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[[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] about ''[[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]'' include:
== Non-Trope Trivia ==
* Of the 253 episodes of ''Doctor Who'' that were produced in the 1960s, 106 no longer exist in the BBC Television Archives due to an archive purge in the 1970s.
** In addition to 106 episodes that no longer exist, some episodes no longer exist in their original format. Four episodes only survive in an edited state — ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S2/E09 The Time Meddler|The Time Meddler]]'': "Checkmate", ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S3/E07 The Celestial Toymaker|The Celestial Toymaker]]'': "The Final Test", and ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S3/E10 The War Machines|The War Machines]]'' episodes 3 and 4. Furthermore, twelve episodes only survive in black and white whilst originally filmed in color — ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S7/E03 The Ambassadors of Death|The Ambassadors of Death]]'' episodes 2, 3, 4 and 7, ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S8/E02 The Mind of Evil|The Mind of Evil]]'' (all six episodes), ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S10/E04 Planet of the Daleks|Planet of the Daleks]]'': Episode 3, and ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S11/E02 Invasion of the Dinosaurs|Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]'': Part 1 (also titled "Invasion").
*** ''Planet of the Daleks'' episode 3 has been restored to colour by a technique which can actually extract the original colour information from a black-and-white videotape, with a LOT of manual tweaking and colourising, for its DVD release. The result is impressive to say the least. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be feasible for most of the remaining episodes.
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** One one occasion (''Silver Nemesis'' in 1988), the "movie version" was shown in New Zealand at the same time that Episode 1 was aired by the BBC, marking one of the few instances of episodes premiering outside the UK.
*** A second rare instance of episodes premiering outside the UK was for "[[Doctor Who/Recap/20th AS the Five Doctors|The Five Doctors]]" in 1983, which aired for Children in Need in the UK a day or two after the anniversary. In the US (and likely elsewhere in the world too), it aired on the actual anniversary on the 23rd.
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# In 2013 [[Matt Smith]]'s Eleventh Doctor, [[David Tennant]]'s Tenth Doctor, and a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor between 8 and 9 called The War Doctor ([[John Hurt]]) met up in the 50th anniversary special ''The Day of the Doctor''. It also featured cameos from then-upcoming Twelfth Doctor [[Peter Capaldi]] and [[Tom Baker]] as an even further-future Doctor "revisiting a favorite face".
# Peter Capaldi's Twelve met the First Doctor (portrayed by David Bradley) in his final episode, 2017's "Twice Upon a Time" (which also included the first appearance of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor in its final moments).
* Asteroid 3325, a small main belt asteroid discovered in 1984, is named TARDIS after the Doctor's time/space machine.
* Many actors have been considered for the role of the Doctor over the years but only Ron Moody has twice declined the role. He was first choice after Hartnell left but refused (as did Peter Jeffrey), and he also turned down the chance again in 1969 when Troughton left. Graham Crowden turned down the role after Pertwee and veteran British comedian Richard Hearne was also considered but rejected for insurance purposes. In the revived version, Bill Nighy came closest to assuming the role after Christopher Eccleston left but was rejected at the last minute in favour of David Tennant (Nighy amusingly blamed Tennant for being better-looking).
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* The distinctive TARDIS sound effect is officially classified as a piece of music and was created by rubbing the bass strings of a piano with a key.
* Two reasons are given for the first episode of the first series series being repeated the following week: a) it aired the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination and as a result drew lower than expected audiences. b) there was a widespread power failure and the episode was not seen nationwide.
* Jon Pertwee's catchphrase "[[Reverse the Polarity]] of the neutron flow" is a [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]] (he said that specific phrase ''once'' in four years, although "reverse the polarity" was more common), but that didn't prevent it being used in [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] and [[Mythology Gag
* The series was originally devised as an educational program for kids, with co-creator Sydney Newman having no intention of featuring "bug eyed monsters." The first episodes featured cavemen. But when the Daleks were introduced, the attitude of the program was forever changed. Even so, the series continued to alternate between science fiction and purely historical stories for several seasons.
* During the 1970s, series star [[Tom Baker]] and Ian Marter (who had played his companion Harry Sullivan) co-wrote and attempted to have a feature film entitled ''Doctor Who Meets Scratchman'', which would have co-starred Vincent Price. Based on the script, the film [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|would have consisted of nonstop strangeness]] and done no credit whatsoever to the reputation of the series.
