Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale tidbits

[Samurai8472]

Writer's Tale Version 2.0 has some neat tidbits

-Davies makes an inappropriate Michael Jackson joke in the book

-Tennant's live announcement of his departure on ITV1 was labeled "Operation: Cobra" by the production team

-The End of Time was to originally feature The Daleks, and they would have also had scenes similar to Rassilon meeting with his own men. Eventually both races agree to come together and ascend as a means of ending the war "amicably", but The Doctor destroys both races to ensure they never come together to rule over whatever is created from "The Final Sanction"

-Stephen Moffat convinced Davies not to use The Daleks, but he said "Use Davros if you want, I don't have anything for him"...before e-mailing back with "Oh wait a minute..."

Moffat's interview in Doctor Who Magazine is great. He explains that calling Smith's series "Series 1" was to convince the licensers that the series wouldnt "age" despite a new Doctor. Moffat calls this "Series 31" outside of it's corporate name

 

[Hennessy Badger]

According to the Blogtor Who website:

Readers also [get] to find out about the true identity of "The Woman" in The End Of Time and Martha's proposed parts in Torchwood: Children of Earth and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Is there any truth to this? I'm especially interested in discovering who RTD intended the 'Woman in White' to be.

 

[Kelso]

Apparently, she was...

Spoiler: she was...

his mother.

Seemed intuitively obvious to me. That was my wife's guess and she knows next to nothing about Doctor Who.

 

[captcalhoun]

I KNEW IT!!!!

 

[Stevil2001]

SFX has an article of tidbits up, too.

The Doctor was originally supposed to meet Trinity Wells! Why oh why was this denied us, cruel Fates?

 

[Gepard]

5. Speaking of which, back in 2004, a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover was seriously on their list of plans, until Enterprise was axed.

I cannot tell you how awesome that would have been. Could legal really have pulled it off?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

5. Speaking of which, back in 2004, a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover was seriously on their list of plans, until Enterprise was axed.

I cannot tell you how awesome that would have been. Could legal really have pulled it off?

When Davies first mentioned it a few months ago in an interview in, I think, the Telegraph, he said that Paramount probably would have been very hyper about it, that they'd have wanted this and that and the other.

Would Rick Berman have gone for it? I don't know. I tend to doubt it; he doesn't strike me as having much of a sense of fun.

I could see, a few years down the road, J.J. Abrams being open to something at about the time he's filming Star Trek XII. Since the sets would be standing, it's really just a question of getting the actors together. But would Moffat be interested? Dunno.

It wouldn't have been that much of a logistical nightmare. Fly Eccleston and Piper out to LA for a couple of days, no more than a week. Shoot on the Paramount soundstages. Fly back. Would they have needed to fly, say, Bakula to Cardiff to film a TARDIS interior? Possibly. It would depend on how the script was written.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

-The End of Time was to originally feature The Daleks, and they would have also had scenes similar to Rassilon meeting with his own men. Eventually both races agree to come together and ascend as a means of ending the war "amicably", but The Doctor destroys both races to ensure they never come together to rule over whatever is created from "The Final Sanction"

-Stephen Moffat convinced Davies not to use The Daleks, but he said "Use Davros if you want, I don't have anything for him"...before e-mailing back with "Oh wait a minute..."

Interesting. I'm glad Moffat convinced Davies not to use the Daleks because that would have been too much.

And now I'm interested in what Moffat might have in store for Davros...

Moffat's interview in Doctor Who Magazine is great. He explains that calling Smith's series "Series 1" was to convince the licensers that the series wouldnt "age" despite a new Doctor. Moffat calls this "Series 31" outside of it's corporate name

Excellent! Series 31 it is.

According to the Blogtor Who website:

Readers also [get] to find out about the true identity of "The Woman" in The End Of Time and Martha's proposed parts in Torchwood: Children of Earth and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Hm, I hadn't heard Martha was planned to be on The Sarah Jane Adventures. That'll be interesting.

As for The Woman...well...we'll just have to wait and see.

SFX has an article of tidbits up, too.

The Doctor was originally supposed to meet Trinity Wells! Why oh why was this denied us, cruel Fates?

I had heard that they even prepared filming for it but Davies decided that it was too much.

And this is an interesting tidbit:

11. A line was cut from the scene where the Doctor talks to Wilf on the Vinvocci spaceship. He would have explained that he “was half-human back in 1999 for a couple of days” (a reference to the Paul McGann movie).

I kind of wish that was kept in. I think I could live with that explanation.

12. Who’s that mysterious woman in “The End Of Time”? Here it is from the horse’s mouth: “I like leaving it open, because then you can imagine what you want. I think the fans will say it's Romana. Or even the Rani. Some might say that it's Susan's mother, I suppose. But of course it’s meant to be the Doctor’s mother”.

Oh, bugger.

16. Russell was offered the option to turn The Sarah Jane Adventures into a show airing on Sundays at 5.30pm, which would have required reinventing the series. He decided against it.

Thank god common sense prevailed.

17. Mackenzie Crook is very enthusiastic about Doctor Who, and they’ve tried to cast him “a million times”, but the dates have never worked out. He was almost cast as Clive in “Rose”.

I would love to see Cook on Doctor Who. Here's hoping it'll work out in the future.