10 Things You Didn't Know About Doctor Who - Really?

[Rob McCow]

Spot of honesty here - there's a big article from I09 that claims there are 10 things you probably didn't know about Doctor Who. Which ones are news to you?

http://uk.io9.com/5783845/10-things-...yline=true&s=i

10) The Doctor almost met God.
John Wiles, who took over as producer of the show after original producer Verity Lambert left in 1965, wanted to push the show in a more experimental direction. And one of his ideas was a story called "The Face of God." According to Wiles, "the TARDIS is stopped in mid-air by this enormous face which claims to be that of God himself. Of course towards the end it would be proven that all was not as it seemed." Wiles was surprised to see his idea appear, nearly a quarter of a century later, in the movie Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. (You can just picture William Hartnell asking, "What does God need with a time machine?")

9) At least three different races have secretly guided the human race and helped us develop our current technology. The Daemon, Azal, reveals that the Daemons have helped humanity to advance to its present state of sophistication, and now we're to be tested (in "The Daemons.") The Fendahl also turns out to have guided the whole of human history to the moment where it could be released (in "Image of the Fendahl.") And Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, uses his various time-splintered selves to help the human race advance more quickly throughout history, so he can build a time machine in the 20th century. ("City of Death.") Plus there's some implication the Osirians (from "Pyramids of Mars") did some guiding of humanity here and there. You have to wonder if they weren't falling over each other at some point.

8) Several actors played one-off roles on the show before becoming regulars. Peter Purves played American tourist Morton Dill (with a ridiculous accent) before joining the show as new companion Steven. Nicholas Courtney played Space Security Service Agent Bret Vyon in "The Daleks Master Plan" and then later played the Brigadier. John Levene was a Cyberman in "The Moonbase" and a Yeti in "The Web of Fear" and then became the recurring UNIT character Sgt. Benton. Ian Marter played the boxing-obsessed Lt. Andrews in "The Carnival of Monsters" and then played Harry Sullivan for a year or so. Lalla Ward was the awesomely named Princess Astra in "The Armageddon Factor" before becoming Romana. Colin Baker was a thuggish Time Lord, Maxil, in "Arc of Infinity," and then became the Doctor himself. Freema Agyeman was Adeola, a Cyber-victim, in "Army of Ghosts," and then played Martha Jones. And Karen Gillan was the Soothsayer in "Fires of Pompeii" before playing Amy Pond.

7) The Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, tried to create a couple of Doctor Who movies. One of them was Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, a film in which the Doctor would have tangled with the Devil (aka Scratchman, as he's sometimes called in folklore) along with Daleks and robots called Cybors. There were also scarecrows made of bones, which came to life. And both Vincent Price and Twiggy would have co-starred. And then there was Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen, which Baker tried to develop with then-writer Douglas Adams — who wound up using many of the ideas in his third Hitchhiker's book, Life, The Universe and Everything.

6) Mick Jagger's estate, Stargroves, was used in two 1970s Doctor Who stories. These were "Pyramids of Mars" and "Image of the Fendahl." As far as we know, Jagger wasn't actually present during the filming of either story, and they only shot exterior location shots at Stargroves. Nor were any Jagaroth involved.

5) The Doctor was originally planned to be an anti-science reactionary. With a time machine. All of the original documents behind the creation of Doctor Who are online at the BBC, and they make for fascinating reading. Among other things, there's a memo outlining a very different type of show about a team of "Troubleshooters" who solve problems. Also, various ideas for how the Doctor's time machine could be disguised — like, it's a clear bubble, or we never even see it at all — are tossed out. But the craziest notion is that the Doctor is traveling through time and space to find a perfect, idyllic past, free of science and technology. "He is an extension of the scientist who has opted out... One symptom of this is his hatred of scientists, inventors, improvers. ... He malignantly tries to stop progress (the future) wherever he finds it, while searching for his ideal (the past)."

