Doctor Who’s 2005 Dalek Replacement Plan Was Canceled, But I Kind Of Wish We’d Seen It
When Doctor Who
came back to the small screen in 2005, there was a plan to replace the Daleks with another terrifying creature that could have made for a fascinating story. For almost as long as Doctor Who has been airing, the Daleks have been there, ready to strike fear into the heart of the Time Lord and his companions. In Doctor Who’s second adventure, released in 1963, William Hartnell, who plays the First Doctor comes face to face with the terrifying creatures for the first time, and sets a pattern that would shape the entire franchise.
However, the original series was canceled in 1989, and despite releasing a TV movie in 1996 as an attempt to reboot the series, the show lay dormant until 2005. It was at that point that new Doctor Who showrunner, Russell T Davies, decided to try his hand at bringing the show back. But in order to get it right, the show needed to position the Doctor opposite a rival as mysterious, monstrous, and lethal as the Daleks. Which is exactly why he came up with an alternative idea.
Doctor Who’s Toclafane Were Originally Intended To Replace The Daleks
The Toclafane Could Have Had A Much Larger Story In Doctor Who
Of course, substituting the Daleks may seem like a foolish idea when the creatures were already so well-established as a part of the series, but there was a good reason for RTD to make alternative plans. The Daleks are actually the creation of Terry Nation, a man who made many contributions to Doctor Who throughout the decades, but none greater than his creation of the metal aliens who could exterminate and eradicate entire species. And as much as they primarily exist in the realm of Doctor Who, the rights to use the Daleks required additional permission. And if it hadn’t worked out, RTD had big plans for a different metal monster.
“I think it was quite fun, really. The monster in Henry Van Statten’s cage was now a mysterious sphere l, that had came out of nowhere and destroyed the Time Lords – And the anguish the Doctor felt was that he had never found out what they were. I remember a scene where the Doctor is at last forced to kill it to save Rose – And even as it’s dying, he’s cradling it and begging it to tell him what it is. “Shan’t” says the sphere. They were Russell’s idea – We would later find out they were human heads in a ball, the future of humankind. He called them the Toclafane, and used them in series 3. Daleks was better than my other version, though, I’m so relieved we got the rights after all.”
The Toclafane appears prominently in the three-part finale of Doctor Who season 3, where David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor discovers he is in fact not the last of the Time Lords. The Master, being the monstrous genius that he is, harvests humans from the end of time, and inserts their disembodied heads into metal cages, turning them into murderous monsters who wreak havoc in the 21st Century. But RTD had plans to make Toclafane the replacement for the Daleks, and introduce them as early as season 1.
The Idea Of A Mysterious Time Lord Killer Sounds Really Good
Doctor Who Needs A Terrifying Villain Who Can Overpower Time Lords
In Doctor Who, season 1, episode 6, titled “Dalek,” Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler discovered a Dalek trapped in a compound by the enormously wealthy Henry Van Statten. The creature would have been a mysterious new entry within the franchise, but in a short span of time, it would have been apparent that this creature possesses powers which make it an immense threat to the Doctor and all other living things, and honestly, that sounds incredible.
The Toclafane would have been a brand-new mystery for budding Whovians to solve, and over the course of the series, these creatures could have returned on several occasions, pushing the Doctor to desperately seek answers about their kind, while unable to decipher the clues. At the end of his struggle, the Doctor would have come face to face with the reality and horror of these lost souls, suffering at the end of time, only to be brought back as monsters who would seek to make their own ancestors extinct. It’s dark, but there’s no doubt that this would have been an incredible story to follow.
RTD’s Dalek & Time Lord Story Was Still Doctor Who’s Best Route
The Daleks Are An Integral Part Of Doctor Who
However, despite how interesting and engaging it could have been to see the Toclafane appear in season 1, the Doctor meeting a lone Dalek was so much more meaningful. Not just because these creatures have been appearing in the show alongside him since the start, although that certainly adds to the weight of it, but the fact that these two aliens are supposedly the last of their kind in “Dalek.” The Doctor has only recently come away from the Time War, and he is struggling with the loss of all of his kind, along with having been responsible for their apparent extinction, alongside their rivals, the Daleks.
Related
10 Doctor Who Episodes That Capture The Real Essence Of Doctor Who
Doctor Who’s lore runs deep over the 60 years that the show has been on air, but there are several episodes that define the show in important ways.
The Doctor forming a connection with this monster, and feeling sympathy and closeness, is a striking image that cemented the show’s reputation, and clearly confirmed that Doctor Who was back. From there, the Daleks have their story expand and explode, with incredible discoveries by the Doctor and Rose. But on the other hand, the Toclafane’s story came to a definitive end in season 3. It was the right call to use the Daleks, and it allowed the Toclafane to shine in their own way, despite a more brief outing in Doctor Who.
Doctor Who
- Release Date
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2005 – 2021
- Directors
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Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy
- Writers
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Steven Moffat, Russell T. Davies
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Jodie Whittaker
The Doctor
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