The Retcon-athon

Originally Published January 2020

Quite a while ago, I announced that I’d be ‘remaking’ earlier episodes of the WIDWWA YouTube series, and that was my intention for the longest of times, that when I finished the WIDWWA series, I’d loop around to Season 27 and ‘update’ those earlier episodes using the knowledge and skills I’d required throughout the process of making over 50 videos, by that point. Unfortunately, in early September, my computer hard drive, with all the WIDWWA files, crashed, and became the catalyst for my decision to cancel the YouTube series. I did however decide to continue the series on through this sub-reddit, a blog and our fantastic wiki! As Season 49 began to be published, with an episode a week, on the wiki, I began to realise that I could do something very special with this format. I decide to sort out those earlier seasons of WIDWWA from Season 27-40, and change things, which I now know, probably wouldn’t have happened. The plan was to update all the wiki pages, with all of the changes I’d make, and then every now and then add plots on to stories I fancied doing, until I finished them all, alongside the Elysium, Season 50 etc.. So now, I’ve just finished the first stage and I present to you my commentary, in a way, on what’s been changed and what’s stayed the same.

Season 27 has remained pretty much the same, although I have made some small, and somewhat significant changes. Firstly, I decided that John Nathan-Turner and Andrew Cartmel would stay on, but as their last season, as I came to the realisation that it not only makes sense, for them to firstly finish the McCoy era, but also to round off all the story lines they were dealing with in the last two seasons, but also because the whole point of the WIDWWA series is what if Doctor Who just carried on, so it makes sense that Season 27 would be a continuation of Season 26. I also then decided to keep the Season 24-26 titles and theme tune, as well as the logo, changing the title cards to match. The final change I made was changing the writer of Crime of the Century to Kevin Clarke, as I thought it quite unrealistic that the Script Editor, Andrew Cartmel, would write two whole stories in the season, and the BBC rules at the time, only allowed a Script Editor to commission themselves once. In the Endgame documentary on the Survival DVD, it said out of all the episodes, this story had the most uncertainty about the writer, and therefore I chose Kevin Clarke, who’d previously written Silver Nemesis as I thought this story would have a similar tone.

Season 28 is probably the most similar season of WIDWWA to the original. All the stories are exactly the same, the companions, Katie and Henrick, are the same and the Script Editor, Ben Aaronovitch, is the same. However, the producer is not. There were a couple of reasons for changing the producer from Stephen Garwood to Ian Fraser. Firstly, in 1990, Stephen Garwood was only an Assistant Floor Manager, for some reason, when making the original Season 27, I’d mistaken the position of Assistant Floor Manager for Production Manager, so my reasoning was that if Doctor Who would’ve continued, Stephen Garwood would work his way up to Production Manager throughout the Ian Fraser years, and then eventually become Producer himself in 1994. So, what’s essentially happened now is that the original Garwood era has been split into two halves. Also, the title sequence has changed to the new ‘retconned’ version, I debuted some months ago.

Season 29 had a few changes story wise: two new stories enter the mix, the Path Not Taken, which is a ‘What if the Nazis Won the War Story’, we had done this with Season 36’s Exodus in the old WIDWWA but we decided to use a new version of this story, earlier on, and we also added the VNA, Lucifer Rising. Also, this season, the format of the show changed, to 22x25 minute episodes, making up 7 stories, ranging from just 2 parts to 4 parts in length.

Season 30 sees some more substantial changes than the last few, story wise. Firstly, we opened with Conquest of the Daleks, moving into An Earthly Child, an adaptation of the Big Finish audio, which reintroduced Susan, this replaces the Susan Arc from Season 31, just using her in this one, 3-part serial. The Enemy Within becomes the third serial, at a much more manageable 2-part length, rather than the original six, and Benny and Henrick are also here too! The VNA The LeftHanded Hummingbird has been slotted in, and a new story called the Reverent Peril is here too, which introduces the character of President Gregori and focuses around him and Romana – good news though – Romana doesn’t die anymore, she just loses the election and then sulks off back to E-Space, but only after the 30-anniversary. Rounding off Season 30 is the Legend of Merlin, which was originally the 8th Doctor’s story in Season 40, but as I think you’ll agree, it makes a bit more sense here. Finally, we have the 30th Anniversary, the Lords of Time, which like the Three Doctors and the Five Doctors focuses around Gallifrey and it also has a load of random monsters thrown in like the Five Doctors did.

