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When the opportunity to travel in time and space just isn't enough.
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00:00Due to Doctor Who's very nature of travelling anywhere in time and space,
00:04different stories and locations each week,
00:06it has had an ever-expanding roster of guest stars over the past 58 years.
00:12Some actors take a role on the show out of love and nostalgia.
00:15Others, like John Simm, take the role so that their children
00:18will actually be able to watch their parents work
00:20without fear of bad language or sexy scenes.
00:24Not everyone holds the show in such esteem, however,
00:27and there have been a fair few guest actors who aren't overly thrilled to take part in the show.
00:32And even those that are sometimes have particularly strange requests
00:36in order for them to get into character as all manner of alien weirdos,
00:40historical figures, and intergalactic tyrants.
00:43This list collects a range of actors who've appeared in the show over the past five decades,
00:48charting their unusual requests, vanity, eccentric motives, and incredibly demanding performances.
00:54With that in mind, I'm Ellie with Who Culture,
00:56and this is 10 Most Unusual Demands Made by Doctor Who Guest Stars.
01:01Number 10.
01:02Vi Delmar Negotiated a Separate Contract for Her Teeth in The Pirate Planet
01:06Vi Delmar was an English character actor who'd pop up in everything,
01:11from Carry On Cowboy to Doctor Finley's Casebook.
01:14Born in 1902, Delmar was in her mid-70s when she was cast as the aged queen Xanaxia
01:20in the closing two parts of Douglas Adams' Doctor Who debut, The Pirate Planet.
01:25Queen Xanaxia, of course, was the true villain of the story.
01:29In an attempt to remain youthful, she plunders the galaxy for rare minerals
01:33to power the time down that sustains her.
01:35Trapped in the final few moments of her life, she is defeated by the Doctor,
01:39who warns her that there's not enough energy in the world to sustain her existence forever.
01:44In order to better portray this wise and old queen,
01:47Delmar was asked to remove her false teeth by director Pennant Roberts.
01:51She refused to do so, and ended up negotiating an extra fee to appear on screen without her falses in.
01:58According to IMDb, this was her final on-screen credit as an actor,
02:02but Delmar lived on until 1994.
02:05The fate of her false teeth is unknown.
02:07Number 9.
02:08Nicholas Briggs Disagreed with How the Daleks Were Written in Doomsday
02:12Nicholas Briggs is so entwined with the Daleks now
02:15that a whole nation responded to the executioner's line,
02:19I am not Nick, with, yes you are.
02:21On top of this, he's the voice of the Cybermen, the Jadoon, the Zygons,
02:25Skaldak the Ice Warrior, not to mention his extensive work with Big Finish.
02:30Briggs is one of the few figures to have been with Doctor Who since 2005.
02:34He's the monster guy.
02:36He has a ring modulator.
02:37He's the Dalek expert.
02:39So much so that during filming of the series' two finale, Doomsday,
02:44he disagreed with how the dialogue was written.
02:46Reading the script, Briggs felt that Dalek Sek sounded like he was jarringly in conversation with himself,
02:52and that the lines would be better split between Sek and another Dalek.
02:55Director Graham Harper agreed, and they sought permission to change the script as written.
02:59Is Briggs paid by the Dalek, or just a flat rate for voice work?
03:03If the former, then this was a sneaky little move for some extra cash.
03:07But it's more than likely to be the latter, and he just really knows his Daleks.
03:11Number 8.
03:12John Kane's method acting nearly barred him from filming in Planet of the Spiders.
03:17John Kane's performance as Tommy in 1974's Planet of the Spiders is a bit of its time.
03:23It's not a particularly nuanced portrayal of a character with learning difficulties,
03:27though the script does have its heart in the right place.
03:30When Sarah exclaims, you're normal, after his miraculous interaction with the Great Crystal,
03:35Tommy simply replies, I hope not.
03:37Kane was predominantly a theatre actor at the time of filming,
03:41and would get into character on his way to the first day of shooting.
03:45Adopting Tommy's voice, he asked the taxi driver to take him to where they made the television programs,
03:51because he was on his way to meet his friend Doctor Who.
03:54On arriving at TV Centre, the taxi driver alerted a security guard,
03:58who told Kane that the TARDIS had left, and Doctor Who would wave to him next time he was on telly.
04:03Kane turned down the driver's offer of a lift back home,
04:05and eventually had to remonstrate with the guard to be allowed inside to start filming.
04:10Number 7.
