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