10 Moments That Almost Killed Doctor Who

Doctor Who managed to continue through five regenerations of the Doctor before it ran into its most dangerous dance with cancellation. Colin Baker was brought on to play the Doctor in 1984, and he knocked out his first season with the belief he would return for a second.

But in 1985 – midway through the transmission of Season 22 – the BBC announced that Doctor Who would be going on hiatus. The reasons for this were numerous, from falling ratings to a perceived overly-violent tone for the series, but the biggest was simply that BBC higher-ups just didn't like the show.

This was the grimmest things had looked for Doctor Who in its 20-plus year history, and the creation of an infamously terrible charity single called Doctor In Distress, designed to plead for the show's return, did little to move the needle.

This hiatus resulted in the abandonment of several storylines, all of which were outlined for Baker's second season, and though the show did of course return in 1986, in some ways the damage had already been done.

Colin Baker was soon fired and public perception of Doctor Who was at an all-time low. The end of the show, though avoided here, felt more inevitable than ever.