The Doctor isn't the only one who can take a trip back in time! As well as documents about Regeneration & selecting Companions, the BBC Archive has also released galleries.
These three galleries feature the actors before they were famous for being The Doctor, publicity shots of when they first joined the show, and... actors who were being considered for the roll of The Doctor!
Before The Were Time Lords
There are some fantastic pictures and captions. Along with a very young Patrick Toughton, my favourite has to be Tom Baker (the Dourth Doctor) with Maggie Smith (better known to today's viewers as Harry Potter's Professor McGonagall) in George Bernard Shaw's The Millionariess.
If you want, you can refrlect on Before They Were Time Lords...
Welcome To The TARDIS
It seems that it's never easy being a new Doctor. Ever since the first regeneration, there has been negative reactions from viewers. Patrick Troughton (the Second Doctor) was described as a "half-witted clown" and compared to the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. While Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor) was labelled as "too aggressive", and Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor was just as disliked.... but not as much as his Companion Mel (better known as Bonnie Langford).So Matt Smith isn't the first to be Welcome(d) To The TARDIS...
Nearly Who
But what about the actors who nearly got the part? Those who were nearly The Doctor? After all, with 11 different actors, there must have been 11 different rounds of casting. They must have gone through a LOT of actors before they had picked their favourites.Some names that stood out for me were:
- Fulton Mackay - He was set to be the Fourth Doctor, but was signed on for the first series of Porridge instead.
- Mark McGann - Coming from a big acting family, the Eighth Doctor Paul McGann wasn't the only one in the McGann clan who auditioned for the 1996 TV movie.
- Richard Griffiths - Harry Potter's Uncle Dursley, and slain citizen of Sleepy Hollow. He was favourite to be The Doctor TWICE! Originally set to be the Fifth Doctor (which ultimately went to Peter Davison), he was later slated to follow Sylvester McCoy as the Eighth Doctor until the series was cancelled.
If you're interested, you can see who else was Nearly Who...
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