10 Deleted Doctor Who Characters You've Never Heard Of

Donna Noble might be a fan-favourite companion today, but back when she first appeared in The Runaway Bride, she was only ever meant to be a one-off character, briefly filling the gap between series like Astrid in Voyage of the Damned, or Lady Christina in Planet of the Dead.

And so when the time came for Russell T Davies to plan the fourth series of Doctor Who without Martha Jones, he did the obvious thing: he created a new companion, Penny Carter.

While RTD did have an actress in mind to play Penny, there aren’t too many details on what the character would've been like, beyond that she was going to be introduced in Partners in Crime, and was described as being similar to Donna Noble. It's unsurprising then that as soon as Catherine Tate showed interest in returning to the show for a full series, Penny was dropped.

With Donna having such a massive influence on the Doctor's life to the point that the Fourteenth Doctor chose to retire with her and her family, this is no doubt one of the biggest 'what-ifs' in the modern era of the show.

And as for Penny Carter? She did still show up in Partners in Crime, with the journalist investigating Adipose Industries also being given that name.

This character bore no resemblance to the original version of Penny however, and was simply a way for RTD to pay tribute to an unused companion.