The long history of Doctor Who is littered with “What if’s?”. What if Terry Nation had allowed the Daleks Vs Cybermen story to go ahead back in the 60s? What if William Hartnell had been replaced in “The Celestial Toymaker”? What if the legal issues surrounding the use of the Daleks hadn’t been resolved in time for the 2005 comeback?
Perhaps the most tantalizing of all though is the notion of there being other Doctors. Different actors playing the Time Lord in place of the ones we know and love. Entirely new takes on the iconic character that might have changed the course of Doctor Who's history. Below are just a few actors who came close to taking on the greatest role in television.
10 Ben Daniels
An award-winning actor with a notable stage career, Ben Daniels was one of the few actors on the shortlist to play the Twelfth Doctor.
Peter Capaldi was always Steven Moffat’s first choice for the iconic role, but there were a few others lined up in case he declined. Daniels has made no secret of the fact that he was readily willing to take on the Doctor, speaking passionately about his love for the show.
9 Richard Hearne
Jon Pertwee was a big act to follow, his era taking Doctor Who to new heights of popularity. Therefore, his successor had to have the chops to continue the success of the flagship show.
One person on outgoing producer Barry Letts’ list was Richard Hearne, a character actor famous for his performance as Mr Pastry a few decades prior. Pastry was a clumsy, bumbling character who always got himself into silly situations. Unfortunately, Hearne seemed unable to separate this persona from that of the Doctor, and the role instead went to Tom Baker.
8 Bernard Cribbins
Bernard Cribbins is no stranger to Doctor Who. After his much-loved appearance in the non-canon movie Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., he’d return to the series during the (first) David Tennant era as Donna Noble’s grandad, Wilf.
He was considered for the role of the Fourth Doctor, with his humorous characters and songs perhaps bringing to mind the pre-Who career of Jon Pertwee. Allegedly, Cribbins was keen to make the Doctor a little more violent, which put the producers off.
7 Fulton Mackay
Immortalized in the iconic British sitcomPorridge as the ruthless prison warden Mr Mackay, Fulton Mackay’s first brush with Doctor Who came in 1970. He played Dr Quinn in “Doctor Who and the Silurians”.
When the Doctor of that story, Jon Pertwee, announced his departure several years later, producers considered Mackay as a possible replacement. According to Barry Letts, Fulton Mackay was keen on having an involvement in the script-writing process which was a big 'no-no'. Had he been cast, Mackay would have been the first Scottish Doctor, decades before Sylvester McCoy.
6 Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming stole the show as King James I in the Jodie Whitaker pseudo-historical “The Witchfinders”, but he was offered the part of the Ninth Doctor himself when Russell T Davies revived the show.
Cumming would certainly have given an eccentric twist to the ancient Time Lord, but he was reticent about moving to Cardiff for a long period of time for shooting. He would have had to have spent eight months at a time down there, which wasn’t to his liking.
5 Russell Tovey
Russell Tovey was wonderful in the role of Midshipman Frame in “Voyage of the Damned”, and then-showrunner Russell T Davies has made it very clear how much he loves the actor.
Although Tovey wasn’t known to be on any lists for David Tennant’s possible replacement, Davies said that if he’d remained in charge of the show, Tovey would have been his first choice for the Eleventh Doctor.
4 Bill Nighy
Bill Nighy was very high on the list of potential Ninth Doctors, and he confirmed that he had been approached for the role. Indeed, one UK newspaper was so confident that he’d gotten the part that they confirmed it on a front-page story the same day that Chrisopher Eccleston’s casting was announced.
Nighy said that the responsibility of the part was a little much for him, and he declined. He did, however, turn up for a cameo in “Vincent and the Doctor”, written by his long-time collaborator Richard Curtis, as museum curator Dr Black.
3 Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed’s name was bandied about a lot during the mid-1980’s, when various Doctor Who movie projects were being suggested. However, Blessed was actually approached by the BBC back in the 1960s, as a candidate for the Second Doctor.
Blessed said that his ideas for the Doctor “scared the BBC to death”, being rather un-PC and not particularly in-keeping with the Doctor as established by William Hartnell. He did eventually appear in the show, alongside Colin Baker in the 14-part epic, “The Trial of a Timelord”.
2 Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant was offered the part of the Ninth Doctor outright by Russell T Davies, but the part never got past his agent. Davies had wanted to work with Grant for a long time, but the idea of spending a year in Cardiff wasn’t to Grant’s liking.
Of course, Hugh Grant had already played the Doctor once before, in the excellent spoof “The Curse of Fatal Death”. It was a small glimpse of what might have been – a handsome, dashing Doctor in the vein of Davison or McGann, perhaps?
1 Alan Rickman
There is a long, complicated history of the unmade Doctor Who movies that were lost in development hell during the 1990s. Once such film, written by Denny Martin Flinn, (co-writer of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) had Alan Rickman attached and in active negotiations for the part of the Doctor.
Unfortunately, the deal for the movie fell apart as certain rights expired, and a new company took over the deal to make a Who movie. This meant that Alan Rickman was out. It was sadly the only time he’d be involved with Doctor Who in any capacity.