Who else could it have been!? To give credit where credit's due, John Hurt was the unequivocal star of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary spectacular, The Day of the Doctor, but that was, of course, always the point. Nobody else could've taken on the role of the Doctor's secret incarnation with as much creditability and warmth and John Hurt - actually that's Sir John now, as he's just been knighted (and deservedly so) in this year's New Year's Honours List - was a more than welcome addition to the show's coveted line up of leading Time Lords. His status as a veteran of the stage and screen gave the show's landmark year an ever greater sense of prestige and he was underused in the sense that fans now want to see even more from his War Doctor, despite the fact he regenerated at the end of his starring episode. This is Doctor Who, of course, so there's still plenty of stories that could be told if John were interested in reprising the role (because the writers sure as hell wouldn't say no). The War Doctor's experiences in the Time War have since been actively explored in the form of a novel, Engines of War, so they could always go all out and adapt it into a feature-length special (now how cool would that be!?) but another multi-Doctor adventure - preferably featuring John and his predecessor Paul McGann - would suffice. As always, the possibilities are endless. What do you think of this list? Are there any other Doctor Who guest stars that you think were tragically underused? Join the conversation in the comments section below.
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
