0:00 Doctor Who is one of, if not the single best television formula ever devised in that the show can effectively never die. No matter what production troubles, it was always the plan to do this amount of seasons. Liar, no matter what cast and crew drama, sack Russell T. Davis, which trust me, sack Jane Tranta, as you'll find out in this video, sack Phil Collinsson. There is a lot of sack Julie Gardner and I'll come back. Ranging from sofas being set on fire and launched at extras to affairs. I said, "Why don't you ask your husband to health issues? What does the future hold for you after this?"
0:45 Well, then I don't quite know. I've got a manager who looks after my affairs, you see. And uh I would have thought you would have looked after your affairs. You seem to be So whatever on earth is currently going on, we don't know. Relief to escape. Oh yeah. It's so nice to be back on stage. But the point being this is one of the only shows where the cast and crew can completely change iteration to iteration and it still remain the same continuity. Currently we have 15 mainline doctors played by 14 actors, but we have slightly more if you include Billy Piper. Then obviously upping the ranks, you've got the war doctor and the fugitive doctor. And then you've kind of got Richard E. Grant's doctor. But all of these extra doctors never fully took
1:32 on the role for a prolonged period of time. Thus, they won't be covered in today's video. But join me as I break down every single reason why each actor left the role of the doctor. Then there was no real limit to what you know to the number of doctors or the sex of the doctors or the race of the doctors. They're not creatures from this planet. They have two hearts and no doubt greater numbers of all sorts of things. Um which of course you can cut if you want to. Where did this idea of regeneration even come from and why was it necessary? The first doctor, William Hartnull, why did he leave the role? Hartnull was the first to kick off the show back in 1963.
2:19 He said in numerous interviews at the time that he guessed that the show would run for five years or more, which at the time obviously they didn't have this idea of regeneration. Hartnull was under the impression that without him there was no Doctor Who. According to many reports, he did genuinely love his role as the doctor, which is also depicted in the historical recreation of Doctor Who's birth, an adventure in space and time by Mark Gatus. But alas, these five years that Hartnull wanted to do in the role simply could not be. Sadly, unbeknown to much of the production crew, Hartnull was battling arterioclerosis, which really hindered both his mobility and mainly his memory.
3:04 I mean, Bill, I think he was a wonderful actor, but uh words of more than two syllables were more or less interchangeable, I think. No, but no way did he do it on purpose. You are the cause of this disaster and you boost no you you not boosted and lying unconscious. A condition that caused thickening and hardening of his arteries restricting blood flow to his brain. This led to memory problems, slowed speech, and difficulty concentrating. All of which made his learning and delivery of lines incredibly difficult. Especially when you consider back in the 1960s, Doctor Who was basically shot as live. It was kind of more like a play than the single cam dramas we're used to.
3:52 We're standing around in a scene waiting for him to get back on script. They had four cameras set up. They barely got any edit time. Thus, many mistakes and fluffs of Hartnull's lines live on in the fandom's memory. Oh, I think that might be just some flor fluorescent substance. when they're about to worship him as a god and he clutched his lapels and said no I am not a dog a god I'm not a dog I am not a god due to Hartnull's somewhat crotchety nature anyway tensions were also high after producer original producer Verity Lambert had moved on from the series and new producers came in Hartnull just didn't get on with them there was a lot
4:37 of tension a lot of bickering and a lot of shouting ing behind the scenes. A lot of people dancing about in my ey line. It's very off-putting. Do you mind? Mostly over the tone and format of the show, which Hartnull wanted to change, but was told by producers he didn't have any say in. His bad temperness, his crotchiness was, I think, down to his anger with himself for getting things wrong when he got them wrong. Under producer Inis Lloyd's guidance, this idea of renewal began to be discussed. Now, originally, it was supposed to take place during the Toy Maker serial. They hadn't even figured out that the Doctor was an alien. The name Gal of Fray wouldn't be mentioned for many years to come. They didn't even
5:23 know what time lords were, but they needed to solve this problem. Heart memory and onset attitude just couldn't go on. But they wanted to keep Doctor Who on the air. So originally in the Toy Maker serial, they planned to have him disappear, go invisible for a couple of episodes, then come back, but in a new form, a new body, played by a new actor. However, this idea was shelved until the 10th planet in which it became abundantly clear this could not go on. Thus, before the term regeneration was ever used, renewal took place. William Hartnull changed into Patrick Troutton. Now, we don't know how true this is, but it is directly from the producer.
