Doctor Who Just Accidentally Confirmed Season 2's Leaked Original Ending

0:00 Hello everybody, Ellie here for Who Culture. How are we all doing? Uh, I wanted to talk to you today with a bit of a roundup of a few tidbits, some TARDIS tidbits if you like. The OGs will remember that, uh, that have been floating around over the last few days, over the last week in the world of Doctor Who. There will be timestamps in the description down below. So, if you want to jump between the different tidbits, then feel free to do that. So, let's start with the one that Shan and I have been inundated with messages about, which is the TARDIS showed up as an Easter egg in last week's episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. Episode 6 of season 3 of Strange New Worlds, the Salat who ate its tail. There was a ship that had been basically eating up lots of ships in space, uh, using it for

0:46 various parts. And in a blink and you'll miss it, very tiny blink and you'll miss it moment, you can see the TARDIS just outside of the Enterprise trapped within this big ship. Now, this is obviously quite significant following on from Space Babies where the Doctor did mention that they should go visit those guys in relation to Star Trek. And it's kind of confirmation that Star Trek exists within the world of Doctor Who, not just as a fictional TV program, but also as a real life universe. they should go and visit the crew of the Enterprise. So maybe this is following on from that, suggesting maybe he tried to go visit those guys and ended up being swallowed by the big ship thing as well. But it was very, very great. Sean and I admittedly did actually miss it in our initial watch of the episode, but

1:32 you guys have been sure to make sure that we didn't miss it. Uh we've been inundated with messages and photos and screenshots. We sure as hell have seen it now, but it's very, very cool to finally have kind of an official unofficial crossover between Doctor Who and Star Trek. Very exciting. We had obviously Doctor Who, we had Star Trek mentioned in Doctor Who, so it's nice now to see the kind of return of the favor with the tar disappearing within Star Trek. Exciting. The other little tidbit I wanted to talk about, obviously, the war between the land and the sea is still coming at some point in the near future, maybe the far future. Who knows when it's going to be coming, but Russell T. Davis has been hyping up the war between the land and the sea. So, in a recent appearance on the pilot TV podcast, he was asked about the war between the land and the sea and this is

2:17 what he said. Quote, I'm immensely proud of it. I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's like we had a good idea. Sometimes you finish a show and they're like, great, good. We did a really good job. Sometimes they go through post-prouction where everything comes in. You work on the effects, on the music, and the grading of it. Sometimes magic happens and it's happening with this. It's even better than we thought it was. I'm delighted with it. It's like we had a good idea. Does that mean that season 1 and two wasn't a good idea, Russell? Are you maybe admitting that there were a few things in there that maybe weren't a good idea? It is interesting though that you might say that something is a good idea, whereas other things you just did a good job. So, do they think that perhaps this is this is going to be something really marvelous as opposed to the last two seasons that maybe didn't hit the mark

3:03 as they hoped they would? I mean, the thing is Russell T. Davis does have a tendency to think that everything he's made is the best thing ever. Um, he's very good at hyping himself, which is, you know, not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make me skeptical as to whether this is actually going to be something really brilliant or whether this is Russell T. Davis just being his enigmatic self. Um, but having said that, I do feel from the recent trailer that we saw for The War Between the Land and the Sea that this is going to be something different and very interesting. I am certainly excited for it. more excited now we've seen some of the footage in the trailer than I was when they first announced that this was where the spin-off was going to be going. I think a lot of us thought really a spin-off with the Sea Devils, that's where you're going with this. Probably we were maybe a little skeptical about it. Um, they seem to be

3:48 happy with it. I'm going to take that with a pinch of salt until I can make the judgment for myself based on the fact that they also said that the last two seasons of Doctor Who were going to be brilliant and they had their ups and downs to say the least. Um, but it is certainly interesting that they are hyping it up. They are talking about it. Obviously, they want people to watch it. Um, but yeah, I'm very intrigued by it and I am quite excited to see where this is going to go. I feel like it's going to be much more mature and serious than the main show itself in a in a similar vein to Torchwood, I feel. Uh, as for a release date, Russell T. Davis said it's up in the air. Now, we did in the autumn highlights for the BBC, The War Between the Land and the Sea was included in there. So, I would assume that based on that, we're going to see it at some point this autumn. Um, obviously, we

