1. Penny Carter: The Lost Companion
As hard as it is to believe now, given the major role she (and her grandfather) would play in the Tenth Doctor's life (and death), Donna Noble really was only intended as a one-shot companion. Though the idea of her return had been floated, Davies assumed that Tate wouldn't want to commit to a full series and had intended to create a brand new companion to accompany the Doctor through his imminent adventures instead. Introducing Penny Carter. Penny Carter was conceived as a thirty-something journalist. A sassy northerner with a repartee off the Doctor very much in the same vein as Donna. Her opening storyline would have seen her made a cuckold by her boyfriend and, lost in her thoughts, strolls obliviously past the TARDIS. This would have set up the plot later in the series about her and the Doctor's timelines being pulled together. When they both investigate Adipose Industries at the same time, the story becomes similar to Partners in Crime but with more time necessarily spent getting Penny to trust the Doctor and the obligatory "bigger on the inside" coda at the end. Donna would have been left for a cameo appearance in the finale. In this episode, she would save the Doctor's life and thus set up the events of Turn Left which Davies originally conceived for Penny rather than Donna. Also, the Doctor would have fallen in love with her as a way of showing he'd begun to move on after moping over Rose the series before. How that would have worked with Rose breaking down the walls of reality itself just to be reunited with the Doctor by the end of the series, fans will never know. When Catherine Tate agreed to reprise her role for the entirety of Series 4, the opening episode of the series was reworked for Donna. However, never one to let a good name go to waste, Davies wrote Penny Carter into the episode as a somewhat hapless science reporter who gets caught trying to investigate Adipose Industries... twice. Though Verona Joseph played Penny in Partners in Crime, nobody was cast for a full series. However, The Writer's Tale does include a number of references to an actress Davies thought would be perfect for the role. Unfortunately, her name was redacted in the print edition. What did you think of this list? Do you know of any other interesting tidbits about Series 4 of NuWho that should have been included? Share them in the comments and keep 'em peeled for our Series 5 retrospective, coming soon!