the show could continue, saying, quote,
11:11the BBC was just like, where's the money coming from? How are we going to do this? Is it too
11:16difficult? As a result, there was a brief period of time where Doctor Who simply wasn't happening,
11:20and nobody involved knew what the future of the show would be. Even after COVID hurdles were overcome,
11:25with strict filming regulations and a shortened series of only six episodes,
11:29Doctor Who's problems weren't over. Jodie Whittaker had been offered other work which would clash
11:34with the filming of Flux. But like the true hero she is, she turned various job offers down so she
11:39could fully commit to Doctor Who. And thank God that's the case too. Just imagine if the last thing
11:44we ever saw of Doctor Who was Ryan falling off his bike. And number one, the power of the Doctor,
11:50and then what? Even with Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall staying on for a third series and three
11:56specials, the uncertainty was far from over. Going into the power of the Doctor, it was still
12:00unknown what would come next after 13 regenerated on that cliffside in one of the most stunning
12:06regenerations we've ever seen. It was written and shot to be vague and open-ended, even ending with
12:12to be continued, as at this point it wasn't even known who would be taking over from Whittaker.
12:17Similarly, with showrunner Chris Chibnall on his way out, there was a period of time where the BBC
12:21didn't have a succession plan for the show, and it was in a bit of a state of limbo. But
12:25while COVID
12:26nearly killed the show before Flux, it was also responsible for saving it in a big way.
12:31The lockdown tweet along sparked something inside David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Russell T. Davis
12:35that made all of them keen for one more ride in the TARDIS. And the rest, as they say, is
12:41history.
12:41This down-to-the-wire last-minute save was in stark contrast to the first New Who showrunner
12:46transition, where Stephen Moffat even spoke about taking on the head honcho role all the way back in the
12:51Silence of the Library commentary in early 2008. While it may be a slight exaggeration to say that
12:56this moment almost killed Doctor Who, it's not certain what would have happened had Russell T.
13:01Davis not participated in those tweet alongs and not made contact with the BBC. At the very least,
13:07we were certainly facing a much more delayed wait for Doctor Who's return than the year between
13:11The Power of the Doctor and the Star Beast. And that concludes our list, but that's enough looking
13:17at the past. Let's look to the future. Why not check out our wish list for the 2026 Christmas special?
13:23In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.
13:28To be honest, please, yes.
13:28Please.
13:30Go ahead.
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