Doctor Who: 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Ninth Doctor

13. The Character Was Once Played By Richard E. Grant

Doctor Who the Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston
BBC

Before Doctor Who returned in a live-action form in March 2005, a short animated series was produced to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary.

Titled Scream Of The Shalka, this series featured Richard E. Grant as the Ninth Doctor, and Sophie Okonedo as his companion, Alison Cheney. However, when Eccleston was cast and the show was rebooted on TV, Grant's Ninth Doctor was essentially swept under the rug.

Interestingly though, Scream Of The Shalka featured a whole bunch of actors who would later appear in the show properly.

Grant and Okonedo appeared opposite the Eleventh Doctor as the Great Intelligence and Queen Liz, respectively, and the Shalka Master was voiced by Derek Jacobi, who went on to play the same character in 2007's Utopia.

Also, keep your ears peeled for David Tennant, who appears in a teeny-tiny role and is quite easy to miss.

Contributor
Contributor

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.