Let's say, for the sake of speculation and harmless debate, there was a forthcoming episode of 'Doctor Who' that would feature cameo appearances by the previous incarnations of the Doctor (never mind the complexities of it all!!).

With several of the actors who have played the role previously sadly deceased, which actors do you think could step into the roles?

For example, I've always thought David Warner would make a good Doctor #1 (Hartnell).

Sure, I'll join in with this one and cheat a little bit.

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) - Sean Pertwee for obvious reasons.

Yes, I suppose there is a slight physical resemblance between Hartnell and Warner, but I can't think of any actors who resemble Troughton and Pertwee, not even the actor members of their respective families.

However, when you consider the First Doctor, his initial appearance in Who is in An Unearthly Child, where (despite ironically being hundreds of years younger than Matt Smith's Doctor) he physically resembles an old man, suggesting that much earlier in that incarnation he physically resembled a young man. I personally would like to see the "young" First Doctor in a multi-Doctor story, and it also means that any good young actor could play him, although if one could be found who looks like a young William Hartnell that would be a bonus.

If they're only in it for three seconds in a flashback like last time, then CGI might be more practical.

Exactly. Maybe a lookalike might be okay for people who never saw the others live but it would never be the same. Richard Hurndall gave it a good go but he still wasn't right, I don't think anyone could do it.

I think very few older Doctor Who fans would accept the re-casting of the roles.

Instead I think clever use of old footage and also CGI could get you through, providing that the cameo appearances were no more than a few minutes max.

Best to avoid teh recasting issue entirely.
(Richard Hurndall's pretty good, but can we really recast a recast?!)

For Troughton there is a guy who does the BBC News and Politics show, I can't remember his name, he is a dead ringer for him pardon the pun.

I'm sure it's been mentioned before but Richard Wilson as Gaius in Merlin looks quite like the first Doctor. With a bit more tweaking of the look I'm sure he'd make quite a good Hartnell replacement. He certainly could do Hartnell's irascibility.

Troughton - why not Sam Troughton, the great Patrick's grandson? He was excellent in Robin Hood and with a Beatles wig and check trousers he'd really look the part.

Sean Pertwee could certainly do justice to his Dad's iconic image (although I've always thought Sean would be SO cool as the Master - he can switch from charming to vicious really well - as well as it being a nicely ironic bit of casting).

Tom Baker of course is still thankfully with us, but if we needed him to look younger then why not Jon Culshaw? I know he does those brilliant impressions, but I'm certain he could pull off a serious impersonation if he needed to.

PD onwards - we could get away with using those timey wimey explanations as to why the Doctors look older, and in some cases larger...

I think you're spot on about David Warner. Finest Doctor we never had.

not sure if it's Michael Troughton, but I vaguely remember seeing one of the Toughton, clan a good few years ago in some thing and he did look like his father Pat..

Just had a quick Google and the guy I was on about is Jon Sopel.

Hurndall's teeth were too straight. Every time he grinned it was a shock.

I don't really want it to happen but if so then I'd like to see Ian Mcdiarmid (Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars movies) as the First Doctor
http://www.bbc.co.uk/robertburns/img..._mcdiarmid.jpg
There has been threads about this over on Gallifrey Base recently , with ideas for a 50th anniversary special. An interesting one is to follow clever editing , as with this advert from a few years back. Which featured footage of Bob Monkhouse face , a body double and good vocal impersonator of the deceased comedian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmWtzfKcMpA
Footage of Hartnell and Troughton would have to be colourised , or maybe as suggested on GB , the early Doctors could appear as the emergency protocol holograms we saw in the 9th and 10th Doctor eras , around the Tardis console. The precedent is there for them being in black and white , with some cleer audio editing letting them converse with Matts incarnation and others.

I agree with the CGI method. They managed somehow to get a small bit of Arnie from the original Terminator film in Terminator 4 so don't see why they couldn't use a bit the deceased Doctors that way.

Otherwise I agree Sean Pertwee, Sam Troughton or even one of Troughton's Sons like Michael could cover the second and third Doctor's, not sure how you'd recast for Hartnell though. To do such a thing will always mean being compared unfavourably to the original, sometimes I wonder if a simple line or two to cover the absence of the first three Doctors would be better.