- 4 minutes ago
Those Doctor Who actors and extras whose talents broke through our perception filters!
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, Ellie here, and we're thrilled to say that this video is sponsored by Magic the Gathering, Doctor Who,
00:06but more on that later.
00:08It takes true talent, good looks, or clumsy footing to make a lasting impression on Doctor Who as a minor
00:14background character.
00:15The vast majority are forgotten about as quickly as they appeared, but some have gone on to leave a lasting
00:21mark in the Hooniverse Hall of Fame, or even the entertainment industry as a whole.
00:25I'm Ellie with Who Culture here with 10 Doctor Who background actors who got themselves noticed.
00:31Number 10, Naomi Aki.
00:33Naomi Aki is a Doctor Who actor so deeply embedded in the background that you'd be forgiven for forgetting she
00:39appeared in the show.
00:40She played the girlfriend of Riggsie and the mother of his child in a brief phone call in Face the
00:45Raven, and also appeared in a deleted scene from that same episode.
00:49Set after Clara's heart-wrenching death, the scene shows her comforting a distraught Riggsie for whom the Impossible Girls sacrificed
00:55her life.
00:56Despite her only on-screen appearance being excised from the finished edit, Naomi Aki has gone on to great things.
01:03She recently received acclaim for her performance as Whitney Houston in I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and also played Lando
01:09Calrissian's potential daughter in Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker.
01:12And she'll also soon be seen opposite Robert Pattinson in Oscar-winner Bong Joon-ho's Mickey 17.
01:18Doctor Who's loss is very much Hollywood's gain.
01:22Number 9, The Skipping Sontaran.
01:24Okay, sure, it's hard to be caked underneath heavy layers of prosthetics, but spare a thought for those minor Doctor
01:30Who actors who don't even get that luxury.
01:33Actors like the poor Sod who had to put on a Sontaran helmet and blindly chase Tom Baker around a
01:38Victorian swimming pool.
01:39The Invasion of Time has one of classic Doctor Who's greatest cliffhangers, as the Force Doctor defeats the tinfoil Vardans,
01:46only to realise that he's left the door wide open for the Sontarans to invade Gallifrey.
01:50Sadly, it's all downhill from there, as the story quickly descends into a Scooby-Doo chase through the TARDIS, which
01:56looks suspiciously like an old Victorian hospital.
01:58There is a standout moment, however, when one of the Sontarans chases the Doctor, crashes through a sun lounger, and
02:05stumbles over a step, only for Tom Baker to lob another sun lounger at him, sending him clattering dangerously close
02:11to the edge of the pool.
02:13As one of Doctor Who's most infamous bloopers that was kept in the final edit, it never fails to raise
02:19a big laugh, and has given this particular Sontaran his own special place in the show's history.
02:24Number 8, Margaret John.
02:26Margaret John first appeared as the no-nonsense Meghan Jones in Fury from the Deep, sent to investigate the strange
02:33goings-on at the refinery.
02:3538 years later, she returned to the world of Doctor Who in the minor but memorable role of faceless Grandma
02:41Connolly in The Idiot's Lantern.
02:43John had a long and varied career across the decades, having appeared in the likes of Game of Thrones and
02:48Run Fatboy Run before her death in 2011.
02:51And while she's probably best known for playing the foul-mouthed Doris in Gavin and Stacey, it's her minor role
02:57as Grandma Connolly that could be her lasting legacy.
03:00Uh, well, I beg to differ actually, because as soon as I just saw the photo of her, do you
03:04know what came to my mind?
03:06Where's the salad? Where's the salad?
03:08There's your salad, now leave me alone!
03:10Her face is barely seen in the episode, on account of it being sucked into the telly by the wire.
03:16However, the most remarkable thing about faceless Grandma Connolly is that she actually got her own action figure, complete with
03:22swappable heads.
03:23I think I actually owned that at one point.
03:25Not every background actor gets their own action figure, so it's pretty remarkable, if unconventional, as a tribute to Margaret
03:32John's amazing career.
03:34Number 7. Graham Cole
03:36Graham Cole played all manner of Doctor Who monsters in the early 1980s.
03:40He played a Marshman in Full Circle, the Melkor in The Keeper of Traken, and a Cyberman in The Five
03:45Doctors.
03:46He has blink-and-your-missed appearances out of costume, too.