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** And the first to get its own [[Foe Yay]] page.
** A scene in ''Remembrance of the Daleks'' involving Ace inspired the creation of the [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] section, which dropped the "Crowning" later on.
** First live-action TV show on this site to get its very own [[Gushing About Shows You Like (Sugar Wiki)/Live-Action TV/Doctor Who|gush]] page since it's so beloved.
== Trivia Tropes ==
* [[Acting for Two]]:
** William Hartnell as the Doctor and the Abbot of Amboise in "The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve".
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* [[Cash Cow Franchise]]: The BBC has been prompt to capitalize on the show's newfound success since it returned. Two decades of [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] literature and audio also probably help.
* [[Cast Incest]]: [[David Tennant]], the Tenth Doctor, is married to [[Georgia Moffett]], who played the title character in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E06 The Doctor's Daughter|The Doctor's Daughter]]", and ''is'' the daughter of 5th Doctor actor [[Peter Davison]], who interestingly enough is one of Tennant's favorite Doctors. They have a kid, too.
* [[The Cast Showoff]]:
** Matt Smith originally trained as a footballer, before a back injury made him change careers. His football talents come into play in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E11 The Lodger|The Lodger]]".
** Katherine Jenkins in the 2010 Christmas Special. Of course she sang.
** [[Peter Davison]], a avid cricketer, got to play a full match while filming
** [[Jon Pertwee]] jumped at any excuse during the show to show his interest and skill in motor vehicles of any sort. Consequently, he was the only Doctor to drive motor vehicles (Bessie and the Whomobile) on a regular basis.
** Early on in his run, Sylvester McCoy would show skills of his from his old vaudeville act, such as playing spoons. As the show got [[Darker and Edgier]], and as the Doctor's character became [[The Chessmaster|more complex]], such displays were discarded.
* [[Contractual Immortality]]: A literal [[Real Life]] example with the Daleks. The deal with Terry Nation's estate for the revival series contractually obligates the producers to bring them back at least once per season.
* [[Dawson Casting]]:
** Carole Ann Ford was 23 when Susan was 15.
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** Sophie Aldred was 24 when Ace was 16.
** [[Karen Gillan]], [[Arthur Darvill]] and Nina Toussaint-White played school-aged versions of Amy, Rory and {{spoiler|a teenage-passing-for River}} in "Let's Kill Hitler" at ages 23, 29 and 25.
** Typically, a teenage companion will be played by someone much older. Billie Piper is far closer to her character's age than other actors who play teenagers. Averted by Matthew Waterhouse (18, when he started) and Sarah Sutton (19, when she started) in the classic series.
* [[Disabled Character, Disabled Actor]]:
** Sil, the alien villain of "Vengeance on Varos" and "Mindwarp", is a mostly aquatic amphibian who is very clumsy on land and has to be carried around by flunkies. Nabil Shaban, who played him, has severe osteogenesis imperfecta, causing him to be very short and use a wheelchair.
** Deaf scientist Cass in "Under the Lake" and "Before the Flood" is played by actual deaf actress Sophie Stone.
* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: According to [[Word of God]], Alex Kingston (River Song), [[Karen Gillan]] (Amy), and Arthur Darvill (Rory) all know certain things about their character that haven't been revealed. These details have been intentionally withheld from Matt Smith. So when he doesn't know something, he really doesn't know.
* [[Executive Meddling]]:
** The show's cancellation following the Sylvester McCoy era has been explicitly, if not exclusively, pinned on BBC executive [[Michael Grade]]'s personal distaste for it (though he was no longer controller by the time of the actual cancellation). Seventh producer Philip Hinchcliffe was moved on from the show following complaints about the levels of violence and horror during his tenure. The sacking of sixth Doctor Colin Baker was at the behest of BBC management.
** Executive Meddling is why Susan was the Doctor's granddaughter: it looked too odd otherwise.
** K-9 was kept on after [[Doctor Who/Recap/S15/E02 The Invisible Enemy|The Invisible Enemy]] because the production team saw his potential appeal with younger children. [[Breakout Character|And they were right]].
