10 Insane Doctor Who Plot Twists That Nearly Happened
The abandoned twists and turns that almost changed Doctor Who forever.
Like any TV show worth its salt, Doctor Who has had plenty of great plot twists over the years.
Who could forget when River Song was revealed as the missing child of Amy and Rory Pond? Or when we found out that the round things inside the TARDIS were actually mini ice-cream dispensers?
Wait, that last one never happened. That was just wishful thinking.
They may not have pitched for the TARDIS to start producing delicious dairy treats, but the Doctor Who team has come up with plenty of shocking swerves that never saw the light of day.
Writing a TV show is an iterative process, with suggestions being chucked around constantly during development. The following twists were all pitched, and some were even strongly considered. However, for various different reasons, they never ended up happening.
10. A Wrap On Clara
In Mummy on the Orient Express, the Twelfth Doctor and Clara arrive on a futuristic version of the classic train, only to find that a strange monster called the Foretold is stalking the passengers.
And if you think that's scary, you should see the state of the toilets! That's where the real monsters lie.
This episode was written by Jamie Mathieson, who would go on to pen three more scripts for the show. On his blog, Mathieson revealed a number of abandoned story elements for Mummy on the Orient Express, including one concerning the fate of Clara.
Originally, Clara was supposed to have seen the Foretold, and would try to hide from it inside its sarcophagus. Unfortunately for her, this wasn't a great move, as the sarcophagus would then be revealed as a "Foretold making machine", before wrapping her in bandages and presumably transforming her into one of the creatures.
Gasp!
This idea was nixed in favour of simplifying the narrative, but it certainly would've been interesting to see how the Doctor got himself out of that one.