8 Actors Who Regretted Leaving Doctor Who

4. Lalla Ward

Rose Tyler Doomsday beach Doctor Who
BBC Studios

A companion to the Fourth Doctor towards the end of his run, Lalla Ward played the Time Lady Romana from 1979's Destiny Of The Daleks, to 1981's Warriors' Gate.

Like most Doctor Who stars, the decision to leave was entirely her own, with Ward informing producer John Nathan-Turner that she wanted to exit in the middle of her next season, which was a choice that he completely supported.

However, when the time came to actually sign off for good, Ward began to regret her decision - to the extent that she ended up absolutely hating her final story:

"I absolutely loathed ‘Warriors' Gate’ because it was my last one. I felt particularly regretful, I’d become so very close to the show."

Now, Warriors' Gate is actually a pretty good serial, which Ward does also acknowledge. But you can understand her emotions here: imagine if you had the best party of your life, and afterwards, you were banned from having any more parties in the future. You still had a great last hurrah... but you'd probably hate it at the same time.

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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.