10 Doctor Who Deleted Scenes That Should Have Been Left In
7. Rickston’s Vone (Voyage Of The Damned)
Voyage of the Damned was, at the time, the longest episode of the revived series by far, clocking in at 71 minutes. The record has since been beaten by The End of Time Part Two, The Day of the Doctor, Deep Breath, and The Power of the Doctor.
Even so, the original edit was still deemed to be too long, and various cuts had to be made.
One of the most puzzling omissions concerns Rickston Slade, and his phone-like device which was creatively named a "vone". When we first see Slade, he’s using his vone to instruct an unseen lackey. As a result, attentive viewers might have wondered why he didn’t try to call for help when the ship was wrecked in a meteor shower.
Originally, this question was accounted for, with Slade remarking to the other survivors that his vone is no longer working, and the Doctor deducing that they therefore have no chance of sending an SOS.
Speaking on the Series 4 DVD/Blu-ray boxset, Russell T Davies explained that these lines made the scene “too complicated”, but admitted that, for the sake of clarity, they perhaps should have remained.
Given how short the cut sequences were (less than 30 seconds combined), we can’t help but agree!