(Dead) Actors and the Doctor

[selenak]

While we're waiting for the big announcement: I got around to listening to David Tennant being interviewed on Broadcasting House (Dec. 21st) . Basically your standard "so, how does it feel to play Hamlet after the Doctor" interview, but two replies made me smile: one to the question whether he wants to play James Bond (which was basically "no way, and also, no, but a Bond villain would be fun"), and the other as to which dead actor he'd regard as great casting for the Doctor. The interviewer boringly suggested Laurence Olivier. David T., bless his fannish heart, politely let that pass and came up with Charles Laughton instead. Which instantly made me wish for a time travel device of my own, because YES. Charles Laughton would have done great and original things with the Doctor.

It also made me wonder: which dead and gone actor would you regard as good Doctor casting?

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*couldn't resist gratitious use of Bridge over the River Kwai anecdote*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel. *eyes own list*

On that note, will you continue with more audios?

[resolute.livejournal.com]

:coughs embarrassedly:

Um. Yes. I already bought the other two you recommended, and am restraining myself from just subscribing. Also, my friend Cavorter just plopped three VHS cassettes on top of my TV. "The Curse of Fenric," "The Daemons," and "Curse of the Rani."

You were spot-on, recommending Ace. :D The last bit of "Fearmonger" had me worried!!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

By all means watch The Curse of Fenric, it's my favourite Seven 'n Ace era story. However, I don't like The Daemons very much, and would NOT recommend it as an introduction to the Third Doctor era - nobody is at their best there, except for the Brig, and Three himself and the Master both are at their worst (and don't even share much screen time), and Jo had better days, too. Do NOT watch before not having seen them at their best, for which I'd recommend The Sea Devils as far as Three, Jo and the Master are concerned (they're all terrific there), and Spearheads from Space as far as the Three era in general plus Three, the Brig and Liz Shaw are concerned. (Spearheads has the additional advantage that it basically was a relaunch, or rather, a really radical shift of the premise. It was the first story of the Three era, and the Two era had ended with Two forced to regenerate and part of his memories blocked, his TARDIS disabled, and his companions, Jamie and Zoe, mindwiped and sent back to their place of origin. (This was all a punishment for Two by the Timelords.) This meant that Three was basically stranded on Earth and had no idea when his exile would end and he could use the TARDIS again. Luckily, he was encountered by an old friend, the Brigadier, who only recently had become head of UNIT, the UK branch. So this story introduces Three, reintroduces the Brig and introduces Dr. Liz Shaw, the other scientist the Brig hires for UNIT. It also introduces the Autons, whom New Who used again in the pilot Rose. It's the first use of colour tv on DW and a great adventure, with fine performances.

The Rani episode: has to be either "Time and the Rani" (bad, really bad) or "The Mark of the Rani" (fun! three-way- Time Lord bickering for the win! But alas companion Peri isn't, err, stellar here.)

Meanwhile, have Sophie Aldred's Survival Tips For Companions (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jul/06/broadcasting.comment). (Sophie Aldred plays Ace.)

The last bit of "Fearmonger" is scary as hell and I love it to bits. So glad I was right about Ace & you!

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Denholm Elliot: Indiana Jones's friend Marcus ("Spricht hier jemand Alt-Griechisch?")
He also appeared as a drunk surgeon in the Richard Chamberlain version of the ´Bourne-Identity" and you may have seen him as the sad butler in Trading Places. I always adored Denholm Elliot. I was very sad when I heard that he had died.

Jeremy Brett would have made an awesome doctor, too. I was lucky. Twenty years ago, on our honeymoon, hubby and I got to see him on stage in "The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes". :-)

[resolute.livejournal.com]

These are excellent notes -- Cavorter and I frequently have trouble with recommendations because he recommends based on the events of the plot and I recommend based on what the characters go through emotionally during the story.


Ohhhhhhh, Three is stranded! This explains some things.

Hah, Sophie Aldred is amusing, yay.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I would never recommend based on plot events myself. Curse of Fenric is fantastic, emotionally - that's the one in which Ace is confronted with her Mommy issues, especially her anger about her mother, on a big scale. It also has one of the classic Doctor character moments, as at one point when the little bads of the story can be driven away only by the belief of the people (doesn't matter in what), the Doctor starts to recite the names of his companions. ALL of his companions. (It's barely audible on the video, that's why I'm telling you, because you wouldn't understand the point of the scene otherwise.) I always thought this was a great thing about the Doctor - he doesn't just love the people he travels with, he has complete faith in them, and they're the only thing he absolutely believes in. (Being a doubter otherwise by nature.)

