When the opportunity to travel in time and space just isn't enough.
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00:00Due to Doctor Who's very nature of travelling anywhere in time and space,
00:04different stories and locations each week, it has had an ever-expanding roster of guest stars
00:10over the past 58 years. Some actors take a role on the show out of love and nostalgia. Others,
00:15like John Simm, take the role so that their children will actually be able to watch their
00:19parents work without fear of bad language or sexy scenes. Not everyone holds the show in such
00:26esteem, however, and there have been a fair few guest actors who aren't overly thrilled to take
00:31part in the show. And even those that are sometimes have particularly strange requests
00:36in order for them to get into character as all manner of alien weirdos, historical figures,
00:41and intergalactic tyrants. This list collects a range of actors who've appeared in the show
00:46over the past five decades, charting their unusual requests, vanity, eccentric motives,
00:51and incredibly demanding performances. With that in mind, I'm Ellie with Who Culture,
00:56and this is 10 Most Unusual Demands Made by Doctor Who Guest Stars.
01:01Number 10. Vi Del Mar negotiated a separate contract for her teeth in The Pirate Planet
01:07Vi Del Mar was an English character actor who'd pop up in everything from Carry On Cowboy to
01:12Doctor Finley's Casebook. Born in 1902, Del Mar was in her mid-70s when she was cast as the aged
01:19Queen Xenaxia in the closing two parts of Douglas Adams' Doctor Who debut, The Pirate Planet.
01:25Queen Xenaxia, of course, was the true villain of the story. In an attempt to remain youthful,
01:31she plunders the galaxy for rare minerals to power the time dam that sustains her.
01:35Trapped in the final few moments of her life, she is defeated by the Doctor,
01:39who warns her that there's not enough energy in the world to sustain her existence forever.
01:44In order to better portray this wise and old queen, Del Mar was asked to remove her false
01:49teeth by director Pennant Roberts. She refused to do so, and ended up negotiating an extra fee
01:55to appear on screen without her falses in. According to IMDb, this was her final on-screen
02:00credit as an actor, but Del Mar lived on until 1994. The fate of her false teeth is unknown.
02:07Number 9. Nicholas Briggs disagreed with how the Daleks were written in Doomsday
02:12Nicholas Briggs is so entwined with the Daleks now that a whole nation responded to the
02:17executioner's line, I am not Nick, with Yes, you are. On top of this, he's the voice of the
02:23Cybermen, the Jadoon, the Zygons, Skaldak the Ice Warrior, not to mention his extensive work
02:29with Big Finish. Briggs is one of the few figures to have been with Doctor Who since 2005. He's the
02:35monster guy. He has a ring modulator. He's the Dalek expert. So much so that during filming of
02:41the Series 2 finale Doomsday, he disagreed with how the dialogue was written. Reading the script,
02:47Briggs felt that Dalek Sek sounded like he was jarringly in conversation with himself,
02:52and that the lines would be better split between Sek and another Dalek. Director Graham Harper
02:56agreed, and they sought permission to change the script as written. Is Briggs paid by the Dalek,
03:01or just a flat rate for voice work? If the former, then this was a sneaky little move for some extra
03:06cash. But it's more than likely to be the latter, and he just really knows his Daleks.
03:12John Cain's method acting nearly barred him from filming in Planet of the Spiders. John Cain's
03:18performance as Tommy in 1974's Planet of the Spiders is a bit of its time. It's not a particularly
03:24nuanced portrayal of a character with learning difficulties, though the script does have its
03:28heart in the right place. When Sarah exclaims, you're normal, after his miraculous interaction
03:34with the Great Crystal, Tommy simply replies, I hope not. Cain was predominantly a theatre actor
03:40at the time of filming, and would get into character on his way to the first day of shooting.
03:45Adopting Tommy's voice, he asked a taxi driver to take him to where they made the television
03:50programmes, because he was on his way to meet his friend Doctor Who. On arriving at TV Centre,
03:55the taxi driver alerted a security guard who told Cain that the TARDIS had left,
04:00and Doctor Who would wave to him next time he was on telly. Cain turned down the driver's offer of
04:04a lift back home, and eventually had to remonstrate with the guard to be allowed inside to start
04:09filming. Simon Callow insisted Dickens be treated with respect in The Unquiet Dead.
