10 Notorious Doctor Who Urban Legends

3. The Alternate Sarah Jane Smith

Sarah Jane Smith
BBC

It's difficult to imagine the Doctor Who universe without Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. Not only is she one of the most popular companions of all time, but she's one of the few characters to play an important role in the show across both the classic and modern eras, bumping into countless different Doctors along the way.

Because of how iconic she is, it's surprising to note just how close we came to missing out on Sladen's portrayal of the character. An oft-forgotten Doctor Who "what-if", there's an alternate timeline out there in which Sarah Jane is played by British actress April Walker, with Sladen missing out on the job altogether.

Walker didn't just audition for the role - she was actually cast in it, and even worked with Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor for a good stretch of time. However, Pertwee is said to have disliked Walker in the role, and it was subsequently recast with Sladen.

Because of how famous Sladen's Sarah Jane is - combined with the fact that the casting of Walker wasn't public knowledge until 2012 - a lot of fans tend to forget (or just don't know) that she wasn't actually the first choice for the role. How different things could have been.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!