6:09 Despite Hartnull's unwillingness to leave, he allegedly said that there's only one man in all of England who could take over, and that's Patrick Troutton. And well, he got his wish. Patrick Troutton took on the role of the second doctor, firmly cementing this idea of renewal and regeneration into the series for the rest of time. I thought that perhaps the program was beginning to be played out a bit. The family audience liked me very much in it and so I regretted leaving very much. But again, it was uh you can't stay in one uh job forever. Troutton, much like Hartnull, only did three years in the role. This is a quote which you've probably heard many times if you're a Doctor Who fan because
6:54 Troutton said it to many later doctors. Only do three years. Well, he told me first of all, do three years and then and then get out because not only was he scared of being typ cast, the job itself was incredibly demanding with them shooting 40 to 44 episodes a year, leaving him very little time for any other projects. Interestingly though, this relatively short stint in the role very much reflects all aspects of Patrick Troutton's life. According to his son, Michael Troutton, Patrick had a deep-seated need for change. When asked why he left his first family, Patrick admitted to his son, "Things have to change all the time for me, I'm afraid.
7:39 That's just the way I am." And I mean, he really wasn't wrong. He had like three families, like two families on the go with a extra marital affair happening on top. The Patrick Troutton law goes crazy. Don't research the urban legends around his passing. But I mean, this was quite a nice story. Patrick Troutton's departure was very professional, very amicable, and he did return in later years. He's kind of the David Tenant of Classic Who. He popped up a couple more times as the doctor throughout the duration of the classic series, but it was time to move on to John Perwe, who actually did break this three-year rule. He stayed in the role for a whole 5 years and was just about to do a sixth year, but changed his mind. He said, "I
8:26 did 5 years. 5 years is enough for anybody really." although not directly admitted to by perwi. Apparently he was about to stay on for a sixth year but he asked for a very big increase in his salary and when the BBC declined he was like okay fair enough. Let's call it a day and I'll move on. On your last day was it strange? I cried a great deal. Yes. I'm very emotional. I was very upset about it. As mentioned, the role of the doctor, despite there being a lesser episode count in the 1970s, was still very physically demanding, and perw suffered from chronic back pain. So, this probably added to his wanting to leave
9:11 the role. I love teams. I've always been involved in teams all my life and so uh I didn't like teams breaking up. He also said at a comic con many years later that the death of his friend Roger Delgado, the actor who first took on the role of the master, as well as the exits of producer Barry Lets and script editor Terrence Dixs, all contributed towards Perwee's feelings that it was just time to move on and explore other acting opportunities like Worel Gummage. Once again, quite a nice amicable departure. And he did crop up a couple of years later in the five doctors. And then he did return for Dimensions in Time, but we well, no, technically Dimensions in Time is cannon now, thanks to Wishworld.
9:58 Like, yeah, it's canon. Then we arrive at the infamous and probably most well-known doctor of the classic run, if not most well-known doctor of all time, Tom Baker. On my gravestone here lies Tom Baker who made titties tingle about sums up the silliness of you know of telly fame isn't it? Baker played the role of the fourth doctor for seven years becoming the longest serving doctor of all time. That's if we're not including the wilderness years but that doesn't count. However, towards the end of these seven years, he had many ongoing creative clashes with producer controversial producer John Nathan Turner. One big
10:44 point of contention which apparently resulted in a shouting match on set was changes like the question marks added to the costumes collar. Baker called them insufferably vulgar and cheap. Was a bit, you know, offhand or rude or abrasive about the scripts or whatever it was. Writers never dared come to read throughs and things cuz Tom was notoriously scathing. Baker would often change the words of writer scripts to his own. Although he did later somewhat tearfully apologized for this. I say later, I mean much later. It's only in one of the recent Blu-ray box sets in a behind-the-scenes documentary where Baker has actually come to terms with this and apologized for his actions on set at the time. But he could be absolutely lethal with
