Doctor Who: 10 Essential Changes To Make With Peter Capaldi's Doctor

3. Returns

In the olden days, other than supporting characters and villains with a well-established recurrence, characters hardly ever made return appearances. Whenever a baddy or some one-off character from a previous story popped up again, it was generally one of two kinds of surprise: a nice one, or a nasty one. I'm thinking Alpha Centauri, The Rani and the Mara; I'm thinking Sabalom Glitz, Omega and the Guardian duo. But whenever an old companion or regular turned up again, it was almost always exciting, because they'd almost always been gone for such a long time that it was wonderful to see them again. I'm thinking Jamie McCrimmon, the Brigadier, the entire casts of The Three/Five/Two Doctors and everyone who appeared in Dimensions In Time. But it's not like that with the new series. Aside from the wonderfully stirring moment when Sarah Jane Smith first clapped eyes on Doctor 10, there've been so many return visits with old companions, plus repeated interactions with both new and established villains €“ but chiefly with Daleks and Cybermen €“ that, frankly, it's all gotten just a bit dull. At one point a few years back, ex-companions were checking in and out of the TARDIS as if it were a hotel. The Tenth Doctor always managed to find them, in greater numbers all at the one time than had ever been seen before. Even after they'd left €“ as in, really and truly gone for good €“ it didn't seem to matter how dramatic the circumstances of their parting, how deadly it could be to ever have further contact with them, or how supposedly impossible it was for them to ever meet again, Doctor 10 seemed able to conjure up a family reunion every other week. So they're in a parallel universe across an impenetrable divide? Pfft! A single recollection could kill them? Whatever! It was as if no previous dramatic finale or teary farewell was ever quite dramatic enough to prevent one of the Tenth Doctor's family gatherings! And what about those pesky Daleks and Cybermen? During their 1960s heyday, every time you looked one or the other was there. By the 70s, their returns became a once-every-few-years treat. Indeed between May 1975 and March 1982, seven entire seasons passed with only one four episode Dalek story and one four episode Cyberman story. Over that same period, The Master made two returns, the Sontarans only reared their ugly potato heads once more and a handful of Time Lord characters featured a handful of times. Otherwise, there were no returns to previously visited planets and no other recurring characters or villains. And this was over the course of 184 half hour episodes. By contrast, just 60 circa-45 minute episodes of new Who, from Series One until The End Of Time Part 2, included at least nine episodes featuring Daleks and six featuring Cybermen. The Master featured in five episodes. There were multiple return visits by multiple former companions. The Ninth and Tenth Doctors made numerous return trips to the homes of the said companions and repeatedly interacted with members of their respective families as well - at least ten episodes featured Jackie Tyler and several others featured the Jones and Noble families. Four episodes featured Harriet Jones, four featured Slitheen and six episodes featured the Ood. It all harks back to point six €“ if so much of the new series hadn't been set in contemporary Britain, there wouldn't have been so much call for happy families and all this reunion palaver. Capaldi's Doctor €“ it's time to move on.