Even before the age of the internet, Doctor Who rumours have been rife, and some of them have been weirder than the series itself. Let’s take a look at the top five silliest…
5) The Doctor and the Master will swap bodies
The first of our Doctor Who rumours comes from 2007, when the Time Lord’s old enemy the Master burst back onto our screens in the form of John Simm. Even before his appearance, though, the forums were abuzz that Series Three would see the return of the Doctor’s arch enemy – although, to be fair, there had always been Doctor Who rumours about the Master’s resurrection. During Series One, the tabloid press insisted that the Master would face Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, played by Superfan Wayne from Big Brother’s Little Brother.
In this case, though, the rumour was a little more nuanced. After the Master’s return, ‘sources’ stated that he and the Doctor would perform a body swap, meaning that John Simm would become the Doctor and David Tennant would, effectively, become the Master.
It was an intriguing idea, and although this Doctor Who rumour proved to be false, a version of this storyline did manifest in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode. Was Chris Chibnall inspired by the Doctor Who forums…?
4) The Fifth Doctor will be a woman
When Tom Baker announced his departure from Doctor Who in 1980, speculation was rife as to who would succeed him. This was, arguably, the first time that the casting of the new Doctor had really captured the public’s imagination; Tom Baker had been playing the part for over six years, and for many people he was the only Doctor they’d ever known.
This speculation, naturally, gave birth to a whole raft of exotic Doctor Who rumours, including one started by the script editor Christopher H. Bidmead and Tom Baker. According to Bidmead, he and Baker concocted a statement between them which implied that the BBC was going to cast a female in the titular role. Apparently, Bidmead even suggested this idea to the producer John Nathan-Turner, who rebuked him; he said that the Doctor could never be played by a man because (in his eyes) all doctors were male.
Despite this, Bidmead and Baker gave birth to a whole new wave of Doctor Who rumours. From this point on, every time it was announced that there was going to be a new Doctor, people wondered if the BBC was going to cast a female. They would have to wait until 2017 before this happened for real.
3) They’re getting rid of the TARDIS
The next of our Doctor Who rumours came directly from the series’ production office. In the 1980s, there was some discussion in the press about the return of police boxes to our streets, and the producer John Nathan-Turner was concerned. He feared that children might misuse them because, in their eyes, police boxes were TARDISes.
After this, rumours began to circulate that Nathan-Turner would ‘exterminate’ the TARDIS from the series – or at least, the police box version.
As we all know, this didn’t happen, although the TARDIS did change shape during the 1985 story ‘Attack of the Cybermen‘ when the Time Lord finally attempted to repair the chameleon circuit. It did, however, revert back to its police box shape at the end of the story, and it has remained that way ever since.
The only time it has taken a different form for any length of time is in the lost David Burton series, produced by an independent company, in which the TARDIS was rumoured to have been in the shape of a red phone kiosk.
2) The art deco Daleks
One of the more interesting Doctor Who rumours comes from Series Three, and the two part story ‘Daleks in Manhattan’ and ‘Evolution of the Daleks.’ This was an adventure set in New York during The Great Depression, and during production the internet was insisting that this adventure would see the Time Lord’s enemies given a visual overhaul – namely, an ‘art deco’ redesign.
Like many Doctor Who rumours, it’s unclear where this one started, or indeed if there was ever any truth behind it. Were Russell T Davies and his team really considering a stylish makeover for the metal mutants? It certainly would have been fun to see, if a little hard to justify.
In the end, the Daleks wouldn’t get their redesign until 2010’s ‘Victory of the Daleks,’ and again (kind of) in 2019’s ‘Resolution.’
1) Laurence Olivier is the next Doctor
(C) BBC
The ultimate ‘silliest’ Doctor Who rumour takes us back to the Fourth Doctor’s regeneration. Amid the speculation that the next Time Lord could be a woman, another curious idea came to the fore. Apparently, the BBC had offered the role to one of the greatest actors of all time – Laurence Olivier.
Olivier was 73 at the time so it certainly would have been a bold choice, making him the oldest actor to have ever played the role. And as we know, this Doctor Who rumour turned out to be false, and it’s not entirely clear where it started. The actor Matthew Waterhouse (who played Adric in Tom Baker’s last season) suggested in his book Blue Box Boy that he may have started the rumour, saying it as a joke to an avid Doctor Who fan.
Curiously, four years later, the production team did actually offer Laurence Olivier a part in the series – playing the zombie-man who attacks the Doctor in ‘Revelation of the Daleks.’ This would have required the 78 year-old Olivier to spend a day in a prosthetic mask rolling around in the snow with Colin Baker, in freezing conditions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Olivier passed on the opportunity.
But there are of course times when the internet’s craziest Doctor Who rumours have turned out to be true. Do you remember when the internet dared to suggest that Billie Piper had been cast as the Sixteenth Doctor…?
Let us know your favourite Doctor Who rumour in the comments below!
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