TLIAFD: The Doctor Is Who?

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What are you doing here?

Against my better judgment, I am submitting a timeline.

A timeline in a few days?

Yes, that seemed arbitrary enough to suit me. Please note that days might not be consecutive, or very close together at all.

Cop-out.

Probably.

So what's it about, then?

Doctor Who.

For God's sake.

Oh, shut up.

Anyway, let's get the ball rolling. We will start in the next post, then the first substantive addition will come later, with further updates to follow over the next few days / weeks / months (delete as appropriate) depending on my capacity. Rest assured that this will finish eventually (probably).
 
1. The Originator: The First Doctor

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The First Doctor

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William Hartnell

(1963 - 1966)
The first actor to play the Doctor, William Hartnell portrayed the eponymous alien adventurer for approximately three and a half years between 1963 and 1966, piloting the TARDIS - his blue police call box which was bigger on the inside - across space and time every Saturday at teatime, accompanied by a rotating cast of human friends and companions.


In the process, Hartnell became one of the most identifiable and beloved stars of the British small screen in the 1960s, respected by his co-stars, his fans and television critics alike. Many actors have taken the controls of the TARDIS, but none have failed to acknowledge that Hartnell was the originator to whom they are uniformly indebted. He was the gruff but kind, irascible but brilliant grandfather every child wanted, and without him it is impossible to imagine getting off the ground, much less all the way to Galaxy 4.


Nevertheless, all good things must come to an end. With a history of serious health problems dating back to before the Second World War, including undiagnosed arteriosclerosis which had affected his physical capacities and his ability to remember lines, Bill Hartnell had never been an entirely well man. By late 1966 it had become abundantly and tragically clear to all concerned, including the actor himself, that Hartnell would not be able to continue. Hartnell was offered the opportunity to depart the role at the end of the serial "The Tenth Planet", in which the Doctor first encountered the sinister Cybermen, but, mindful that the production staff had not reached a definitive solution to his inability to remain in the real, Hartnell mustered his characteristic determination and soldiered on to complete filming of the next serial, the six episode "The Power of the Daleks", designed to write the villainous aliens out of the series alongside him. [1]


To the horror and dismay of children across the country, the First Doctor exhaustedly announced that his defeat of the Daleks represented "their final end" before tumbling to the floor in front of his companions, Ben and Polly.


And then, to the surprise of viewers at home as much as the character's friends, the Doctor began to change…

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[1] Hartnell's decision to push himself to complete "Power" despite the objections of his family, friends, co-stars and the series production staff, while widely praised for its determination and commitment, would be equally attributed with precipitating the fast decline in his health which ultimately led to his death in the summer of 1972. Indeed, in the final episodes of the serial, Hartnell was visibly haggard and fragile, spending much of the final two episodes largely immobile.
 
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Thande

Donor
Yes, but what happens to HAROLD WILSON?

Joking aside, so the POD is Hartnell goes on for one more serial than OTL?
 

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So he's gone one episode further than he does in OTL?

One serial further - there were six episodes of "Power of the Daleks" and the same is true here. Strictly speaking, that isn't really the PoD, though. The PoD is someone else being cast somewhere else. I may have taken some liberties. I'm not going for hard AH here, I just want it to be entertaining. :)

I shall post a second update later on, then hopefully another two tomorrow, then two more on Friday (provided I am able to get them done in time!) and then any more (if there are any more, and I hope there will be) on Sunday, since I am busy on Saturday. After that, who knows?!
 
One serial further - there were six episodes of "Power of the Daleks" and the same is true here. Strictly speaking, that isn't really the PoD, though. The PoD is someone else being cast somewhere else. I may have taken some liberties. I'm not going for hard AH here, I just want it to be entertaining. :)

I shall post a second update later on, then hopefully another two tomorrow, then two more on Friday (provided I am able to get them done in time!) and then any more (if there are any more, and I hope there will be) on Sunday, since I am busy on Saturday. After that, who knows?!
If he dies in 1971 does that mean no Three Doctors in 1973 and no:

Jo Grant "Whose he!"

