Doctor Who: 12 Cool Details Russell T Davies Just Revealed About New Earth & Gridlock

8. The Potions Originally Killed All The Patients, But Steven Moffat's Comments Inspired A Happier Ending

Doctor Who New Earth David Tennant
BBC Studios/Twitter: @russelldavies63

Near the end of the episode, the hospital is overrun by an army of diseased humans, but of course, the Doctor saves the day: he mixes every single intravenous solution he can find into one big concoction, and sprays it over those who are infected. Job done!

This leads to a happy ending in which everyone is cured and the diseases are contained, but in Davies' first draft of the script, things concluded in a much darker fashion: the infected humans all died. Grim.

But then... enter Steven Moffat. The famous Doctor Who writer and showrunner remarked that Davies loves killing off his characters, which prompted Davies to change his script and make the ending a lot more cheery.

Steven Moffat? The guy who's known for killing everyone? Well, almost everyone. He was responsible for a happy ending in which everybody lives? Madness.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.