10 Ways Doctor Who Was Almost Completely Different
8. The Day Of The Doctor Was Originally Built Around Clara
The biggest event in Doctor Who history, the show's 50th anniversary celebrations were a huge success all around, with a fantastic main episode (The Day Of The Doctor), and some quality supplementary material (An Adventure in Space and Time).
But even though it turned out great, the main attraction was nearly a wildly different beast. The Day Of The Doctor was obviously a difficult episode to design, but one of its biggest issues may surprise you: unbelievably, at one point in time, not a single actor was signed on to play the Doctor.
That included Matt Smith and David Tennant, neither of whom were contractually obligated to join in the celebrations. And so, faced with the prospect of writing a 50th anniversary special without any Doctors to write about, scribe Steven Moffat had to work with what he had, which, at the time, was Jenna Coleman.
From here, he wrote a version of the episode that centred entirely around Clara. This story would've picked up where The Name Of The Doctor ended: the Doctor, having stepped into his own timestream, is completely wiped from existence. As a result, Clara has to try and remember him, and the episode would've had the Doctor (played by a variety of famous actors) popping up in various "stories", which Clara starts to suspect may, in fact, be real.
It sounds intriguing, but for a 50th anniversary special, you really need some Doctors. Fortunately, Smith and Tennant soon made deals, and were able to appear. Fantastic!