10 Biggest Doctor Who Conspiracy Theories

You’ve all heard of the alternate Ninth Doctors (Rowan Atkinson in 1999 sketch The Curse of Fatal Death, and Richard E. Grant in the 2003 webcast Scream of the Shalka).

But what about the alternate Eighth Doctor?

In 1991 – two years on from Doctor Who’s cancellation and five years before the show returned with Paul McGann – unknown actor David Burton was allegedly cast as the next Doctor.

The news broke not via a simple photo shoot or press release, but by Burton driving around in a car that had “DAVID BURTON: THE NEW DOCTOR WHO” printed on the side.

This was supposedly part of an attempt by an independent production to bring the show back to our screens. If Burton is to be believed, two pilot episodes were filmed, and ultimately rejected by the BBC.

There’s just one problem: aside from Burton’s own account, there’s zero record of these pilots ever having been produced. Rather conveniently, Burton claims that all photographs and footage had to be destroyed.

Is Burton pulling a fast one? Or did he really film these episodes, and they’ve been lost to the mists of time?

Either way, it's hilarious that he claims to have signed a confidentiality agreement, yet got this supposed huge secret printed on the side of his car. That's not what "confidentiality" means, mate.