Definitely. The Celestial Toymaker had a ton of rewrites.
And, of course, City of Death wasn’t originally a Douglas Adams serial. It was a David Fisher story that ended up having to be heavily rewritten by Douglas Adams with Graham Williams.
(David Fisher had a divorce going on, and ended up not being available for rewrites, and, well, the original story was set in Las Vegas, not Paris, so some pretty big changes were made…)
Absolutely. And whilst I get what people are saying about RTD having too much of a hand in these scripts, especially with a limited run of episodes, it slightly niggles me when people suggest it’s an RTD problem when really I think it’s a Doctor Who problem and always has been. Time and again I’ve read behind the scenes stuff about scripts having to be rewritten because the writer couldn’t make them work, or because something had to be added/removed or they were on holiday or they fell ill. Story ideas were often suggested by the script editor or producer.
Or even the actor. 9 was supposed to be mocking and flippant in “Dalek”. All his rage and pain and foaming at the mouth was Christopher Eccleston knowing what he should do better then the writer…
And I it’s often been said that even the best writers struggle to write Doctor Who because it’s just the little bit too unique. There are a number of successful writers who just haven’t been able to write Doctor Who successfully, like Paul Abbot and Stephen Fry.
It’s always occurred to me that trying to channel the right Doctor when writing Doctor Who must be difficult. The Doctor is basically 15+ versions of the same character, and you have to remember the differences between them…
Which is also fairly amusing when you hear people like RTD and Moffat saying “we just write the Doctor” and claim not to really differentiate much, when they obviously do.
..which is something Terrance Dicks fully believed too.
That’s why I shared other examples from other eras. I don’t disagree FWIW. I find it frustrating on a number of occasions. I just think it sucks even more than usual in recent instances given that we get very few new writers as it is.
ETA: I think what I find frustrating in this instance, with this episode, is hearing RTD saying “we tried to do the Orisha gods but couldn’t tie it into the Pantheon…” [paraphrasing] - my first thought is, “so forget your Pantheon for once and work from there?” The show has tackled other gods, religions and faiths within the confines of Doctor Who fiction and managed. And as much as I think The Well turned out okay, and I’m glad a new writer contributed, I just wish we could’ve heard more from this new writer and had what might’ve been more of their vision/version than RTD’s :)
No, I do get what you’re saying. And I probably should have said it niggles me when people suggest it is a ‘new series’ problem. 
It just always winds me up a little when things that happened literally all the time in the classic series are painted as brand new issues with the modern series. But that’s on me not you because you are making a good point about the impact of it on a short season.
And as for tying it into the Pantheon - I’m absolutely agree with you. If that’s not working just tell the story you wanted to tell without twisting it to fit the arc. I would say the one issue that is a ‘new series’ issue is the desire, almost a need, to do story arcs. It wasn’t something I ever needed in Doctor Who and I think modern series has only proved they’re not essential to good storytelling. The majority of top rating episodes have been standalone like Blink and Midnight and more often than not the arcs seem to just frustrate people.
Fair enough! We’re definitely on a similar page then. And don’t get me wrong, I also get why it happens. RTD has a show to produce at the end of the day - he’s the one at the top, and he has to ensure the scripts are all good to go, and as good as he believes they can be, so sometimes he has to rework them or get more involved than maybe we as an audience would’ve liked. Just politics.
My one hope would be that some of these writers don’t remain one-offs. There’s clearly some Sharma Angel-Walfall in that episode, and the episode had to have started from something, so it’d be nice to see her come back if she gets given the chance to see a little more from her. That’s a separate niggle I have - sometimes we get these new writers and then we never see them again. I know some go off to do other stuff - fair enough - but damn it’s a shame when our show finds great talent and then can’t get them back for another swing of the bat!
Although to be fair, some of them may not want to have another swing. They may not have found they enjoyed doing it, or not feel they have any more stories to contribute. Or simply be busy working on their own projects or other shows.
Goddammit Rob Shearman! 
/j
My pie in the sky hope is that the new novelisations will have rekindled him
10/10 for me
Thought it was thrilling and chilling, loved it!
I get this but I think there are plenty of fans who have never & will never watch Classic Who & probably don’t know as much about the behind the scenes shenanigans* as some of us.
*I did just write this reply so I could use the workd shenanigans lol
True, but it’s usually classic ‘fans’ complaining about these supposed ‘issues’.
I applaud the use of the word shenanigans.
Shenanigans!
I don’t applaud copycats though.
I don’t applaud copycats though.
What kind of shenanigans is this? I will never applaud copycats though.