Pertwee and Troughton together "ME!"
 
2. "Are You Really Sure That's Wise, Brigadier?": The Second Doctor

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THE SECOND DOCTOR

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John Le Mesurier

(1966 - 1970)
In its three years on the air, Doctor Who had become a significant hit for the BBC with a large and diverse audience. Despite the departure of its leading man (as well as longtime producer Verity Lambert, who had exited in the same year as Hartnell), the Corporation was determined to keep the programme on the air. Producer Innes Lloyd was instructed to find a solution and, along with story editor Gerry Davis, devised the concept of "regeneration", reasoning that the Doctor, as an alien, could have possessed a heretofore undisclosed ability to transform into a new body when he suffered fatal injuries (as the First Doctor did at the end of a Dalek's ray gun) and thus cheat death.


The concept of an actor other than Hartnell taking on the role of the Doctor was not a new one. Indeed, during Hartnell's tenure in the TARDIS, the veteran character actor Patrick Troughton [1] had played the time traveller (here re-imagined as a human scientist in the employ of the British secret service named "Dr Who") in a pair of full-colour spin-off films by Amicus Productions in 1965 and 1966, adapting the television serials "The Daleks" and "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". [2]


Several actors were considered to play the Second Doctor. An early casting call suggested that the new Doctor could be a "Roger Moore type" (in reference to the star of the immensely popular James Bond films), although this proposal was abandoned. It has been suggested that the producers might have had their eye on Patrick Macnee, star of The Avengers, to take over the series at this time. In any event, the idea was eventually abandoned.


Peter Jeffrey, Valentine Dyall and Patrick Troughton were all approached but each declined the role, as did several others variously reluctant to follow Hartnell or hesitant to commit to the notoriously exacting Doctor Who schedule. Serious consideration was given to the BAFTA Award-winning actor Peter Cushing, the star of a raft of Hammer Horror films since the 1950s.


Eventually, Lloyd settled on 54-year old John Le Mesurier, a veteran of film, television and radio. Primarily recognised for his roles in comedies, he had in the previous year received some attention for his dramatic turn in a supporting part in the science-fiction film City Under the Sea [3] and accepted the role with a view to expanding his repertoire as a drama actor. However, he was unsurprised to learn that Lloyd (and his successors) were keen to draw on his experience in comedy, and acquiesced with characteristic amicability.


Accompanied by such companions as James McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), a scientist from the far future, and 19th century English pickpocket Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) among others, the Second Doctor was an absent-minded professor, very popular with women, whose relaxed charisma and easygoing demeanour concealed a tough edge and penchant for manipulation which suggested his untroubled nature was at least partly deliberate misdirection. His interactions with recurring characters such as the pompous military man Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (portrayed by the admittedly curiously cast Coronation Street mainstay Arthur Lowe in "Revenge of the Krotons" and subsequent adventures such as "The Wendigos") were the subject of particular critical praise for their comedic chemistry.


Le Mesurier would remain in the leading role for four years and, although several of the serials in which he featured are currently missing – most notoriously 1966's widely-sought "The Space Trap", the first submission to the series made by future script editor and producer Robert Holmes (albeit with a Gerry Davis co-writing credit for what Holmes described as "just a bit of spit and polish") – many of those which survived have been described as some of the series' best. Particularly well-regarded is Le Mesurier's final adventure in the TARDIS (and the series' first full-colour episode) "The War Games" in early 1970. This serial represented the peak of a darker trend in the scripts for the series which brought the more devious elements of the Second Doctor's character to the fore, in which the Doctor's intervention in a conflict revealed to have been masterminded by the Daleks (absent from television since 1966) results in the deaths of his companions.


Ultimately, this story would precipitate Le Mesurier's departure. Dissatisfied with the increasingly grim tone of the scripts, he informed producer Derrick Sherwin of his desire to leave the role. The final episode of "The War Games" introduced the Doctor's people, the powerful and mysterious Time Lords, who spirit him away to their home planet (not initially named at this time) and put him on trial for crimes against causality.


