Doctor Who has now been lighting up our screens for over 50 years and even its controversial cancellation back in 1989 wasn't enough to kill it off completely. In fact, the formidable axe only proved that you just can't keep a good Time Lord down and, while there was seemingly no place for it on the UK televisual market (according to some people, anyway...), that couldn't have been further from the truth on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Back in the 90s, American networks were all vying for the rights to relaunch the Doctor for a US market and some were more ambitious in their plans to reinstate him to his former glory than others. A new series would mean a new Doctor and there were some pretty big names in the running at one point. Comedian extraordinaire Jim Carrey has revealed that he was once approached to play the Time Lord but he turned it down because he had no idea what the show even was. And guess what, Jim? With an attitude like that, the TARDIS would've spat you out into the time vortex anyway! Kidding, of course, but it's nice to know that he took the importance of the show's mythology into consideration. To be fair, the fact he's a multi-millionaire movie star, who at this point would've been assigned to such projects as Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber and The Mask, probably made his decision to turn down the leading role in a proposed reboot which held a very high risk of failing a lot easier. It certainly would've been a sight to behold, though... What did you think of this list? Are there any other actors who came close to landing a guest or leading part in Doctor Who? Let us know 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.
