Dr Who WI: No War Doctor (John Hurt Cast)

[Ico]

Hello everyone I been recall my inner Dr Who fan,(funny enough the current show runner got me back into the show, that or my Dr Who friend funny/madness rants), I was wondering if the show didn't cast John Hurt as the War Doctor who could have portrait this incarnation of the character, there is only really two choices for this the eighth doctor and the nine doctor respectively, I ask this because this could be one of the biggest charges to one however there is a problem, the nine actor wouldn't be in the episode of the Name of the Doctor (50th spacial).

Imagine if you will you're in charge of the writing of the episode what would you do personally, dont worry Eccleston can come back for the episode,(maybe an big bag might convince him)

I do apologise if this is not where I post this but I thought it is an alternative to the show history and could change the show future,personally I wasn't watching it at the time but I have mix feelings on the topic, I dislike it because I don't see how the doctor became of himself of war it could have easily been a McGann or Eccleston to play the part however maybe not Eccleston for some reasons, I kinda want to see McGann to play the part because there not much of him on scene and it would make sense, on the other hand we did get John Hurt as the Doctor, what do you guys think.

 

[The Lethargic Lett]

While I didn't dislike John Hurt as the War Doctor, I really disliked the idea of the War Doctor. It really felt like it was shoe-horned into the lore to explain Christopher Eccleston's absence.

Pretty much the only way to prevent the creation of the War Doctor is to have Eccleston agree to come back for the anniversary special. Personally, even if Eccleston had declined as IOTL, I would've preferred Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor acting as the (lowercase) war Doctor.

 

[46566]

Why not just use the Valeyard instead of the war doctor?

 

[wwbgdiaslt]

Swap the casting of Hurt and Richard E Grant around, so that Grant is the War Doctor and Hurt thus plays The Great Intelligence.

It has the additional bonus of canonising Scream of the Shalka, in as much as the 8th Doctor naming all of his companions who died in Night of the Doctor canonises those Big Finish serials.

 

[Lindseyman]

How about Michael Jayston? So the War Doctor is actually the Valeyard? For much of his incarnation, as he exhibits all the darker aspects of the Doctor, he subscribes wholeheartedly to Rassilon's cause but at the end his "Doctor" side starts to re-establish itself leading to the "Day of the Doctor" being much as OTL (thus also giving a better explanation of why his regeneration is repressed by later Doctors.)
There is the problem that in the "Trial of a Timelord" he is supposed to be between the last two regenerations but this could be explained away as a misunderstanding by the Master.(Or he just lied through his teeth- no real shock there!)
EDIT sorry @46566. I should have actually read your post instead of skimming past it

 

[Ico]

Why not just use the Valeyard instead of the war doctor?

I really like that idea, I do believe in the trail of the doctor (Colin Baker) the master said that his is aspect of the 12th doctor or somewhere in between, that is exactly to bring back in however connect me if am wrong but I don't believe that they mention the Valeyard in nu-who ,how would they incorporated in for the new viewers who never heard of him.

How about Michael Jayston? So the War Doctor is actually the Valeyard? For much of his incarnation, as he exhibits all the darker aspects of the Doctor, he subscribes wholeheartedly to Rassilon's cause but at the end his "Doctor" side starts to re-establish itself leading to the "Day of the Doctor" being much as OTL (thus also giving a better explanation of why his regeneration is repressed by later Doctors.)
There is the problem that in the "Trial of a Timelord" he is supposed to be between the last two regenerations but this could be explained away as a misunderstanding by the Master.(Or he just lied through his teeth- no real shock there!)
EDIT sorry @46566. I should have actually read your post instead of skimming past it

I do apologise and thank for being that up, I think through they would worry about the portrait of him being too sympathetic (he suppose to be the dark aspect of the doctor) and the audience might get confused but I do really like the idea of being him back, it's great build for Peters 12th to show if the Master were right. If they don't ruin it that is.

