Steven Moffat On What Could Have Happened If David Tennant Had Stayed On For Another Series Of Doctor Who..



Steven Moffat has taken time out from squirelling away on the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary scripts to answer some burning questions posed to him by readers of Doctor Who Magazine, and there's one in particular that we think will interest a lot of our readers. What would have happened if David Tennant had "Turned Left" and stayed on for just one more year of time travels in the TARDIS...
Reader James Powell asks just that:

How different (if at all) would the story arc for your first season have been if David Tennant had stayed on for one more year?

I only had the roughest idea. Had David stayed for one final year, it would certainly have been his last, so my pitch was that it would start with the TARDIS crashing in Amelia's back garden - as now - and a terribly battered and bruised Tenth Doctor staggering out. Amelia finds him, feeds him fish custard (no that was for Matt, it would have been something more Davidy) and generally helps him. But we, the audience, can see he's in a truly bad way. Dying maybe. Eventually he heads back to his TARDIS, and flies off.
But when he returns - many years later for Amy - he seems perfectly fine, and indeed doesn't remember any of those events...And of course over time, we realise what we saw was the Tenth Doctor at the end of his life, about to regenerate.
Events that we return to in Episode 13...
There you go. The road not taken. Weird even to think about it now!

You can read the full interview with Steven Moffat in the current issue of Doctor Who Magazine which is out now!



Comments

  1. Wow... just.... wow... Moffat, take our emotions and toy with them some more would you? I thought 'The End of Time' was bad enough!

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  2. The TARDIS crushed into Amy's garden BECAUSE the Doctor has regenerate. So if he is not regenerate, it will never happened.

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    1. you didnt read it. When the Tardis crashed it would have been right as the Dr was about to regenerate into Matt, then the 2nd time he visits Amy (which to him is really the 1st time) he does not know about the events of the first time, meaning that when the crash happened that would have been the end of the last episode of the season and the last scene before he would have changed into the new doctor

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    2. Which is why he would have crashed into the garden...because he was about to regenerate. It would just have been out of order for us, because time isn't a straight line.

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    3. @Cameron, you're right. It's all timey-wimey.

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    4. Out of order was Ten's thing xD

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    5. It's like how the Tenth Doctor first met River Song. The Doctor's first meeting, was River's last; so Amelia's first meet with the Doctor would be him later and about to regenerate. Moffat is Awesome!

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  3. Interesting picture, but an obvious Photoshop job. Two different types of light coming from different angles, each hitting one but not the other.

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    1. Oh, you think the picture of two characters who weren't on the show together was Photoshopped? Man, you're perceptive!

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    2. Wow. You don't really get what's going on here, do ya?

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    3. No, they actually took the time to get David Tennat and Karen Gillian to pose for a blip of a story on a blog. Of course it's photoshopped and you're a dolt for feeling like it needs to be pointed out.

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    4. if its so obvious, why are you telling us?

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    5. Really mate? You're complaining about the photo?
      Obviously it's photoshopped, the 10th and Amelia never met, much less had a photo shoot together.

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    6. Aww, give the guy a break. Unless he's been a jerk on here before, in which case, screw him.

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  4. While i loved Tennent, i really love the way the show took a turn after his departure. Always fantastic programming from the Who-verse no matter the doctor. But Tennent holds a prime spot in my heart.

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    1. I agree Completely, David Tennant is considered 2nd best Doctor after Tom Baker

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  5. Hmm well the 10th Doctor meeting Amy at the end of his life....idk, i mean that doesn't really sit right with me.

    Beyond the fact that they'd have had to rewrite most of the story concerning Amy and Rory becoming his companions....not to mention it throws the continuity from The End of Time into a mess as well. So if he meets Amy after the End of Time, then to an extent that would mean that if Amy and Rory were his companions then in terms of chronology, those stories would take place before the End of Time (plus you'd still have the whole "he will knock" bit hanging over the Doctor's head because those events haven't happened yet).

    Additionally, the idea doesn't really fit too well into episode 13 of that series. I mean sure, let's be honest here.....many of us can definetly see this kind of thing happening in the next series (starting with the Impossible Astronaut) simply because they already set up that sort of chain of events to happen in that series (where first we meet a future version of the Doctor, and then we move towards him unwrapping the mystery surrounding all of it).

    In all honesty, i'd say this sounds more like a pitched idea of Series 6 as opposed to Series 5 just based simply on the facts we have.

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    1. I believe The End of Time episodes, as well as the other specials, were written to say goodbye to Tennant. If Tennant hadn't been leaving, they probably would have been written at the end of the fifth series (and would have been a lot different I'm sure). They still could have tied into the End of Time episodes since that IS where he died, and it would have been that same death that Amy would have been seeing.