11:29 directors. Suddenly banged the door bang that door. The atmosphere was was pretty bad. But after 7 years, Baker felt physically and emotionally exhausted from the demanding filming schedule and incredibly long hours. He also worried about being typ cast, admitting in interviews many years later that he probably stayed on too long. In the end, both Baker and the BBC agreed that his departure was timely and beneficial for refreshing the show and refreshing Baker's career. However, Baker's career kind of never recovered. He did do a lot of other work and he was never really out of work. He was never hard done by, but he had firmly cemented himself
12:15 forever for the rest of time as the doctor. And still to this day, he acts as probably one of the most influential people involved in Doctor Who's history ever. It's pitiful really. I want to be loved, you know. Now, moving on to the youngest doctor, at least the youngest doctor at the time, Peter Davidson. Davidson was the first doctor to be told by Patrick Troutton in the BBC Studios car park, "Only do three years." Well, he told me first of all, do three years and then and then get out. Davidson also very much wanted to avoid typ casting. He was already very well known for his role as Tristan in All Creatures Great and Small and he wanted to be known for a wide variety of roles
13:03 rather than just the doctor. They asked me if I was staying on for a fourth year after I'd done the second year and I wasn't that happy with the second year for various reasons. Tom Baker. Tom, I think found it quite difficult in the few years after leaving u for anyone to cast him in other things. The long and demanding shoots didn't really affect Davidson as he was much younger and much physically fitter than a lot of the other actors, but he was just eager to explore more roles, explore new things, and also he had grown tired of the fact that the budget was being cut, the schedule was being messed around. This was sort of the beginning of the end through no fault of his own of the classic series. They they
13:49 put it up against Eastenders. They were putting it on Monday and Tuesday on Wednesday. Like it it was it was a mess at the time. It Saturday slot needed to be reinstated. And you'll see this sort of pattern of the schedule being messed around repeating itself many years later with another doctor. The BBC were very supportive of his exit. It was all amicable and fine. Davidson even reflected that regenerating the doctor is good for the show and good for the actor. He advised that future doctors know when it's time to leave in order to preserve both their careers and the show's longevity. Then we get to probably one of the most juicy entries on this list. Colin Baker. Colin was a
14:37 rather controversial portrayal, mainly because of the garish costume he was asked to wear, which let's just set the record straight, he did not want for this character. But John Nathan Turner insisted. Baker himself even said, "I always felt the costume was kind of part of the character, loud, brash, and full of life." He did though describe that he wanted the costume that Eckleston had. Stripped back, black leather jacket, nononsense time lord. Either Eckleston or Kapaldi. Those vibes are what he was going for. But instead, he was given this weird clownlike coat. Baker also recalled having a somewhat difficult relationship with producer John Nathan Turner. He said, "John and I had our
15:25 differences. It was a challenging working environment." in issue 186 of the Doctor Who magazine. He went on to say as well that this definitely affected production morale. Not only that, but this is a name you will hear crop up many times in the Doctor Who fandom. BBC controller Michael Grade hated Doctor Who. And if there was one thing he disliked more than the show itself, it was Colin Baker. Now, why you might be asking? During filming, Colin's wife moved out of Colin's house and into grades. In an interview with former Doctor Who production assistant Gary Downey, he
16:11 stated that there's a history between Michael Grade and Colin. Liza Godard was Colin's first wife, and she was Michael Grade's best friend. Best friend. Bear in mind, Grade is the controller of programs at the BBC. So what he says has to go. The divorce was acrimonious and she moved into Michael Grade's house while she was getting the divorce with Colin. And I'll say no more. Michael Grade was determined. He did not want Colin working for the BBC. Can we all get a boo in the comments for Michael Grade? Not only did he end up canceling Doctor Who, he also did that to poor Colin. Everyone, boo Michael Grade in
16:57 the comments. Imagine this is like a pantomime. But we're skipping ahead a bit. Before the show was cancelled, the BBC put it on a 2-year hiatus. And I think Michael Grad was sat there, fingers crossed, going, "Hopefully it doesn't come back." So, why did you cancel the show? I thought it was rubbish. I thought it was pathetic. But Doctor in Distress and many other things led to the fandom's uproar. And it did. two years later. It was soon after that the higherups at the BBC, Michael Grade, phoned John Nathan Turner and gave him two options. Either Colin leaves the show or there is no show. So, producer John Nathan Turner with as much goodwill as possible phoned up Colin and