 

[46566]

I really like that idea, I do believe in the trail of the doctor (Colin Baker) the master said that his is aspect of the 12th doctor or somewhere in between, that is exactly to bring back in however connect me if am wrong but I don't believe that they mention the Valeyard in nu-who ,how would they incorporated in for the new viewers who never heard of him.



I do apologise and thank for being that up, I think through they would worry about the portrait of him being too sympathetic (he suppose to be the dark aspect of the doctor) and the audience might get confused but I do really like the idea of being him back, it's great build for Peters 12th to show if the Master were right. If they don't ruin it that is.

I don't think they mentioned him. The only way not to pull the trigger is screwing up the regeneration cycle. If they wanted to tweak it then he's a alternative timeline doctor.

 

[unclepatrick]

Pretty much the only way to prevent the creation of the War Doctor is to have Eccleston agree to come back for the anniversary special. Personally, even if Eccleston had declined as IOTL, I would've preferred Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor acting as the (lowercase) war Doctor.

That what I heard. The Role the War Doctor played was at first suppose to be done by Eccleston .

My crazy alternate Doctor Who idea was to have the eight doctor appear in a series of episode during 2009 when David Tennant was doing the Royal Shakespeare Company and we only got the 4 specials .
What if we got a 13 episode series with Paul McGann and one or two of the Characters from the new season? I thinking Martha , Sally Sparrow or Jenny The Doctor Daughter would all play off McGann nicely .

 

[stodge]

There's a POD (which I think someone has done) where Paul McGann doesn't get injured playing football and enjoys a long and successful run as Richard Sharpe. His brother Mark gets the Dr Who movie role (he auditioned for it).

In 2002, Mark McGann worked with Christopher Eccleston on the film "Let Him Have It". McGann played the young Niven Craig, the accomplice of Eccleston's Derek Bentley.

Now, let's assume Eccleston gets the Dr Who role (on McGann's recommendation to Russell T Davies) but leaves after one season.

As the 50th anniversary show approached, Stephen Moffat reaches out to Mark McGann and he persuades Eccleston to return for the special. There' s a mending of fences with Moffat and Davies and both Eccleston and Mark McGann appear alongside David Tennant and Matt Smith in a four-handed adventure.

Mark McGann later returns as a guest for both the 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) in her battle against the Daleks at the end of her first season.

 

[unclepatrick]

There's a POD (which I think someone has done) where Paul McGann doesn't get injured playing football and enjoys a long and successful run as Richard Sharpe. His brother Mark gets the Dr Who movie role (he auditioned for it).

In 2002, Mark McGann worked with Christopher Eccleston on the film "Let Him Have It". McGann played the young Niven Craig, the accomplice of Eccleston's Derek Bentley.

Now, let's assume Eccleston gets the Dr Who role (on McGann's recommendation to Russell T Davies) but leaves after one season.

As the 50th anniversary show approached, Stephen Moffat reaches out to Mark McGann and he persuades Eccleston to return for the special. There' s a mending of fences with Moffat and Davies and both Eccleston and Mark McGann appear alongside David Tennant and Matt Smith in a four-handed adventure.

Mark McGann later returns as a guest for both the 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) in her battle against the Daleks at the end of her first season.

Mark McGann as the Doctor ?

 

[Ico]

I don't think they mentioned him. The only way not to pull the trigger is screwing up the regeneration cycle. If they wanted to tweak it then he's a alternative timeline doctor.

It's a shame they don't use more of classic who lore to explore within NuWho I think they can greatly benefit from the cannon, however I do understand why they shouldn't have, it been too much of explaining to convince to the audience, it seem funny to think about an 20 minutes scene explaining the character to the audience, there are two different possibilities to inducted the character for the audience, the first is to have an actor who look like him, for some reason I'm thinking of Jonathen Pryce or just use John Hurt again and have little hints of his character through the series, could also have a twist of presenting him as the master, (am think of Moffats writing),, the other is to use the old Doctors themselves (mostly Davidson and Colin Baker I think Davidson meet him before but I could be wrong) to warn the audience of his past decade of the doctor history, could just be a web series.