Defiant in his conviction that "some evils must be fought", the Second Doctor submits to the sentence of forced regeneration. After his exit, Le Mesurier would largely withdraw from drama and the limelight, returning to "straight man" supporting roles in a range of comedies on film and television for the rest of the 1970s, remaining a popular figure at fan conventions until his death in 1981, the second Doctor Who actor to shuffle off the mortal coil.

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[1] Troughton was cast partly on Hartnell's recommendation; Hartnell would later remark, "There's only one man in England who can take over, and that's Patrick Troughton." Troughton was indeed considered and approached for the role, but declined the offer, citing an attachment to the reinterpretation of the character he had developed on the big screen and expressing a desire to, "Give someone else a chance." He would subsequently cross the Atlantic, the Amicus trilogy having enjoyed a brief American vogue, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Damien Karras in The Exorcist in 1973, a role which also won him a Golden Globe.


[2] Troughton would reprise the role of "Dr Who" for a final time in a third Amicus film in 1967, this time an adaptation of the Hartnell Dalek serial "The Chase", here retitled Dr Who and the Time Chase, which remains the sole artefact of that story after the original tapes were wiped by the BBC. Troughton would subsequently make one final appearance as the character in the main series in the early 1980s opposite the fifth incarnation of the character.


[3] City Under the Sea would go on to become a cult favourite from the period, although screenwriter Charles Bennett often remarked that the project may well have been much less successful (famously remarking, "It nearly ended up as the worst thing I was ever involved in!" after relating changes proposed by British screenwriter Louis M. Heyward) if the distributor, American International Pictures, had refused to pay the cost of his travel to Britain to work on the script.
 
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Thande

Donor
Ah, An Honourable Man Time Lord.

Nicely obscure POD/divergences. I like the idea of a big-screen in-name-only adaptation of The Chase along with the earlier Dalek films.
 

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Nicely obscure POD/divergences. I like the idea of a big-screen in-name-only adaptation of The Chase along with the earlier Dalek films.

Right, the PoD is basically that Patrick Troughton is cast as "Dr Who" in the Dalekmania movies rather than Peter Cushing and, consequently, does not play the Doctor on television after Hartnell resigns the part. Le Mesurier's casting will have some other small implications going forward which shall hopefully be clear in the next update.

There is another hint in the footnotes about some things I would like to try in the future. Have a look and, if you work it out, keep it to yourselves for the time being so you can feel clever if I act as you expect further down the line. :p

Anyway, these updates will be all for today. I shall post a couple more tomorrow and we shall see where we go after that. I hope everyone has enjoyed what little there has been so far. I appreciate it's not very detailed but I don't want to tie myself in knots over minutiae.
 
THE SECOND DOCTOR

Y
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John Le Mesurier

(1966 - 1970)
YAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSS QUEEEEEEEEEN

Serious consideration was given to the BAFTA Award-winning actor Peter Cushing, the star of a raft of Hammer Horror films since the 1950s.

DOES THIS MEAN HAMMER'S REVENUES WILL TANK FASTER ITTL AND WE CAN HAVE PETER MOTHERFRIENDING CUSHING AS THE FOURTH DOCTOR DOES IT DOES IT TAKE ALL MY MONEY DO TELL


His interactions with recurring characters such as the pompous military man Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (portrayed by the admittedly curiously cast Coronation Street mainstay Arthur Lowe in "Revenge of the Krotons" and subsequent adventures such as "The Wendigos") were the subject of particular critical praise for their comedic chemistry.

You are a very naughty man if this does anything to delay production on Dad's Army then Words will be Had. If, however, it simply makes them even more convinced that it's a brilliant idea and it just runs and runs on through the Seventies or at least until Lance Corporal Jones keels over, and Lowe never bothers with Bless Me, Father, then you get extra points.


returning to "straight man" supporting roles in a range of comedies on film and television for the rest of the 1970s
That is deliberately ambiguous. Fifteen points from Gryffindor.

