“I’m really glad we took it out!”

By Katelyn Mensah

Published: Thursday, 11 July 2024 at 12:34 PM


While it’s only been a couple of weeks since Doctor Who season 14 came to an end, fans are still desperate for more, and showrunner Russell T Davies has now spoken about one moment that was filmed but never aired.

Speaking in this month’s issue of SFX, Davies explained that very rarely do entire scenes get cut from Doctor Who, but there was one in particular from The Devil’s Chord that didn’t make the final edit.

He said: “There’s one scene we deliberately cut at the end of The Devil’s Chord, actually, because they run onto the rooftop and there was a scene where the Doctor said, ‘Oh, time’s gonna go crazy now, music is flooding back in, and everything’s gonna be strange for 10 minutes’ to kind of explain why they burst into song.”

The scene was shot, but when they watched it back it was decided it was “boring” to explain “why you burst into song”.

Davies added: “Why explain why you burst into song? Just burst into song! So I think that scene possibly would’ve made a lot of people happy. I’m really glad we took it out! It’s only 20 seconds of dialogue, it was nothing. I can’t think of anything else that we cut.”

Doctor Who S1,11-05-2024,The Devils's Chord,2 - The Devil's Chord,Shirley Ballas, The Doctor (NCUTI GATWA), Ruby Sunday (MILLIE GIBSON) & Johannes Radebe,BBC STUDIOS,James Pardon
Shirley Ballas, Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday and Johannes Radebe in Doctor Who.

As fans reflect on the eight episodes of season 14, they can look forward to another on the horizon in the form of a Christmas special, and it’s set to be one of the “maddest” festive episodes yet.

Speaking in a behind the scenes video on YouTube for Empire of Death, Davies said: “Now the Doctor voyages forward, and guess what always happens to the Doctor every so often – Christmas! Here comes Christmas.

“I can’t give away much more but work has begun on it already, and it’s mad, it’s one of the maddest Christmas specials you’ll ever see. It’s epic, it goes to so many different places. And it’s a great story of who the Doctor is when he’s alone.”

Read more:

The latest issue of SFX Magazine is out now. Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.