** [[Executive Meddling]] actually made Tegan have the [[Eighties Hair]], amusingly enough. Producer John Nathan-Turner somehow thought that fans might somehow mistake Janet Fielding<ref>
*** Similarly, Turlough had red hair to differentiate Mark Strickson (schoolboy outfit) with [[Peter Davison]]'s Fifth Doctor (cricketing uniform).
** Kamelion was originally going to be played by a series of humans, as he was a ''shape-changing'' robot. Instead turned into a real mechanical prop, which was then shelved when ''the only person on the planet'' (and we mean the real planet Earth) who knew how to operate the blasted thing ''died without telling anyone else how to work it.''
** A reference that Ace lost her virginity to Sabalom Glitz never made it past the censor.
** Executive producer John Nathan-Turner demanded the Sixth Doctor's becoming "totally tasteless" in terms of fashion sense, rather than the Ninth Doctor-esque dark clothes and jacket [[Colin Baker]] wanted. And thus, the
* [[Executive Veto]]: Midge's somewhat unexplained death in "Survival" is because the original script had the Master inciting the other youths to tear him limb from limb for showing weakness, which was vetoed as too horrific even for ''Doctor Who''.
* [[Fake American]]:
** The classic example is Bill Filer in
** British father and son W. Morgan Sheppard and [[Mark Sheppard]] play old and young Canton Delaware in "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon".
* [[Fan Nickname]]:
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** Eleven is the "Cosmic Nine Year Old" thanks to his childlike actions.
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]:
** Cowardly Vila from ''[[Blake's 7]]'' is in
** Carlos Scarlioni? Richard the Lionheart? More like [[Star Wars|General Veers!]] Also [[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade|Walter Donovan]] and [[For Your Eyes Only (film)|Ari Kristatos]]. [[Rule of Three|Hat Trick of Evil]] for the win!
** Hey, it's [[John Cleese]]
*** In the [[Big Finish]] version of ''Shada'', ''Manuel'' is trying to take over the universe.
**** And [[Harry Potter|Oliver Wood]] is Chris Parsons. Also, [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)|Veruca Salt's father]] is Prof. Chronotis.
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** John Lumic in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" is [[Only Fools and Horses|Trigger.]] And [[The Vicar of Dibley|Owen.]] Or for international audiences, [[Harry Potter (film)|Barty Crouch, Sr.]].
*** Particularly interesting, considering the Doctor at the time was [[David Tennant|Barty Crouch Jr.]]
** In "Love & Monsters", [[
** The Empress of the Racnoss is played by [[Blackpool|Natalie Holden]].
** "Daleks in Manhattan" has Jo from ''[[Spooks]]'' and [[Highlander (TV series)|Kastagir]]/[[The Phantom Menace|Captain Panaka]].
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*** She was also Alison Chaney, companion to the Ninth Doctor in ''Scream of the Shalka''.
** Mia Bennett from "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E16 The Waters of Mars|The Waters of Mars]]" is played by [[Gemma Chan]], who was also in Soo Lin Yao in ''[[Sherlock]]'', Female Sulu and Ivana in ''[[The IT Crowd]]'', and Charlotte in ''[[Secret Diary of a Call Girl]]''.
** And of course, Ten is [[Harry Potter and
* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]:
**
** The voice of the brain in ''Time and the Rani'' is [[Blake's 7|Peter Tuddenham]].
** Bernard Cribbins is beloved throughout Great Britain as the voice of The Wombles.
** The Dream Lord is Toby Jones, who played Dobby from the ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'' films.
* [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]]: The 1993 charity special ''Dimensions in Time'', a crossover with ''[[Eastenders]]'', was created on the condition that it'd never be rerun or released on home video. You can find it on [[YouTube]], however.
* [[Lying Creator]]: The BBC website [https://web.archive.org/web/20110907020954/http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110412_01/The_Cybermen_Return made it sound] like the Cybermen would be major enemies in "A Good Man Goes to War". In reality, they're merely [[The Teaser|cold open]] cameos.
* [[Meaningful Release Date]]: "The End of Time", "The Big Bang" and "The Impossible Astronaut" are set on their airdates (accounting for British time zones).
** The first episode of the McCoy-era "Silver Nemesis" aired the day before it was set.
* [[Official Fan-Submitted Content]]: A few monster designs, among other things.
