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No star is too big for the TARDIS.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Modern Doctor Who is often seen as the show that launches the careers of the next generation of stars.
00:06Karen Gillan, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya and Andrew Garfield have all passed through those big blue doors on their route to Hollywood.
00:13But what about the other way around?
00:15Back in the 1980s, John Nathan Turner was keen to get theatre legend Sir John Gilgud to play a mutant in Revelation of the Daleks,
00:23but unfortunately it never came to pass.
00:26Similarly, Dennis Hopper had voiced a desire to appear in Doctor Who,
00:29but Russell T Davies decided against it as he felt it would overshadow Kylie Minogue's cameo rather than, you know, add to it.
00:37Sometimes, however, big name guest stars do agree to appear in Doctor Who.
00:41Who could forget Alan Cummings' scene-stealing turn as King James VI in The Witchfinders,
00:46or legendary British sitcom and movie actor Beryl Reid's turn as a grizzled space captain?
00:51This list collects some of the more surprising cameos and guest turns from Doctor Who's long history,
00:56from TV episodes to charity sketches and specially filmed comedy sketches.
01:01These are some of the big stars that you may not have realised have appeared in Doctor Who,
01:05or alongside the Doctor in something else entirely.
01:09So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Who Culture,
01:12with 10 big stars you forgot appeared in the world of Doctor Who.
01:16Number 10. Brian Cox.
01:18David Tennant's final two-parter, The End of Time, was a big deal.
01:23Airing over Christmas Day 2009 and New Year's Day 2010,
01:27it was complemented by Tennant guesting on popular BBC panel show QI
01:31and specially commissioned eye-dents before each programme on BBC One.
01:36Not only that, but the production team secured two huge stars to join Tennant,
01:40Bernard Cribbins, Catherine Tate and John Simm for the big finale.
01:44One of those was former Hannibal Lecter and future Logan Roy actor Brian Cox as an Ood,
01:49or more accurately, the voice of an Ood.
01:52Brian Cox would likely channel Logan Roy's catchphrase if asked to don the Ood prosthetics.
01:57It's a brief voiceover role as the elder Ood,
01:59but the actor brings the required levels of gravitas to their portentous warning.
02:03It is returning, and he is returning, and they are returning,
02:07set the tone for the momentous end of Part 1 Cliffhanger
02:10that revealed the impending return of Gallifrey and the Time Lords
02:14to bring the RTD Tennant era to close.
02:17Years later, Cox would bring lashings of piss and vinegar to his role
02:21as Doctor Who's Canadian impresario creator Sidney Newman
02:24in Mark Gatiss' excellent docudrama about William Hartnell.
02:29Number 9. Timothy Dalton.
02:31The other huge star in The End of Time was Timothy Dalton as the President.
02:35It's only in the climactic confrontation towards the end of Part 2
02:39that RTD reveals that the President is a resurrected Razzalon,
02:43the original founder of Time Lord Society.
02:46Apparently, Davies had considered making Omega the villain for Tennant's final story,
02:50but quickly dropped the idea.
02:52Omega would require far more explanation,
02:54and a corrupt president desperate to survive
02:56is a much easier sell for a hungover New Year's Day audience.
02:59The Razzalon reveal is merely a nice bonus for fans.
03:03Timothy Dalton is excellent as Razzalon.
03:05Like Cox, he gets to do a lot of portentous voiceover acting in the first part.
03:09His vengeful fury in his confrontations with the Doctor and the Master is tangible,
03:13not to mention spittle inflected.
03:15What makes it even better is that it's essentially James Bond versus Doctor Who and the Master,
03:20a real casting coup appropriate for such a momentous role and episode.
03:24Dalton's Bond predecessor Roger Moore once said that he'd have loved to star in Doctor Who for Mark Gatiss.
03:30He never got the chance, but in the RTD era,
03:33it was only right that the Welsh James Bond Timothy Dalton joined the show.
03:378. Burt Kwok
03:39Burt Kwok was a British screen legend,
03:41born in Lancashire in 1930 and raised in Shanghai.
03:45After the Communist Revolution, Kwok returned to the UK,
03:48where he embarked upon a prolific career in film and television,
03:51which included a small role in Goldfinger.
03:54He is best known for his role as Kato,
03:56Inspector Clouseau's hands-on man-servant in the Pink Panther series.
04:00In later years, he delivered an acclaimed performance as Major Yamaguchi
04:04in Japanese Prisoner of War drama Tenko.
04:07It was around the same time as Tenko that Kwok would appear
04:09in Peter Davidson's first serial as the Doctor, 4 to Doomsday.
04:13Kwok plays Lin Futu, who was kidnapped by the frog-like monarch,
04:17and converted into an android.
04:19When the Doctor reveals that he's been deceived by the monarch,
04:22Lin Futu and his fellow androids assist the Doctor
04:24and his companions in foiling the monarch's plan.
