10 Biggest Doctor Who 'What Ifs'

During the build up to the 50th Anniversary Steven Moffat stupidly ended up overworking himself. He was show-running Doctor Who and Sherlock at the same time! That's utter madness. At the very least the quality of Sherlock wasn't affected. If anything, Series 2 still remains the height of its popularity, before quickly sliding down a deep pit filled with mediocre writing. Then again, Doctor Who didn't fair up much better.

It's no surprise that the writing process for The Day of the Doctor became a nightmare for Steven Moffat. Heck, at one point he didn't even know whether he would have a single Doctor onscreen. So it could've easily become Clara Who (although it was already well on its way to becoming that). Christopher Eccleston naturally became the most challenging actor to get onboard, what with his notorious past experiences on the show.

A lot was riding on his decision to come back and reprise his role. In the end, sadly, Christopher Eccleston backed out of the project. This led to Steven Moffat panicking further, and becoming utterly desperate, resulting in him creating his own Doctor to fill in the void left by Eccleston's absence. Even though Paul McGann could've easily been brought in. But I digress.

Had the Ninth Doctor stood with his future selves, there would be no need for the late John Hurt to appear in the special. It's depressing when you consider his presence was only required due to a last minute change to the script. He wasn't originally intended. Just forced in due to circumstance. I guess it would've been nice to have Christopher Eccleston back onscreen with David Tennant and Matt Smith. At the same time, it would've been a saddening loss not having John Hurt appear as the War Doctor. Talk about a catch 22!