Because she's dead.
Why does nuWho not bring back Romana?
- Thread starter david kelly
- Start date
Actually, they tried to get him for two other SJA episodes, but he couldn't do them because of his health. Of course, those episodes were the ones that David Tennant and Matt Smith were in, so had he done those, he would have at least gotten screen time with modern Doctors.
If you're referring to "The Doctors Revisited," I agree that was weird. It was like they'd planned on doing a much longer special but ran out of time. I seem to remember that they also only barely touched on Leela. The Tom Baker special seemed to just abruptly stop.
I'll never forgive RTD for not giving the Brigadier a cameo when he had the chance. (But I've been well impressed at how neatly Moffat has been able to use him after he died in "The Wedding of River Song" & "Death in Heaven.")
Ian Chesterton should have had a cameo in "The Day of the Doctor." He should have been the one to give Clara her message at the beginning of the episode. They also should have had those random Time Lord generals be Romana & Leela.
I've actually got a new pet theory for what Romana's been up to since the Time War. Romana knew that, when Rassilon came back, she would be deposed and probably executed, so she hid her consciousness away as a back-up in one of those watches like the Doctor & the Master had back in Season 3. She then gave the watch to the 8th Doctor but put a perception filter on it so that he would know it's important but wouldn't remember why. This was then the Doctor's "favorite" watch, which he traded to a tramp in exchange for his coat in "Deep Breath." Now, why would the Doctor trade away his favorite watch, you might ask? Because, once Romana's consciousness inside the watch realized that Gallifrey had come back, she realized that the Doctor would inevitably cross paths with it again and she needed to get away from him, so she planted a subliminal message for the Doctor to safely dispose of the watch at his earliest opportunity.
Now, I can't wait to see how this leads to her coming back.
RTD tried. The Brigadier was supposed to appear on SJA twice but was too ill either time.
Somehow I suspect that the set of fans who would recognize them, and the set of fans who would not be annoyed by the trampling on Big Finish continuity, have a pretty small union.
He appeared once on SJA. Was there to be one more appearance, or two more?
Yep, the Brigadier was supposed to be in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and Death of the Doctor, coincidentally the episodes Tennant and Smith were in, meaning he could have gotten some screen time with two modern day Doctors. But Nicholas Courtney couldn't do it because of his health, and the "stranded in Peru" line got trotted out.
The tie-ins really need to explain what was in Peru that so fixated the Brigadier.
Another Krenoid?
But why were all of the Brig's modern-era appearances, planned or otherwise, on The Sarah Jane Adventures and not Doctor Who proper? For that matter, the only other classic companion to come back has been Jo Grant, and that was also on The Sarah Jane Adventures. (RTD also toyed with the idea of bringing back Ace, possibly even with Sylvester McCoy appearing in a flashback for Ace's departure scene.) I've always been amused that the classic companions keep appearing mostly on the show where the target audience wasn't born yet when the classic series was on the air.
How would it trample on their Big Finish stories? Haven't the Big Finish stories dealt quite a bit with Romana & Leela on Gallifrey?
I also think it's worth pointing out that I think most new series fans are also fans of the classic series, at least in principle. I think they like the idea of the character having such a rich prior history to be explored & exploited. They just don't have the patience for the pacing of the classic series, nor the suspension of disbelief necessary to cope with the low production values. (Even I have to admit that it's an acquired taste.)
How would it trample on their Big Finish stories? Haven't the Big Finish stories dealt quite a bit with Romana & Leela on Gallifrey?
I also think it's worth pointing out that I think most new series fans are also fans of the classic series, at least in principle. I think they like the idea of the character having such a rich prior history to be explored & exploited. They just don't have the patience for the pacing of the classic series, nor the suspension of disbelief necessary to cope with the low production values. (Even I have to admit that it's an acquired taste.)
They've regenerated Romana, and Time Lords are supposed to not meet out-of-order. Which doesn't mean they don't on occasion, but i"d rather they didn't do that just for the sake of casting Lalla Ward in a cameo. (Which is who I assume fans would want to appear, because Juliet Landau isn't going to generate that frisson of recognition in classic Who fans.
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They've regenerated Romana, and Time Lords are supposed to not meet out-of-order. Which doesn't mean they don't on occasion, but i"d rather they didn't do that just for the sake of casting Lalla Ward in a cameo. (Which is who I assume fans would want to appear, because Juliet Landau isn't going to generate that frisson of recognition in classic Who fans.
Meh. I think the "out of order" issue is a non-issue when we're dealing with a multi-Doctor story anyway. (But I'd also love to see the Juliet Landau version at some point!)