Season 31 sees the arrival of Stephen Garwood as producer, and the arrival of Colin Brake as Script Editor, as I felt Aaronovitch doing 8 seasons was pretty unlikely. The season begins with Legacy and Knight Falls, as expected, but without Susan now, as that was covered last season, and then moves into 5 new stories. Pipe Dreams and the Sanctuary of Confession are both original stories and Blood Heat is a VNA, and obviously the Long Game is our first New Who adaptation! The Long Game was chosen as in fact it was pitched in 1989, by Russell T Davies to the Doctor Who production office, just before the show was cancelled, so I thought there’s a good chance it could just show up before long. The Prisoner of Time, as expected, rounds of the season, although the story is slightly different now, focusing on a new character, called the Reformer accusing the Doctor of rigging the last election, the one we saw in the Reverent Peril. Also, Henrick dies.

Season 32, like the original one, is the final season for Griffiths, and now sees Eight and Benny travelling alone, in the TARDIS. I did this because I thought Henrick was in the show for too long originally, and I wanted Benny to have one season to herself being the focus of attention. The season is very different from the original with only Tragedy Day and Hatred of the Daleks surviving. In its place we have a run of VNA adaptations, a lot of them focusing heavily on the character of Benny, Saint Anthony’s Fire, Return of the Living Dad and Shakedown and then the Game of Resurrection is a new original story and the Conglomerate used to be the Sands of Life in Season 40, not to be confused with its Season 40 replacement the Sands of Time (yes, they are completely different stories). Hatred of the Daleks rounds off the season, killing Benny (sorry!) and also the Eighth Doctor, in an epic fiveparter.

Season 33, like its original, remains the previous script editor and producer, as does Season 34, but introduces a new Doctor, a new Companion and of course a new title sequence. The sequence is basically the same, although I imagine shots of the TARDIS flying around the Earth, sadly I can’t really realise this, but I have slightly changed the title card, just to make it a bit nicer, and change the horrible original text placement, but not a whole lot has changed there. However, the same cannot be said of the rest of Season 33, as pretty much everything is different. We do open with Revenge of the Master and once again, it’s Nine’s post regeneration story, and it’s the final story for Anthony Ainley as the Master. However, it now introduces a new companion, Janet Wells, who is from 1956, and is a traveller, or to use the more common (and less PC) term ‘gypsy’. The episode is set in Lancashire in 1956, mainly at Janet’s campsite, but also throughout the area, and sees the Doctor battling with the Master, while also overcoming his post-regeneration. The season then has a string of all new stories, with the Time Ravagers (now spelt correctly), the Well (as the first 1 part, 25-minute story, since 1965) and Resurrection of the Autons (now as the season finale but written by Steve Lyons) retained from the original.

Moving into Season 34, and we have much the same story as Season 33, when it comes to changes. The season opens with the Reckoning of the Shadows which is a re-working of the original opening story the Forest of the Dead however, the ‘River Song’ type character is now Professor Bernice Summerfield, from before she met the Doctor, and this not only reserves the ‘River Song’ relationship, but does so in the way that not only emotionally messes with the Doctor, but makes the Doctor have to hide who he is, in order to not change the timeline, and becomes and exploration of all of those themes, started way back in the Aztecs. Plan B is retained, after Matt made a very compelling argument for me to keep it (although it’s now a 1-part, 25-minute story, like the Well), the Room with No Doors is moved here from Season 36, and Iceberg is moved from Season 35. The Web of Time like the original, closes off Season 34, but it’s now penned by outgoing Script Editor, Colin Brake. Janet doesn’t die, unlike Grace, but she does leave on very bad terms with the Doctor, explaining why she doesn’t ever come back (inuniverse).

Bye, bye Chris Sanderman, WIDWWA doesn’t want you anymore. So, I suppose I should explain what the hell happened to Chris Sanderman. Basically, unbeknownst to me, for literally years, Chris Sanderman is a typo. The assistant floor manager, who worked on the McCoy era of Doctor Who, was one Christopher Sandeman, and he went onto work on the Garwood era, in the original, and then I just picked him from the end credits and made him producer, not much logic tbh. So, with this opportunity, I decided to completely change the line-up of behind the scenes people in Season 35. Becoming the Showrunner, for the entirety of the ‘former Sanderman era’ is David Renwick, who was a very experienced producer, and TV executive, who seemed just right for Doctor Who, becoming its first Executive Producer since Barry Letts in Season 18. As the actual producer, I decided on Susan Belbin, a long-time collaborator of Renwick, however, her health, in our-universe, wasn’t particularly good, so she only lasts for Season 35. Like the original, Steven Moffat is the Script Editor.

