No, I'm not Capaldi_Capaldi in disguise, just had this idea for a thread also!

Just watching The Enemy Of The World at the moment and I'm in awe at how effortlessly Patrick Troughton plays Salamander and as always it gets the old grey matter ticking. I was thinking about other roles The Doctors have played in the show and how well they played them. Which ones worked and which ones didn't did you think?

I know from previous threads that there are some fans of The Massacre out there, what did you think of William Hartnell as The Abbot Of Amboise in The Massacre? The problem with this story is that no episodes are available to view and Hartnell doesn't have a huge role as the Abbot. The only thing I can say about it that is that you realise how much of a performance Hartnell puts into the role of The Doctor by his serious interpretation as The Abbot.

With Salamander, as I have said, Troughton just goes for it and for me this was the best performance by a Doctor in another role in the show. As an outright villain as well as The Doctor, he just pulls it off effortlessly.

It was a shame Pertwee didn't get to play another role and the closest we got to it was another version of himself in Day Of The Daleks.

With Tom Baker, he had a few opportunities to play other roles. The Android Version of himself in The Android Invasion was well realised and he pulled off an evil version of himself as he did in Meglos. He was convincing as being a baddie!

Much as I love the Fifth Doctor, was never entirely convinced Davison's role as Omega in Arc Of Infinity. He didn't play it for long enough and then he was replaced by Ian Collier, plus he was lip synched when he had to talk. Didn't quite work for me. And the 'rice crispie' look make up was a tad convincing. And we all know about Colin Baker in this story playing a very nasty character in Maxil, which he played really well, hat and all!

I'm open to correction but the next Doctor to play another role in the show was Tennant as John Smith in Human Nature/Family Of Blood. He played it to perfection but the fact he didn't play the villain means Troughton just tops his performance for me.

And off course we had incoming Doctor Peter Capaldi in Fires Of Pompeii. Again, thought he played this role very well, but as with Colin Baker, it was before he played The Doctor. In his case it was a slightly nicer role then!

Finally we have Matt Smith in the ganger story. Now I don't like this story one bit but one of the few Highlights was Matt Smith playing a Ganger version of himself and it really worked, Smith bringing excellent humour between both versions.

So there you go, which other role for the Doctors do you think worked well and which was a bit lacking?

Haven't heard it, but I believe DT did an audio in the early 00s where he was playing a non Doctor role?

Yes he did. He played a Nazi Officer in a Big Finish Audio called Colditz.

Might check it out? Which Doctor is it?

Can't believe you didn't mention that Colin Baker appeared in Peter Davisons time!

He Did.

Doh , sorry my bad Poor form on my part.

Does troughton playing the role of an Androgum count (ish) as a different role ? ? I thought troughton did it very well.

Sylvester McCoy. Also Tennant appeared in a Colin Baker story Medicinal Purposes

Yes I did! Check it out!


Well spotted, I would say that sort of counts. I mean, when a Doctor turns bad, that could be inclusive. I mean, Tom Baker turned bad in a story, didn't he? And he certainly was possessed a few times as well. And the Sixth Doctor in Mindwarp turned as well, though how much of that was true we don't know.

I'd like to expand this discussion to companions as well. My immediate thinking was Janet Fielding as a Mara possessed Tegan, which she played really well on both occasions. There was Sarah Sutton as Ann in Black Orchid. I think she enthused Ann with a bit more energy than she did as Nyssa. Polly in The Faceless Ones was an interesting one as well as she played a different character with the same face, which lacked the warmth of Polly and that made it more effective.

On that basis, definitely rose as bad wolf in the series 1 finale. The whole 'you are tiny' line, talking in a robotic manner, and disintegrating dalek's with a flick of her wrist. enjoyed billie's performance in day of the doctor as well, but the series 1 bad wolf felt really powerful, and so departed from her usual character. Actually billie's played other stuff in the show a lot really, if you consider the two above examples, plus the fact of her being possessed by cassandra in new earth. Each of these was played done well and all differed from her usual character, which I personally think is a testament to her acting ability.

WAS Karen Gillan in Night of the Doctor as a sister? I read this rumor many times but couldn't quite see it.

Are you getting confused with The Fires Of Pompeii where she played a Sisterhood style character?

He also played "Daft Jamie" in Medicinal Purposes...

He played a UNIT office in the UNIT audios too...

He had a minor role in Scream of the Shalka..


He might have more, I just can't remember them off the top of my head.

Oh - yes I think you're right. This makes a lot more sense!! Thanks

OP, you missed one. Matt did a villainous turn as Mr Clever, the Cyber-Planner in Nightmare in Silver.

Well I can't think of everything! I also missed Troughton's turn as an Androgum in The Two Doctors as well!

Sadly, they didn't really give Hartnell much screen time as the Abbot of Ambois. It would have been interesting if they had. I do recall reading that the credited author John Lucarotti intended the Abbot's role to be much larger and that he and the Doctor would actually meet face to face but sadly his scripts were majorly rewritten and this never happened. The author subsequently disassociated himself from this serial and didn't write for the show again until The Ark in Space with Tom Baker, which again ended up being heavily rewritten by Robert Holmes.

Salamander was a bit hammy with the silly accent but Patrick Troughton gives a great performance in that we never feel like we are watching the Doctor dressed up when Salamander is on screen.

Matt Smith as the Cyber Planner was a bit of a low for me. In an interview Neil Gaiman said that that was a tough script to give to an actor but the wonderful thing about having Matt Smith was that he could pull it off. Sadly, I don't agree and it left Matt a little exposed. How much of this was in the scripted words and how much was in Smith's performance choices I couldn't say but I found the Cyber Planner very peculiar: the defining trait of a Cyberman is they are cold, logical, and unemotional and yet he portrays the Cyber Planner as a raving lunatic. Very odd.

Colin Baker as Maxil: perfectly adequate portrayal but nothing especially memorable or worth discussing if he hadn't gone on to play the Doctor.

Tom Baker as the Curator: wonderful, scintillating performance.

Do audios technically count?

yes, as maxil the gaurd in Arc of Infinity.

Not quite the same thing but I was trying to think of things other than spin-off productions that more than one Doctor had appeared in together but the closest I could get was things like this...

- Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker both appeared in Ray Harryhausen's "Sinbad" films .... Pat in "...and the Eye Of The Tiger" with Patrick Wayne, and Tom in "The Golden Voyage of..." with John Phillip Law.

- In the 50's Troughton and Peter Cushing both appeared in "The Black Knight" with Alan Ladd.

- Christopeher Eccleston was in Alex Cox's "Revenger's Tragedy" along with Derek "Master Reborn" Jacobi and Marc "Elton Pope" Warren.

- David Tennant, David "Jackson Lake" Morrisey and Sarah Racnoss" Parrish were all in "Blackpool".


...Can anyone think of anything featuring more than one of the 13 (including John Hurt) Doctors? ... Are there enough for this question to need it's own thread?

Patrick Troughton was also in "Jason and the Argonauts", which was another Ray Harryhausen film.

Wasn't Pertwee 'John Smith' at one point as well?

colin baker and paul mcgann have both appeared in Jonathan creek. colin was murdered in the first episode

Any of you seen Withnail and I? I have. It's okay, but not brilliant. That was made in the late 80s and starred Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann.

... and Richard Giffiths who was considered for the role of the Fifth Doctor and had the show not been cancelled, would have likely been the Eighth Doctor in Season 28 (1991)