10 Doctor Who Episodes That Were Banned Or Censored
The Daleks have got nothing on Mary Whitehouse and the Australian censors!
Given the multiple moral panics about horror and violence in Doctor Who during the 1970s and 1980s, it’s somewhat surprising that the show hasn’t been a more prolific victim of censorship over the years. But there have been some notable examples.
Famously, campaigner Mary Whitehouse's complaint about the end of The Deadly Assassin part three being too violent was upheld, leading to Philip Hinchcliffe being replaced by Graham Williams on the following season of Doctor Who! The offending cliffhanger was also wiped from the original master tape, though it has since been restored.
Whitehouse isn't the only person to have instigated changes to Doctor Who over the years either. What passes for acceptable family television in the United Kingdom isn't always the same abroad, and these cultural differences have led to episodes of Doctor Who being heavily censored, or in rare cases, banned altogether.
As we'll see, while some of these censorship decisions are over-reactions or outright offensive, others are justified, and have even allowed the show and its various production teams to learn from some historic mistakes.
10. The Empty Child
Doctor Who’s 2005 revival was a steep learning curve for everyone, from the rushed and chaotic production, to the level of scares and horror the show could get away with in the 21st century.
Both The Unquiet Dead and Dalek had been deemed scary and violent enough to earn a 12 rating from the BBFC, and a small degree of pearl-clutching in the tabloid press.
In those cases, the Doctor Who production team stuck to its guns and chose not to remove the offending material, preserving the episodes as broadcast. It was a different case for Steven Moffat’s The Empty Child however, which was deemed slightly too horrific for Saturday teatime.
Specifically, the scene where Richard Wilson’s Dr. Constantine transforms into a gas mask zombie was toned down in the lead-up to broadcast. Originally, the visuals of the unsettling transformation were accompanied by bone-cracking sound effects, but these were swiftly given the boot.
At the time, producer Phil Collinson said the sound was “too visceral” and so they removed it at the BBC's request. Though interestingly, Steven Moffat suggested on a DVD commentary that the sound effect was never supposed to be used in the first place.
Whatever the case, the scene is chilling enough as it is.