[1] Troughton was cast partly on Hartnell's recommendation; Hartnell would later remark, "There's only one man in England who can take over, and that's Patrick Troughton." Troughton was indeed considered and approached for the role, but declined the offer, citing an attachment to the reinterpretation of the character he had developed on the big screen and expressing a desire to, "Give someone else a chance." He would subsequently cross the Atlantic, the Amicus trilogy having enjoyed a brief American vogue, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Damien Karras in The Exorcist in 1973, a role which also won him a Golden Globe.

Awww. I'n't that nice.

Meanwhile Tom Baker has dropped his interest in pursuing the priesthood and is running a profitable small cult in mid-Wales with an emphasis on the spiritual fitness of petite blonde women.
 

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DOES THIS MEAN HAMMER'S REVENUES WILL TANK FASTER ITTL AND WE CAN HAVE PETER MOTHERFRIENDING CUSHING AS THE FOURTH DOCTOR DOES IT DOES IT TAKE ALL MY MONEY DO TELL

I am afraid I must rule out Peter Cushing as the Fourth Doctor in this timeline, so you may keep your money. This should not give anything away about who I have selected, though. I think and hope it will be a surprise.

However, I very strongly considered putting him in as the Second Doctor (and he would certainly be a good choice in any "alternate Doctor Who actors" timeline). It came down to a choice between Cushing, Le Mesurier and (on the suggestion of @NCW8, who very kindly advised me on some choices in this story and whose story Shuffling the Doc I would avidly encourage anyone to read who hasn't) Sir Michael Hordern.

Hordern was one of the greatest talents from what's possibly the most talented generation of British actors there has ever been and he would have been a brilliant Doctor, but I did not think he had exactly the vibe I was aiming for for the purposes of this story (and, being primarily associated with the stage, I am less familiar with his work beyond A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum than I am with John Le Mesurier via Dad's Army and various guest roles he had on those mid-1960s adventure shows I like).

Awww. I'n't that nice.

I hoped so.
 
Hordern was one of the greatest talents from what's possibly the most talented generation of British actors there has ever been and he would have been a brilliant Doctor, but I did not think he had exactly the vibe I was aiming for for the purposes of this story (and, being primarily associated with the stage, I am less familiar with his work beyond A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum than I am with John Le Mesurier via Dad's Army and various guest roles he had on those mid-1960s adventure shows I like).

Very much agreed on Hordern's talent. Very well-loved in the acting community and among viewers of a certain age (or taste in eras) but never I think fully got the accolades he was due.

And if we're talking about "those mid-1960s adventure shows [you] like" does that mean there's an outside flutter on Patrick MacNee at some point? :cool:
 
I am afraid I must rule out Peter Cushing as the Fourth Doctor in this timeline, so you may keep your money. This should not give anything away about who I have selected, though. I think and hope it will be a surprise.
Of course the real surprise would be Tom Baker.
 
However, I very strongly considered putting him in as the Second Doctor (and he would certainly be a good choice in any "alternate Doctor Who actors" timeline). It came down to a choice between Cushing, Le Mesurier and (on the suggestion of @NCW8, who very kindly advised me on some choices in this story and whose story Shuffling the Doc I would avidly encourage anyone to read who hasn't) Sir Michael Hordern.

Awww, you're too kind.

I'm glad to see you're posting this TL, and I agree with the others that Lowe is an inspired choice for the Brig.

Silurian: Human, what is your name!

Brigadier: Don't tell him, Benton!
 
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3. Fancy: The Third Doctor

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THE THIRD DOCTOR

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Peter Wyngarde

(1970 - 1972)

Peter Wyngarde was not the production team's first choice to play the Third Doctor: after the success of John Le Mesurier's relaxed and easygoing approach to the role, a concerted attempt (as script editor Malcolm Hulke would subsequently describe in interviews) would be made to poach Jon Pertwee from Dad's Army only to be met with refusal when he made clear his preference for the role of Captain George Mainwaring, which saw him acting opposite his distant cousin William, who played the long-suffering Sgt. Arthur Wilson. Fulton Mackay and Philip Madoc were each acknowledged as good possibilities, as were Graham Crowden and Peter Gilmore; Paul Darrow was considered but rejected on account of his youth.