      Basically, they could have just moved the End of Time episodes to the end of the fifth series if he had stayed. Same death, different series that it takes place, since those episodes were specials outside of the series written specifically to say goodbye to Tennant.

      He already has the "he will knock" bit hanging over his head for a while. Who's to say it can't be a bit longer? They don't address that bit until the end of the last episode of the fourth series (Journey's End) when the Ood comes to visit basically saying that it's almost time.

      Series 5 and Series 6 would have been completely different, so yes, the storylines would have been different based on who they had as the Doctor. So maybe the "death" scene would have come earlier than it did, it's not like they can completely keep the same storylines with different Doctors.
      As for Episode 13, I can't say that I recall it right now to say whether it would fit in or not. The End of Time I coincidentally watched last night along with the last few episodes of Series 4, so they were pretty fresh in my mind.

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  6. As much as I LOVE David Tennant and would LOOOOOOVE so very much to see how he works with Amy, I like the way it is with Matt. Everything up to this point has been as close to perfect as can possibly be in my mind. Matt Smith is a freaking amazing Doctor. Him and David both make you feel like The Doctor is real. I love the....cuteness Matt brought to the show. The adorable little rants. Sure David had rants but they were more hilarious than adorable...plus David is just too sexy to be adorable. Who knows though, I'm sure Moffat will make things even better than they already are this season. Also since David is coming back for the 50th anniversary episode maybe he'll have a run in with Amy yet ^_^

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  7. altho i TRULY MISS DAVID...No...that wouldnt have fit him. Matt has handled that pond saga exceptionally well....david was perfect for his tenure

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  8. You know, It would have been interesting, but it was nice to have a clean break for Matt and Karen. New ideas, new ways of thinking about the stories. However we know David and Billie are in for the 50th, how about Karen (Amy) and Alex Kingston (river) oh and Arthur (Roary) as well while we're at it. Yes they were taken by the weeping angels but it's all time and potentially alternate realities so anything is possible...

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  9. I like that, it would have been the tenth Doctor's retroactive first/last meeting with Rose but done properly.

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  10. Retto, it isn't even supposed to be a Photoshop. It's literally two different pictures put next to each other to illustrate the two characters the article's about.

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  11. Might've been nice, as I love Tennant, but the whole thing seems like it fit Matt more. Also, they basically recycled the "end of his lifetime" idea with the season 6 storyline anyways- and did it well!

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  12. Why would the TARDIS have crashed? The crash was the result of the damage caused by the violence of the Doctor's regeneration from 10 to 11. No regeneration, no crash. Of course, if there was no crash, then he never would meet Amelia Pond or taken her and Rory aboard. This means that their daughter would not be Melody (Named after herself, remember) not be a Child of the TARDIS, and would not have had a relationship with the Doctor. "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" would then be paradoxes.

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  13. You know now that I think about what Steven said Amy would become the equivalent of River in that like River, for this season only her and the Doctor would be traveling on two different time streams. Younger Amy would know older Doctor, and younger Doctor would know older Amy. Plus , when watching Silence in the Library the other evening it seemed as though Moffat had the whole idea of River's back story mapped out just by watching that episode, which sort of means that David had to have regenerated. Also the Ood at the end of the fourth episode in season four stated that David's song would end soon, thus if it had not ended that year then the ood would have been a year too early. Then again now that I think about it the directors and all could have just edited that line out.
    So that's how I feel about it. Personally as a fan I was really upset when David regenerated because he was the first actor for me, that really showed what you could do with the role of the Doctor, cause let's face it Eccleston wasn't great. So since Tennant had that effect on me and basically really made me the die hard fan I am today I sort of teared up at his final scene. When I saw it on You Tube I figured it was some kind of hoax, but I soon learned that I was wrong. Plus David did what any good actor does who plays this role, he made you feel when he left that there cold be no other actor that could top his particular Doctor, and to be honest with the way things are going right now Matt will certainly leave this effect in Spades compared to David when it's time for him to regenerate, as sad as it may seem.

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  14. Dude, you're not paying attention. The TARDIS crashed because of the build up to regeneration. That's still the case here. Just that it happens before he ever me Amy in linear time, but after he'd been with Amy for ages in a relative Doctor time.

    Like River Song, the first time we see her is when she dies, but we see her loads *after that* (it's all relative, wibbly wobbly timey wimey). Exactly the same principle.

    Anyway, an interesting idea, but I rather like Matt Smith and the way that he's dealt with the event of the last couple of series. He doesn't have the same depths of sadness and lonlyness bubbling under the surface... but he still has the same unquenchable fire that Tennant (and Ecclestone) had. He just shows it in a different way (See: Dalek, Waters of Mars, Good Man goes to War).

    I'll be interested to see how Clara Oswald pans out of the series, and not because she's outrageously attractive...

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  15. i dont get it. so moffat was going to regenerate tennant if he stayed? Or this only if he stayed 1 more season?

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