04:16Actors will sometimes avoid roles that may damage their reputation,
04:20often by being connected with work that doesn't appear worthy of their talents.
04:24Simon Callow is slightly different, and was reticent to appear in The Unquiet Dead because
04:28he was fearful that it would sully the reputation of Charles Dickens. Having written about the
04:33author and having played him in a one-man show, Callow is a proper Dickens scholar,
04:38and was uncomfortable with the idea of him being a guest in a Doctor Who story.
04:42His fears were rooted in the idea that the author is often deployed as a cheap way to
04:46add some Victorian character to a ropey old period piece. He'd clearly seen what Doctor
04:51Who did with H.G. Wells in Time Lash. So Callow was adamant that the script be
04:56respectful to the Dickens legacy. He was therefore pleasantly surprised when he realised that Gatiss
05:01was almost as big a Dickens fan as he was. Callow was drawn to the script that saw the author worry
05:06about his legacy and his value as he nears the end of his life. It's one of the great
05:11Doctor Who performances, and was perfect to relaunch the series' historical adventures.
05:166. Kate O'Mara swapped Hollywood sunshine for a damp gravel pit for Time and the Rani
05:22Kate O'Mara always brought a bit of Hollywood glamour to Doctor Who in the 1980s.
05:27She only appeared twice, but the character was such a hit with fans that anytime a big-name
05:32female actor is cast as a villain, she's immediately rumoured to be the Rani.
05:36Keely Hawes and Michelle Gomez were certainly speculated to be new incarnations of the
05:41villainous Time Lady. To date, she's not made a return, perhaps due to how Kate O'Mara made
05:45the role her own. Indeed, O'Mara was very keen to return to the role for 1987's Time and the Rani,
05:52in spite of her success in the USA in Popular Soap Dynasty. She also had a few requests for
05:58executive producer John Nathan-Turner when she wrote to him,
06:01I can't stand the eternal sunshine. You've got to help me. I want to be in a gravel pit
06:06somewhere in the pissing rain, changing in a caravan in front of 20 nosy crew members.
06:11Whilst the hours and hours of location footage on the new Blu-rays don't dwell on her changing
06:16room arrangements, she certainly gets her wish for a soaking wet gravel pit.
06:205. Paul Darrow was out for revenge against Colin Baker in Time Lash
06:26Actors take on roles for all manner of reasons. For Paul Darrow,
06:29he accepted the role as Tekka in Time Lash purely out of a thirst for revenge.
06:34Back in 1980, Colin Baker had made a scene-stealing appearance as the villainous
06:39Babin the Butcher in the Blake 7 episode, City at the Edge of the World.
06:43Darrow felt that Baker's bombastic performance upstaged him on his own show. He's not wrong,
06:49it's a role that lives long in the memory and has now spawned a big Finnish spin-off.
06:53Darrow decided to return the favour five years later, on the set of Time Lash. Nathan Turner
06:58had cast him to play the role of the collaborator Malin Tekka in the same cool, anti-heroic manner
07:04that he played Avon. Darrow declined this offer and instead decided to perform the part as if
07:08he was Shakespeare's Richard III, hump and all. Director Pennant Roberts declined the hump,
07:13but Darrow proceeded to exaggerate his performance in what is one of the most
07:17memorable Doctor Who guest turns. And at least Colin Baker got some good convention stories out
07:22of it. After all, it could have been worse. Steven Berkoff was also in contention for the
07:27role of Tekka, but much more about him later. 4. Anthony Ainley's Bald Cap Mishap in Time Flight
07:34If you believed Tom Baker, and thousands wouldn't, then master actor Anthony Ainley
07:38was bald as a kneecap. The master's jet-black hair was unsurprisingly a wig. Anecdotally,
07:44he was very sensitive about his baldness and would insist on his makeup being done in private.
07:50Ainley's sensitivity over his baldness reached ludicrous heights during the production of
07:541982's Time Flight. For reasons that are never made clear, the master is disguised as the
07:59mystical Khalid, a bald racist stereotype for the benefit of seemingly nobody. Of course,
08:05to wear the heavy latex and makeup used to cover up his appearance, Ainley would have to remove the
08:10wig. No deal. He insisted that the makeup artist fit the bald cap over his luxurious black wig.