04:11Simon Callow insisted Dickens be treated with respect in The Unquiet Dead.
04:16Actors will sometimes avoid roles that may damage their reputation,
04:20often by being connected with work that doesn't appear worthy of their talents.
04:23Simon Callow is slightly different, and was reticent to appear in The Unquiet Dead,
04:28because he was fearful that it would sully the reputation of Charles Dickens.
04:32Having written about the author and having played him in a one-man show,
04:36Callow is a proper Dickens scholar,
04:38and was uncomfortable with the idea of him being a guest in a Doctor Who story.
04:42His fears were rooted in the idea that the author is often deployed as a cheap way
04:46to add some Victorian character to a ropey old period piece.
04:50He'd clearly seen what Doctor Who did with HG Wells in Timelash.
04:54So Callow was adamant that the script be respectful to the Dickens legacy.
04:58He was therefore pleasantly surprised when he realised that Gatiss was almost as big a Dickens fan as he was.
05:04Callow was drawn to the script that saw the author worry about his legacy and his value
05:08as he nears the end of his life.
05:10It's one of the great Doctor Who performances,
05:12and was perfect to relaunch the series' historical adventures.
05:17Number 6.
05:17Kate O'Mara swapped Hollywood's sunshine for a damp gravel pit for Time and the Rani.
05:22Kate O'Mara always brought a bit of Hollywood glamour to Doctor Who in the 1980s.
05:27She only appeared twice, but the character was such a hit with fans
05:31that any time a big-name female actor is cast as a villain,
05:34she's immediately rumoured to be the Rani.
05:36Keeley Hawes and Michelle Gomez were certainly speculated to be new incarnations of the villainous Time Lady.
05:42To date, she's not made a return, perhaps due to how Kate O'Mara made the role her own.
05:47Indeed, O'Mara was very keen to return to the role for 1987's Time and the Rani,
05:52in spite of her success in the USA in popular soap Dynasty.
05:56She also had a few requests for executive producer John Nathan-Turner when she wrote to him,
06:01I can't stand the eternal sunshine.
06:03You've got to help me.
06:04I want to be in a gravel pit somewhere in the pissing rain,
06:08changing in a caravan in front of 20 nosy crew members.
06:11Whilst the hours and hours of location footage on the new Blu-rays
06:14don't dwell on her changing room arrangements,
06:17she certainly gets her wish for a soaking wet gravel pit.
06:20Number 5.
06:21Paul Darrow was out for revenge against Colin Baker in Timelash.
06:26Actors take on roles for all manner of reasons.
06:29For Paul Darrow, he accepted the role as Tekka in Timelash,
06:32purely out of a thirst for revenge.
06:34Back in 1980, Colin Baker had made a scene-stealing appearance as the villainous Baben the Butcher
06:40in the Blake 7 episode City at the Edge of the World.
06:43Darrow felt that Baker's bombastic performance upstaged him on his own show.
06:48He's not wrong.
06:49It's a role that lives long in the memory and has now spawned a big Finnish spin-off.
06:53Darrow decided to return the favour five years later on the set of Timelash.
06:58Nathan Turner had cast him to play the role of the collaborator Malan Tekka
07:02in the same cool, anti-heroic manner that he played Avon.
07:05Darrow declined this offer and instead decided to perform the part
07:08as if he was Shakespeare's Richard III, hump and all.
07:12Director Pennant Roberts declined the hump,
07:14but Darrow proceeded to exaggerate his performance in what is one of the most memorable Doctor Who guest turns.
07:19And at least Colin Baker got some good convention stories out of it.
07:23After all, it could have been worse.
07:25Stephen Berkhoff was also in contention for the role of Tekka,
07:28but much more about him later.
07:30Number 4.
07:31Anthony Ainley's bald cap mishap in Time Flight.
07:34If you believe Tom Baker, and thousands wouldn't,
07:37then master actor Anthony Ainley was bald as a kneecap.
07:40The master's jet black hair was, unsurprisingly, a wig.
07:44Anecdotally, he was very sensitive about his baldness
07:46and would insist on his make-up being done in private.
07:50Ainley's sensitivity over his baldness reached ludicrous heights
07:53during the production of 1982's Time Flight.
07:56For reasons that are never made clear,
07:58the master is disguised as the mystical Khalid,
08:01a bald racist stereotype for the benefit of seemingly nobody.
08:04Of course, to wear the heavy latex and make-up used to cover up his appearance,
08:08Ainley would have to remove the wig.
