Doctor Who: 10 Great Actors Who Were Completely Wasted
7. Lee Evans (Planet Of The Dead)
Another funnyman whose comedic gifts were wasted in a Doctor Who role, Lee Evans played scientist Malcolm Taylor in the 2009 Easter special Planet Of The Dead.
Prior to landing this gig, Evans had already established himself as a strong comedy actor across a variety of movies and TV shows, and in particular, his role in the 1997 film Mouse Hunt really highlighted his strengths in the realm of physical humour.
With that in mind, you'd hope that his Doctor Who role would allow him to flex those slapstick muscles, perhaps by playing some sort of crazy and unhinged alien creature. But nope. What the episode actually does is stick him in a small, extremely confined room, and gets him to spout a load of scientific mumbo-jumbo in a few brief phone calls with the Doctor.
Sure, his character is still quite amusing, but for such an immensely talented physical performer, it's an utter shame that Evans was essentially locked away and limited, rather than setting him free and allowing his zany shenanigans to flourish.