17:44 said, "Look, I'm sorry, but we're going to have to write in a regeneration story, Colin. Your time as the doctor has been cut short. Colin quite rightfully was not happy with any of this. Thus, he refused to come back to film the regeneration scene, which led to this truly iconic regeneration in which Sylvester McCoy puts on a wig similar to Colin's hair and lies face down on the floor, then gets up and well, he's regenerated. What a mess. They wanted to take the show back to a more familyoriented idea. Colin's doctor had been much darker, much more serious despite the clownish appearance. But luckily, this
18:30 wasn't really the end for Colin Baker. He came back and many fans say his doctor was done justice finally in the Big Finnish audio adventures series. #justice for Colin. Found myself in a car one night. car. A Rolls-Royce pulled up beside us in the traffic of New York driven by Michael Grade. Davidby wound the window down and shouted out, "Oi, Grade, you mean bastard. Why have you invited us your to your club for a drink?" And Grade said, "Follow me." So, we followed this Rolls-Royce. We all got out, went into this rabbish club, and he didn't see me until that moment. And he positioned himself as far from me as he could. and
19:15 his wife who's a charming lady said to me, "Uh, so when did you get back on to Doctor Who?" I said, "Why don't you ask your husband?" But as I say, Sylvester McCoy was here now, and he was here to stay. Many fans agreed that the writing drastically improved during this time. The stories were getting better and better, but Michael Grades still, pettiest man in the world, still had beef with Doctor Who. Now, to be fair, I am I am painting this man as an out and-out villain, but it's it's simpler for the video. Contextually, at the time, the viewing figures were dropping off. Doctor Who was becoming a pastiche of its former self. It was mocked by the public. Its
20:00 budget had been cut and cut and cut, and you can kind of see why it ended up getting cancelled. As I say though, there were some of the show's best stories produced toward the end of this era, but the viewing public had gone. I actually discussed the show's cancellation in my podcast with Sophie Aldrid. So, this isn't a shameless plug, but go and check that out. There was a phone call for me in the office um outside. Again, no mobiles. Um, and uh, so I I uh I I went to take the phone call and it was Sylvester and he said, "Are you sitting down?" I said, "Well, I am now." Right. And he said, "I've just found out that Doctor Who's not going to be going ahead next season." And what had happened was that the um
20:47 the BBC wanted it to go on what they called hiatus again. And then, of course, it never really got picked up again until the until the film. And then but the BBC the executives had sort of fallen out of love with Doctor Who and they wanted to kind of put their own thing on. But yeah, Michael Grade and the BBC higher-ups were very unsupportive of the series which ultimately led to after 3 years in the role canled. Well, hiatus. I'm hoping it's not the situation we're currently in. They just said Doctor Who's taken a little bit of a break and then just never came back. So fingers crossed that's not what's happening in 2025. Originally Sylvester wanted to
21:33 stay on for another series. There is this whole idea of the the Andrew Cartell master plan. this idea that his companion Ace was going to train at the academy, become a time lord, the doctor was going to reveal to have been the other, someone fundamental in the orchestration of Gal of Frayan society. It's kind of like the Timeless Child plot line years before the Timeless Child plot line ever happened. But as I say, show was cancelled. They didn't get to follow through with that. There's loads of little cryptic clues and hints and teases at it happening, which brings us onto Mr. Paul Mcan Sylvester technically didn't leave the role while the series was on, but when a big American company bought some of the rights to Doctor Who, they were going to try and launch this big American remake,
22:20 and they just wanted a fresh start. So, they got Sylvester McCoy back many years later to film a regeneration scene. And I can't lie, as a British person, I think it's absolutely hilarious that the doctor lands in America and instantly just gets shot. That is the most stereotypical English depiction of America ever. But yeah, it was quite nice that Sylvester actually got his chance to do a regeneration scene. He featured in this movie, although I do think it was kind of at a detriment to the movie itself. It's why the 2005 revival works so well. The Doctor, we are jumping ahead a bit, but the Doctor is just a fresh new character. You don't need to immediately explain regeneration
