What's the wildest Who rumour you've ever heard?

[23skidoo]

Until recently the media reports back in the mid-1990s of David Hasselhoff being cast as the Doctor in a Doctor Who movie (didn't make that up - actually saw print that bit of fantasy) ranked as the wildest media-driven Doctor Who rumor I'd heard.

But the recent flop of John Carter reminded me of another.

How many here remember back in 2000 when the Mirror and other UK newspapers reported that Sean Bean (at the time best known for the Lord of the Rings movies, GoldenEye and the Sharpe movies, and today is known for playing Stark in Game of Thrones) had been cast as the Doctor alongside Tara Fitzgerald in a Doctor Who movie that was going to be filmed in 2001 at a cost of 250 million pounds? (That's about $375M in 2000 US dollars, or about $125M more than Titanic cost to make.)

I actually never heard those rumors myself back in 2000, but I learned about this while doing some idle googling a while back. The actual news articles, of course, have disappeared into the ether, but this Sean Bean fan page was kind enough to include some transcriptions of the whole saga (include the BBC's rather quick denial):

http://www.compleatseanbean.com/rumour-who.html

Actually Sean Bean would have made a cool Doctor. But that's beside the point: what's the weirdest rumor you've heard relating to Doctor Who over the years? (Preferably something in the media, but some wacky rumors get spread on forums too.)

Alex

 

[captcalhoun]

Will Smith as the Doctor.

yes, THAT Will Smith. Which led to SFX quickly making jokes about him singing the theme song: Wiki-wiki-wiki-Who, Doctor Who, etc.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Joanna Lumley as The Doctor (and this was years before "The Curse of the Fatal Death").

 

[Skellington]

Circa 1985 it was rumoured that the show was to end and Gallifrey would be destroyed/conquered. Crazy talk.

I remember the Hasselhoff rumour. Apparently it would have featured an origin story, if I recall.

 

[Flibble]

I think it was The Sun that reported that David Bowie would be playing Davros! (And it wasn't April 1st)

 

[Silent_Bob]

The Hasselhoff thing wasnt so much a rumour as a thankfully aborted resurrection of the franchise. Back when the '96 movie was supposed to be a new series, and the BBC was looking for American funding, one of the networks approached was willing to do so as long as someone bankable like Hasselhoff was the lead. It did actually happen, so i wouldnt really call it an unfounded rumour.

The main rumours i keep seeing are those printed in the tabloids, where every marginally attractive actress ever cast in a Doctor Who role is declared 100% guaranteed, insider approved, definitely, no doubt at all, going to be the next companion. Especially if they can find a picture of her in lingerie.

 

[The Wormhole]

Claims back in 2007 that a new theatrical movie starring Paul McGann was in the works.

 

[The Badger]

Back in 2004, after the new series had been announced, but before anyone had been cast, BBC teletext carried an interview with RTD about his ideas for the show. In it he said that the traditional helpless screaming girly type of companion just wouldn't cut it with today's audiences, pointing to the success of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' as an example of a more proactive female character. This part of the interview was labelled something like "RTD wants 'Buffy' type companion".

A few days later, ITV teletext carried their version of the interview, titled "RTD wants Buffy for Doctor Who".

And a few days after that, Channel 4 teletext was claiming "Sarah Michelle Geller to play Doctor Who!".

 

[Admiral_Young]

Since I'm fairly new to the Doctor Who fanbase only having really joined with New Who back in 2005...I'm going to say the Johnny Depp as the Doctor rumours that surfaced last year.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Between the cancellation of the show and the 1996 movie, there were lots of rumours about who would replace McCoy. Among the names mooted were Patrick Stewart, Eric Idle, Pierce Brosnan and David Hasselhoff. I remember reading that Steven Spielberg would direct or produce a movie, starring Idle as the Doctor and Peter O'Toole as the Doctor's father (why not just get O'Toole as The Doctor?).

A story I've heard which apparently is true is that apparently in the mid-1980s, the BBC considered casting Peter Cook as The Doctor; they apparently also thought about re-hiring Patrick Troughton - the Doctor would regenerate into one of his past selves for the first time ever.

 

[Skellington]

Speaking of be Brosnan rumour, wasn't Leonard Nimoy going to direct that version?

Donald Sutherland is another name that was connected with the role of the Doctor.

 

[Starkers]

That definitely rings a bell.

