Doctor Who: 10 Behind The Scenes Bust-Ups BBC Doesn't Want You To Know

7. John Wiles Vs. Maureen O'Brien

Doctor Who Vicki Maureen O'Brien
BBC Studios

An often overlooked dispute that resulted in the departure of a great companion, Maureen O'Brien's Vicki was written out of Doctor Who in the 1965 serial The Myth Makers, all because the actress was vocal about the way her character was being portrayed.

When these criticisms - such as O'Brien complaining about Vicki's dialogue - reached the ears of producer John Wiles, he wasn't pleased in the slightest. In fact, rather than working with O'Brien to talk through some of the issues she had with Vicki, he thought "to hell with it" and decided to have her written out instead, forcing writer Donald Cotton to make amendments to the script.

O'Brien was reportedly shocked when she was told that The Myth Makers would be her final Doctor Who story, and while she clearly wasn't too enthusiastic about playing Vicki, it was rather underhanded of Wiles to just get rid of her with a snap of his fingers.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!