2. JK Rowling Story
Back in 2004, while the revived series of Doctor Who was still in its infancy, Russell T Davies asked Harry Potter mega-writer JK Rowling to pen an episode for the first series of the show. Amused by the idea, Rowling had to decline as she was in the middle of writing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the time. However, a few years later, Davies tried again... For the 2008 Christmas special, after the guest starring of Kylie Minogue in the previous year's festive edition brought mounds and mounds of publicity, Davies wanted to go one further. Instead of asking her to write an episode, he intended to ask Rowling to appear in one. The plot would have seen JK Rowling, at work on her next magnum opus after the conclusion of the Harry Potter series, attacked by a alien entity that brings her imagination to life. With the Earth overrun with wizards and witches, the Doctor would have to navigate his way through a world of magic to save Rowling and put things back to normal. However, this idea did not get too far as, when Davies pitched it to him, David Tennant did not like it, believing it would seem like a spoof of a Doctor Who episode rather than the real thing. Feeling that he could not force his leading man to do something he did not like, Davies parked the idea. The eventual Christmas special was 'The Next Doctor', set in Dickensian London. Fans will note that Russell T Davies later used the magic meets sci-fi idea in his childrens series Wizards Vs Aliens which currently runs on CBBC. Meanwhile, this year saw the rise of the Rowling rumour again as it was thought that she would either write an episode for the show's fiftieth year or a novel for the tie-in book range. Ah, well, maybe one day...