23:06 or any of this lore. I think that's one of the big reasons the American remake did not work. But yeah, Sylvester McCoy regenerates into Paul Man. Amicable. Fine. Sylvester goes on his way. The movie that Paul Man appeared in was kind of supposed to be like a backdoor pilot to this series. I could make a whole video on this thing called the Leakley Bible. They were going to redesign the Daleks. Cybermen were going to be called Syes. There was loads of weird baffling stuff happening and there was going to be a heavy focus on Gal of Fray and like the doctor's parents and stuff. The Doctor was half human, but all of those ideas just kind of got scrapped. left. The backdoor pilot didn't work. The movie wasn't picked up. And that was the
23:52 last we saw of Paul Man, apart from a tiny mini episode in 2013, plus a tiny reappearance in Power of the Doctor. But yeah, man didn't get a regeneration scene at the time. He had to wait till 2013 for that. And it was just a case of the show not getting picked up. Now we're on to our next doctor. Probably one of the other juiciest behind the scenes tales. Christopher Eckleston. Sack Russell T. Davis. Sack Jane Tranta. Sack Phil Collinsson. Sack Julie Gardner. And I'll come back. So Russell, Julie, Jane, and Phil are all the producers and executives and writers of Doctor Who. So, um, what led
24:40 Eckleston to this point? Apparently, from day one, it was a tense and hostile working environment. They were somehow two weeks behind schedule on week one. Eckleston described the set atmosphere as miserable and more than hostile with high stress and very little support. There's this infamous sofa on fire incident. We don't know exactly what happened, but apparently there was this stunt setup where a sofa was set on fire and flung out of the department store window in that big sequence where the doctor blows up Henrik's shop. And apparently it was dangerous and close to an extra or some extras and the director
25:27 just didn't care. Apparently, allegedly, allegedly, there was very little care on the safety of a lot of people on set according to Christopher Eckleston. And I the flaming sofa is just my favorite example because that's kind of bonkers. And that footage apparently exists somewhere out there. I want that. I want to see. I mean, it will probably be a good number of years before we get the full download on what on earth went on behind the scenes, but the flaming sofa story. Let's get the truth. There were reports of extremely long hours, unsafe conditions, and a lot of disrespect towards extras and supporting cast members. Eccleston felt underpaid and unsupported, saying, "I wasn't happy with how I was treated and that's why I
26:12 left." In his memoir, I love the Bones of You, Eckleston mentioned that if Joe Ahern had directed the entire series, he might have considered staying on for a second season. And apparently a lot of the footage they shot had to be redone. Eckleston also hinted at systematic problems beyond personal conflicts, saying that a lot of people at the BBC were worried Doctor Who wouldn't work, and they were kind of pinning all the blame on either him or Russell T. Davies. Nobody wanted a piece of the pie until the pie was successful. At which point all of these higherup BBC people were like, "Yeah, it was it was me who worked on Doctor Who." So the shooting of the first series was a nightmare and I was right at the center of it. I was
26:59 probably more experienced even the muscle. I' probably been on more television and film sets than anybody and I could see what was going on. I reported it back and I just got silence and I got a lot of we didn't know that was happening and I was like well it should it's your job to know what's happening. So the relationship of trust broke down. So off I went. Eckleston was also battling with his mental health. Once again stated in his memoir, I Love the Bones of You and subsequent interviews, he's described his experience with body dysmorphia and anorexia, which were both deeply intertwined with his identity and his career, especially during 2005. Eckleston maintains that he left due to his integrity. He left to maintain his
27:46 values and his mental well-being. He was professional about it to begin with. He agreed with all the higherups at the BBC. I'm not coming back for a second season, but I will happily promote the season. I won't badmouth the show. I'll let it go out on air and we'll call it a day and draw a line under all of this. Alas, some higher up. We don't know who, but I think Eckleston assumes it to be one of this bunch. Sack Russell T. Davis. Sack James Franzer, sack Philon, sack Julie created a false quote about Eckleston when his departure was prematurely leaked. Someone said to the press that he was getting tired. Now, according to
28:32 Eckleston, this is the worst thing you could say about an actor because it means that they're not going to get hired for other high demand roles. And Eckleston says yes, it was a tough shoot, but he was more than all right to continue his career. and he thought that they'd said this quote as a deliberate sort of snipe to get him to stop him getting more work to punish him for leaving such a successful show. Now, it is interesting that in Eckleston's departure episode, well, the episode post his departure, The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor defeats Harriet Jones with the words, "Don't you think she looks tired?" The doctor takes away and ruins Harriet's career by accusing her of being too tired to be a