Pressure mounted as the challenge of finding a Third Doctor increased. Eventually, a decision was reached, and the flamboyant Peter Wyngarde – a remarkable character in his own right and one around whom mystery and innuendo were said to swirl – was cast as the Third Doctor. [1] Wyngarde, a onetime acquaintance of J.G. Ballard, had enjoyed an active career as a thespian since the 1940s, but was most immediately recognised by contemporary audiences as the sleuthing spy novelist and mod icon Jason King, a part which had made him the breakout star of the ITC adventure series Department S, which had recently concluded its run on ATV.


When filming on that series wrapped in early 1970, Wyngarde was offered a spin-off centred around Jason King, but declined the opportunity and accepted an invitation from producer Barry Letts (keen to bag a major star to try and justify the ongoing behind-the-scenes difficulties) to audition to take the lead in Doctor Who. [2] Relishing the challenge of portraying a different version of the same man as John Le Mesurier had portrayed, Wyngarde agreed and was officially announced as the new Doctor in the spring of 1970 shortly after the broadcast of "The War Games" was completed.


Along with a new actor and a new production and writing team, the Third Doctor era also ushered in a very new and very different status quo for Doctor Who. Following his trial by the Time Lords in the final Second Doctor adventure, the Doctor found himself confined to his home planet (now identified as Gallifrey) and pressed into the service of the High Council, serving as an agent for the stern, military-minded authoritarian Councillor Goth (played by Nicholas Courtney) and dealing with a mixture of political intrigue within Time Lord society and occasional visits to alien worlds. Throughout these adventures, the Third Doctor was accompanied first by a female Time Lord named Borusa (Caroline John) and Council Guard Harsul (Ian Marter), responsible for keeping him in line, and later by a human space colonist named Elizabeth Grant (Katy Manning) who accompanied him back to Gallifrey following an away mission. [3]


However, the most significant addition to the series during Wyngarde's ultimately brief tenure was a new villain known as the Master, introduced as an old rival of the Doctor and leader of a sinister conspiracy to take control of Time Lord society, played by a young Welsh actor opposite whom Wyngarde had previously acted in Department S, future Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins. [4] Their vendetta came to a head in the last episode of Wyngarde's tenure, "The Final Game", in which the Master is revealed to have been behind many of the intrigues and conspiracies which the Doctor had uncovered and thwarted during his house arrest on Gallifrey, but is inevitably betrayed by his invading "allies", the Ice Warriors. The Doctor defeats the invaders and saves his enemy's life, but backstabbed and shot by his cowardly foe's Tissue Division Eradicator; the Master himself attempts to make an escape but is seemingly killed when Grant sabotages his TARDIS. [5]


Ultimately, though, the story which surrounded Wyngarde's Third Doctor and particularly the embarrassing circumstances of his departure – today deemed as a major blight on the record of the BBC – is perhaps just as compelling as any which he encountered in costume and in front of the camera.


Wyngarde's portrayal of the Doctor, it is useful to understand, effectively transplanted his Jason King persona into the largely-inactive control room of the TARDIS. He was an inveterate dilettante, an habitually irreverent, long-haired bohemian clad in neo-Edwardian dandy style (justified in the script to the first episode of his first serial, "Spearhead to Space", as a deliberate attempt to rankle the conservative sensibilities of Time Lord society by emulating, "Some amusing 'mod' fashions I encountered last time I was allowed to visit Earth,") replete with ruffled blouses and crushed velvet suits, shirts often unbuttoned to expose a golden medallion ("Picked it from Columbus's own pocket back in 1492.") gleaming against the rug on his chest.


