Doctor Who: 10 Great Actors Who Were Completely Wasted

9. Josh O'Connor (Cold War)

Doctor Who Cold War Josh O'Connor
BBC

Another actor who hit it big long after appearing in Doctor Who, Josh O'Connor is a name (and a face) that people will now recognise for his winning portrayal of Prince Charles in Series 3 of The Crown.

O'Connor earned a lot of praise from fans and critics for his work in that show - and rightly so - but his enormous talent was absolutely wasted in Doctor Who, with his character being killed off right before the opening title sequence.

O'Connor's brief stint in the Whoniverse was in the 2013 episode Cold War, which features the Eleventh Doctor, Clara, and a group of soldiers being chased by an unstoppable Ice Warrior. But O'Connor? He didn't get to join in with all that running.

His only contribution to the episode came in the opening two minutes, with his character standing guard at a block of ice that houses the Ice Warrior. He then uses a blow torch to melt the ice, unleashing the alien held within - which proceeds to kill him.

The Doctor Who team didn't know they were wasting O'Connor at the time, but still, it's amusing to look back on Cold War, knowing the position that the actor is in today.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.