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"Doctor Who writer Gareth Roberts has revealed that his recent episode &amp;#039;The Lodger&amp;#039; originally featured the return of an old villain. He told Doctor Who Magazine that earlier drafts of the script featured the villain Meglos. The character previously fought Tom Baker&amp;#039;s fourth Doctor in a 1980 story - also called &amp;#039;Meglos&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d been joking about &amp;#039;Meglos 2&amp;#039; for years,&amp;quot; said Roberts. &amp;quot;But when I sat down to write the first draft [of The Lodger] it suddenly seemed right.&amp;quot; He explained that the villain was eventually dropped from the episode as his cactus-like appearance was too similar to alien race the Vinvocci, who appeared in the final David Tennant adventure, &amp;#039;The End of Time&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;Meglos survived in my script for quite a long while, but then we saw the Vinvocci,&amp;quot; he confirmed. &amp;quot;And as the rest of the story was more comedic, we decided the villain had to be as scary as possible.&amp;quot; Doctor Who will return to BBC One this Christmas for a one-off special. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a260410/who-writer-cut-out-classic-villain/>