The Second Doctor - the alternatives

[Anthony Williams]

Most reports suggest that Patrick Troughton was also the production team's first choice to take over from William Hartnell in the lead role of Doctor Who, allegedly having even been endorsed by Hartnell himself. However, other actors were considered. Here's a look at some of the alternatives:



Rupert Davies

At only 8 years younger, Davies would've been a curious choice to play a rejuvenated version of The Doctor. Davies was most famous for playing the titular role in Maigret, but also had roles in Quatermass II, Joe 90, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Waterloo. Slightly bizarrely, he was also the first man to win Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1964.



Valentine Dyall

Best known to us Who fans as the Black Guardian, Valentine Dyall had a very distinguished career, he dabbled in other areas of sci-fi in both the radio and tv versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, playing Gargravarr in the former, and voicing Deep Thought in the latter. He had also voiced the main villian, Dr. Noah, in the 1967 version of Casino Royale. But he was perhaps best known as the Man in Black, narrator of the BBC radio series Appointment With Fear.



Michael Hordern

Michael Hordern was best known as a stage actor. But he was also prolific on film, TV and radio. His role as the narrator on the 1975 TV series of Paddington was his most famous TV role, and he was in high demand for voice-over work. His filmography is, quite frankly, massive - amongst other things, he had roles in Scrooge, Sink the Bismarck!, El Cid, Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (alongside Rupert Davies), Khartoum, Where Eagles Dare, Up Pompeii, Ghandi, Labyrinth and many, many others. He was knighted for services to theatre in 1983. Yet, like Davies, it would've been a strange choice, being only three years younger than Hartnell!

So, those are the other three actors that were considered. From what I know of PS, most of us have a pretty high opinion of Patrick Troughton - and I certainly think he was the best choice. However, the question still remains - do you think any of them would have been any good?

[SiHart]

Michael Hordern would have been a superb Doctor. He had a wonderful screen presence, was a fantastic actor and had the most wonderful voice (for those of my generation he WAS the voice of Paddington Bear).

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Michael Hordern though I great actor I'm not sure would have been right for the role. It was pretty good the energy that Patrick Troughton brought to the role.

Michael would probably have been a good Doctor, but a very different one. Would the role have evolved to the point where Pertwee would have stepped in years later?

[Anthony Williams]

To be honest, based on that picture, I could see Valentine Dyall playing the Doctor as the original concept of "renewal" suggested - a younger version of Hartnell

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Interesting choices. They could've been great in different ways but with hindsight just as it's hard to think if we'd still be sitting here talking about the series if it had run for 7 years with Bayldon playing the only Doctor, it's hard to imagine the series would have survived into the colour era if the second Doctor hadn't been so uniquely different (and yet still somehow the same) to the first and Troughton did that superbly.