10 Doctor Who Characters Who Nearly Got Their Own Spin Off

8. Martha Jones

Life aboard the TARDIS is a rollercoaster at the very best of times but it was a particularly turbulent affair for Martha Jones who spent the majority of her initial tenure desperately trying to escape the shadow of her predecessor, Rose Tyler. She eventually came through, though (OK, it took her singlehandedly walking the entire Earth to make the Doctor realise that she was an actual human being in her own right), but it was too little, too late as far as Doctor Who was concerned because she had seemingly already set her sights on conquering its spin off. The medical student turned Earth defender popped up in Series 2 of Torchwood for a short but eventful stint to aid Captain Jack & Co against giant alien bugs and a miracle 'reset' drug but her post-watershed fun was over before it had truly begun. As it turns out, there could have been plenty more where that came from. If you took Jack's passing remark in the Doctor Who Series 4 finale ("Maybe there's something else you could be doing?") to mean that Martha Jones would be joining Torchwood full time, that's probably because it's what he was implying. Freema was supposed to become a fully fledged member of the Cardiff based alien busting team in time for its then upcoming third series, Children of Earth, but the actress was already committed to Law & Order: UK so the character of Lois Habiba was created instead. It can be assumed that, had Freema stayed around, she would've been actively involved in Miracle Day, too, which would've made the whole escapade much more enjoyable for the rest of us. Given Torchwood's track record of killing off its principal cast members, though, she would've probably been written out alongside Ianto at the end of Series 3, so maybe it's a good thing that she didn't come back after all. Talk about a lucky escape...