10 Awesome Doctor Who Ideas That Nearly Happened

Over the years, we've seen many talented showrunners, producers, and writers all bring fresh ideas to spice up our beloved Doctor Who.

But for all of the things that have since become staples of the show, there are an equal amount of interesting concepts that sadly failed to materialise.

With every single series going through rigorous changes and edits in the hands of producers and directors alike, oftentimes the ideas that were initially included in the scripts and proposed as concepts end up getting dropped for a variety of reasons. This can include budget limitations, availability of actors, or simply just plans that were deemed too extreme or ridiculous for Doctor Who.

And yes, it is possible for something to be too ridiculous for this show.

Not every idea that gets floated around is solid gold, mind you. There was serious chatter about killing off Sarah Jane Smith at the end of her classic run, which, needless to say, would've been a horrific mistake.

But certain unused concepts actually do sound quite good (on paper, at least), and that includes these ones...

The Weeping Angels' first appearance after Blink revealed quite a bit more about the species than most fans expected, for better or worse.

However, one crucial element in The Time of Angels that went unexplained was the origin of the Weeping Angel book (described by River as "the definitive work on the Angels... written by a madman") that the Doctor flicks through.

Despite its importance, we never learn where this book came from, and that's because writer Steven Moffat removed an entire subplot about its origins.

He intended to reveal that the book had been written by one of Octavian's clerics. This cleric came on the mission we see in the episode, encountered an Angel, got zapped back in time, and then wrote the book, allowing the Doctor to access it in the future. However, this plot point was ultimately axed due to a lack of story space.

The Angels don't zap anyone back in time in this story, so it would've been cool to see a subplot revolving around that ability. And learning more about that book - one of the only known in-universe works about the Angels - would've been fascinating to boot.