** In Series 8, the title sequence is based on an immensely popular fan-made sequence.
* [[The Other Darrin]]: Generally averted in favor of [[The Nth Doctor]].
** It's been played straight, however, with multiple recastings of the First Doctor, originally played by the late William Hartnell, with Richard Hurndall in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/20th AS the Five Doctors|The Five Doctors]]", and then David Bradley in "The Doctor Falls" and "Twice Upon a Time".
* [[Playing Against Type]]:
** Then-known for his comedic talents and funny voices, Jon Pertwee subverted his own screen persona with the no-nonsense performance of the Third Doctor.
** Mark Sheppard playing Canton Delaware, a genuinely heroic character.
** Sylvester McCoy had, prior to his role as the Doctor, been best known for vaudeville, kid's T.V., juggling, human blockhead exploits and the such, including, for some reason, stuffing ferrets down his trousers. As the Doctor, while at first still playing a variation on his previous roles, he eventually grew into one of the most straight-up manipulative, amoral, calculating incarnations of the Doctor.
* [[Promoted Fanboy]]s: [[David Tennant]] and [[Steven Moffat]].
** Tennant's case is a particularly amazing one. Not only did he start acting ''just'' to become the Doctor, there was a special that landed him with his favorite Doctor, [[Peter Davison]]. The following year, Tennant met Peter's daughter Georgia, fell in love and proposed, later having a child together, Olivia. Not only is Tennant clearly the ''ultimate'' [[Promoted Fanboy]], but Olivia is the only person who can claim both her father and grandfather were the Doctor.
** Moffat's case is pretty amazing in and of itself, when you consider that he's getting the chance to put [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.drwho/browse_thread/thread/7cd734f99a62ae98/c845f05e9b213df9?pli=1 ideas he thought of back in 1995] into the show now.
** Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) and the author of his [[Doctor Who/Recap/S18/E03 Full Circle|introduction story]], Andrew Smith.
* [[Real Life Relative]]:
** [[Karen Gillan]] and [[Caitlin Blackwood]] are cousins who had never met before being cast to play Amy.
** As Edward Travers, Jack Watling twice appeared alongside his real-life daughter Deborah, who played companion Victoria.
** Canton Delaware's older self is played by Mark Sheppard's own father.
* [[Reality Subtext]]: Adric, whose older brother is killed shortly before Adric joins the Doctor, was played by Matthew Waterhouse, who sadly knew from experience what it's like to lose an older brother. ''Twice''.
* [[Recursive Adaptation]]:
** The Third Doctor was based partially on [[James Bond]], who was allegedly partially inspired by Jon Pertwee.
** Since 2005, several TV episodes have been based, to a greater or lesser extent, on stories from various parts of the expanded universe.
* [[Recycled Set]]: The garden location where the "Heaven" scene in "Deep Breath" was filmed was previously used as the Garden Zone in "The Girl Who Waited".
* [[Romance on the Set]]:
** Most notably, [[Tom Baker]] and Lalla Ward, and [[David Tennant]] with a couple of the guest actors.
** Notably Sophia Myles (Reinette) and [[Georgia Moffett]] (Jenny). Mr. Tennant obviously has a taste for stacked blondes.
* [[Running the Asylum]]: It's the longest running Science Fiction show in existence, heavily influencing just about everyone in England who ever did anything related to Science Fiction. Its a fair bet that there's a few long-time fans on the payroll, such as David Tennant.
* [[Screwed by the Network]]: Happened quite a few times in the 80's, which ultimately put the show on a year and a half hiatus and was the reason Colin Baker was fired.
* [[Series Hiatus]]: The 1985-86 hiatus.
** The cancellation of the classic series in 1989 was originally described as a "hiatus" by the BBC. And it was, of a sort. It just lasted considerably longer than the earlier one: at least seven years (until the 1996 TV movie) and up to sixteen years (until the series resumes on a regular basis with "Rose" in 2005).
* [[Sure Why Not]]: In the non-canon [[Comic Relief]] special "The Curse of Fatal Death", the Doctor regenerates into a woman. In ''The End of Time'', the Eleventh Doctor feels his face and hair and freaks out, thinking he's regenerated into a woman. In "The Doctor's Wife", the Doctor mentions that the Corsair has had both male and female incarnations.
