Doctor Who: 10 "Loose End" Characters We Want Tied Up

5. Canton Everett Delaware III

Why?We got to know him, he was great, and then we spent more time with a comedy Sontaran. There's no justice.Why not? Yeah, why not? Ah, the end of "Day of the Moon" - So, there's Canton Everett Delaware III, riding off with Nixon - Setting up his retirement and relationship, feeling pretty good about how this whole strange affair with the Doctor panned out. Roll credits. But that's not what happened. Because clearly, Canton met up with the Doctor again. Either Moffat just forgot, or just chose to wibble-wobble over some details or leave them open, but Canton clearly met the Doctor again. It was a much older Canton that set things up with the Doctor at Lake Silencio and set River, Amy and Rory on their way to meet a younger Doctor....and, oh some nonsense with a Tesselecta. I don't care after "Moon". I just skip to "The Doctor's Wife". Canton Everett Delaware III was something the series had never acheived before then - A likeable American character that actually seemed American. (All respects to Nicola Bryant as 80's companion Peri - You're lovely, and rather likeable - but very obviously British.) He showed up in two time zones and was the most notable one-story companion in all of Series 6 (that wasn't actually the TARDIS). He had one liners that showed up River Song (Not that hard, really) and also was just as interesting paired with Amy as the Doctor. You remember "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" for the Silence, the shock-not-really-Doctor death, and the odd child regenerating - How couldn't you? But after you get over the stuff that won't pan out as well arc-wise, it's Canton who's the most interesting character in the whole piece - And wouldn't you know, he's fleshed out in a way that recalls the Classic Series, or the kind of treatment reserved for Companion family members in the New Series....

But anyway, Canton clearly had some later Doctor dealings. He doesn't show up in "The Wedding of River Song" (Perhaps it was a matter of taste? I like this guy more and more if it was....) but at some point the Doctor and he crossed paths again. If we can spend more time with a one-note Victorian Silurian-human dating joke and their gag of a butler ("Let's put a Sontaran in a suit!" is a joke that must stop being funny once you put the joint down, I'd think), surely we can stop in on Canton again? I doubt he'd let himself get turned into a joke. How could he? He had more personality than any of the Paternoster Gang, and like Jack it'd save time in a one episode story with an already-developed character. Truly, it'd allow for "Doctor Who" to come as close as it could to dropping the Doctor into an X-Files episode. If you don't want to watch that, I think you're lying. Likelihood of Seeing Him Again: 4/10