8 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Doctor Who

It's truly remarkable to see Doctor Who turn 50 years old, and as a longtime fan of the show, it makes me very, very happy. Of course, with five decades of history under its belt, we also get five decades worth of useless trivia that may only fascinate the most hardcore Who fans. Now, a lot of this trivia is widely known thanks to the Internet. For example, most people know that Karen Gillan and Peter Capaldi were in the same Doctor Who episode before being cast as Amy Pond and The Twelfth Doctor, respectively. They also probably know David Tennant and Peter Capaldi grew up as fans of Doctor Who, with Capaldi even writing a letter to Radio Times as a teenager about how he loved the show. Then there's other bits of trivia like the fact that a different companion, named Penny, was planned before deciding to bring back Catherine Tate and make her the companion for Series 4. And at this point, most Doctor Who fans know of the strange timey-wimey connection between David Tennant, Georgia Moffett, and Peter Davison. So, we've decided to dig a bit deeper and find the things that most of you are less likely to be aware of. For example, did you know about Hans Zimmer's strange connection to the show, or how Matt Smith's fate to become The Doctor might have been set 45 years ago? Admittedly, these are completely useless pieces of info, and not knowing them does not make you any less of a Whovian. In fact, it probably makes me more geekier than I should be. That being said, everything here is still quite interesting and I hope you enjoy learning some random Doctor Who trivia today. 8) Missed Opportunities When Doctor Who came back in 2005, one of the first people approached to direct the episode Rose was Edgar Wright (or so he says in his Reddit AMA). Now imagine what direction the show would've gone in and how it would have looked like had that panned out. Unfortunately, Wright was busy with Shaun of the Dead at the time, which helped define his career, so perhaps it wasn't such a bad decision to decline after all. Still, it's difficult not to wonder what would have happened if Wright had said yes. For one thing, Christopher Eccleston might have stayed on for more than a year, because if rumors are to believed, one of the main reasons for his departure was not getting on with the director of Rose, Keith Boak. Of course, for all we know nothing might have changed and everything could've stayed the same. Regardless, here's hoping that we see Edgar Wright do Doctor Who some day. But that's not the only missed opportunity here. Apparently, both J.K. Rowling and Stephen Fry almost wrote for the show. Rowling was approached to write in 2005, but was too busy working on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Fry, on the other hand, had already written an episode for Series 2, but when moved to Series 3, he never found the time to make the appropriate changes and revisions. 7) A Different Ending for Rose? Paul Abbott is a critically acclaimed English writer, most known for his work on Coronation Street and Shameless. He is also a friend of Russell T. Davies, and almost wrote an episode of Doctor Who that would've taken the place of Boom Town from the first series. But that's not the interesting bit, it's what Abbott had planned for his episode that caught our interest. According to Davies, the episode would've revealed that Rose was an experiment bred by the Doctor in order to create the perfect companion. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Abbott was too busy with his other commitments to fully develop the episode, and we got the excellent Boom Town instead. But if that had happened, the show would've gone in a completely different direction, and I'm certain that nothing would be the same as it is now. 6) Scream of the Shalka On the 40th Anniversary of Doctor Who, a time when the show was not on TV and was only kept alive through fans writing novels and creating audio plays and books, an animated series called Scream of the Shalka was created that was considered canon at the time. Today, it's most notable for the people that were involved with it rather than the story itself. For one thing, it was created by Paul Cornell, who went on to write the critically acclaimed Father's Day and the Human Nature/Family of Blood two-parter in the revived series. The Doctor was played by Richard Grant, who went on to play The Great Intelligence in The Snowmen and The Name of the Doctor. The companion was voiced by Sophie Okonedo, who played Liz 10 in The Beast Below and The Pandorica Opens. Finally, Derek Jacobi was The Master, who reprised the role in Series 3's Utopia. Perhaps the most interesting casting bit though is David Tennant's uncredited role as a caretaker. How's that for trivia? 