10 Biggest Feuds In Doctor Who History
Who weren't the best of friends on Doctor Who?
Behind the scenes on Doctor Who seems like it should be a fun place to work. The show is about an alien who zips through time and space, solving riddles, generally being pretty marvellous. When stories begin to arise of friction between colleagues, it is hard to believe. However, with almost sixty years of history, there are bound to be people who don't get along.
Some of these fallouts are generally well-known. Christopher Eccleston refused to return for the 50th Anniversary Special due to the issues he encountered while filming his season, while Colin Baker refused to appear in his own regeneration story because of the treatment he was subjected to by the higher-ups in BBC at the time.
There are however several other stories from the annals of Doctor Who featuring fairly well-known faces from the franchise who simply couldn't make it work. Sometimes its the pilot of the TARDIS or the companions travelling with him. Other times, it can be those who made the decisions that affected all involved. Then there are those other times that almost exclusively feature Tom Baker, which may be a list of their own...
10. Tom Baker V John Nathan Turner
Fourth Doctor Tom Baker opened up on the special features of the Season 12 boxset about the unpleasant time that he had to work with producer John Nathan Turner. While the two men only shared a single season together, it was enough to make Baker hang up the scarf for more than thirty years.
Baker claimed that Nathan Turner undermined and diminished him at every turn during filming. The producer's approach to everything, from filming to Baker's acting to the interpretation of the character all served to wind the actor up more and more as time went on. The redesign of the Doctor's outfit, including the addition of question marks on the lapels, was the final straw.
Baker told the man that he was giving back the keys to the TARDIS, after which he felt Nathan Turner's entire demeanour change. Believing that the producer's behaviour had been designed to oust him, he suspected that once that had been achieved, there was no further reason for hostilities.
The Fourth Doctor would not reappear for a long time on-screen unless one counts Dimensions in Time from the early nineties. Though, for better or worse, many Whovians don't count it!