10 Biggest Doctor Who 'What Ifs'

One of Steven Moffat's most disappointing decisions was retroactively taking the Eighth Doctor out of the Time War. Despite never being confirmed, it was always the natural assumption that Paul McGann's incarnation did in fact do battle with the Daleks. I mean, it made more sense than presuming that an unknown Doctor would be wriggled into pre-existing canon.

Luckily, Big Finish have done much to rectify this creative outcome by dabbling with the early years of the Time War. They've carefully got around Steven Moffat's alterations to the lore by having the Eighth Doctor get involved on his own terms. He never becomes a warrior. That becomes his stance on the situation, and his number one reasoning for not wanting to get dragged into the trenches.

The Eighth Doctor continuously chastises the Time Lords (particularly Cardinal Ollistra) for their participation within the ongoing conflict, particularly when he witnesses the carnage they cause, and the innocence that are forcefully caught in the middle. Time and time again he's shown how far they've fallen, becoming no better than the Daleks. In turn, he tries desperately to remain 'a good man', helping those in need.

Had he kept to his principles in The Night of the Doctor, thus refusing the Sisterhood of Karn' offer to make him a 'warrior', then it's fair to say that the universe would be in complete disarray. As history has told us (with some delves into the War Doctor's adventures via Big Finish) the Time War wouldn't have been resolved without The Doctor becoming the monstrous.

Maybe the Daleks would've eventually taken over all of reality. More likely, however, the Time Lords would've grown uncontrollable, finding more destructive, and hades ways of winning the Time War, without The Doctor being able to stop them.