4) Tom Baker wanted to have a talking cabbage as a companion. At least, so legend has it. The talking cabbage would have been an alien creature that sat on the Doctor's shoulder, and could have served as a replacement when Louise Jameson (Leela) left the series. Baker was also quite keen on the idea of the Doctor having a much older woman as a companion.

3) One of Peter Davison's first companions could have been a former Tom Baker companion. As Tom Baker neared the end of his run of playing the Doctor, the new producer, John Nathan-Turner, wanted to bring back a former companion to help bridge the gap between the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. He approached Elisabeth Sladen, who didn't want to return to the show, but agreed to star in a spin-off instead. But he also was in talks with Louise Jameson, who'd played Leela, for quite a while. Jameson was keen to come back for two or three stories, but Nathan-Turner wanted her to commit to a whole season, and she said no. So instead, the new character of Tegan Jovanka was created.

2) The Daleks almost didn't appear in the new series at all. The original co-creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation, owned the copyright of the show's most famous monsters. At various points during the show's history, the Daleks had been off limits (notably 1968-1971) and Nation's Estate was leery of letting the revamped show use them. While Rob Shearman was working on his script, "Dalek," negotiations broke down altogether — the show couldn't include the Daleks at all. Shearman explained to Den of Geek:

I'm afraid I panicked a bit for a week or two. I came up with other ideas for new episodes altogether, but I was trying too hard - and eventually Russell sat me down, gave me a new monster to plug the gap, and sent me back to work. The identity of that monster, the fact it wasn't an iconic Dalek, changed the entire script from top to bottom - it made it much funnier, actually, which I rather liked. What he gave me was a silver ball, and told me that within it he'd later reveal an entire human head from the end of time - they had come out of nowhere, these mysterious creatures, killed the Time Lords, killed the Daleks....

Russell told me that he had in mind that those silver balls were part of a season three idea he'd now brought forward - and, sure enough, at the end of season three there they were, now called the Toclafane. He's a clever chap, Russell.

Of course, in the end, the Terry Nation estate relented and the Daleks were able to appear after all. But it's fascinating to imagine how things could have played out differently if the Toclafane had been the villains of season one.

1) The Doctor could have had an evil son. The show's original star, William Hartnell, was keen on doing a storyline called "The Son of Doctor Who." No, this wouldn't have been an earlier version of "The Doctor's Daughter." As Hartnell explained:

At one time (in late 1964) I thought we might extend the series and I suggested giving the Doctor a son and calling the programme The Son of Doctor Who. The idea was for me to have a wicked son. We would both look alike, each have a TARDIS and travel in outer space. In actual fact, it would have meant that I had to play a dual role when I `met' my son.

Would this son have been the father of the Doctor's granddaughter Susan? The BBC shot down the idea, so we'll never know.

I'm afraid I knew all of those!

[Andrew Curnow]

Snap!

[SiHart]

If they'd found one thing I didn't know, I'd have been impressed.

Who was originally cast as Sarah Jane?

Si xx

[Dino]

I didn't know all the details of 10. Or 5,3 or 2.
6 out of 10 pretty good!

[Larry]

8, 6 , 5, 2, I dd know about 3, 1 I think i've read about in DWM, at some point but the rest I didn't know.

[J.R. Southall]

Yup.

How about this (my own favourite piece of Doctor Who trivia):

The very first man to go before the cameras in studio on Doctor Who, never actually made it to the television screen on BBC1 - although he wasn't edited out of the finished programme.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll let someone else who does explain. Or else I'll be back tomorrow with the solution!

[Andrew Curnow]

Are we talking about the policeman being recast from the pilot?

[Lissa]

This isn't the answer but technically no one was on BBC1 in 1963 as it wasn't numbered until 1964.

[Rob McCow]

Something to do with a pen torch, I believe?

[Logo Polish]

Are we talking about the policeman being recast from the pilot?

Or possibly the person who looked into the cameras when they were working on the title sequence, and which produced an effect where his face appeared to break up on them. A technique which was later adapted for the Troughton titles. Although I'm assuming these wouldn't have been recorded in the studios.