04:28Davidson and Kwok would meet again years later on the set of The Harry Hill Show,
04:31where they took the helm off the Enterprise
04:33in a Star Trek-inflected version of Pulp's Disco 2000.
04:37In many ways, it's less weird than anything in 4 to Doomsday.
04:417. Ronnie Corbett
04:43There have been all manner of Doctor Who charity sketches and crossovers
04:46over the years, but it's rare for one of the spin-off shows to get in on the ad.
04:50Torchwood, for example, never crossed over with Hollyoast.
04:53It just felt like it did.
04:55One exception was the Sarah Jane Adventures,
04:57which got involved with Red Nose Day in 2009 to raise money for comic relief.
05:02In a sketch known as From Raxacorica Fala Pertorius with Love,
05:05Sarah Jane and her team come face-to-face with an alien ambassador
05:09played by UK comedy legend Ronnie Corbett.
05:12Given that it's comic relief, the alien part is a very thin veil,
05:16as Corbett deploys his various trademarks,
05:18a love of golf, delivering monologues from a comfortable chair,
05:21and of course, Sarah Jane gets to say a goodnight from him
05:24when she dispatches him once his true colours are revealed.
05:27For Ronnie, or Ranius, is revealed to be a Sladeen
05:30who is intent on capturing K-9
05:32and using the robot dog's knowledge and capabilities to rule the galaxy.
05:36He is very quickly found out and dispatched in a fun throwaway scene
05:40that also has the honour of introducing deadly dealy-boppers to the world of Doctor Who.
05:45Number 6. Michael Sheen
05:47Michael Sheen has been about to play the next Doctor
05:49since Christopher Eccleston's departure was announced in 2005.
05:53The Welsh actor certainly fits the bill as an idealised version
05:56of what some fans see as the Doctor,
05:58but it feels unlikely that he'll ever get the keys to the TARDIS.
06:01He'll just have to take the Doctor's ship by force,
06:04and he's already got experience in that department.
06:06Neil Gaiman's acclaimed Doctor Who story, The Doctor's Wife,
06:10casts Sheen as the voice of the villainous house.
06:13He was a non-corporeal entity that survived by consuming
06:16Artron energy from captured TARDISes on his junkyard planet.
06:20He is defeated by the TARDIS in the form of Idris,
06:23who expels the entity from the Doctor's ship.
06:26Sheen's voice is quite unrecognisable,
06:28unsurprising given his talent for mimicry.
06:31It's a spine-chilling performance,
06:32and despite recording all his lines separate from the filming,
06:35you get a real sense of Sheen going toe-to-toe with Matt Smith
06:38in the fantastic Fear Me scene.
06:41Sheen and Gaiman are, of course, firm friends,
06:43and continue to work with each other
06:44on the anticipated second series of Good Omens.
06:475. Stephen Fry
06:49You could be forgiven for forgetting that Stephen Fry appeared in Spyfall,
06:53given how brief his role as the head of MI6 was.
06:56However, that's not the forgotten Fry role in question.
06:59The polymath actor had previously appeared
07:01in a very different type of Doctor Who story back in 2001.
07:05With the series come back four years away,
07:07other revival options were being considered.
07:10One of these options was an audio serial entitled Death Comes to Time,
07:14which picked up the story of the seventh Doctor and Ace.
07:17It's a murder mystery, an epic intergalactic battle,
07:20and steeped in new Time Lord mythology.
07:22It also just happened to kill off the Doctor, seemingly for good.
07:26Joining a returning Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred
07:29was an extraordinary guest cast
07:30that included John Sessions and Anthony Head.
07:33Stephen Fry played the Minister of Chance,
07:35a fellow Time Lord who breaks the laws of non-intervention
07:38in a catastrophic fashion.
07:40It's a great performance by Fry,
07:42and the closest you'll likely get to him playing the Doctor.
07:45If the series had taken off,
07:46the plan was to have the Minister of Chance
07:48adopt a Doctor's title to redeem his prior actions,
07:51which led to the Doctor's death.
07:52It wasn't to be.
07:534. Ricky Gervais
07:55This is probably more a case of a Doctor
07:57that you forgot appeared in something else.
07:59Given that the Extra's Christmas special
08:01features Gervais' character playing a role
08:03in a fictionalised version of Doctor Who
08:05alongside David Tennant, it counts.
08:08Andy Millman takes on a part in Doctor Who
08:10when his career hits the skids.
08:12Watching the scene in question,
08:14it's clear that neither Gervais or Merchant
08:16have actually watched Doctor Who since the 1980s.
08:19The slug-like character that Millman is playing
08:21and the use of salt by Tennant's tenth Doctor
08:23to defeat him are ripped directly
08:25from 1984's The Twin Dilemma.
08:28Clearly, Colin Baker's debut story
08:29had a profound effect on the pair.
08:31It's a surprise not to see a producer
08:33wandering around in a Hawaiian shirt,
08:35a la AT's producer John Nathan-Turner.