5) Doctor Who's Youngest Writer The Classic Who episode, Full Circle, was notable for being the opening story of the E-Space Trilogy, as well as for introducing the companion Adric. But it was also notable for being written by the youngest writer to ever write a story for Doctor Who, Andrew Smith, as he was 17 at the time his script was commissioned and only 18 when the story was produced (It should be noted however that this does not count the mini-episodes that were written by children who won the Script-to-Screen competitions). It's quite remarkable that a such a young person could write such a solid, tight script, albeit with the help of editors and producers. He's continued to write a few audio dramas for Big Finish, and still remains a huge fan of the show. The lesson learnt? Age doesn't matter when it comes to Doctor Who. 4) The Doctor's Son Everyone seems to know about Georgia Moffett, who played The Doctor's daughter in Series 4, and is the actual daughter of Peter Davison, The Fifth Doctor, as well as the wife of David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor. But most people don't seem to know about David Troughton, son of Patrick Troughton, who portrayed the Second Doctor. Classic Who fans will perhaps remember him most for his role as King Peladon in The Curse of the Peladon, who took a liking to Jo Grant, the companion at the time. New Who fans on the other hand should remember him from the critically acclaimed Series 4 episode Midnight, as Professor Hobbes (pictured above), one of the passengers who turn against The Doctor out of fear. I suppose it's the closest we shall ever get to seeing the Tenth Doctor on screen with the Second one. 3) David Tennant and Steven Moffat Almost Met Many Years Ago Earlier this year, at the 50th Anniversary BFI screening of the Fourth Doctor adventure, The Robots of Death, Steven Moffat revealed a pretty cool piece of information. Many years ago, back in the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who, Moffat spent hours in a queue for Baker's autograph. As it happens, David Tennant was also in the same queue, on the same exact day. Talk about coincidences. First of all, how cool is it to know that both the Tenth Doctor and the current showrunner stood in line to get an autograph from the Fourth Doctor? It reminds you that the people working on the show now are fans who grew up with it, and also reminds you that one of the little kids standing in line at a convention today to get Matt Smith's autograph might end up being a major part of Doctor Who in the future. Also, to think that two young fans who happened to be at the same place, same time, but never met, ended up working closely together for the same reason that they were in the queue in the first place, is astounding. Watch out, the next person you meet at a convention could end up being the famous Time Lord. 2) The Hans Zimmer Connection Back in 1985, production of Doctor Who ceased for a year and everyone feared that the show was facing cancellation (which is what eventually happened in 1989). So what was done to save it? A pop song was created, featuring about 25 performers, as well as four stars from the show itself: Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), and Anthony Ainley (The Master). But that's not all, the song was played by a certain Hans Zimmer, on the synthesizer. Sadly, that's all the connection there is between Zimmer and Doctor Who, and unfortunately, it's probably better to leave that connection buried. The song was universally panned once it was released and probably hurt the chances of the show coming back rather than saving it. If you think the song has any traces of Zimmer's greatness that was to be found later in his film work, you are mistaken. Listening to this, you wouldn't expect him to be the guy who created the amazing scores for movies like Inception or The Dark Knight trilogy. But it's still a neat bit of trivia for you, and hopefully someday Zimmer will work on the show as a music composer. Although, I'm in no hurry to get rid of Murray Gold. In fact, I'd rather he stay on the show forever. 1) Matt Smith's Destiny as the Doctor Was Written 45 Years Ago? In 1968, the Second Doctor got a new companion by the name of Zoe Heriot, and a new TARDIS crew was formed between Jamie, Zoe and The Doctor. She was perhaps one of the first companions to be as smart as The Doctor too, or at least understand all the technobabble he spouted. She was a great companion, and was played by Wendy Padbury. When Padbury finished acting many years later, she became a theatrical agent, even representing some Doctor Who folks such as Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor) and Mark Strickson (Turlough). But the best thing she did? Discovering Matt Smith at the National Youth Theatre. She set him across the path that lead him to being cast as The Eleventh Doctor by helping him find roles at the beginning of his career. If she hadn't found success as The Doctor's companion way back in the 60s, perhaps she wouldn't have become an agent, which would lead to not discovering Matt Smith at the right time. Or maybe it would've happened anyway because they're fixed points in time or something, you never really know. To put it in perspective for someone not familiar with Classic Who, imagine that Billie Piper was the one who helped Matt Smith become The Doctor. Or that Karen Gillan discovers whoever becomes the 20th Doctor way into the future. It's quite fascinating. Padbury wasn't the only Doctor Who actor to become an agent either. Janet Fielding, who played Tegan Jovanka in the Fifth Doctor era, represented Paul McGann when he was cast as the Eighth Doctor. While she didn't discover him, she may have been one of the reasons he got the job. On the flip side, both Fielding and Padbury refused to represent David Tennant when he was a young actor, so I suppose they're not always right. But it all seemingly worked out for the best in the end. So there you have it, some of the lesser known bits of Doctor Who trivia. Tell us, how much of this stuff did you guys know already? Are there any cool bits and pieces that I missed? Let us know in the comments section.