29:18 politician. Are there any parallels there, deliberate or otherwise? Was that on Russell's mind while writing the show? Quite possibly not. It could just be a complete coincidence because I don't know when the scripts were written, but who knows? Understandably, due to his treatment, Eckleston was quite annoyed. But I I do I I look, we don't know what went on behind the scenes, but I do think it is slightly wild and kind of crazy that he just publicly yells this sort of stuff at comic cons like that's that's kind of wild. Chris, with Chris's departure, that brings in David Tenant. Little known actor, you might have heard of him. Tenant's decision to leave was actually not a very clear one. There's a whole chapter in Russell's book, The
30:04 Writer's Tale, titled The Great Wobble, in which Tenant actually was like, "No, you know what? I'm gonna stay on for a fourth series. I'm going to stay on for Moffett's first series for series 5." Not only that, but and I'd love to see them. Moffett actually wrote a bunch of scripts for series 5 with Tenant in mind. So, you know how it starts with the Doctor crashing into Amy's garden. That was all going to happen, but it was going to be him regenerating. The regenerating doctor was going to crash into the garden. Then we were going to get a flashback and Amy was going to meet the doctor out of order. So, a younger David Tenant incarnation was going to have all these adventures with Amy. Then, at the end of the series, he was going to crash land in her garden just before regenerating. That was the
30:52 original plan. And I can't lie, that's kind of cool. But ultimately, out of respect for Russell T. Davies and trying to leave while he was still enjoying and loving the job. David Tenant chose to leave alongside Russell Tenant's departure from the show worried the BBC so much they almost considered cancelling it. Could anybody ever truly live up to the standards of David Tenant? In the minds of the fans, yes, but still to this day he gets the British public aren't over it. He was back for the 50th, back for the 60th. He's possibly coming back if there's another special. Billy Piper's back. I mean, oh dear. But I think it's very evident that David Tenant loved his time on the show. Absolutely adored the role of the Doctor. And I mean, he was a hit.
31:39 Fair play. This is a quite nice story. I mean, we we we had quite a sad story for the last departure from the show. It's nice to have quite a chill, calm tenant left on his own terms, happy and satisfied with the role. his childhood dream was complete. This takes us to Matt Smith, who once again was very close to staying on for a fourth season. In fact, he was originally supposed to stay on for a fourth season, but thought he didn't want to hamper his career or get typ cast. It's kind of thrown back to the classic doctors. He wanted to move to America and star in all these big films like that Terminator film and MorbiiUs. Matt, you should have done a fourth season. But in a way, it's good
32:26 that he did leave early to further his career because without him leaving early, we probably wouldn't have got Peter Kapaldi as the doctor. Now, Moffett has talked many times about how he kind of intended to leave after this fourth season. He was going to do four seasons with Matt, then he was going to dip. Matt's fourth season would have been entirely set on Trenalor. this big buildup to his regeneration. All of this talk, all of these whisperings, all of those years he spent fighting aliens and monsters that was going to be Trenalor. Big finale for Moffett, big finale for Smith. But Smith chose to leave prematurely. I've loved it. I really have and I'll miss it. But when you got to go, you got
33:12 to go. Thus, Maf was like, "Okay, we we'll get another doctor in Kapaldi." He was going to do two seasons with Capaldi, then leave, and then he was like, "Oh, we'll do series 10." And thank god he did because series 10 is my favorite of the show. But yeah, Steven Moffett praised Matt Smith. Matt Smith praised Steven Moffett. It was all on good terms. Matt just wanted to leave to do other projects. I think that is kind of the trouble with casting a younger upand cominging actor and sort of boosting them to stardom cuz we are jumping ahead. But Shooty Gatwer and Matt Smith, it is completely understandable that both of them want to just move on to other projects. Then on to Peter Kapaldi. Now I'm sure in many years time more of the truth behind Kapaldi's
33:58 departure will come out, but to summarize it from what I've gathered, this clip from Deep Breath perfectly exemplifies what possibly happened. Did he push you out of that thing or did you fall? Kapaldi was asked many times, like this interview in 2015, just after filming series 9, how long he would like to stay on in the role. And he'd always reply as long as they'd have him. which is why it came as quite the surprise when out of absolutely nowhere and I actually remember I was listening to this in this very room in 2016 or early 2017 I think it was January 2017 Peter Kapaldi was on BBC radio just having a normal casual
