10 Secrets We Learned From Doctor Who Season 17 Boxed Set

7. Lalla Ward and Douglas Adams Almost Got Together

Doctor Who
BBC Studios

Another notable aspect of Doctor Who's seventeenth season is the burgeoning romance between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward. Much is made of their obvious chemistry in Destiny of the Daleks and City of Death across some of the special features. Of course, it was a fraught relationship that didn't last for very long once they were wed. Lalla Ward later went on to marry - and subsequently divorce - the evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins, introduced to her by long-time friend and former colleague Douglas Adams.

If the Fourth Doctor and an evolutionary biologist weren't an impressive enough list of former suitors, Lalla reveals that her and Douglas had once considered getting together. What an intellectual power couple they would have been! It was only a brief consideration however, the sort that long-time friends often make when circumstances lead them in a certain way.

They quickly decided that their friendship was far more important and remained so until Douglas sadly passed away much too soon in 2001. Still, what might have been, eh?

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Contributor

Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.