There was a surprise Casualty cameo cut from Doctor Who
And it’s not the only intriguing scene removed from the series in recent years
2017 Doctor Who episode The Lie of the Land saw the Time Lord (Peter Capaldi) imprisoned, the world brainwashed and companion Bill (Pearl Mackie) in some very dire straits – but did you know it once had a couple of Casualty cameos in it?
Yes, apparently the dystopic world of the Monks still managed to broadcast long-running BBC medical dramas, with Casualty stars Amanda Mealing and Tony Marshall filming a short scene where their characters continued their jobs within the strange new world.
“Have we got an ID on the driver yet?” Mealing’s doctor Connie Beauchamp asked in the scene, where she was joined by Marshall.
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‘She had nothing on her,” replied Marshall’s character Noel. “It’s lucky that Monk was passing. He literally tore the door off and pulled her out before the car exploded.”
“Praise be to the benevolence of the Monks,” agreed Connie.
The existence of this deleted scene (which makes sense considering Casualty is filmed in the same Cardiff studios as Doctor Who) was revealed in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine in a feature devoted to some of the most interesting cuts throughout the BBC sci-fi series’ history.
The Casualty scene was particularly notable given how late it was removed from the episode – it was still present in certain previews given to journalists – but there were also plenty of other fascinating cuts from recent years of Who.
For example, pirate-themed episode The Curse of the Black Spot (2011) had an entire subplot removed, meaning that one character mysteriously disappears in the broadcast version of the episode, while 2014’s In the Forest of the Night removed dialogue where Peter Capaldi’s Doctor remembered his time looking into the time vortex as a child.
“I saw a forest rise and fall,” the Twelfth Doctor reportedly said in deleted dialogue.
“Saplings that thickened into trees. Leaves that sucked in the sunlight of a thousand million summers.
“The great trees falling and sinking into the earth and hardening into diamonds and coal. I saw it all rise and fall like a wave of the sea.”
Other notable cuts included scenes in 2008’s The Unicorn and the Wasp when the Doctor and Donna visited an older Agatha Christie, the appearance of two Cybermen at the end of series four finale Journey’s End (leading into that year’s Christmas special) and a storyline from 2012’s own festive special The Snowmen involving a mother and young boy caught up in the Great Intelligence’s plot.
The list goes on and on and on – and that’s not even counting all the interesting cuts from classic Who – and makes one thing clear.
Even if you THINK you’ve seen all that Doctor Who has to offer, there’s a whole treasure trove of intriguing deleted scenes lying on the cutting room floor. Definitely something to seek out while we wait for series 11…
Doctor Who returns to BBC1 this autumn