34:44 interview just a normal radio show when out of absolutely nowhere which wasn't planned by the BBC planned by anyone Kapaldi just drops live on air Yeah, I'm leaving Doctor Who. It'll be my last. Uh, so that's It'll be your last. Yes. You bow out after this series? I will. Yes. Oh, really? This will be the end for me. Wow. How do you feel about that? Which came out of absolutely nowhere. They hadn't even finished filming series 10. Capaldi just dropped it live on the radio, which really makes me think something went down behind the scenes. Did he jump or was he pushed? Such a big deal, Peter. How do you feel about it? God, pass it on to somebody else. I feel um sad, you know. It's sad, but rather
35:29 wonderful. What a privilege. This was Kapaldi's childhood dream. He did say he was tempted to stay, but then he thought, no, I'd like to go out with Steven Moffett. I thought, well, you know, that he's he's kind of my guy, so uh I thought it was the right time to go. Apparently, Chris Chibnel was all up for it. And I do believe that because from every single story I've ever heard from people who know Chris in real life or people who worked with Chris, he is literally the nicest, most chill guy in television. So I'm sure Chibnel would have been more than happy to continue Kapali's doctor going forward. But it it is strange to me that Kapaldi chose to just drop that announcement out of the blue, out of nowhere. and he's very very
36:16 reluctant to ever come back to Doctor Who. Now, sure, he has said many sort of nice and fancy reasons of like he's not on television, he's in time and space, but like I don't know. I don't know. We know he injured his leg in quite a substantial way during the filming of series 9. Hence why A in class he seems to be hobbling a lot and there's not many shots of him running and B this was apparently one of the reasons for the sort of mini hiatus of 2016 where there was a year with no Doctor Who. Just like in classic who as well the program was being absolutely like batted back and forth in the schedule. It was coming on at different times. It was delayed. It
37:01 was put back. It was given less funding. There was Yeah, it it was a similar story to classic who just not quite as bad as it ended up happening in the 1970s. I reckon Kapaldi and Moffett and like the main sort of crew all got on fine, but I think it's these BBC higherups, the ghost of Michael Grade, he's not even dead, but Michael Grade's presence. But whatever the reason, Kapaldi departed from the show and seems incredibly reluctant to want to come back to it ever. But this made way for Chris Chibnel and Jodie Whitaker, which I'm happy to report, as I said, Chibnel appears to be the loveliest man in
37:47 television ever. And despite a pandemic engulfing the world during their tenure on the show, I'd argue that Jod and Chris's departure is the most chill, normal, wholesome thing. In 2017, when Jod signed on to take on the role, which is it's 8 years ago now. That's mad. I remember where I was. Like, we were doing a school play. Like, it's this is crazy. But either way, when that contract was signed, they both agreed we'll do three seasons and then leave together. Chibnel wanted to make sure he was present for his kids GCES, A levels, and eventual departure off to university. And it's no coincidence that
38:33 that scene with the seventh doctor and ace was written as Chris Chibnel's first son was heading off to university. That whole message about flying the nest and the joy is to watch them fly or whatever. That was Chris writing about his son. Also, fun fact, Jodie, as she said many times, technically was the only doctor ever to have two hearts because just before she was about to regenerate, she'd become pregnant. So, some of her final scenes as the doctor, technically she had two hearts cuz there was a baby on the way. Nice and chill. They always agreed to do three seasons. They did their three seasons despite the pandemic and then dipped, making way for the big return. Russell T. Davies came
39:18 back originally only to do the 60th anniversary. Russell came to the BBC and said, "Look, Tenant and Tate both want to do more Doctor Who. I'm happy to write it. Shall we do the 60th anniversary together?" It's difficult to know exactly how true things are because there's so many conflicting reports around Russell T. Davy Zero 2, but allegedly they were going to do as many episodes as they could, but three was all the budget and the availability of the actors allowed for. Thus, we got the Starbeast, World Blue Yonder, and The Giggle. Tenant came back knowing he wasn't going to take on the role full-time. This one's quite a simple departure as well. He came back to play the Doctor for a little bit longer to celebrate the 60th and then he dipped.