There were indeed different policeman extras for the first scenes in the pilot and actual transmitted episode. I think one of them was Reg Cranfield, who - really minor trivia coming up here - later played a Time Lord as an extra in The Deadly Assassin, but I can't remember which one, or who the other one was. It was in some Matrix Data Bank column years ago.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

4) Tom Baker wanted to have a talking cabbage as a companion. At least, so legend has it. The talking cabbage would have been an alien creature that sat on the Doctor's shoulder, and could have served as a replacement when Louise Jameson (Leela) left the series.

Instead we got Adric and Tegan?

[J.R. Southall]

Andrew got it instantly. I should have used "a part of the drama" as part of the "question", really, shouldn't I? And I had to specify BBC1, because of course, the pilot has been shown elsewhere on the BBC decades later.

But I just find it fascinating/horrifying that there's someone out there, who was the very first person to have the camera pointed at him in the studio for an episode of Doctor Who (and what a claim to fame that would be in the years that have followed!), and yet even though they didn't have "editing" techniques in those days that could easily excise someone from an episode - in fact, even though the character is still in the episode, this poor actor is nowhere to be seen!

[Andrew Curnow]

I suspect the guy spend many a night down the pub sharing a pint and a moan with Ray Cusick.

How bitchy, sorry.

[Larry]

Instead we got Adric ?

now that's very unfair to compare a cabbage, to Matthew Waterhouse, the cabbage, has got far more acting skill..

[Stuart Wallis]

And as for Tegan - well the cabbage had better hair...

[J.R. Southall]

There's a really curious post script to this little anecdote, too: one of the guys who played the policeman in one of the two versions of An Unearthly Child was also an extra (Parisian Man) in The Massacre, but they're both listed in The Massacre's imdb entry, which seems to indicate that no one knows which of the two coppers it was! (Unless of course, they were both in The Massacre, playing "Parisian Man", but that seems even more unlikely!)

[SiHart]

I found out a good new fact the other day- apparently Lis Sladen couldn't drive, so they had to double her when she was shown driving in Robot. And do you know who the double was? Only Maggie Philbin!

[Andrew Curnow]

No way! That is an amazing fact!

[SiHart]

Maggie revealed it on her Twitter feed the day Lis sadly died. It is indeed a quite amazing fact.

[Dave Tudor]

I knew all except the God one. And the Maggie Philbin one!!

[Awesome Wells]

I knew them all except number five. I loathe myself -- although whether this is for not knowing it or for knowing all the rest, I cannot say.

[SiHart]

On the plus or minus side, at least you didn't know them all Dave.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Andrew got it instantly. I should have used "a part of the drama" as part of the "question", really, shouldn't I? And I had to specify BBC1, because of course, the pilot has been shown elsewhere on the BBC decades later.

But I just find it fascinating/horrifying that there's someone out there, who was the very first person to have the camera pointed at him in the studio for an episode of Doctor Who (and what a claim to fame that would be in the years that have followed!), and yet even though they didn't have "editing" techniques in those days that could easily excise someone from an episode - in fact, even though the character is still in the episode, this poor actor is nowhere to be seen!

What about whoever played "caveman shadow" at the end of the pilot? Okay, technically he didn't have the camera pointed AT him (or her), but (as far as I know at least) it was part of the pre-filming and was re-used in the actual episode 1 so did actually make it to screen. I wonder who it was? It's a bit unlikely it would have been the actual actor who played Za/Kal/Whoever it was.

[Si Hunt]

I like the fact that exploring old episodes, especially missing ones, usually turns up something you didn't know about them. How many people know that "The Celestial Toymaker" contained Doctor Who's first ever flashback sequences, clips from "The Daleks Masterplan" Episode 12 and "The Massacre"?

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

Unless we include the flashbacks in An Unearthly Child - although they weren't flashbacks as in 'clips from old episodes' so maybe don't count?