List of guest appearances in Doctor Who

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Several celebrities have made guest appearances in Doctor Who. All of those listed below are famous outside of their roles in Doctor Who; however, it is worth noting that some of them became famous after their appearance in the series.

First Doctor stories

Second Doctor stories

Third Doctor stories

Fourth Doctor stories

Fifth Doctor stories

Sixth Doctor stories

Seventh Doctor stories

Eighth Doctor stories

Ninth Doctor stories

Tenth Doctor stories

Doctor Who spin-offs

BBC Radio productions

Big Finish Audio productions

As the Doctor

As other characters

Charity Specials

As the Doctor

As other characters

Actors from Eastenders

Independent video productions

Kaldor City audio dramas

Theatrical movies

Webcast productions

Returning Guest Stars

The following actors, in order of their first appearance, have all appeared in episodes of both the classic series (between 1963 and 1989) and the revival (2005 to present):

Future Regulars

On rare occasions, future series regulars have been cast in other roles, and later asked to return to the series in much bigger roles.

The first instance of this phenomenon occurred when Jean Marsh was cast as Joanna in The Crusade in 1964. She would briefly become a companion, when recast as Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan the following year - becoming the second series companion to die whilst adventuring with The Doctor. She would later return to the series in the 1989 story Battlefield, as the villainous Morgaine. For a period, she was also married to Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee.

Nicholas Courtney, cast as Bret Vyon for the first half of The Daleks' Master Plan, also featuring Jean Marsh, would return to the series as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, best known as 'The Brigadier', many times over the next two decades, appearing with the second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh Doctors, before finally meeting the sixth in the charity special Dimensions in Time - to date, his final appearance.

In 1965 Peter Purves, appeared in The Chase in 1965, playing Morton Dill - a young man from Alabama visiting the Empire State Building, when The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki arrive, on the run from the Daleks, who later appear to Morton's bemusement. Later in that story, Purves was asked back to play the role of space pilot Steven Taylor, who became a regular character at the end of the story upon the departure of Ian and Barbara. To date, this is the only (and probably the last) time this has occurred in the space of one story!

John Levine, best known for playing Sergeant Benton in various stories between 1968 and 1975, first appeared as a Cyberman in The Moonbase, then as a Yeti in The Web of Fear. Another UNIT member, Harry Sullivan was played by Ian Marter, who first appeared in the series as the dashing John Andrews in Carnival of Monsters opposite John Pertwee in 1973, before joining the series as Harry for Tom Baker's first season as The Doctor. Marter also co-wrote a script for a possible Doctor Who feature film with Baker, and wrote numerous novelisations of Doctor Who serials for Target Books, before his untimely death in 1986.

The next occurrence did not occur until 1978, when Lalla Ward guested in the series as Princess Astra in The Armageddon Factor. After expressing disappointment at the way her character, Romana had developed, Mary Tamm departed the series after this story had finished recording - but as her character was a Time Lady, she could easily be regenerated, and the following story Destiny of the Daleks sees Romana deliberately choosing to model herself after Princess Astra - allowing Ward to join the series as a regular. She later went on to have a whirlwind romance with her co-star Tom Baker which led to marriage and divorce within 18 months.

A few years later, Sarah Sutton was cast as Nyssa in The Keeper of Traken. At the end of that story it was decided that she should join the TARDIS crew as a regular, and she was hastily written into the following story Logopolis, albeit as the same character.

When casting the 1983 serial Arc of Infinity, the production office stumbled upon Colin Baker - and cast him as Commander Maxil, a timelord who gets to shoot The Doctor, as played by Peter Davison. Fourteen months later, Davison left the series, and regenerated into the Sixth Doctor, as played by Baker. To date, this is the only time an actor who has played The Doctor has appeared in the series prior to their casting as the lead. It was also the last time this occurred during the original run.

Its early days for the revival, but already there have been three instances of guest actors returing as regular or recurring characters, and oddly they are all members of the same family, and all made their first appearance in the first episode of series three, Smith and Jones. Adjoa Andoh, cast as recurring character Francine Jones, first appeared in the 2006 episode New Earth. Her on-screen husband, Clive Jones, has also appeared in the series before - actor Trevor Laird played the villanous Frax in the Mindwarp segment of The Trial of a Time Lord, back in 1986.

The most obvious returning actor in this story, however, was companion Martha Jones, as portrayed by Freema Agyeman. She first appeared in the 2006 episode Army of Ghosts, as doomed Torchwood employee Adeola. It was while playing this role that the series producers realised she'd be perfect for the role of Martha, and she was soon auditioned for the role, making her debut less than a year after her first appearance in the show. The episode also had Martha explain that Adeola was her cousin.

Footnotes

  • Template:Fnb The producers had originally planned to have The Beatles appear as elderly versions of themselves, but had to settle for using a film clip from a BBC musical series. This particular variety show is one of many that were deleted, therefore making the clip seen in The Chase the only surviving footage of this Beatles performance.
  • Template:Fnb Jean Marsh was at one time married to Jon Pertwee, who played the Third Doctor. Marsh's character in The Daleks Master Plan, Sara Kingdom, is considered by many as one of the Doctor's companions.
  • Template:Fnb Richard E. Grant has the distinction of being the only actor to play two different incarnations of the Doctor in officially licensed productions. (This does not count Sylvester McCoy briefly donning Colin Baker's costume in Time and the Rani.)

See also

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