Boak could have been let down by the BBC and production staff and made the fall guy for delays as nothing quite like Doctor Who had been attempted by the BBC in the 2000s. It’s possible. Davies mentioned once that Eccleston and Piper were working in Cardiff on one day then took a train to London to shoot later that day and the first scene hadn’t been set up yet, so there was nothing to film. The first episode also came in short (which is why each episode has a preview of the next one) and the Slitheen two-parter is probably the nadir of that season.

Eccleston was used to working with top-level directors in television (Michael Winterbottom directed the first ‘Cracker’ story), so it seemed baffling to him that the BBC and Davies would launch a series with a no-name director that wasn’t that nice a guy, apparently: “It’s very important on a first series that you make a very informed and intelligent choice, even if it means breaking the budget. About getting the first director who is going to set the tone for the season, for the way the actors relate and that did not happen. Disaster.” Davies selected Boak after Geoffrey Sax (whose direction was not the problem on the 1996 Fox film, has done quality TV like Tipping the Velvet and Clocking Off and had worked with Eccleston on Othello) declined, yet it still seems as if there must have been many other better choices at the time, like Joe Ahearne (who got along swimmingly with the actor) .

This is not a problem that the series has faced again. James Hawes directed much of season 2, including Tennant’s first episode; Adam Smith handled Smith’s first production block; and Ben Wheatley began Capaldi’s era. (According to Moffat, it’s usually the second block that offers issues). I was surprised that Chibnall selected Jamie Childs to begin Jodie Whitaker’s era and not a bigger or more experienced director, but the infrastructure that wasn’t there at the BBC in 2005 is now firmly entrenched to ensure that the new season/era is a success and clearly Childs impressed Chibnall with his ideas and previous work to warrant such trust.