 

[OmahaStar]

Between the cancellation of the show and the 1996 movie, there were lots of rumours about who would replace McCoy. Among the names mooted were Patrick Stewart, Eric Idle, Pierce Brosnan and David Hasselhoff. I remember reading that Steven Spielberg would direct or produce a movie, starring Idle as the Doctor and Peter O'Toole as the Doctor's father (why not just get O'Toole as The Doctor?).

I remember reading about that in a book many years ago called The Nth Doctor. The book was about the various possible ways Doctor Who was going to be revived (but fell through for one reason or another).

Somewhere else, back in the early 2000s, I read some article that claimed the BBC was going to go back to the beginning and re-film all of Doctor Who, beginning with the Hartnell stories ... everything that had been lost, they were going to bring in "name" actors to redo the episodes shot for shot (essentially what they did with Psycho), then release them on tape.

 

[captcalhoun]

i think every bugger with an Equity card's been linked with the role at some point...

 

[Captaindemotion]

Speaking of be Brosnan rumour, wasn't Leonard Nimoy going to direct that version?

Donald Sutherland is another name that was connected with the role of the Doctor.

Yes, I think Spock was supposed to direct Bond as The Doctor.

I think Sutherland was suggested by a few fans (myself included) as their dream American Doctor but I'm not sure if I remember him being a contender. Of course, the world and his dog was linked at one time or another, so he probably turned up here or there as being in the running.

 

[23skidoo]

Cool responses!

I remember a few of these myself. Bowie was also supposedly to be cast as the Doctor too (which would have been fine). And yes, Nimoy was in line to direct a Steven Spielberg-produced Doctor Who movie at one point (that's not a rumor - that's been documented; the original plan for what became the McGann movie was a complete reimagining with The Doctor and the Master being brothers and Borusa was their father or something like that. I always tell folks who trash the McGann movie to read up on what was originally planned; the TV movie comes off looking like Blink in comparison).

One I find quite amusing is before she was officially announced, the tabloids broke the story that Kylie Minogue was going to guest star on Doctor Who. As a female Cyberman. Well they got it half right.

In terms of "wishful thinking seen print" I recall one reputable media outlet reporting that David Tennant had been signed for Series 5 for 2 million pounds or something. This about a week before Tennant announced he was leaving.

I agree the Johnny Depp rumor is a good one. There was a similar one involving Nicholas Cage, apparently based on the simple fact he visited London around the time they were casting the Eleventh Doctor or something.

Although it's not a "rumor" because it actually came from a direct source, this talk from RTD about doing an Enterprise crossover for Season 1 I still maintain was a joke people took seriously. I can't see the logistics being possible (for a comic book, yeah sure, but not TV). Plus, at the time Season 1 of DW was being prepared, Enterprise was fast heading out the door, and had the crossover occurred it would have aired after Enterprise was cancelled.

This one's not a "wild" rumor, but still interesting from a TV historian's perspective. When Fox decided not to turn the McGann movie into a series, it was widely reported that the network had the choice between doing a DW series or commissioning Space: Above & Beyond. That's great, except the final episode of S:A&B aired on Fox something like 2 weeks before the DW movie aired. I still come across this reference from time to time. As I understand it if they did have to "make a choice" I believe it was Sliders or X-Files that would have been given the nod instead.

Alex

 

[Admiral_Young]

The Enterprise crossover proposal was not a joke since RTD mentions this in A Writer's Tale.

 

[Ghost Bones]

Well, on a different note, I think the one about Matthew Waterhouse getting the job because of partaking in some bumbuggery with JNT is the most wild of the persistent rumours I can think of. Davo and Sutton's another. There's also the ongoing one that McCoy has a false leg. And Barrowman's on set behaviour and it being a deciding factor for Eccles leaving. There's the "game of buffers" Trout and Fraser Hines would play with Watling. And that Trout died on the job at a convention with a fan. There's loads really in that kind of vein.

 

[C.E. Evans]

For me, it was Denzel Washington being considered as the Doctor for a big screen revival of the series. Must of heard it sometime after the '96 movie and before the TV revival...

 

[The Wormhole]

The Enterprise crossover proposal was not a joke since RTD mentions this in A Writer's Tale.

In great detail in fact. He even mentions that he considered altering the story sot that instead of a Star Trek crossover it would just be about the Doctor visiting a starship which resembled but was legally distinct from a Starfleet ship.

The idea obviously never went anywhere, though there was the starship Amy and Rory were on in A Christmas Carol where the bridge is very Trek like complete with Trek XI-style lens flares going off every ten seconds.