5. Online Backlash To Daleks Nearly Stopped Helen Raynor Writing Sontarans
Helen Raynor worked as a script editor on Doctor Who for almost the whole of Russell T Davies' era and wrote two well-received episodes of Torchwood before finally getting to pen a script for the parent show. The Dalek two-parter that Raynor wrote for Series 3 was not well received. Since this is about Series 4, let's not go into the specific details, but it was a middling episode at best, with profound leaps in logic and science. Fan reaction online was typical of the Internet: disproportionate level of seething hatred expressed in the most rancorous language imaginable. Since the wisdom of not reading Internet comments had yet to fully crystallize in 2007, Raynor decided to check out the response to her episode on Outpost Gallifrey only to come away "literally shaking" at the vitriol. So when given the opportunity to write a story reinventing another classic monster - the Sontarans - for the modern series, she was understandably reluctant. Russell T Davies had to convince her to ignore the nasty comments and write her Sontaran story. Luckily, the reception for The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poision Sky was generally more positive and any fan backlash there was doesn't appear to have knocked her confidence. Raynor has since written episodes of Primeval and Mr Selfridge as well as creating the BBC One Wales series Baker Boys, featuring Torchwood's Eve Myles.