The Rani was originally supposed to appear in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary minisode, The Night of the Doctor.

At the end of June, an enterprising Redditor bought several Series 7 scripts through Auctioneum and has now uploaded them to Google Drive. “As believers in the Freedom of Information,” Penguintim says, “we have made them available here for your enjoyment.”

Thanks to their generosity, you can now read shooting scripts for The Power of Three, The Angels Take Manhattan, Hide, The Time of the Doctor, and an earlier draft of The Night of the Doctor. The BBC’s Script Library does not include scripts for The Night of the Doctor, Hide, or The Time of the Doctor at all and only includes post-production scripts for The Power of Three and The Angels Take Manhattan.

The Night of the Doctor

While this script plays out mostly as it aired, there’s one substantial difference: in the draft dated 25th April, it would’ve been the Rani who talked the Doctor into regenerating.

The dialogue is very similar, but when viewed through that prism, it almost plays like she wants to corrupt him. “Have you done it?” the Rani asks. “Have you renounced the name of the Doctor?” Compare that to the finished episode, where Ohila (played by Clare Higgins) is pleading with him earnestly to go through with it. The script is also sprinkled with Moffatisms like “A cave of ancient darkness (maybe the one they used Wizards vs Aliens, if they’ll give us a lend)”.

The Power of Three

The script dump also confirms a long-standing rumour in the fandom. It’s an open secret that Steven Berkoff was difficult to work with during The Power of Three, where he played the Shakri. The consensus is that his role was significantly reduced because he refused to do what he was asked, so they had basically no workable footage of him. When interviewed by Starburst before the episode aired, director Douglas Mackinnon was very diplomatic: “The experience of working with [Berkoff] on Doctor Who was something that’ll never be repeated – you could ask anyone on the cast and crew and they’ll agree that his participation was extraordinary.”

In the episode as aired, he vanishes and the Doctor calls him a holographic interface. Page 113 of the script is new to us, confirming that the Ponds were originally supposed to do a pincer movement on Berkoff’s very real character before shanking him in the shoulders with syringes. He also returns to give a couple of final lines before blowing up on his ship, “the wounded Shakri screaming after the trio”.

(Incidentally, the script also reveals that there was to be a vocal cameo from newsreader Moira Stuart.)

The Time of the Doctor

At the end of this episode, the Doctor was to be surrounded by his Trenzalore companions as well as River Song “blowing the sexiest kiss” and Rory and Amy. The beginning of his dying speech has an extra paragraph. “Was I too silly? I was funny though, you have to give me that. And the fezzes were good. And the fish custard, that was the best. And I was right, wasn’t I! I was always right. Bow ties are cool. And I didn’t fly away. When it mattered, I stayed. I didn’t run. They can’t take that from me. But [the new Doctor] can. He can.”

We’re still working our way through the script goldmine for more insights on Hide and Angels, but we’d love to see even more. In the same auction, a Five-ish Doctors Reboot (draft 5, dated 20th September 2013) sold for £200, while a cache of Day of the Doctor production materials – including a VFX shot list, and a shooting script dated 27th March 2013 – sold for £480. Who knows what nuggets of information those scripts hold? If anyone has access to these, you know where to find us.

The stats:

• Cubed (AKA The Power of Three) (pink shooting script dated 1st May 2012 sold for £75)
• The Angels Take Manhattan (readthrough script dated 21st March and shooting script dated 27th March 2012) – set of both sold for £140
• Phantoms of the Hex/The Hider in the House (AKA Hide) (first draft, likely incorrectly dated 15th April 2010, and shooting script dated 21st May 2012) – set of both sold for £80
• The Night of the Doctor (earlier draft dated 25th April 2013) – £180
• The Time of the Doctor (shooting draft dated 5th September 2013) – script and a bunch of other production items (like storyboards and a 16-page SFX document) sold for £240