** The idea of the word "doctor" meaning wise man or healer and deriving from the Doctor himself has been in [[Steven Moffat]]'s mind [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.drwho/browse_thread/thread/7cd734f99a62ae98/c845f05e9b213df9?lnk=st&q&hl=en&pli=1 for at least 16 years, back when he was just a fan].
* [[Throw It In]]:
** Leela kissing Adam Colby on the cheek was ad-libbed by Louise Jameson. The surprised look on his face is genuine.
** On the subject of ad-libbed kisses, so was Eleven grabbing Rory and kissing him in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". Arthur Darvill was as surprised as Rory!
* [[Troubled Production]]:
** "The Invasion of Time". Firstly, the original writer gave the production team a set of scripts that would have been impossible to realize on a ''film'' budget, resulting in the producer and script editor having to come up with a totally new storyline in just a few days. Then the UK's economy imploded due to the Winter of Discontent, rendering the British Pound nearly worthless and leaving [[No Budget]] for the serial. On top of all that, virtually every department of the BBC went on strike at the same time, resulting in a hasty studio session filmed with sets left over from "The Deadly Assassin", followed by location filming at anywhere which would let them shoot, just so that they could get everything in the can. Not to mention the producers didn't believe that the actress playing Leela really wanted to leave, so they delayed writing in her exit and had to add a hastily written romance with Andred.
** "Warriors of the Deep". The production schedule lost two weeks due to an early Parliamentary election, which explains many of the serial's shortcomings. The other shortcomings stem from the set designer, who wanted everything brightly lit to show off his work, and the director, who wanted everything dark and moody for atmosphere, preceding a similar situation on ''[[Aliens]]'' by two years.
** After the location filming for "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" had been completed, the studio sessions were cancelled because of asbestos contamination. At first it was thought that the serial would have to be abandoned, but eventually it was found possible to erect a tent in the car park at Elstree Studios and film there (it was actually very fortuitous that they were working on that particular serial because the tents made this arrangement possible. With any other serial around that time they might have had to simply throw out the location footage, but John Nathan-Turner was desperate to avoid another "Shada" debacle and arranged the makeshift solution).
* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]: Unavoidable, given its age. This can even be observed within the revived series: you can tell "Rose" is still early 2000's because Rose has to visit her boyfriend to look something up on the Internet, and "Blink" came out around the end of DVD rental stores.
* [[Viral Marketing]]: There have been, at various times, an actual Cybus Industries website, a conspiracy site based on the one from the first revival episode, and another telling you to vote for Mr. Saxon.
* [[What Could Have Been]]:
** The original script for "City of Death" was a Bond-esque adventure by David Fisher with much of the action occurring in a Monaco casino. After the idea was floated to film the Paris scenes on location, it was decided to drop the casino angle, partly because setting the entire story in Paris would allow them to make the most of the locations and partly because the producer, Graham Williams, was having second thoughts about featuring gambling so heavily in a family programme. With Fisher unavailable, Williams and script editor Douglas Adams worked non-stop for several days to rewrite the story. Only a few lines from the original survived (notably, the Doctor's line about getting only "one throw of the dice" during his final confrontation with Scaroth).
** ''Doctor Who'' has something of an aversion to casinos. Gerry Davis's original script for "Revenge of the Cybermen" had space station Nerva as a sort of galactic service station with a casino, whose gold would be used against the Cybermen. This was dropped, partly because of producer Phillip Hinchcliffe having similar doubts about featuring gambling, and partly because of the next story being moved to the opener of the next season, which suddenly gave him a lot more money to play with. He decided to spend it on a location shoot at Wookey Hole, and so had his script editor Robert Holmes turn Nerva into a beacon orbiting a golden planetoid called Nerva, which Wookey Hole could represent. Very little of Davis's script made it to screen.
** The Canadian animation studio Nelvana at one point proposed a ''Doctor Who'' animated series, which never got beyond the concept art stage. It would apparently have featured a Doctor who dressed like [[Tom Baker]]'s version but bore a heavy facial resemblance to [[Christopher Lloyd]].
** [[Hanna-Barbera]] also wanted to make an animated ''Doctor Who'' series. However, BBC denied them the rights, so instead we got ''[[The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang]]''. Well, all right then.
