Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who doesn’t do deleted scenes - except it does, we just don’t get to see them. OK, so the odd snippet ends up online but it’s far from the complete package we’re use to getting on the DVDs.
Something has changed. Season 9 has arrived in boxset form (DVD/Blu-Ray) and for the first time since 2010’s Specials set, there they are, deleted scenes! Oh wow.
There’s nothing featured from either Last Christmas or The Magician’s Apprentice, but from The Witch’s Familiar we see Missy (Michelle Gomez) escaping from the Dalek city claiming to have had a very clever idea…
Under the Lake brings the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Clara (Jenna Coleman) arriving via TARDIS, meeting a member of the underwater base team, who instinctly tells them everything they need to know about the situation… despite never having met them before.
It’s prequel/sequel (it’s complicated) Before the Flood has an extended conversation between the Doctor and Paul Kaye’s Prentis that sets up events, before ending on a rather melancholic note - “I forgive you” indeed.
The Girl Who Died has Maisie Williams’ Ashildr showing Clara and the Doctor scrolls detailing Odin’s history of her people. It’s a longer take than we’ve seen previous, and involves a neck malfunction, and talk of Danny Pink.
Next up, The Woman Who Lived offers an extended scene of the Doctor looking through Ashildr’s diaries. It mixes flashbacks with the ‘cliffhanger’ ending from The Girl Who Died. It feels a tad more emotional than what we actually got to see on TV. We also get to see the Doctor interact with Ashildr at another point in her history - in passing, during the dark days of the plague.
Another scene from the same episode sees hints of a romance between Ashildr and her monster companion, Leandro.
The last clip from The Woman Who Lived features the Doctor trying to talk his way out of being taken to the hangman’s noose - by revealing he’s actually undercover for Scotland Yard (which he isn’t sure even exists at this point in history) and offering to beat the £20 reward on his head.
For The Zygon Invasion there is a short clip of Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) walking down the street on her phone, and another of Clara leaving home (this last one probably deleted as the footage is a little too shaky!).
Auntie Vi leaves a couple of voice mails for Clara in the third and final clip from The Zygon Invasion.
The Doctor is glad he’s not a baddie in The Zygon Inversion (due to the smell of their hangouts) and in Sleep No More a monster stomps down a corridor.
Rigsy (Joivan Wade) mentions Derren Brown in a Face the Raven clip. Then, from what’s presumably the end of the episode, he goes home in tears.
Meanwhile Heaven Sent brings a few extended sequences of the Doctor in the castle, noticing clues that we missed on original broadcast. He reveals he was “young and telepathic” once!
Unfortunately there is nothing extra from Hell Bent, although The Husbands of River Song has the Doctor make a further request about that hotel build on Darillium…
There we have it. All in, it’s 25 minutes and 17 seconds of unseen content. Nothing essential from the mix, or particularly memorable, but it’s still nice to know that we have everything included this time. Thank you Mr Moffat!
Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Season is out now on DVD (R.R.P. £34.99) and Blu-Ray (R.R.P. £39.99).
Every episode can also be purchased digitally from the new BBC Store.
