Doctor Who Alternate Incarnations
Jun. 9th, 2012 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidc(This is the sort of thing I do when I'm bored. It's even sillier than the family tree.)
Question: Is it possible to create a coherent history of alternate incarnations of the Doctor, based on the various actors who've played him outside the main sequence?
Answer: Probably not, but here's what happens if you try.
Setting aside Peter Cushing's Dr Who as not a Time Lord, and therefore not regenerating, the most obvious candidate for Alternate First Doctor is Geoffrey Bayldon from the Doctor Who Unbound audio dramas.
However, there is another possibility; Nick Scovell played "a" Doctor in a series of stage plays. And while several of them are based on Second Doctor stories, there's one of The Daleks' Masterplan which apparently ends with him regenerating into Nick Briggs. This is interesting for reasons we'll see later.
So for the moment let's call Bayldon the 1A Doctor and Scovell the 1B Doctor. The regeneration scene makes Briggs the 2B Doctor, and for 2A ... how about David Troughton as heard in the Serpent Crest audios? (Yes, these apparently feature the regular Fourth Doctor; I've thought of that...)
Obviously, the two Unbound stories based on the Doctor getting a different face at his trial feature Alternate Third Doctors. And that's why it's interesting that the 1B Doctor regenerates into Nick Briggs, because in Unbound: Exile, Briggs plays the Arabella Weir Doctor's past self. Weir therefore slots neatly into place as the 3B Doctor, confirming Briggs as 2B. So David Warner's Third-Doctor-who-missed-the-UNIT-era is 3A.
The 4A Doctor is, er, Tom Baker, because I don't see anyone else who fits here, and it means Serpent Crest works[1]. The 4B Doctor goes back to stageplays: Trevor Martin of Seven Keys To Doomsday. (Yes, I'm completely ignoring the fact that the opening of Seven Keys showed John Pertwee regenerating into Martin.)
The 5A Doctor is David Collings from Unbound: Full Fathom Five, for no real reason except that I find the ruthless "end justifies the means" Doctor to be more interesting as a contrast to Peter Davison than Colin Baker or Slyvester McCoy. (What if... the Seventh Doctor was a bit more honest with himself?) That makes the uncredited Ian Brooker the 6A Doctor. And let's stick with stageplays for the B-universe and say the 5B Doctor is David Banks from two performances of The Ultimate Adventure.
But for 6B I lapse into borrowing from the regular Whoniverse again, and say he's just Colin. This is because the 7B Doctor is, of course, Michael Jayston from Unbound: He Jests At Scars, in which the Valeyard succeeds in taking over the Doctor's remaining incarnations, or whatever the heck he was doing. And, um. 7A is going to have to be Sylv, because I'm running out of options. But he's the alternate-timeline Sylv from the Elizabeth Klein saga.
And both of them are going to have to regenerate into Paul McGann, but there are so many versions of the Eighth Doctor I feel a lot more comfortable in saying they regenerate into different Paul McGanns[2]. 8A, of course, is "Johann Schmidt", again from the Klein saga. And maybe 8B has his memory altered by the Time Lords so he won't recall being the Valeyard, and becomes the Infinity Doctor.
The 9A Doctor is Rowan Atkinson from Curse of Fatal Death, which of course, also gives us 10A-13A (Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley). And 9B is Richard E. Grant again, only the Shalka version. 10B is Peter Anglehides' redhaired Doctor in the afghan coat. Maybe.
That all make sense?
[1] I was tempted to have Jim Broadbent's Doctor from Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, but I firmly told myself "No spoofs! Well, except COFD..."
[2]There was a great picture in DWM many years ago showing multiple McGann Doctors, but it seems to have inexplicably not been put online.
Question: Is it possible to create a coherent history of alternate incarnations of the Doctor, based on the various actors who've played him outside the main sequence?
Answer: Probably not, but here's what happens if you try.
Setting aside Peter Cushing's Dr Who as not a Time Lord, and therefore not regenerating, the most obvious candidate for Alternate First Doctor is Geoffrey Bayldon from the Doctor Who Unbound audio dramas.
However, there is another possibility; Nick Scovell played "a" Doctor in a series of stage plays. And while several of them are based on Second Doctor stories, there's one of The Daleks' Masterplan which apparently ends with him regenerating into Nick Briggs. This is interesting for reasons we'll see later.
So for the moment let's call Bayldon the 1A Doctor and Scovell the 1B Doctor. The regeneration scene makes Briggs the 2B Doctor, and for 2A ... how about David Troughton as heard in the Serpent Crest audios? (Yes, these apparently feature the regular Fourth Doctor; I've thought of that...)
Obviously, the two Unbound stories based on the Doctor getting a different face at his trial feature Alternate Third Doctors. And that's why it's interesting that the 1B Doctor regenerates into Nick Briggs, because in Unbound: Exile, Briggs plays the Arabella Weir Doctor's past self. Weir therefore slots neatly into place as the 3B Doctor, confirming Briggs as 2B. So David Warner's Third-Doctor-who-missed-the-UNIT-era is 3A.
The 4A Doctor is, er, Tom Baker, because I don't see anyone else who fits here, and it means Serpent Crest works[1]. The 4B Doctor goes back to stageplays: Trevor Martin of Seven Keys To Doomsday. (Yes, I'm completely ignoring the fact that the opening of Seven Keys showed John Pertwee regenerating into Martin.)
The 5A Doctor is David Collings from Unbound: Full Fathom Five, for no real reason except that I find the ruthless "end justifies the means" Doctor to be more interesting as a contrast to Peter Davison than Colin Baker or Slyvester McCoy. (What if... the Seventh Doctor was a bit more honest with himself?) That makes the uncredited Ian Brooker the 6A Doctor. And let's stick with stageplays for the B-universe and say the 5B Doctor is David Banks from two performances of The Ultimate Adventure.
But for 6B I lapse into borrowing from the regular Whoniverse again, and say he's just Colin. This is because the 7B Doctor is, of course, Michael Jayston from Unbound: He Jests At Scars, in which the Valeyard succeeds in taking over the Doctor's remaining incarnations, or whatever the heck he was doing. And, um. 7A is going to have to be Sylv, because I'm running out of options. But he's the alternate-timeline Sylv from the Elizabeth Klein saga.
And both of them are going to have to regenerate into Paul McGann, but there are so many versions of the Eighth Doctor I feel a lot more comfortable in saying they regenerate into different Paul McGanns[2]. 8A, of course, is "Johann Schmidt", again from the Klein saga. And maybe 8B has his memory altered by the Time Lords so he won't recall being the Valeyard, and becomes the Infinity Doctor.
The 9A Doctor is Rowan Atkinson from Curse of Fatal Death, which of course, also gives us 10A-13A (Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley). And 9B is Richard E. Grant again, only the Shalka version. 10B is Peter Anglehides' redhaired Doctor in the afghan coat. Maybe.
That all make sense?
[1] I was tempted to have Jim Broadbent's Doctor from Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, but I firmly told myself "No spoofs! Well, except COFD..."
[2]There was a great picture in DWM many years ago showing multiple McGann Doctors, but it seems to have inexplicably not been put online.
