10 Notorious Doctor Who Urban Legends
4. Americans Aren't Allowed To Write Episodes
Like James Bond and Harry Potter, Doctor Who is a British institution. The show is about all of time and space, but its inherent "Britishness" is a part of its charm, something that's aided by the fact that the majority of its cast and crew are Brits.
This has resulted in a funny little rumour within fan circles that the BBC doesn't allow any non-Brits to work on the show, and while this clearly isn't true (just one of the many examples is that Rachel Talalay, the director of several Peter Capaldi episodes, was born in Chicago), it also might not be 100% false.
Earlier this year, American writer Joe Hill - who is the son of Stephen King - spoke about how, as a massive Doctor Who fan, he had a desire to write for the show. So, when he got the chance to pitch some ideas to the BBC, he spent a month and a half getting his ideas together, working tirelessly to ensure that they were great.
But as it turned out, all this effort was for nothing, because the BBC flat-out rejected him, citing his nationality as the reason why:
"We have never let an American write Doctor Who, and if we were going to, we wouldn't start with you."
Now of course, this raises the question: is Hill exaggerating, or bending the truth in some way? Is this actually a policy with Doctor Who? We can't know for sure. But damn, if Hill is telling the truth... then the BBC has some serious sass.