10 Doctor Who Guest Actors Who Also Played The Doctor
2. Richard E Grant
Richard E Grant played the Great Intelligence, the big bad of Doctor Who's series 7B, which led to the 50th anniversary in 2013. Given Richard E Grant's history with Doctor Who, it's easy to see why he was the perfect choice for a vengeful villain.
Richard E Grant had played the Doctor twice before first being cast in 2012's The Snowmen. When Rowan Atkinson's Ninth Doctor was killed during Steven Moffat's Comic Relief sketch, he regenerated into Richard E Grant. Or, as written "The Slightly Handsome Doctor". It was a one-night only, charity gig that surely allowed Moffat and the Comic Relief team to scratch the itch of which 90s actors could play the Doctor if the series was still on.
Four years later, Grant was cast as the Ninth Doctor in Scream of the Shalka, a 40th anniversary animated web series for the BBC's website. It was written by Paul Cornell, and the Doctor is clearly recovering from a terrible loss that has occurred offscreen. Meeting a new companion, it appears that he will gradually become the Doctor again.
Unbeknownst to the team behind Scream of the Shalka, Russell T Davies was also devising a Ninth Doctor that was also dealing with a great tragedy in his past. When the new TV series was announced, the Shalka Doctor was quietly set aside.