It's also a very unusual WWII story - without any of the usual clichés (no blitz, no bombs, no Nazis, though one character dresses up like them, but isn't one); instead, it's set in the English countryside. And has a stand-out scene addressing the bombings, btw, from an unusual perspective. And did I mention there are (good) Russians?

Three being stranded is crucial to the character. Hence the fast car (Bessie) he constantly tinkers with, the obsession with physical fighting (he doesn't attack, but he uses it in defense quite a lot, to be specific, judo and sword fighting) - Two hadn't been able to defend his companions but had relied on them defending him, so Three compensates -and the massive chip on the shoulder, and the type of relationship he has with the UNIT people. Also important in regards to his relationship with that other exile, the Master. Sea Devils takes place when the Master is temporarily imprisoned, has great dialogue and character revelations (among them Jo calling the Doctor point blank on his feelings for his supposed arch nemisis, and him admitting to it), the best duel on DW, Jo being an escape artist extraordinaire, the Master being at his mixture of charming and ruthless best, the scene RTD loved so much he paid homage to it in "Sound of Drums": the Master watching children's tv in delight, only in this case it's the Clangers, and, and, and.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oliver Reed or Terry-Thomas. Either would do nicely, in their own ways.

[spikewriter]

I posed this one to the husband -- he suggested a young George Saunders, back when he was playing "The Falcon".

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'd be really curious about Oliver Reed's Doctor. *has Richard Lester films flashback*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I can see the appeal, and I love those two (still my favourite Van Helsing & Dracula), but actors who actually did play the Doctor aren't allowed, and Peter Cushing played him in the 60s tv movies!

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

P.S. For you as a comic fan

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And as proof that the Marvelverse & Three-era DW are made for each other, a self-contained adventure, art by Pia Guerra:

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii295/jqpublique/drwhoforgotten2007.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii295/jqpublique/drwhoforgotten2008.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii295/jqpublique/drwhoforgotten2009-1.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii295/jqpublique/drwhoforgotten2010.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii295/jqpublique/drwhoforgotten2011-1.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii295/jqpublique/drwhoforgotten2012.jpg

[silverweave.livejournal.com]

God, I absolutely adore that radio adaptation, I was lucky enough to have te 26 part version before the BBC accidentally wiped over it. Classic. I never quite managed to stop thinking of Ian Holm as Frodo! I should dig deep and buy it, the tapes will only last so long I think...

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Alistair Sim. I think he may even have been linked with the part in the press at some point.

[coneyislandbaby]

(via who_daily)

I think I agree with everyone's choices but for some who haven't been suggested...

Patrick MacNee comes to mind immediately.

And how about Rex Harrison!Doctor with Jeremy Brett!Companion (and Audrey too) - I am very fond of My Fair Lady the film, yes.

Gareth Hunt (who I am sad to include in the list of passed on actors) would be interesting as well.

Alan Bates, too - I could have seen him as a modern era Doctor even.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Remind me of a few roles?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Rex Harrison!Doctor - but then I'd want Jeremy Brett as the Master, not the Companion.

Alan Bates would be intriguing...

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Best remembered for playing the headmistress in drag in the first St Trinian's film and for being a generation's definitive Ebenezer Scrooge in a Christmas Carol film version. He also regularly played Captain Hook/Mr Darling in an annual production of Peter Pan on stage in London. I think he'd have been very good as the Doctor because we was an "eccentric" character actor who could do broad comedy and dramatic parts very well. And he was also Scottish, like my favourite.

[misachan.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you. I was upset at coming to the conversation late but Jeremy Brett would have been my answer anyway.:)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about this, and for some reason no dead actors are coming to mind. Except that I don't know whether Harry Jones is alive or dead - he's not had a credit on IMDB since 2000 - and I think he'd have been a very good Doctor in a Troughton/McCoy mould: looks like an idiot but more powerful and dangerous than anyone thinks. So I was amused to find his face in this thread already, even if he was there supporting Servalan!

Of the living... not sure why that immediately puts me on to women... altariel once made the very good suggestion of Fiona Shaw (as in "a great actress who does a lot of crap so wouldn't say no on the grounds it's a kids' programme"). And I thought Melissa Jaffer's Noranti was very Doctorish, in that schoolmarm-turned-baglady-on-the-hippy-trail sort of way. Oh, and if I'm thinking of dead women, Mary Morris, who was such a stunning Number Two in The Prisoner.

[rjdaae.livejournal.com]

(also via who_daily)

Seconding the suggestion of Rex Harrison!Doctor. :)