Doctor Who: Russell T Davies reveals dark David Tennant twist that was never filmed
The former series showrunner has revealed an axed storyline from 2008 episode Journey’s End that never made it to air, and could have taken the Tenth Doctor in a very dark direction
Doctor Who is full of tantalizing "what if?" moments, from actors who were almost the Doctor or companions to big ideas for storylines that never made it screen – and now former series boss Russell T Davies has revealed another addition to the Could‘ve-Been King’s army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres (aka, an idea that he cut).
Tweeting during the Doctor Who: Lockdown online watchalong of 2008’s The Stolen Earth/ Journey’s End, Davies revealed that at one point during the story process for the latter episode the "metacrisis Doctor" (the clone of Tennant’s Tenth Doctor who grew out of the Time Lord’s excess regeneration energy near the start of the episode) was set to go much darker than he actually did in the finished story, recruiting an army to battle the Daleks.
"In the planning of this, the Blue Suit Doctor would whizz back to the Shadow Proclamation, wipe them up into WAR, and lead a Judoon fleet to the Medusa Cascade," Davies wrote.
"Imagine it, Daleks vs Judoon! But not just for spectacle. The point is, the half-human Doctor is more wild, more dangerous, more warlike. (IE, he’ll need Rose more.) So the Doctor would disapprove of him.
"So there’s more of a Doctor/Doctor clash. Resulting in the banishing."
In the end, the Metacrisis Doctor’s more warlike nature was conveyed in a different way – he commits genocide, destroying the Daleks against the main Doctor’s wishes – resulting in him being exiled to the parallel world with Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler.
"Now, instead, it’s a bit underplayed, Doctor whips up an improvised gun... which every Doctor does, really!" Davies said. "But still. It still works."
And Davies added that the idea wasn’t wasted, with some of the "dark Doctor" idea crossing over into later episodes when Tennant’s hero tried to take control of time itself.
"I took that Bad Doctor idea into the Time Lord Victorious," Davies wrote. "So all ideas lead somewhere."
So there you have it – somewhere in a parallel world where Doctor Who is funded like a Marvel movie, we may have seen David Tennant’s Doctor clone starting a mass war across the stars.
Ah well – we’d say the fans seemed pretty happy with the episode they actually got anyway.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One in late 2020/early 2021. Want something to watch tonight? Check out our full TV Guide.
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
