10 Nu-Who Storylines That Doctor Who Spin-Off Media Did First
6. An Everyday Person Masquerading As The Doctor
The Next Doctor is far better than the publicity stunt of a title implies. It's a melancholy winter's tale of coping with loss, and of dreaming of being a better person. Jackson Lake is a tragic figure, who believes his wife and child to be lost to cybernetic conversion. Due to an accident, Lake's mind has been so flooded with memories of the Doctor that he believes himself to be the Timelord. It allows him to play the hero, rather than dwell on the family he's lost through his perceived cowardice.
Elements of this story have been tackled before in two Big Finish plays. When preview footage of David Morrissey's swashbuckling, over-the-top Next Doctor was broadcast, some fans speculated that Russell T Davies may be remaking the festive comedy The One Doctor. In that, the Sixth Doctor and Mel discover that an intergalactic conman has been masquerading as the Doctor. He saves planets, then charges a hefty fee that the rescued citizens pay willingly.
Instead, Lake's story came to better reflect the plight of Gideon Crane, a journalist whose mind was accidentally fused with the Eighth Doctors during the story MInuet in Hell. The accident resulted in both Crane and the Doctor being locked up in a mental health facility. It's bleaker than The Next Doctor and doesn't even have a Cyber King in it.