Doctor Who Actors Are Living In Their Own Real-Life "Whoniverse"

Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: Audio Drama, bbc, big finish, chris chibnall, christopher eccleston, colin baker, david tennant, doctor who, Georgia Tennant, jodie whittaker, paul mcgann, peter capaldi, peter davison, russell t davies, steven moffat, tom baker

Doctor Who Actors Are Living In Their Own Real-Life "Whoniverse"

Doctor Who actors are realizing that "The Whoniverse" now extends well beyond the small screen, creating interesting real-life "crossovers."

Published Sat, 21 Sep 2024 07:37:11 -0500
by Adi Tantimedh
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With Doctor Who one of the biggest and most popular Science Fiction shows on the planet for over sixty years, the cast has become TV stars in the UK and stars to fans across the world. Naturally, the most interest would be in the actors who play the Doctor, and since the series was revived in 2005, showrunners like Russell T. Davies and the fandom have kept them in the spotlight long after they left the series. What has emerged, especially with social media showing us, is that the actors who play the Doctors live in a stranger, cooler alternate universe than we do. What does that mean? Keep reading.

Former Doctor Who Actors Get to Continue Playing Their Doctors

In the old days, before the internet and especially before social media, former Doctor Who stars would regenerate out of the show (or, in the final two instances of the classic era, get fired and not come back, or just have the show canceled from under them) and then move on with their lives and careers with convention appearances. Then, in the 1990s, Big Finish launched to produce audio dramas featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors, so Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann have been getting steady work playing their Doctors again ever since on top of other acting work, including some high profile TV series and movies. Big Finish has since expanded its range to include Tom Baker, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Jodie Whittaker for new stories featuring the Fourth, Ninth, Tenth, and Thirteenth Doctors. Since then, Big Finish has been producing as many multiple Doctor crossover stories and combinations as it can get away with and will keep going for the foreseeable future. Whittaker is the embodiment of someone who didn't grew up with the series but has inadvertantly become someone living in it.

Jodie Whittaker's Real-Life Crossovers 

Jodie Whittaker joked that her career has become a series of Doctor Who crossovers by accident, even long before she got the role. One of her early roles was to star in the National Theatre production of the Greek tragedy Antigone, where she played the title role next to Christopher Eccleston, who was, of course, the Ninth Doctor. She co-starred with David Tennant in Broadchurch, which was his first major TV role after he left Doctor Who. Broadchurch was created by Chris Chibnall, and its success as the top-rated drama series during its three seasons made Chibnall a hot showrunner who ended up getting the job when Steven Moffat left. Chibnall ended up casting her during his tenure as Showrunner. Then, when she left the role with Chibnall, and Davies returned as showrunner, she got the call from Tennant to discover he was returning to replace her as the Doctor. Not to say that she didn't land other major acting roles since, but her involvement in the series has been an oddly meta trajectory that kept doubling back on the show. She became so loyal and invested that she got into character and filmed a video that was almost a mini-episode from her closet at home during Lockdown, and of course, she took up the offer for Big Finish audio dramas because she missed it.

David Tennant's Real-Life Crossovers

Nothing beats David Tennant's life as a fan and lead actor. That's living the dream, just as Peter Capaldi did two regenerations later. A fan since childhood who grew up on both Tom Baker and Peter Davison, then getting to become the Doctor, Tennant first got to meet Davison in "Timecrash," the first modern-era Doctor crossover episode that Steven Moffat wrote for the Children in Need Special that year. Then he met Davison's daughter Georgia Moffat in an episode where she played the Tenth Doctor's daughter, created from his DNA. Tennant began dating Moffat after that, and the two ended up getting married. How surreal is that? A Doctor marrying his own daughter in more ways than one. It's beyond timey-wimey and into the epically meta.

In keeping the series alive and constantly in the public eye and endorsing the fandom and spinoffs that keep their attention on actors who played past incarnations, it's almost like Russell T. Davies not only started but also orchestrated this surreal meta-alternate reality the actors now live in – hopefully with their best lives. It's like a show outside the show that we get to watch.

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