10 Doctor Who Deleted Scenes That Should Have Been Left In
2. Old Agatha (The Unicorn And The Wasp)
Sometimes, in spite of everything, whole subplots end up on the cutting room floor. This is one of those cases – and, by far, the biggest cut on this list.
Originally, The Unicorn and the Wasp was framed with scenes of an old Agatha Christie on her deathbed, a narrative device the woman herself would no doubt have approved of!
The first of these sees Christie recalling her encounter with the Doctor, but struggling to remember the details. “I’ve written so many mysteries,” she tells her nurse. “Before I die, I have to solve mine.”
At the episode’s end, things come full circle, with the Doctor and Donna returning to tell her the truth.
These scenes appear on the Series 4 DVD/Blu-ray, with RTD recalling that they read very well on the page, but didn’t work so well in the edit, making the story feel like it was taking place in the past tense.
It’s hard to argue with this reasoning. But it’s a shame they couldn’t have been included somehow (perhaps as a prequel or a minisode). Deleted scenes featuring actors and sets otherwise absent from a story are always the most tantalising.