Doctor Who: 10 Best Historical Figures Who Have Appeared In Nu-Who
6. Winston Churchill
Played by Ian McNeice.
When Winston Churchill made his on-screen debut in series five's Victory of the Daleks, he seemed to already have an established acquaintance and friendship with The Doctor. Although we had never seen this on television before there are several publications documenting encounters between the pair dating back to 1986.
As a result of this pre-existing relationship, we got to see a different kind of encounter between The Doctor and a significant historical figure. Rather than a sense of disbelief or fear of these time travellers, Churchill instead attempts to utilise his impossible friend’s foreknowledge to ‘cheat’ his way through WWII. Of course The Doctor maintains that certain moments are fixed and cannot be interfered with… apparently the Daleks didn’t get that memo.
Winston Churchill appeared a handful of times in series five and six, at first to emphasise the vast number of people who rely on and are connected to The Doctor in The Pandorica Opens, and again, alongside Charles Dickens, in The Wedding of River Song to highlight the topsy turvy displacement of time.
The inclusion of Churchill in series five, along with the episode Let’s Kill Hitler in series six, educated the targeted younger audience on the significant figures of the Second World War but in an appropriate and informative way, without branching into more sinister and unsuitable storylines.