08:16Christopher Lee was similar. He refused to remove his wig for his role as Mycroft Holmes
08:21in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, until he was eventually convinced to by the director,
08:26Billy Wilder. Ron Jones, the director of the much-derided Time Flight, had no such luck with
08:31Ainley, despite warning of the unbearable heat he'd have to deal with. 3. Anton Differing preferred
08:37tennis to Doctor Who in Silver Nemesis Anton Differing was a prolific German character
08:43who had fled Germany in 1939 to live and work in Canada, the US, and Britain. Often playing Nazis
08:50in the movies following the end of the war, he appeared in genre classics like Where Eagles Dare
08:54and also starred in Jerry Lewis' infamous little-seen concentration camp clown film The Day
09:00the Clown Cried. By the late 80s, Differing was in his 70s and very much still working.
09:05Doctor Who's 25th anniversary special Silver Nemesis centred on a battle between the Cybermen,
09:11a Nazi and his private militia, and two Elizabethans to obtain the mythical Nemesis
09:16statue. It's up to the Doctor and Ace to stop them. And who did the Doctor Who production
09:21team have in mind for the ageing Nazi? Why, Anton Differing, of course. Differing was
09:25completely unaware of Doctor Who and had never seen an episode. He took the role on, though,
09:30not because he was a late convert to the magic of the show, but because the shooting dates
09:34coincided with Wimbledon and he could watch the matches between shoots from his hotel room.
09:40Davros smokes inside a paper bag in Genesis of the Daleks
09:44No disrespect to those who came after him, but Michael Wisher was the definitive Davros.
09:49Evil doesn't shout, it whispers, he famously noted, and it's this hissing menace that brings
09:55the creator of the Daleks so chillingly to life, a eugenicist who is absolutely convinced of the
10:00purity of his own race above all else. The darkness of Davros and Terry Nation's
10:06inspiration from the dark subject matter of the Holocaust is at odds with the frankly crazy way
10:12that Wisher prepared for the role. Knowing that he would be encased inside a rubber mask to play
10:16the part, he decided to rehearse his lines whilst wearing a paper bag on his head. The idea was that
10:22the bag would prepare him for the restrictive experience of wearing the Davros mask. Wisher
10:26was also a prolific chain smoker and cut two air holes in the top of the bag to allow him to smoke
10:32whilst wearing the very flammable paper bag, something which would never in a million years
10:37happen in an age of health and safety legislation. When it came to playing Davros on set, Wisher had
10:42a peculiar costume decision. Beneath the black leather tunic, he wore a kilt and knee pads in
10:47order to feel more comfortable in the Dalek shirt. 1. Stephen Berkhoff's never-to-be-repeated
10:53role as the Shukri in The Power of Three In an interview with SFX Magazine,
10:58The Power of Three director Douglas MacKinnon rather diplomatically stated that,
11:03You could ask anyone on the cast or crew and they'll agree that his participation was
11:08extraordinary. As the years have passed, some details have come out in various fan
11:12circles that suggest this is code for, he was an absolute nightmare to work with.
11:17Allegedly, he refused to act, delivered lines in bizarre ways and threw numerous tantrums.
11:22The day's shooting with Berkhoff was virtually unusable and Chris Chibnall had to hastily
11:27rewrite dialogue to work with what they could salvage. The Shukri was never originally intended
11:32to be a hologram, but Berkhoff's stock-steal performance necessitated such a rewrite.
11:37In an interview a few years later, Berkhoff complained about being worked to death and
11:41spending the majority of his 15 hours in the makeup chair. Perhaps by the time he'd been
11:46made up as the Shukri, he was ready to go home. It's no excuse for unprofessional behaviour though.
11:50The biggest laugh is that MacKinnon had worked with Berkhoff before. One can only imagine how
11:55he'd have behaved with an unfamiliar director. And that concludes our list of the most unusual
12:00demands made by Doctor Who guest stars. If you can think of any others that weren't mentioned
12:05in this video, then comment them below and while you're there, like and subscribe and tap that
12:09notification bell. Don't forget to head over to Twitter to follow us there. I've been Ellie with
12:14WhoCulture and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.