10 Times Doctor Who Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted

4. The Coming Together Of The RTD-Verse

Doctor Who The Day of the Doctor Matt Smith David Tennant
BBC Studios

Russell T Davies was ahead of the curve when it came to the cinematic universe craze of the 2010s. With Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures, he was running an interconnected franchise years before Marvel Studios made it cool, something he lamented in a 2021 interview:

"I was in the middle of running an empire. And my god I did that 10 years too soon, didn’t I?"

Back when this small-screen universe first kicked off, fans obviously knew that these shows existed in the same world, and though it was fun when they referenced each other, what we really wanted to see was a huge crossover episode.

Knowing that such an episode would be a ratings juggernaut, RTD made good on that potential with 2008's The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, episodes with such large casts that the opening credits, hilariously, struggle to keep up with their names.

Watching Sarah Jane rub shoulders with Martha and having Donna fire quips at Captain Jack was glorious, and the fact that RTD managed to stuff all of these characters into a story that actually worked was almost unbelievable.

This was Doctor Who's Avengers: Endgame, and it was a dream come true for fans at the time - not just that it happened, but also the fact that it was really damn good.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.