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biiitheway:

But, like…take the Doctor out of Moffat’s era and what do you have?

Nothing.

The baddies of each season just wanted to kill the Doctor.

Series 5 had them want him trapped inside the Pandorica, Series 6 had them wanting him to be killed by River, Series 7 just had the baddie running into his time stream to kill him a million times over, and Series 8 was just Missy trying to impress him.

You can’t do that in RTD’s era. In RTD’s era, the Doctor stopped actual evil from killing people.

Lots of people would die if you took RTD’s Doctors out of their stories (shown clearly in Turn Left, too), while nothing would happen to begin with in Moffat’s era if you took his Doctors out of the stories.

Personally, I prefer heroes that are there to save other people, as opposed to being there to save themselves.

I’m honestly not sure if I’m even reading this right (just take the Doctor out of everything and see what happens?), but it’s a fun thought experiment, so let’s see:

Take the Doctor out of Series 5/6/7a: There’s no order of baddies attempting to stop the Doctor, because the Doctor doesn’t exist. Amy grows up with her parents, because the cracks in the universe caused by said baddies didn’t take them away. Probably safe to say she’d still be a imaginative, creative child though. She never gains her deep fear of abandonment, because no-one abandoned her in this ‘verse – not her parents, not the Doctor, no-one. I think she still would have married Rory.

No River, though. Without the Doctor, there’s no River. Or at least not the River we know: maybe Amy and Rory still had a daughter. Or maybe they didn’t. Who knows?

Amy and Rory live long and happy lives but still feel like there’s something they didn’t quite get to have. Travel? Adventure? A sort of vague feeling their various skills were never quite used to their full potential? Amy would feel that most of all. She’s been a storyteller in every ‘verse. Maybe she still writes stories about great and selfish space-wizard heroes, but they probably never get told to anyone but her children.

But, moving on…

Take the Doctor out of various Series 5/6/7a non-arc-related episodes:

The Beast Below: If the Doctor doesn’t exist, Amy doesn’t get to go with him to the future, and she never solves Starship UK’s big problem. The poor space whale keeps on getting tortured.

Victory of the Daleks: Again, Amy isn’t there to talk Bracewell back into his humanity (for lack of a better word). Bracewell explodes and destroys the Earth. Granted, we know the Earth didn’t explode in 1941 anyway. But still

Vampires of Venice: No cracks in the universe, so the vampires/Satuwhatsits never come to Earth. Day saved

Amy’s Choice: No Amy in the TARDIS (no TARDIS at all?), so this one can’t happen

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood: Nasreen’s drill still wakes up the Silurians. Without the Doctor around to try and mediate, presumably there’s a higher level of casualties on both sides.

Vincent and the Doctor: I don’t really want to do this one because Vincent van Gogh really existed, of course he didn’t really meet the Doctor, etc etc. But you do lose a really well-done, sensitive, important (to me at least) episode about the nature of depression.

The Lodger: …I can’t remember what the origin of the eating-people spaceship even was. It was kinda vague. Was it the Silence? If it was, you lose that as well. If not, then without the Doctor the spaceship presumably keeps on killing people. Er…I guess Craig and Sophie also don’t get together? So no baby Alfie either.

A Christmas Carol: Kazran Sardick continues to be a SarDick, the spaceship crashes and kills a lot of people (although not Amy and Rory)

The Curse of the Black Spot: The Siren probably keeps kidnapping sick people until she works out how to cure them, although I assume no-one actually dies

The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People: Presumably another one where there are a lot more casualties until some sort of agreement is reached

Night Terrors: George keeps turning people into dolls I suppose, at least until his dad finally gets around to telling him he loves him

The God Complex: The Minotaur runs rampant luring people in and killing them for at least a little longer I guess?

Closing Time: No baby Alfie, so Craig…probably gets turned into a Cyberman? So do lots of other people we met in that episode I guess. The Cybermen possibly succeed in their plan to convert the human race, unless someone else stops them. (Martha + Mickey? Torchwood? UNIT? Do any of them exist as we know them, with no Doctor?)

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe: …actually I think you could take the Doctor out of this one and have everything turn out basically the same? Madge does all the important stuff. I could be wrong though.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship: Solomon presumably continues to be a creepy murderer and kill other people

A Town Called Mercy: Not sure. The Gunslinger dies at the end instead of living?

The Power of Three: Without the Doctor on hand to re-shock back to life all those people, one-third of the human race is gone

The Angels Take Manhattan: No Amy and Rory to save the day by jumping off a building, so the Angels probably ‘farm’ a lot more people

Take the Doctor out of Series 7b/8/9:

Okay, no Doctor = no Master, that seems about right. So she never gives Clara the Doctor’s number and she never meets him. Clara probably stays on as nanny to Artie and Angie for a while and then goes into teaching. She probably still meets Danny, maybe has less relationship problems with him with no Doctor, but Danny still dies, obviously. I don’t think Clara would ever really recover from that (I don’t think she ever really did in the show either) but she herself doesn’t die. (Well, ‘die’) She’d still love teaching, and travelling, but I think she’d always think that she had missed out on some greater destiny. This wouldn’t be enough to ruin her, not nearly enough, but she’d always wonder…

But anyway –

Take the Doctor out of various Series 7b/8/9 non-arc-related episodes: (this is tricky, because Missy is tangentially involved in a lot of them)

The Snowmen: Okay, no Doctor and no Clara. Do Vastra and Jenny still exist? (They’d have never met Strax I guess.) Either they stop the Great Intelligence turning humanity into ice creatures…or humanity gets turned into ice creatures

The Bells of St John: Many more people get their souls eaten by the Internet I can’t imagine what that must be like

The Rings of Akhaten: Poor Merry gets eaten. Akhaten probably eats the whole planet eventually

Cold War: No Clara to change Skaldak’s mind. He lauches the missiles, World War III starts, humanity is over (another thing we know didn’t happen, being here and all.)

Hide: Hila and the Crooked Man never get rescued

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS: No Doctor, no TARDIS, the Van Baalen brothers continue to be very dysfunctional

The Crimson Horror: Mrs Gillyflower succeeds in her plan, (unless Ada stops her?) No Clara to smash the rocket’s controls, so everyone on Earth dies

Nightmare in Silver: Planet blows up, lots of people die

Time Heist: The Teller continues to be a slave, Psi and Saibra continue to be miserable

The Caretaker: The Skovox Blitzer destroys the planet

Kill the Moon: Lundvik destroys the moon creature, probably

Mummy on the Orient Express: Everyone aboard the train dies, since the Doctor doesn’t teleport them to the TARDIS

Flatline: No Clara to save the day, so the Boneless presumably eventually kill everybody on Earth

In the Forest of the Night: Without the Doctor there to work out the meaning of the trees the trees are destroyed, everyone on Earth dies

Last Christmas: The dream crabs kill all those nice people we met

Under the Lake/Before the Flood: The Fisher King conquers Earth

The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived: The Mire come, Ashildr dies with her people and never becomes immortal. This also means Face the Raven never happens…

The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion: Assuming this episode actually could happen in the first place in a universe without the Doctor – he’s not around to give his quite spectacular speech and change Bonnie’s mind, so presumably an all-out, very bloody war begins eventually.

Sleep No More: I have no idea what the hell was going on in this episode. Didn’t the bad guy win anyway? I don’t know. Don’t really fancy watching it again. Anyone wanna fill me in?