10 Times Doctor Who Actors Took On Another Cult Franchise

5. Paul McGann In Alien³

Doctor Who fans could be forgiven (but, let's face it, they obviously wouldn't be) for forgetting what the Eighth Doctor even looks like seeing as he's only ever appeared twice on our screens, the first time in the 1996 TV movie and then once again for his surprise involvement in the show's 50th anniversary festivities back in 2013. Despite that, Paul McGann's incarnation of TV's favourite Time Lord is still considered to be one of the best of the bunch but his introduction as the Universe's coveted defender wasn't his first encounter with extra terrestrial excursions. Before he stepped aboard the TARDIS (admittedly, his time at its helm was to be short but sweet), he shared the screen with the likes of Sigourney Weaver and Charles Dance in Alien³, the troubled third installment of the iconic Alien franchise ('troubled' in the sense that it suffered a turbulent production owing to the fact that various writers and directors dropped out before filming famously eventually went ahead without a finished script). It made its way to the big screen eventually (and no doubt to the distain of many, including members of its own cast and crew) and Paul came along for the party as Golic, a mass murderer and outcast who became disturbed after being assaulted by an alien in the prison's underground network of tunnels. It all escalated very quickly for his character after that but at least it put him in good stead to take on the malevolent Master in the ill-fated Doctor Who TV movie just 4 years later. It was, of course, to be Paul's only on screen outing as the Eighth Doctor (excluding The Night of the Doctor) but it was fun while it lasted. Speaking of former Doctors, coming up next is one you probably were expecting...