** Way too many [[The Movie|unmade feature films]], and pre-2005 attempts at a revival (at one point involving [[Steven Spielberg]]).
** One of the more recent... before [[Alex Kingston]] took the role of River Song, the producers had [[Kate Winslet]] in mind.
** Similarly, when RTD was writing "The Waters of Mars," he wrote the character of Adelaide Brooke with [[Helen Mirren]] in mind.
** The Ood were created for "The Impossible Planet"
** Adric's character was originally conceived as "an [[Artful Dodger]] [[In Space]]," though largely in terms of his relationship with the Doctor. While wisps of this concept crop up in Adric's abilities once in a blue moon, the student-mentor dynamic more or less runs headlong into a brick wall after the Fourth Doctor regenerates.
** Bernard Cribbins and [[Peter Cushing]] were considered to play the Fourth Doctor before [[Tom Baker]] won the role.
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** [[Steven Moffat]] wanted [[John Barrowman]] to appear in "A Good Man Goes to War", but he was unavailable due to filming ''[[Torchwood: Miracle Day]]''. Yes, that's right, the Doctor's army would have included ''Captain Jack''.
** [[Simon Pegg]] was originally slated to play Rose's father, Pete Tyler. However, Pegg was unavailable during the filming of "Father's Day", so his role was transferred to that of the Editor.
** Many proposed episodes - often proposed by some of the show’s best writers - never get past the screenplay or pitch stage, and some rejected ideas have been leaked, although in hindsight, [[Hilarious in Hindsight| many sound kinda… weird:]]
*** Mark Gatiss, the mastermind behind episodes like “Victory of the Daleks”, “Night Terrors”, and “Robot of Sherwood”, had an idea for a story during Series 4 called “The Suicide Exhibition”. This blockbuster epic of a story would have taken place during [[World War II]], had [[Those Wacky Nazis]] as the bad guys, and would have been an adventurous romp where the Tenth Doctor assumed the role of that dashing [[Adventure Archaeologist]] everyone loves. Yes, Galiss actually admitted he wanted the Doctor to assume an [[Indiana Jones]] role, complete with a temple full of puzzle-themed deathtraps, and to be honest, that seemed right up the Tenth Doctor’s alley. Unfortunately, it never saw fruition.
*** Vampires are always cool, right? Sure! And they've appeared a few times in the franchise as a result. But Paul Cornell (writer of “Father’s Day”, “Human Nature”, and “The Family of Blood”, along with many Doctor Who novels and audio stories) wanted to take the concept further, and one proposal for a script involved the Twelfth Doctor actually becoming a vampire. A real one. The story would have involved a group of [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire| vampires trying to live peacefully in London]], leading to the Doctor showing a darker, more sinister nature, but unfortunately, this idea never got past the pitch stage. Still, for what’s it’s worth, most fans agree that for an actor like Peter Capaldi, playing a vampire wouldn’t have been difficult. Cornell also proposed a Christmas Episode involving the Doctor protecting a young boy and an episode called “Pride and Prejudice and Daleks”, but both never saw the light of day.
*** Everyone who has seen ''[[The Thing]]'' knows why it is so scary; an unseen monster that is slowly infecting and assimilating your allies, so you don’t know who’s on your side and who isn’t until they actually strike… Pure [[Nightmare Fuel]], and the series almost did the same thing in the 70s, with an episode that would have been called “The Shape of Terror”. This story would have featured the Third Doctor, his companion Jo, and a bunch of [[Red Shirts]] facing off against a shapeshifting alien called the Energit in an abandoned research base, the Energit attacking and assimilating them much like the Thing would. (note this was years before the first appearance of the Zygons, a more well-known race of shapeshifting villains) It was never made, but it seems much of “The Shape of Terror” [[Recycled Script| was recycled into]] the episode “The Curse of Paladon”.
*** The First Doctor - or rather, the actor who played him, William Hartnell - had the idea of the Doctor having a son. [[Antagonistic Offspring| Whom he didn’t like at all.]] Hartnell even had the idea of this son looking exactly like the Doctor, [[Acting for Two| meaning he’d play both roles]]. The episode where this evil offspring would be introduced (working title, “The Son of the Doctor”) would likely have aired during Hartnell’s third or fourth season, but again, it was never made.
