10 More What Ifs About Doctor Who

8. What If Leela Had Returned As The Fifth Doctor's Companion?

This is still a bit of a head-scratcher: before introducing Peter Davison, producer John Nathan-Turner considered bringing back a previous companion to make the transition from Tom Baker's long tenure easier for the audience. To this end, he asked both Lis Sladen and Louise Jameson, the latter of whom played Leela, to consider returning for the Fifth Doctor's first season. Both declined, but of the two actresses, Jameson said later that she honestly considered it and then regretted that she hadn't done it. Let's say she had. For one thing, we'd lose the Tegan-Nyssa friendship, and there'd likely be a lot more conflict in the TARDIS between Leela and Tegan - initially, at least. They're both very strong women characters, but perhaps they'd eventually be fast friends after a lot of initial testiness, with Leela teaching Tegan a bit more about using her survival skills rather than her mouth and Tegan teaching Leela something about being civilised (provided that living on Gallifrey hadn't already done that, and we bet it hadn't). The interaction between Leela and Adric, on the other hand - that's a harder one to gauge. Would Leela have seen the annoying maths genius as simply a child who needed a mother figure as well as a father figure (in the Doctor)? There might have been initial resistance, followed by plot developments would have allowed Adric's character to develop further. Or he could just have continued to be annoying till he died. Hard to say. The stories themselves would certainly be different, though. Let's assume that Leela rejoins the TARDIS sometime during Castrovalva - the Time Lords see the Doctor is in trouble and send him aid that will actually help him. Seeing Leela interact even briefly with the Master would be interesting. A story like Four to Doomsday with Leela thrown into the mix might have made that story easier to stomach, while The Visitation would be completely different. As for Black Orchid: imagine the possibilities of a Leela encountering a mirror image of herself who is a proper English lady of the 1920s. The mind reels.