08:10No deal.
08:11He insisted that the make-up artist fit the bald cap over his luxurious black wig.
08:16Christopher Lee was similar.
08:18He refused to remove his wig for his role as Mycroft Holmes
08:21in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,
08:23until he was eventually convinced to by the director, Billy Wilder.
08:27Ron Jones, the director of the much-derided Time Flight,
08:30had no such luck with Ainley,
08:31despite warning of the unbearable heat he'd have to deal with.
08:35Number 3.
08:36Anton Differing preferred tennis to Doctor Who in Silver Nemesis.
08:40Anton Differing was a prolific German character actor
08:43who had fled Germany in 1939 to live and work in Canada, the US, and Britain.
08:48Often playing Nazis in the movies following the end of the war,
08:52he appeared in genre classics like Where Eagles Dare,
08:54and also starred in Jerry Lewis's infamous little-seen concentration camp clown film,
08:59The Day the Clown Cried.
09:01By the late 80s, Differing was in his 70s and very much still working.
09:05Doctor Who's 25th anniversary special Silver Nemesis
09:09centred on a battle between the Cybermen, a Nazi and his private militia,
09:13and two Elizabethans to obtain the mythical Nemesis statue.
09:17It's up to the Doctor and Ace to stop them.
09:19And who did the Doctor Who production team have in mind for the ageing Nazi?
09:23Why, Anton Differing, of course!
09:24Differing was completely unaware of Doctor Who, and had never seen an episode.
09:29He took the role on, though, not because he was a late convert to the magic of the show,
09:33but because the shooting dates coincided with Wimbledon,
09:36and he could watch the matches between shoots from his hotel room.
09:39Number 2. Davros Smokes Inside a Paper Bag in Genesis of the Daleks
09:44No disrespect to those who came after him, but Michael Wisher was the definitive Davros.
09:49Evil doesn't shout, it whispers, he famously noted,
09:53and it's this hissing menace that brings the creator of the Daleks so chillingly to life.
09:58A eugenicist who is absolutely convinced of the purity of his own race
10:02above all else.
10:04The darkness of Davros and Terry Nation's inspiration from the dark subject matter of
10:09the Holocaust is at odds with the frankly crazy way that Wisher prepared for the role.
10:14Knowing that he would be encased inside a rubber mask to play the part,
10:17he decided to rehearse his lines whilst wearing a paper bag on his head.
10:21The idea was that the bag would prepare him for the restrictive experience of wearing the Davros mask.
10:26Wisher was also a prolific chain smoker,
10:28and cut two air holes in the top of the bag to allow him to smoke whilst wearing the very flammable
10:34paper bag. Something which would never in a million years happen in an age of health and safety
10:39legislation. When it came to playing Davros on set, Wisher had a peculiar costume decision.
10:44Beneath the black leather tunic, he wore a kilt and knee pads in order to feel more comfortable
10:48in the Dalek shirt.
10:50Number 1. Stephen Burkhoff's never-to-be-repeated role as the Shakri in The Power of Three.
10:56In an interview with SFX magazine, The Power of Three director Douglas MacKinnon rather diplomatically
11:02stated that,
11:03You could ask anyone on the cast or crew and they'll agree that his participation was
11:08extraordinary. As the years have passed, some details have come out in various fan circles
11:13that suggest this is code for he was an absolute nightmare to work with. Allegedly, he refused
11:18to act, delivered lines in bizarre ways, and through numerous tantrums. The day's shooting
11:23with Burkhoff was virtually unusable, and Chris Chibnall had to hastily rewrite dialogue to work
11:28with what they could salvage. The Shakri was never originally intended to be a hologram, but Burkhoff's
11:34stock-still performance necessitated such a rewrite. In an interview a few years later, Burkhoff
11:39complained about being worked to death and spending the majority of his 15 hours in the makeup chair.
11:45Perhaps by the time he'd been made up as the Shakri, he was ready to go home. It's no excuse for
11:49unprofessional behaviour though. The biggest laugh is that MacKinnon had worked with Burkhoff before.
11:54One can only imagine how he'd have behaved with an unfamiliar director.
11:57And that concludes our list of the most unusual demands made by Doctor Who guest stars.
12:03If you can think of any others that weren't mentioned in this video, then comment them below,
12:07and while you're there, like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell. Don't forget to head
12:11over to Twitter to follow us there. I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of Riversong
12:16herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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