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

2. Eric Saward Vs. John Nathan-Turner

John Nathan-Turner Doctor Who
Dopefish (Via Wikimedia Commons)

To say that the relationship between John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward was "prickly" would be a gross understatement.

When the two worked on Doctor Who together during the 1980s - with Saward as a script editor and writer, and Nathan-Turner as head producer - they didn't get along in the slightest, and in fact, Saward actually left the show simply because he "despised" the way that Nathan-Turner was running it.

This isn't just baseless rumour, either: Saward has not been coy in sharing his scathing opinions about Nathan-Turner, and in the years since his Doctor Who exit, he's gone into more detail about how Nathan-Turner pushed him towards leaving:

"I was getting very fed up with the way Doctor Who was being run, largely by John Nathan-Turner - his attitude and his lack of insight into what makes a television series like Doctor Who work."

Saward also called Nathan-Turner "unpleasant", criticising the poor working environment he created, as well as taking shots at his "pappy pantomime" episode endings.

Many fans will agree that Doctor Who hit a low point during the mid-1980s, and the fact that there was a lot of behind-the-scenes discontent during this time undoubtedly contributed to the low quality of the serials.

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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!