Also, the format is now 13x45 minute episodes, but most stories are multiple episodes, with few single part stories. Sammy Thompson, like in the original, is introduced in this season, but with one, very major change. Jennifer Lien is out, and new actress, Laurie Holden, is in. This decision was taken for a number of reasons: firstly, Jennifer Lien’s ummm record (google her if you don’t know what I’m talking about), secondly, she isn’t that great of an actress tbh and thirdly, with the advent of the Paramount deal (which now happens from Season 35, cos it kinda makes too much sense), a Star Treklike episode, would make sense to just be a full-fledged Star Trek crossover episode (and don’t say this doesn’t make sense, because in our own universe it nearly happened, with RTD trying to make a make a crossover with Star Trek: Enterprise happen, but the cancellation of that show, literally the week Doctor Who came back, shot that in the foot), with Star Trek: Voyager, as only it and DS9 were running, and DS9 isn’t Star Trek-y enough to be able to do a proper crossover with – Jennifer Lien was obviously on Voyager, during its early seasons, and with the episode now being a fullfledged ‘canon’ crossover, we just couldn’t make having Jennifer Lien work, so she’s been replaced with the wonderfully talented, and indefinitely better, Laurie Holden. As for the rest of Season 35, it pretty much has all of it changed, with the first story, no longer anything like it’s original (sorry Jamie McCrimmon, see ya), and it focusses more upon Sammy, her very flawed character, she is a noble-woman from Colonial America, who obviously owns slaves (ouch), and also the real-life Battle of Culloden. Episode 2 is the End of the World, another New Who adaptation, and is pretty much the original, expect the CGI budget isn’t there for Cassandra, so she’s humanoid, but with a horrifying make-up job, making her look like a plastic surgery nightmare. A new story, the Robots of Time is slotted in, then A Case for the Blue Box, now an official Star Trek crossover episode, the VNA GodEngine follows, then a single 45-minute episode Don’t Blink, which is an adaptation of Series 3’s Blink, and finally it rounds off with Damaged Goods which was moved here, because the novel was written in 1997, so it being in 1993 makes little sense.

Season 36 gains a new producer, Sue Vertue, who is Steven Moffat’s wife. In our universe she’s produced pretty much everything Moffat has done, but Doctor Who, and since they’re in need of a new producer, after Belbin’s sudden exit, Moffat asking his wife to come onboard makes a lot of sense. The season, like the original, opens with Never Mind the Rogue, introducing everyone’s favourite time-lord antagonist (but not villain #TBWHTK), and then the former The Lazarus Project is once-again split into two stories, like it’s Big Finish original, Project:Twilight and Project: Lazarus, so now we have The Twilight Project and rounding off the season, a few stories later, The Lazarus Project. In the middle, we get The Holy Terror, giving us our first Rob Shearman script (sorry no penguin now, just Sammy!), and Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, which is pretty much the samew as the original.

For Season 37, I decided to introduce a new companion, as Sammy was around, with just her and the Doctor for way to long. So, to combat this, I introduced Lou Madison, and then booted Sammy off at the end of the season (although she does stay until the end of the first story of Season 38 in fact). Lou, on the other-hand, is a student at the University of Liverpool, where the Master has taken control of everyone, because I guess he’s given up on World Domination, and just wants to run a university (fairs), the Master is now a new incarnation played by Murray Melvin, as there’s now no Sanderman to hate the Master. Fallout, follows, a bleak dystopia set during World War Three, then a new story the Forbidden Fruit, which is sort of a Back to the Future inspired one, following that we get Who Killed Kennedy as before, but now a 1 part, 45-minute story, then a new Gallifrey story, the Conspiracy of Time, and finally the season rounds off with Nine’s new regeneration story, the Chimes of Midnight (this time with even more bleakness, as the Doctor actually dies!!!), this is mainly because this story would only work with Sammy, as the original did with Charley, and as such the whole thing is now set in the early 1700s, but it just means some of the details change, but mostly it stays the same.