He drank ("A good Spiridonian wine, 12,000 B.C. by Earth reckoning unless I miss my guess. Rather a fancy year, if I say so myself!"), and even occasionally smoked ("A trifling human affection, dear Goth, and one you would do well to try,") and flirted shamelessly with every woman he shared a screen with. Audiences loved him, but Gallifrey's were not the only conservative sensibilities the Third Doctor managed to offend.


Constance Mary Whitehouse was an art teacher from Nuneaton and a devout evangelical Christian who, in 1965, founded the National Viewers and Listeners Association with the stated aim of cleaning up television. The movement made BBC one of its most frequent targets and often attacked Doctor Who in the late Le Mesurier years (despite speaking favourably of the actor himself) for the purported "un-Christian ambiguity of its morals" it displayed in its stories. After getting a taste of Peter Wyngarde, Whitehouse and her group redoubled their efforts, but after the surprise outcome of the general election of 1970 found a new ally in Westminster in the form of the newly-ensconced Conservative prime minister - a social conservative determined not to cede further ground following the decriminalisation of homosexuality by the outgoing Labour government in the late 1960s.


Although the BBC paid little heed to the NVALA campaigns, matters were exacerbated in late 1972, when the organisation began to focus its attacks on Wyngarde's widely-rumoured homosexuality, with Whitehouse infamously denouncing the BBC for, "trying to translate prurience and perversion into the attributes heroism in a television programme aimed at our children". Although homosexuality had, as noted, previously been decriminalised, the homophobic stigma had not yet lifted. A vociferous letter-writing campaign ensued, accompanied by column inches in scandal sheets and strong statements from rival organisations including the Campaign for Homosexual Equality on one side and various religious groups on the other.


Throughout the affair, Wyngarde himself remained judiciously quiet on the matter, and the unexpected increase in the ratings for Doctor Who suggested that his audience was still behind him. As political pressure mounted, a deputation led by Malcolm Hulke made clear that they were prepared to fight on their lead's behalf, but in the end, Wyngarde decided to leave the role freely. Discussing the matter with Letts and Hulke, it was agreed that the Third Doctor's rivalry with the Mater would receive a decisive conclusion and the Doctor absolved of any wrongdoing under an obscure piece of Time Lord law discovered by Councillor Goth, allowing him to travel freely in space and time once more.


At just short of three years, Peter Wyngarde's tenure as the Doctor is among the shortest of any actor cast in the role. Nonetheless, his time in the TARDIS (or, more accurately, on Gallifrey) remains a popular era in the programme's history. Despite leaving under a cloud, Wyngarde would return to Doctor Who for two further guest appearances and and has been a frequent contributor to the popular line of tie-in audio dramas produced by Audio Visuals.

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[1] Much of Wyngarde's early life is shrouded in some mystery, with the year and place of his birth and even his birth name being open to some dispute. Wyngarde himself is believed to have been born in China – his father has variously been cited as a diplomat or a naval engineer – sometime between 1926 and 1933 (Wyngarde identified 1933 as the correct date) with the name Cyril Goldbert. He was interned for a time in a camp near Shanghai during the war with Japan and relocated to England at the end of 1945.

[2] A Jason King solo series featuring Wyngarde would eventually appear on ITV later in the decade, shortly before Wyngarde's casting as Prince Barin in the feature film Flash Gordon.

[3] Caroline John would leave relatively early on in the Third Doctor's tenure, citing personal difficulties now widely attributed to be backstage quarrels (subsequently patched up) with Peter Wyngarde. Her character, Borusa, would eventually return, but for now was written out as having been dispatched on a mission to the distant past by Councillor Goth.

[4] Hopkins would win three Academy Awards, with two statues for Best Actor for his performances as Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme's Red Dragon (1993) and the title role in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995) and one award for Best Supporting Actor in 1995 for his portrayal of Abraham Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1994).

[5] Expressing a desire to leave the series at the end of 1972, Katy Manning agreed with Letts and Hulke in advance that her character, Elizabeth Grant, would fall in love with Ian Marter's Council Guard Harsul and remain on Gallifrey with him when the Doctor would inevitably be permitted to leave. This storyline was praised at the time for its consistent development and credible resolution.
 
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