03:49However, it was in another iconic British series that Cole would ultimately make a name for himself when he was
03:55cast as PC Tony Stamp in The Bill.
03:58The character was one of the longest-serving cast members in the beloved Police Soap, which ran for over 2
04:03,000 episodes between 1983 and 2010.
04:06These impressive credits have allowed Cole to brush shoulders with royalty, and to establish himself as an iconic figure in
04:12his own right.
04:13Not bad for a guy who started out beneath layers of prosthetics as Chief Marshman opposite Tom Baker, eh?
04:18As we mentioned earlier, this video is brought to you in partnership with Magic the Gathering Doctor Who.
04:24Every Doctor, any dimension.
04:25There are four new Doctor Who-themed Commander decks that are available right now,
04:30and each deck is focused around a different era of the greatest show in all of time and space.
04:35There's the Timey Wimey deck, which allows you to enjoy some fish fingers and custard with the 9th, 10th, and
04:4111th Doctors.
04:42The Blast from the Past deck, which is focused on the first eight Doctors and their companions.
04:46The Paradox Power deck, which is all about the 12th and 13th Doctors.
04:50And the Masters of Evil deck, which allows you to unleash your inner master as you take on the role
04:55of all of the Doctor's greatest foes.
04:58Now, my favourite deck is the Paradox Power deck, and it won't surprise any of you to learn that that's
05:02the one with River Song in it.
05:04For some exclusive gameplay, make sure that you check out our recent video where we teamed up with a bunch
05:09of other Whovians to take down that pesky master.
05:12And head to the link in the description to purchase the complete set now.
05:19Number 6. Terry Walsh
05:20Terry Walsh was John Pertwee and Tom Baker's stuntman for some of the more involved sequences in their Doctor Who
05:27eras.
05:27As well as blending into the background as a stunt performer and fight arranger, Walsh also played a handful of
05:33usually ill-fated characters,
05:35like the tumbling Auton from Terror of the Autons.
05:37However, it's not these roles that got Terry Walsh noticed during his time on Doctor Who.
05:42Nor was it the time he had to step in for Tom Baker when the star broke his collarbone on
05:47the Sontaran experiment.
05:48It was during the climactic fight scene of The Monster of Peladon Part 4,
05:53in which Walsh's full face and unconvincing John Pertwee wig can clearly be seen on camera.
05:58It's so glaringly obvious that director Lenny Main had to get Pertwee to record a couple of lines of dialogue
06:04to try and distract viewers.
06:05Unfortunately, in the current age of high-definition Blu-rays and giant TVs, those dubbed lines don't quite distract from
06:12the glaring error.
06:14Number 5. Alexander Devriant
06:16It really says something that in a trailer featuring a giant Neil Patrick Harris, Donna Noble threatening to kick an
06:22unseen alien's arse,
06:23and Kate Stewart's giant Avengers Tower, that it was an unnamed unit soldier who was getting a portion of the
06:29fandom hot under the collar.
06:30Escorting the Doctor and Donna to a rooftop meeting with Kate Stewart, the handsome hero quickly attracted the attention of
06:36thirsty Doctor Who fans on social media,
06:39including our very own Mr. Sean Ferrick.
06:42Bless him.
06:42Thanks to a keen-eyed Twitter user, it's since been confirmed that the soldier is played by Ted Lasso's Alexander
06:48Devriant.
06:48He will be playing Colonel Ibrahim in the final 60th anniversary special, The Giggle.
06:53And while he likely won't be a background actor by the time the anniversary rolls around, Devriant's passing appearance in
06:59the trailer certainly made a good first impression.
07:02There'll be many people eagerly awaiting his first appearance as the Colonel,
07:05while also hoping he'll be joining the Unconfirmed Unit spin-off, supposedly coming at some point in the future.
07:11He just has to survive an encounter with the Toymaker first.
07:14Fingers crossed.
07:15Eh, Sean?
07:16Number 4. John Levine
07:17From one unit soldier to another now, as Sergeant Benton, John Levine played a key role in Doctor Who's unit
07:24family during the 1970s.
07:26However, Levine had been appearing in Doctor Who for several years before his big break.
07:30He'd previously played a Cyberman in The Moonbase and a Yeti in The Web of Fear when he was starting
07:36out as an actor.
07:37And he also appeared in the classic BBC police procedural Zed Cars.
