It’s a common misconception that the main character in the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who is named “Doctor Who.” In reality, their name is “Doctor Whom,” and the real fans know that.
And there have been dozens of performers considered for the role of Doctor Whom over the show’s 60-year history, ranging from the also-ran footnote character actors of the 1960s and ‘70s, to genuine, A-list stars in more recent years. Here’s a look at some of the more recognizable faces that nearly took over the TARDIS controls before thinking better of the opportunity, passing it up, or royally wetting the bed.
Benedict Cumberbatch didn’t make his Doctor’s appointment
During a talk show interview in 2011, Benedict Cumberbatch revealed that he was encouraged by rapidly-exiting incumbent Doctor David Tennant to toss his zany red felt fez in the ring for the part of Gallifrey’s wackiest scofflaw. In spite of what would eventually become a lucrative working relationship with the series’ new showrunner, Stephen Moffat, Cumberbatch declined the invitation, going on to state that playing the Doctor means “you are on the flask, you are on the school lunch box, you have to sometimes go on the school bus as Doctor Who on promotional tours. I like to keep the work on the set.”
Incidentally, here’s Benedict Cumberbatch shooting a promo video a few years later, visiting a comic book shop dressed as Doctor Strange.
Brian Blessed made things hawkward
If you don’t know Brian Blessed, then yes, you do. His trumpeting baritone voice and Ghost of Christmas Present physicality have been bringing larger-than-life characters to the screen for over 60 years, including Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace, Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon, and, no kidding 13 years’ worth of Grampy Rabbit on Peppa Pig.
Speaking with The Telegraph in 2014, Blessed recalled being invited into the Doctor Who fold all the way back in the ‘60s. He shot down the opportunity, but fortunately, he wasn’t turned away at the door when he showed up to play King Yrcanos in the Sixth Doctor MIndwarp serial a few decades later.
Bernard Cribbins almost had an even longer Doctor Who history
If you love Doctor Who, chances are that you love the late Bernard Cribbins, the actor who brought the objectively adorable Wilfred Mott to life across David Tennant’s run on the show, along with a role in the Peter Cushing Doctor Who movie in 1965, if you want to get super obscure. What you might not know is that Cribbins met with the producers of the series back when they were shopping for their fourth Doctor. Speaking with Digital Spy in 2013, he recalled being asked what he would bring to the role, and telling the folks in charge that he’d been a paratrooper and knew how to fight. He was a little ahead of his time, and the Doctor’s tortured war era was still a long way off, narratively speaking. It was a pass.
Alan Cumming had to be going
It would have been fun, seeing Alan Cumming running from Daleks in whatever outfit the The Traitors host would have picked for himself – presumably something involving a mesh kilt and a dope bowler hat, but that’s just a guess. He was slated to play the Doctor in a series revival circa 2003, but the plans were scrapped in favor of the Russell T. Davies reboot. Cumming got the last laugh, appearing in the series nearly 20 years later as one of the only watchable aspects of the Chibnall era.
Dame Judi Dench could have been Doctor Judi Dench
During the blue sky phase of developing the return of Doctor Who around the turn of the century, many names got thrown around. Among them: Judi Dench, who was reportedly a favorite of series producer and BBC executive Jane Tranter. Would Dench have accepted the role? Hard to say. Your gut tells you “no,” but then you remember she said yes to CATS, so who knows? She’s a wild card.
Alan Rickman didn’t blink, but the studio did
Sometimes, you find out that an actor was up for the part of the Doctor and think “Weird, that would’ve been different.” Other times, you think “Wait, how did that not happen?”
Alan Rickman came treacherously close to playing the Doctor back in the ‘90s, when the franchise was, as a whole, deep in the throes of flop sweat. A feature film was set to be made, directed by Leonard Nimoy and featuring Rickman in the lead role, with Caroline Munro as his Gallifreyan companion. Doctor Who: A History reports that the story would have involved Amelia Earhart, kissing, and kissing Amelia Earhart, had the whole thing not blown up in an eruption of litigation and lapsed franchise rights.
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