4:35 don't have a specific date for that at the moment. We don't know exactly when that's going to be. My initial thought was that it was going to be coming Christmas and fill the Christmas slot this year, maybe over five consecutive days. Um, autumn is certainly earlier than I thought it was going to be. We don't have any confirmation as to when exactly that's going to be, whether it might change, but based on that list that was released by the BBC for their autumn highlights, autumn 2025. So, who knows when that might be. Maybe it will tie in with Halloween. I don't know. I don't feel that it's necessarily a spooky show. I don't know. I guess we'll just wait and see. And hopefully they'll give us give us some indication as to when we can expect it soon. Now, the main thing I wanted to talk about, and I'm sure many of you have seen things floating around on social media about this, but it seems that we have confirmation of the

5:21 original ending for season 2. Just to summarize, basically there was uh there was some leaked information, a bit of a leaked summary uh surrounding the ending of season 2 around the time that we obviously got a different ending. Um this ending would have seen all of the unit gang, the Doctor, Belinda, Ruby, all kind of having a party. Um, and then it would have ended with Susan with baby Poppy watching from the sidelines. Um, which was then going to be kind of the cliffhanger for the ending of that episode. Now, it's not been officially confirmed. We don't know this for sure, but we did see some released images, accidentally released images of the Doctor and Belinda at a party, which then would further suggest that this leak was true. And then the mom of the young actress who played Poppy shared uh

6:09 similar things about the leak on Tik Tok which again further suggests that there was truth to this leak. But then obviously Shy decided to step away from the show. So that original ending ended up having to be scrapped. They tacked on the regeneration scene and all of the stuff with Poppy and Belinda instead and those earlier scenes with Susan became dead in the water. Um they were completely scrapped and not used and Susan didn't even appear in that episode. But now the Blu-ray for season 2 has been released and it seems to actually confirm that Susan was indeed meant to appear in the reality war. Um maybe at the end, maybe not. But one of the special features on this Blu-ray is called Reality War Companion Catchup. Uh and it's a chat between Varadu

6:54 and Caroline Ford. Reality War Companion Catchup. Clearly, this suggests that Susan was supposed to appear in the reality war. I mean, honestly, at this point, this is the worst kept secret in Doctor Who history. Maybe not the worst. There have been others. But again, it's another example of a very badly kept secret. We all know that Susan was meant to appear. Release the clips. Release that other ending. The alternate ending. We want to see it. Okay. Show us what we could have had. Honestly, I you know, we've we've spoken plenty about my opinions on the ending that we did get. I would have preferred it if we had had Susan at the end there. Um, I don't necessarily like how they approached Belinda and Poppy at the end. I think an ending with Susan and Poppy and addressing the fact that perhaps

7:39 Poppy was Susan's mom and connecting the doctor somehow would have been really really interesting. Um, sadly that's not where it went. Um, maybe there is hope that one day they'll release those clips, please. Um, but I I don't know. Um, as I say, it's a really badly kept secret. So, I'm not surprised by this inclusion because we all kind of knew that was the case anyway. Um, but it is nice to know that Susan wasn't always going to be wasted as she was here. Um, cuz it did kind of feel like great that she appeared in the Interstellar Song Contest and then she did appear very briefly on this television screen in Wishworld and it did feel like it was leading to something, but because that final scene was cut, it now feels like these other moments feel a bit pointless and worthless as well. Um, so it does

8:24 make you wonder why when they made the decision to cut the ending, they didn't go back and also fix her scenes in the previous episodes as well. Um, maybe saved it for for future. Um, I don't know. It's all a bit bit weird and a bit confusing and a bit kind of what could have been, I suppose. Um, but yeah, it it's nice to know that that there was thought for Susan, but it's also sad to know that that thought was brushed aside in favor of what we ended up with. Um, but it is what it is, isn't it, folks? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. Would you have preferred the ending with Susan and Poppy, or would did you do you like the ending that we did get? Let me know what what's your preference. And how excited are you for the war between the land and the sea? Because, as I say, I'll admit I

9:11 wasn't that excited for it to start with. Now I've seen some of it, I'm a bit more excited for it. So it'll be interesting to see what this is going to be all about. Um, in the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture. And in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.