10 Terrible Doctor Who Ideas That Nearly Happened
2. The Doctor's Rose Experiment
Though Boom Town feels like it was always part of the Series 1 plan, it was actually a late replacement for an unusual story by Shameless creator Paul Abbott.
Abbott worked on his outline for a few weeks, which revolved around the idea that Rose had been created by the Doctor as an experiment to find the perfect companion.
First of all... what on Earth. Second of all, quite how this would’ve even worked in the context of the rest of the series is anyone’s guess. That's a pretty huge shift in the Doctor-Rose dynamic, and by that point, there were still two episodes left – not to mention Rose's return in Series 2.
It was all for nought in the end though – Abbott had to abandon the project due to other commitments, and Russell T Davies wrote Boom Town in its place.
The Ninth Doctor had a lot of darkness in him coming off the Time War, but going so far as to reveal that he bred a companion in some twisted experiment feels like a step too far.
Also, it’s bloody weird!