Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, Ben Aaronovitch, doctor who, Radio Free Skaro, Rivers of London, russell t davies, sophie aldred, sylvester mccoy

Doctor Who: Ace Nearly Became a Time Lord – What if Anyone Could?

Doctor Who originally planned to turn companion Ace into a Time Lord in the 1980s before the show was canceled. So what exactly happened?

The BBC cancelled the classic series of Doctor Who in 1989 just as cast and crew were raring to go on the Seventh Doctor's (Sylvester McCoy) fourth season, and the potential arcs and storylines have been endlessly discussed and speculated about by fans even today. Some of the stories and ideas were eventually incorporated into the Virgin New Adventures novels published in the 1990s by some of the series writers. One of those writers was Ben Aaronovitch, who wrote two of the defining stories of the Seventh Doctor's era, "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Battlefield." If the series had not been cancelled, Aaronovitch would have been involved in the next season, and the biggest change would have been Ace (Sophie Aldred) becoming a Time Lord. Long time fans have always known about this, since the writers and producers never kept it a secret.

Doctor Who-centred podcast Radio Free Skaro recently interviewed Aaronovitch and just found a potentially interesting post to write: Aaronovitch wrote two major stories for the Seventh Doctor and Ace and talked about how he sold his first script to Doctor Who without an agent and how he was in on the idea of Ace becoming a Time Lord.

How Ace Would Become a Time Lord

In the fourth season, Ace would've ended up inducted into the Time Lord Academy to train to become a Time Lord under the tutelage of the Doctor. Aaronovitich said they came up with the idea that anyone could be a Time Lord because it's a state of mind and not the elitism of being Gallifreyan. This would inject literal new blood into the show if it hadn't been canceled. Aaronovitch said the idea wasn't to make a political point; it was just a cool idea that could generate new story ideas down the line. That is the nature of TV writing, after all, to find new stories to tell and keep things fresh. The idea of the democratization of the Time Lords is as good as any. Ace continues to be a fan favourite companion. Anyone who can beat up a Dalek with a baseball bat deserves to be.

This was decades before the debate in Star Wars fandom that anyone could be a Jedi. This would also give Ace the ability to deliver exposition instead of always asking The Doctor what was going on. The Doctor would ask her what she was observing when they arrived at any scene, and she would describe it to bring the viewers up to date. It wouldn't just be dry exposition but part of her character and evolution. Apart from that, it would have been the biggest change in Doctor Who lore next to the "Timeless Child" retcon. However, there was never any talk of whether Ace would have gotten the ability to regenerate.

If Russell T. Davies takes up the idea that anyone could become a Time Lord, that would be a huge change to the show.  Of course, lots of fans would hate it, and there would be endless posts and YouTube videos ranting about it. As for Aaronovitch, he's doing very well these days as the author of the bestselling Rivers of London novels, a fun series about Peter Grant, a London cop who becomes a member of the magical crimes division of the Metropolitan police.

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