The Story That Never Was

Storyboards from the 50th Anniversary show of Doctor Who reveal the Ninth Doctor’s role if he had made it into the episode as originally planned.

Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston obtained storyboards from comic and storyboard creator Andrew Wildman at a comic convention, showing the Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, in three scenes.

Wildman attributed the changes to the scenes to Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat.

“My run on the show spanned three Christmas Specials and most of Matt’s final season include his ‘regeneration’. That was me pretty much done other than the huge privilege of being asked to work – albeit in a small way – on the 50th Anniversary special,” Wildman said.

“There were going to be three Doctors in this one. The current, 11th Doctor and the previous two. Ok, so it didn’t quite work out that way in the end as we all know. Contracts are an odd thing and in the end show runner and writer supreme, Steven Moffat, had to come up with something… slightly different. At my time of working on the show however it was three ‘modern age’ Doctors and the current assistant, Clara.”

Andrew Wildman, comic creator, animator, TV producer and storyboard creator was one of the people who worked on the show, and has released a collection of storyboards that he sells at shows, for The Day Of The Doctor and Nightmare In Silver. I picked up a copy at the Geek Comic Con.

In introduction to the former tells us

My run on the show spanned three Christmas Specials and most of Matt ‘s final season including his ‘regeneration’. That was me pretty much done other than the huge privilege of being asked to work – albeit in a small way – on the 50th Anniversary special. There were going to be three Doctors in this one. The current, 11th Doctor and the previous two. Ok, so it didn’t quite work out that way in the end as we all know. Contracts are an odd thing and in the end show runner and writer supreme, Steven Moffat, had to come up with something… slightly different. At my time of working on the show however it was the three ‘modern age’ Doctors and the current assistant, Clara.

Nip in and take a peek behind the curtain. You may be a little surprised at what you see.

And I was, as well as scenes we do remember, we also get aspects we don’t.

Like Clara popping a wheelie on her runup to the TARDIS.

Then we see the barn on Gallifrey, but instead of the War Doctor played by John Hurt, we get The Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. And instead of The Moment played by Billie Piper, we get a young girl…

And from that point onwards, the Tenth Doctor seems to take the narrative role of the Eleventh…

…after a trip through the time portal…

…and bumping into the Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant…
And two Queen Elizabeth The Firsts…

This is just a smattering of the boards. You can find the rest at any convention that Andrew Wildman attends…

Andrew Wildman will be appearing at Worcester Comic Con 2016(August). Worcester, UK.