Season 38 is the last season for Steven Moffat, as before, and as such, is also the last season for Sue Vertue. Sammy leaves in the first serial, too shaken by Chimes, and the Doctor changing into Richard E Grant, and Lou stays until the end of the Season when she gets exterminated by a Dalek (poor Lou). The title sequence changes to the original Season 39 colour, as it looks nicer for the Grant era just to have that sequence. After the first season of Leftover takes place, pretty much the same as before, except that letter now says, “Dr John Smith and Louise Madison”, Night of the Angels happens as before, and the Doctor and Lou are sent off to 1902, in pretty much the same story as the old One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Two but it’s now retitled the much nicer, The Dance of the Devil. An adaptation of New Who’s Tooth and Claw follows, called Metamorphosis. Big Finish’s Invaders from Mars and the PDA’s, State of Change, slot in here, the latter reintroducing the Rani, and leading directly into the next, onepart episode, Rogue Who, which is pretty much the same as before, and then the season ends off with an adaptation of Big Finish’s The Time of the Daleks.

Season 39 is probably the closest season to its original, since Season 29, with it opening with No Sky in Space, introducing Anna Hope’s Sandra Armstrong, RTD taking over as script editor etc...etc... Bill Shapter, now replaces Sue Vertue, as producer, and does Season 40 as well. Our first new story is MoneyPuzzle but it’s not really, as it’s just a renaming of Sometimes Money Does Grow on Trees and it’s a pun on the tree, Monkey Puzzle, which is the type of tree which is growing money or whatever that story was about. Illusions of Life and Outer-Space Takes Manhattan follow as simple 1-parters, and then a new story, Logged In, is slotted in, which is a very paranoid 90s/00s style story about the dangers of a chunky old Windows XP machine, and how it has an alien race living inside of it, and it all goes very moral and cerebral (good stuff!). Past Tense and The Name’s Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, become just one episode each, and then the season rounds off with the twoparter, Shattered Lives, which is a renaming of Who’s Killing the Great Doctors of the Cosmos.

Finally, we come to Season 40, which follows the exact same concept, you’d be glad to know, as I recall that was quite popular. We open with The Curse of the Tower, where Murray Melvin’s Master is Richard III (sorry Rogue), then we go to the Fourth Doctor with the 3-parter, The Sands of Time (again nothing to do with its old serial, the Sands of Life), then Peter Davison gets a single part story (soz), Creatures of Beauty based upon the Big Finish play, Colin Baker gets his regeneration story here rather than in Season 31, and it’s all about World War II and the D-Day landings, News 24/7 is renamed to it’s original LIVE 34, and is moved here as a 1-parter for McCoy to do, the Societal Step becomes an Eighth Doctor story, a 1-parter again, then Spare Parts is moved here, with an actual sensible name this time, and given to Nine, as he never fought the Cybermen (10 does in the Movie), and then the season rounds off with the Other like before.

Finally, a few small changes are made to the Movie, firstly, the cast is altered to fit with this continuity, and secondly, Tony Redston comes on as producer for the Movie, while Renwick stays on as Executive Producer, and Ira Steven Behr starts off as an Executive Producer here as well.

So, what did you think of all the changes, comment down below, and let me know, and be sure to check out the new wiki pages!

Obviously there’s been one very big retcon since the publication of this, and that was on 5 February 2021...

One of the things I did not do in the original retconathon was recast the Ninth Doctor as I thought it would still have been possible, if not incredibly likely, for Paul McGann to have been cast as the Doctor if the show hadn’t been axed in 1998. I now believe I was wrong, and I have decided as soon as possible, that the Ninth Doctor will be recast. The character of the Ninth Doctor will remain exactly the same, as will his era and even his costume, however the role will now be played by Michael French. Now this has been a hard decision and one I have been wrestling with for about two years, however I have finally decided to do it. Also, I’d like to announce a new Season 35-37 title sequence, which will be released shortly. The Season 3840 title sequence will remain the same, expect for the fact it will no longer have its blue coloured predecessor and instead it will be its own original sequence.

Enjoy Seasons 33-37 with Michael French as the Doctor!

I still get questions to this day about the retcon-athon, as many of you may never have read it before, so I hope this was useful, for those people.