 

[46566]

It's a shame they don't use more of classic who lore to explore within NuWho I think they can greatly benefit from the cannon, however I do understand why they shouldn't have, it been too much of explaining to convince to the audience, it seem funny to think about an 20 minutes scene explaining the character to the audience, there are two different possibilities to inducted the character for the audience, the first is to have an actor who look like him, for some reason I'm thinking of Jonathen Pryce or just use John Hurt again and have little hints of his character through the series, could also have a twist of presenting him as the master, (am think of Moffats writing),, the other is to use the old Doctors themselves (mostly Davidson and Colin Baker I think Davidson meet him before but I could be wrong) to warn the audience of his past decade of the doctor history, could just be a web series.

Maybe have times in previous episodes (I don't remember if we had a season the anniversary year) explaining when the doctor met himself. You don't have to mention the Valeyard by name but mentioning the old who more by most as just referring to old unimportant thing tell the trigger is pulled on the 50 anniversary. If you can't bring in Eccleston then bring back Rose as Bad Wolf and a throwaway line about keeping the ninth doctor busy or the Valeyard traped his TARDIS in the temporal vortex.

 

[oreocruncher]

I really like that idea, I do believe in the trail of the doctor (Colin Baker) the master said that his is aspect of the 12th doctor or somewhere in between, that is exactly to bring back in however connect me if am wrong but I don't believe that they mention the Valeyard in nu-who ,how would they incorporated in for the new viewers who never heard of him.

I don't think they mentioned him. The only way not to pull the trigger is screwing up the regeneration cycle. If they wanted to tweak it then he's a alternative timeline doctor.

They actually did, in The Name of the Doctor I think...
It's the whole thing where the Great Intelligence says about the names the Doctor would be known for at the end...

In fact, that's sorta why some people initially speculated that John Hurt would be playing as (along with "8.5", which is sorta what we got OTL, or a pre-Hartnell incarnation/"Other" [referring to the Virgin New Adventures novels], an older version of 8, etc.).

Another reason why the War Doctor was a thing, IIRC, was because Steven Moffat himself felt that the Eighth Doctor couldn't have destroyed Gallifrey in his view...
(Which I have to admit I disagree with, considering in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels he did...).

He also had a back-up plan if there was no previous Doctor actors available for the 50th anniversary too, apparently....

 

[Ico]

They actually did, in The Name of the Doctor I think...
It's the whole thing where the Great Intelligence says about the names the Doctor would be known for at the end...

In fact, that's sorta why some people initially speculated that John Hurt would be playing as (along with "8.5", which is sorta what we got OTL, or a pre-Hartnell incarnation/"Other" [referring to the Virgin New Adventures novels], an older version of 8, etc.).

Another reason why the War Doctor was a thing, IIRC, was because Steven Moffat himself felt that the Eighth Doctor couldn't have destroyed Gallifrey in his view...
(Which I have to admit I disagree with, considering in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels he did...).

He also had a back-up plan if there was no previous Doctor actors available for the 50th anniversary too, apparently....

I thought it was that the war doctor was considered for Ecclestons doctor but he refused the offer and the BBC wanted a bigger name then Paul McGann, so they got John Hurt.

It is a interesting idea for him to cast more famous actors to play the doctor but however I'll don't see the point in doing so, I think it would be nice to reference the children in need they did the time but at the same time it would be confused and disrespectful to the older actors who actually play the doctor, have there been any information about the famous actors he was planning on casting?

I personally think it would be funny if they got a bond actor to play the doctor (most likely Brosnan) because of the Rassilon factor who was play by Timothy Dalton, the idea only alone is ridiculous funny but the idea overall seem very stupid in my opinion.