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Before Patrick Troughton? |
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#1 |
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Before Patrick Troughton?
Before Patrick Troughton was cast as the 2nd Dr, who was also in the running for the role?
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#2 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
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Quote:
Before Patrick Troughton was cast as the 2nd Dr, who was also in the running for the role?
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#3 |
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Quote:
Brian Blessed was supposed to play The Doctor but because of scheduling conflicts he declined which leads me to believe he was first choice.
Be that as it may, I would not take a second away from Troughton; he was wonderful as The Doctor. |
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#4 |
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Quote:
Brian Blessed was supposed to play The Doctor but because of scheduling conflicts he declined which leads me to believe he was first choice.
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#5 |
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I thought that Blessed was considered for a later Doctor.
Certainly Michael Horden was on Innes Lloyd's shortlist in 1966. But Troughton was the only serious contender and the character of the second Doctor was worked out by Troughton, Lloyd and Gerry Davis. |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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Quote:
Brian Blessed was supposed to play The Doctor but because of scheduling conflicts he declined which leads me to believe he was first choice.
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#7 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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According to Anneke Wills, Tommy Steele was under consideration. I believe that Michael Hordern and Patrick Wymark were also considered.
I don't know if Blessed was really considered, it's relatively new information and comes from himself rather than anyone behind the scenes at the time. Certainly they kept hard at trying to woo Troughton which suggests he was the main choice. |
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#8 |
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I thought I remembered seeing that Richard Hearne was under consideration, but wanted to play the role as his "Mr Pastry" character.
However, it turns out that this was when Jon Pertwee left! |
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#9 |
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Well, that's according to Brian Blessed himself. I've never heard anyone else mention it. He would have been 29 when William Hartnell was leaving, which doesn't really fit the original 1960s idea of The Doctor. Brian seems a lovely man but I'd take this story with a heavy dose of salt.
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#10 |
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If Blessed had got the part, he would have said in his booming voice 'I'm alive'.
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#11 |
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Quote:
I thought that Blessed was considered for a later Doctor.
Certainly Michael Horden was on Innes Lloyd's shortlist in 1966. But Troughton was the only serious contender and the character of the second Doctor was worked out by Troughton, Lloyd and Gerry Davis.
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#12 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
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Quote:
Well, that's according to Brian Blessed himself. I've never heard anyone else mention it. He would have been 29 when William Hartnell was leaving, which doesn't really fit the original 1960s idea of The Doctor. Brian seems a lovely man but I'd take this story with a heavy dose of salt.
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#13 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
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Its a shame Cribbins never got the chance to play the 4th doctor.
What interview was it where he told the producers about he would smack the aliens who got out of line, they said we dont do stuff like that its a kids show then Cribbins said first time be saw baker in the role he whacked someone. |
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#14 |
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Geoffrey Bayldon was supposed to play the first Doctor. Could you imagine how awesome the 50th anniversary would have been if the early doctors still been alive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Bayldon apparently he turned down the role to play both the first & second Doctors! In terms of Bernard Cribbins missing out on the 4th Doctor role, again a bit of a shame, but then again we would have not got Tom Baker. But then I'd argue the lack of real good roles in general for Cribbins in the 70's & 80's is a bit of a tragedy -he was brilliant on both Coro St & Who (the TV show), both in the twilight of his career. |
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#15 |
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Quote:
Its a shame Cribbins never got the chance to play the 4th doctor.
What interview was it where he told the producers about he would smack the aliens who got out of line, they said we dont do stuff like that its a kids show then Cribbins said first time be saw baker in the role he whacked someone. |
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#16 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
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Quote:
If Blessed had got the part, he would have said in his booming voice 'I'm alive'.
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#17 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
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Quote:
Wow I didn't know that -he would have been good I think. Reading his bio on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Bayldon apparently he turned down the role to play both the first & second Doctors! In terms of Bernard Cribbins missing out on the 4th Doctor role, again a bit of a shame, but then again we would have not got Tom Baker. But then I'd argue the lack of real good roles in general for Cribbins in the 70's & 80's is a bit of a tragedy -he was brilliant on both Coro St & Who (the TV show), both in the twilight of his career. I cant remember what interview Cribbins talked about him being offered the role Im presuming it was on one of the DVDs. Or was it Doctor Who Confidential? |
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#18 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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You never know, without Tom Baker the show may not have been cancelled. Cribbins may have done a 'normal' stint before moving on in the 70s before JNT took over, with more successful actors coming after him.
