8 Deleted Scenes That Explain Confusing Doctor Who Moments

The Mystery

With space Titanic plummeting towards the Earth and threatening to wipe out humanity, the Doctor has to move incredibly fast in order to save the passengers on the ship, as well as the people on the planet below.

He ultimately succeeds of course, but at no point in the episode does the Doctor consider using slimy businessman Rickston Slade's phone to send an SOS or to call for outside help, which could've made the whole "saving the day" thing a lot easier.

So... why wasn't Rickston's phone used to send out a distress signal?

The Deleted Scene

After the Titanic is wrecked by a meteor strike, the Doctor gathers a few survivors and then makes contact with a crew member, Alonso, to discuss their dire situation.

A scene was cut here in which Rickston complains that his phone isn't working, only for the Doctor to brush this seemingly trivial complaint away. However, in a followup scene (that was also cut) the Doctor asks to examine Rickston's phone, claiming that it should work "anywhere" because it's a "solar plus" phone. This leads the Doctor to the realisation that he can't simply call for outside help, and that he's on his own.

According to then-showrunner Russell T Davies, these two scenes were cut because they slowed the pacing of the episode, but even he acknowledges that perhaps they should've been left in - and he's the guy who wrote this story.