Doctor Who: how The Day Of The Doctor was originally supposed to end

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Spoilers for The Day Of The Doctor

Not unlike many, we let out a bit of yelp come the end of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, The Day Of The Doctor. It was at the bit where Tom Baker was revealed, in a top secret cameo, to be playing The Curator. And writer Steven Moffat left things suitably vague as to whether he was supposed to be the Doctor or not.

In a new interview with TV Choice, Moffat has been talking about that episode, and he’s revealed that Tom Baker’s appearance wasn’t actually in the original script! Instead, “originally, I’d written the script with Billie Piper coming back, because she sort of disappears in the story”.

Piper was to be the Moment – a Time Lord weapon that comes in varied physical shapes – but then that became Baker. So what changed?

“When we though we could get Tom Baker, I put him in. So that could be the Moment, just deciding to talk to the Doctor through this appearance”.

Does Moffat, then, have a theory as to who ‘The Curator is? Arguing that the episode was “as clear as it should be”, so at to give room for interpretation, his own take is that “I do think of it as, in the distant, distant future, long after Jodie, and long after we’re all dead, the Doctor settles down and chooses a different incarnation per day to revisit”.

And if that’s the case, that day, he chose Tom Baker. Of course, a future Doctor Who showrunner may take all of this in a very, very different direction. Time will tell. Always does.

TV Choice