*** Most Companions come and go, but the TARDIS has been with the Doctor from the start. Unfortunately, while a few episodes revolve around exploring its interior, it doesn’t really do much except act as his base and a [[Time Machine]]. However, writer James Henry wanted to expand its role with an episode where it was given a battle mode, able to fight alien ships like some [[Cool Spaceship]] armed with high-tech phasers and photon torpedoes! While this sort of TARDIS has appeared in a few comic books, it sadly never made it to live action.
*** It has been established that the reason the Doctor has Companions is because he needs emotional support to keep from going truly mad. Thus, the proposed episode “Sealed Orders” would have given him a very [[Sadistic Choice]] to make. Scripted by Christopher Priest (the novelist who wrote ''[[The Prestige]]'') this episode was described as a political thriller where the Fourth Doctor would receive orders from the Time Lords to kill Romana. The story would also involve a few paradoxes, an alternate version of the Doctor, multiple TARDIS-es inside one another, and a non-linear storyline, ending with Romana’s departure. This got as far as a screenplay, but was never produced.
*** Tom MacRae is credited with writing three episodes, the Cyberman two-parter from Series 2, and the iconic “The Girl Who Waited” from Series 4. His third project (also for Series 4) was called “Century House”, which was never produced. This episode was Companion-lite, the Tenth Doctor being on [[Show Within a Show| a paranormal reality show called ''Most Haunted'']], where the Doctor [[Who You Gonna Call?| was investigating sightings of a specter called the Red Widow]] with the only involvement by a Companion being Donna watching the broadcast at home. Executive producer Russel David was unsatisfied with the script and passed it over in favor of “Midnight”, another Companion-lite episode that did rather well.
*** [[Big Creepy-Crawlies| GIANT ANTS!]] Wait, wait, what’s so special about giant ants? After all, the Doctor has dealt with such monsters before, in “The Web Planet”. But, those were actually aliens that looked like ants, and they weren’t very bright. “The Ants”, however, was a different type of plot Based on an idea by Roger Dixon, this would have involved the Second Doctor and Jamie [[Shrink Ray| shrunk to a height of a tenth of an inch tall]] and menaced by real ants, who were super-intelligent and wanted to take over the world! Still, as novel as that was, it was never produced.
*** Doctor Who meets [[Harry Potter]]! Well... why not? In the Aught Years, these were the two most popular British [[Cash Cow Franchise|Cash Cows]] and ''Doctor Who'' was arguably in its Golden Age, so who wouldn’t love an “official” crossover? Initially, Russel David had the idea of not only making the 2008 Christmas episode a crossover, but having [[J. K. Rowling]] herself write the script. Then he thought of a different approach - having Rowling appear on the actual show [[As Herself]] in an episode set in 1997, right after ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (novel)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' was published, when she was still struggling to write a follow-up story. Then they’d bring in some sort of alien-parasite bug thingie [[Reality Warper| that could alter reality]] using the imagination of a human host as a model, and… You see where this is going, right? Oh, and this would still be [[An Asskicking Christmas| a Christmas episode]]. Unfortunately, actor David Tennent wasn’t as thrilled about the idea, and it was eventually abandoned.
*** Paul Abbot - better known for his work on ''[[Shameless]]'' , another popular British show - scripted an episode for series 1 that would reveal (dead serious here, btw) that Rose was not a real human, but had been created by the Ninth Doctor in an experiment to create the perfect companion. The plot would further involve Jack discovering this and facing the moral dilemma of [[Cloning Blues| telling her she wasn’t real or letting her believe the lie]]. This idea actually got pretty far but was cancelled at the last minute, possibly because David figured there wasn’t enough suspension of disbelief among fans to justify that the Doctor (even one as unstable as the Ninth, thank you ''so'' much Time War) would lie and manipulate Rose after creating her to be his plaything. Probably a wise decision too, given how much this would have changed the entire franchise from that point.
* [[The Wiki Rule]]: The [https://tardis.wiki/wiki/Doctor_Who_Wiki Tardis Wiki].
** And the [https://doctorwho.neoseeker.com/wiki/ ''Doctor Who'' Wiki].
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