Tom Baker cast a long shadow over the show, not least because of the length of his stay and it ending with JNT solely in charge. |
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#19 |
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Brian Blessed? That's new to me. Wasn't he one of the lead on Z Cars at the time? I think a younger Doctor would have been extremely unlikely at that stage in the show, especially as he would be pretty much the same age as his companions. Seems very doubtful.
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#20 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Quote:
You never know, without Tom Baker the show may not have been cancelled. Cribbins may have done a 'normal' stint before moving on in the 70s before JNT took over, with more successful actors coming after him.
Tom Baker cast a long shadow over the show, not least because of the length of his stay and it ending with JNT solely in charge. Lack of interest in what should have been a flagship show from top brass coupled with a producer with slightly tacky tastes and little imagination killed the show. |
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#21 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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But that's my point. If Cribbins had left in 1977/78, a new Doctor would have arrived in '78/79 so 1980 wouldn't have been Tom Baker's last season.
There would have been no Tom Baker viewer fatigue so who knows how BBC top-brass would have felt about a less tired show. Baker's last series did fall off a cliff a bit but that was also the season JNT took over, so who knows how much that was a factor. I don't think Barry Letts or the cast were that keen on his direction. Perhaps Williams would have stayed longer if he's inherited Cribbins in the role and then needed to recast again (in the same year Williams actually left), meaning JNT wouldn't have taken over. Perhaps Hinchcliffe couldn't have made the show so dark with Cribbins in the role, and wouldn't have ended up getting Whitehoused. Does the current show need another young executive producer to liven things up rather than another middle-aged man with suspiciously dark hair who writes lines about the Doctor having vanity issues? |
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#22 |
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Quote:
Geoffrey Bayldon was supposed to play the first Doctor. Could you imagine how awesome the 50th anniversary would have been if the early doctors still been alive.
I cant imagine him as following up William Hartnell. Was he ever a serious actor rather than comedy ? Patrick Troughton seems much more I don't know ........ suited and thank god for him being so good. Anyway this nostalgic clip is for all those who grew up in the 1970's like me. Enjoy https://youtu.be/LmQZjKMcPcA |
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#23 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
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Quote:
But that's my point. If Cribbins had left in 1977/78, a new Doctor would have arrived in '78/79 so 1980 wouldn't have been Tom Baker's last season.
There would have been no Tom Baker viewer fatigue so who knows how BBC top-brass would have felt about a less tired show. Baker's last series did fall off a cliff a bit but that was also the season JNT took over, so who knows how much that was a factor. I don't think Barry Letts or the cast were that keen on his direction. Perhaps Williams would have stayed longer if he's inherited Cribbins in the role and then needed to recast again (in the same year Williams actually left), meaning JNT wouldn't have taken over. Perhaps Hinchcliffe couldn't have made the show so dark with Cribbins in the role, and wouldn't have ended up getting Whitehoused. Does the current show need another young executive producer to liven things up rather than another middle-aged man with suspiciously dark hair who writes lines about the Doctor having vanity issues? Doctor Who during the early 1980s was clearly still a success in both the eyes of the BBC and the public. So Baker staying a long time didn't harm the show in the way you're suggesting. |
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#24 |
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Thing is, Davison's ratings for his first season were a massive improvement on Baker's last season so I don't think Baker's shadow, so to speak, was the problem.
Lack of interest in what should have been a flagship show from top brass coupled with a producer with slightly tacky tastes and little imagination killed the show. |
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#25 |
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I dont know how audience were back then during Bakers entire run as I was a little too young to understand but looking back now would figures have dropped if Tom had continued another 3 years in the 1980s even if JNT wanted to keep him.
Tom's last season suffered from a significant drop in ratings. Many blamed the competition from Buck Rogers on ITV, but The Leisure Hive part one was transmitted before before Buck Rogers had even started, and The Leisure Hive already had low ratings. It's not really clear why viewers abandoned Who for that season. It can't be that they change of direction put people off, because, as I say, viewers were down right from the very start. The BBC decided to move Who from Saturdays for Davison's first season, which was a smart move as ratings immediately improved. If Baker had still been the Doctor I can't see why ratings wouldn't still have improved as I believe it was the move to weekdays that gave the show the boost it needed. If anything it was when Who returned to Saturdays with Colin Baker that the real decline started. By that point the BBC management had grown bored of the show, Michael Grade was in charge and the cancellation / hiatus was a clear sign that the BBC no longer had any faith in Who. Interestingly when Who went back to Saturdays for Colin's first series JNT suggested that he had listened to the fans and pushed Who back to it's traditional slot. Not for the first time, listening to fans was proved to be a very bad idea! |
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