40:05 Simple. But I tell you what's not simple. The departure of Shooty Gatwa where he's quoted as saying the fake quote from Eckleston. Shooty keeps saying in interviews, "Oh, I was too tired. My knees hurt. I'm tired. I'm getting old. My body was tired. My body were my knee." And I've now just started doing some ballet. So, I'm making really great decisions here. There are 101 interviews out there of Shuty Gatworth saying he intended to take on the role for many years to come. It's even written into the Empire of Death or Legend of Ruby Sunday. The 15th Doctor says to Ruby, "Don't worry, I'm going to have this face for a very long time." But in the end, he has ended up having the shortest tenure other than
40:52 Christopher Eckleston of any doctor ever. But what went wrong? What led him to leave after just two seasons? They'd finished filming season 2 back in July of 2024, but then come February of 2025, they had to reshoot the entire ending to accommodate for a regeneration. Now, the BBC are technically trying to sort of smooth over the cracks and go, "This was always the plan. It was always the plan to do this amount of seasons." No, it wasn't. We know it wasn't. Shooty said just 6 months prior, I'm not leaving until I fall to Dalek. but he's left and hasn't fought a Dalek. In November of 2024, he went on the Graham Norton show to say, "Don't worry, guys. We're going to be filming season 3 of
41:39 Doctor Who in January." But obviously, that just didn't pan out. Shooty clearly loved this role when he started. He wanted to take on the role and have it for many years, even as late as November 2024. But then he chose to leave. But why? Many people speculate there was some big drama happening behind the scenes, but I don't quite know if that's the case. The only thing that maybe hints at that is the fact that Millie Gibson companion Ruby Sunday also left prematurely. She was clearly, very, very clearly supposed to stay on for season 2 as well. But it was reported in January 2023 that she
42:25 would in fact be leaving at the end of season 1 after just eight episodes, which is bizarre. I'm sure it'll all come out in years to come, but some of the leading rumors behind why Shooty Gap would chose to leave early are a it's reported that he was offered a perfume commercial. He could go to LA, film this perfume commercial over a couple of days, and earn just as much for those three days shooting as an entire season of Doctor Who would earn him. And he had to turn down this perfume commercial because he was contracted to do Doctor Who season 3, which didn't in fact happen. So shooty didn't just want to be put on hold. He didn't want to waste any opportunities and just put himself in
43:11 that position of not taking up other roles because potentially Doctor Who season 3 might be green lit. And this also kind of is the fault of Disney in a way. There is no one particular person to blame. But the fact that Disney have taken so long to recommission Doctor Who, it's still not recommissioned as of July 2025. Like it's been over a year since they filmed season 2 and we've still still got no commission. It's it's it's it's getting worrying. But I guarantee if Disney had commissioned earlier, season 3 and four probably would have been shot roughly back to back and then Shooty would have left. But yeah, Disney didn't do that. Shooty left. We don't fully know. Apparently,
43:57 there's a couple of whisperings about an injury on set, and maybe that's why he keeps hinting at the fact that he was injured or he's getting old. He also talked about the mental strain of the role, which is completely understandable, especially because he was the first person of color to be cast as a mainline doctor. The amount of abuse thrown at him online, that would be tough for anybody to deal with. But yeah, it's it's a pretty weird one, the Shooty Gatler thing. I mean, it's so recent and so fresh. In years to come, we'll probably learn more, but for now, that's all we know. And now, moving on to our final doctor, Billy Piper. Why did she leave the role as the doctor? Well, she left the role because the show was cancelled. Thank you very much for watching this video. I hope you did enjoy. As ever, please do remember to
44:42 like, comment, subscribe, and share. It really helps me out a lot. You guys know the drill. Yeah, thanks for the support. I hope you enjoyed the video. This has been quite a long one. I've been filming for like an hour and 20 minutes. It's probably not going to be that long in the edit, but thanks for watching. Hope you enjoyed. Goodbye. Don't forget to click below and subscribe to the official confused adapose YouTube channel. I will destroy you. She's not seen a single episode. I've watched your episode. These sonic screwdrivers. What else am I saying about the film? Um, don't watch this