07:41And it was there where he met legendary Doctor Who director Douglas Canfield, who was taken with Levine's lack of
07:47professional training and slight innocence.
07:50It was Canfield who then suggested that Levine play Corporal Benton in the serial The Invasion, when the original actor
07:56was fired for poor timekeeping.
07:58As Levine was already signed on to play an extra in this serial, he happily agreed to the bigger role,
08:04and alongside Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier, formed the earliest iteration of Unit.
08:08And when Canfield returned to direct Inferno, he further established Levine's Benton as part of the Pertwee era's Unit family.
08:15This is very much a clear case of it's not what you know, it's who you know.
08:20Number 3. Johnny Lee Miller
08:21The cast of the fifth Doctor classic Kinder is stacked, but the most famous actor in the entire cast is
08:28one of the background artists,
08:30a very young Johnny Lee Miller, who played the uncredited role of fruit-bearing child in this serial.
08:36That fruit-bearing child would grow up to play Sick Boy in both Trainspotting movies,
08:42the other modern-day Sherlock Holmes in Elementary,
08:45and weirdly, a Hollywood handsome version of former Prime Minister John Major in The Crown Season 5.
08:51What's strange about Johnny Lee Miller's one and only contribution to Doctor Who is that it's just that.
08:56A quick rifle through the various wild rumours about potential Doctor actors from Chris Marshall to Denzel Washington
09:02reveals that Johnny Lee Miller has never been linked to the role at any point in his career.
09:07And given that he's now played Sherlock Holmes,
09:10he probably doesn't want to play another eccentric British genius in a long-running TV show,
09:15so missed your chance there, Doctor Who.
09:17Number 2. Josh Dallas
09:18Everyone has to start somewhere, right?
09:21Even Prince Charming.
09:22American actor Josh Dallas was working in the UK at the start of his career
09:26and had a very small role in the hugely important Doctor Who episode that introduced River Song,
09:32the best character.
09:33He's since gone on to high-profile roles in Manifest and Once Upon a Time,
09:38but he started out as a literal face on a slab.
09:41But hey, if it's good enough for Shirley Henderson,
09:43Dallas played Node 2 in Silence in the Library.
09:45You know, one of those computer interfaces with a literal human face attached to it?
09:49In a deliciously dark Stephen Moffat twist,
09:52it transpired that these nodes were fitted with the faces of those that had donated them after death.
09:57This set up one of Moffat's greatest cliffhangers as Donna Noble is later saved to one of the nodes.
10:02It's a tiny but vital role and will likely be a footnote in Dallas' CV.
10:06That said, he must get a tiny thrill whenever he's approached at conventions
10:10to sign a photo of Node 2 instead of his iconic roles in things such as Once Upon a Time,
10:15or Manifest, or even Thor for that matter.
10:18Number 1. Kenneth Williams
10:20Right at the start of An Unearthly Child,
10:23a young boy interrupts his two chattering classmates with a Kenneth Williams-style,
10:27ooh, yes.
10:28It's a moment that always guarantees a chuckle from Doctor Who fans,
10:31despite how many times they might have seen the episode.
10:34So much so that the wonderfully funny and forensic Toby Haydook
10:37set out to identify this minor actor and relate their life story on his Too Much Information podcast.
10:43Played by actor Richard Wilson,
10:45this TV schoolboy would later get a small speaking role in the movie To Sir With Love,
10:50and to differentiate himself from his empty child and one foot in the grave namesake,
10:54Richard Wilson, he changed his name to Richard Alexander,
10:58but later quit professional acting for a career in hospitality.
11:01In the Coal Hill School set spin-off class,
11:03a young boy called Kevin was memorialised as Kay Williams
11:07on the extensive list of dead pupils and teachers,
11:09including D. Pink and C. Oswald.
11:12A coincidence, but a pleasing one nonetheless.
11:14More interesting still,
11:15future second Doctor companion Fraser Hines
11:18was under consideration for a background role in the Coal Hill scenes
11:21during Doctor Who's pilot episode.
11:23Again, what a small world or universe.
11:26Who-niverse?
11:27And that's everything for this list,
11:29but for more before they were famous Doctor Who roles,
11:31why not check out 10 future stars who appeared in Doctor Who?
11:35In the meantime, I've been Ellie with Who Culture,
11:37and in the words of Riversong herself,
11:39goodbye, sweeties.
Comments