The CRAZY History Of Doctor Who And Disney
Did you know that the Doctor and Mickey Mouse have been friends for almost 50 years?
Whether it's Jon Pertwee playing the Colonel in the Disney movie One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing or the Tenth Doctor quoting The Lion King, there are decades of shared history between the worlds of Doctor Who and the Walt Disney Corporation.
Think about it: Mickey Mouse was the creation of the cigarette-smoking, moustache-wearing impresario Walt Disney, and Doctor Who was the creation of the cigar-chomping, moustachioed impresario Sydney Newman.
Despite their similar facial hair, Walt Disney and Sydney Newman could not be more different. Disney wanted to spread magic and fantasy, while Newman wanted his science-fiction to be rooted in the believable reality of 1960s London. And yet, despite their differences, Doctor Who and Disney have been on a decades-long journey together since almost as far back as the Whoniverse came into being.
When Disney finally acquired the international streaming rights to Doctor Who in 2022, it was the culmination of decades of near-misses between the TARDIS and the House of Mouse. And no, we aren't talking about the errant satellite that redirected the Doctor and Mel from 1950s Disneyland to the Welsh countryside.
7. 1975 - Tom Baker In Disney Time
One of the earliest crossovers between Doctor Who and Disney took place in August 1975, when Tom Baker presented a very special episode of Disney Time. The show was a co-production between the BBC and Disney, and screened clips from various Disney movies and short films.
Among the classic Disney movies introduced by Baker are The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and er... Return of the Big Cat? Does anybody remember that one?
Brilliantly, Baker does the full episode in character as the Fourth Doctor, who wanders around the London Odeon in St Martin's Lane looking for his old friends Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy (Baker's predecessor Jon Pertwee had also hosted an episode of Disney Time in 1973, though not in character as the Third Doctor).
Earlier in 1975, this Odeon cinema had opened as the "Permanent Home of Disney Movies". And so the Doctor can be seen parking the TARDIS under an awning promoting Lady and the Tramp, and wandering past a huge mural depicting the characters from Robin Hood.
Unfortunately, the Doctor never gets to catch up with Mickey, Donald, and the rest of the gang in person. The Doctor's presence is required by the Brigadier, who leaves a note indicating he's in a spot of bother. It was a tantalising tease for Terror of the Zygons Part One, which aired the very next Saturday.
Baker effortlessly embodies the spirit of the Fourth Doctor in these rather unusual circumstances, so much so that it's easy to imagine this being one of those fun offscreen adventures the Doctor takes, in-between battling Cybermen and Zygons.