08:38It's an odd moment,
08:39given how many big stars have played villains
08:41in real-life Doctor Who by this point
08:43in the new series' history.
08:45The idea of playing a Doctor Who monster
08:46as a low point feels outdated in 2007.
08:49It's almost as if Gervais is prone
08:51to making sweeping, simplistic generalisations
08:53in his comedy.
08:54Number 3, Eddie Redmayne.
08:57Eddie Redmayne is a name regularly plucked
08:59out of the next Doctor hat,
09:00likely due to his Doctor-ish,
09:02slightly quirky-wears-a-long-coat performance
09:05in the Fantastic Beasts series.
09:07However, Redmayne has come within spitting distance
09:09of the TARDIS in a charity sketch
09:11that saw the world of Harry Potter crossover
09:14with Doctor Who.
09:15The sketch involves Newt Scamander,
09:17a role that incidentally Matt Smith reportedly turned down,
09:20call round various fictional characters
09:22to ask if they'd seen Pudsey.
09:24The one-eyed yellow teddy
09:25is the children-in-need mascot
09:27and has clearly gone missing.
09:29Given that Newt Scamander has a history
09:31of magical creature wrangling,
09:32the mind boggles as to his intentions for the bear.
09:36One of the calls he makes is to the 12th Doctor,
09:38who lists a variety of strange alien creatures
09:40that may or may not be Pudsey.
09:43Capaldi is on fine form,
09:45relishing in rattling off elaborate creature descriptions
09:48and delivering the best gag in the whole sketch
09:50that Pudsey has destroyed whole worlds with a death ray.
09:53Redmayne, meanwhile,
09:55blandly simpers and pouts his way through it.
09:57As for calls for Redmayne to be the next Doctor,
10:00maybe the 12th Doctor should answer those.
10:02Thank you very much for your call.
10:04Have a nice life.
10:05Number 2.
10:06June Brown
10:06The late, great June Brown appeared in Doctor Who
10:09back in the 1970s,
10:11going toe-to-toe with John Pertwee in The Time Warrior.
10:15This was before she landed the iconic role
10:17that would define her career,
10:18Dot Cotton in EastEnders.
10:20Through Brown's incredible performance,
10:22Dot is firmly embedded in British popular culture,
10:25to the point that she once made friends with Lady Gaga
10:27on The Graham Norton Show.
10:29Decades after her first appearance in the series,
10:31June Brown briefly re-emerged in the Doctor Who world
10:34via a short sketch,
10:35and we're not talking about dimensions in time.
10:382011's National Television Awards
10:40channeled the spirit of Billy Crystal at the Oscars
10:42via a whistle-stop TARDIS tour around TV history.
10:46The central conceit is that presenter Dermot O'Leary
10:49has slept in for the ceremony
10:50and needs the Doctor's help to get him to the NTAs on time.
10:54The TARDIS travels 100 years into the future
10:56to find an advert-laden BBC
10:57and returns to Albert Square.
11:00When Dermot emerges onto Albert Square,
11:02he's immediately recognised by Dot Cotton
11:04as not being the Doctor.
11:06After all, he's only got one outfit.
11:08Where else would he get it cleaned
11:09but in one of TV's last standing laundrettes?
11:12Number 1. Ian McKellen
11:14Ian McKellen has regularly worked
11:16with Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy,
11:18both in King Lear at the RSC
11:20and in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy.
11:22It was while they were filming this
11:24that McKellen and Jackson submitted a short scene
11:26for the celebratory comedy
11:28The Five-ish Doctor's Reboot back in 2013.
11:31However, McKellen had already appeared in Doctor Who
11:3411 months earlier as an evil snow globe.
11:36If anyone can lend the required gravitas
11:38to something as ostensibly silly as an evil snow globe,
11:42it's Sir Ian McKellen.
11:43McKellen's voice performance as the Great Intelligence
11:45is a superb addition to 2012's Christmas special,
11:49The Snowmen.
11:50He's warm and paternal
11:51as he entrances the lonely young Simeon,
11:54then shifts to frosty malevolence
11:56as the Doctor discovers the extent of the plot.
11:58It's the sort of star casting that became expected
12:01of the Doctor Who Christmas specials
12:02since Catherine Tate,
12:04who, lest we forget, was huge in the UK in 2006,
12:07appeared in the TARDIS at the end of Doomsday.
12:10Despite him only being a voiceover,
12:11McKellen's portrayal of a classic villain
12:13like the Great Intelligence
12:14is indicative of Doctor Who's increasing popularity
12:18in the run-up to the 50th anniversary in 2013.
12:22And that concludes our list.
12:23If you can think of any that we missed,
12:25then do let us know in the comments below.
12:27And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe
12:29and tap that notification bell.
12:31Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there,
12:33and I can be found across various social medias
12:35just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:37I've been Ellie with Who Culture,
12:38and in the words of Riversong herself,
12:40goodbye, sweetie.
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