Why Every Lead Actor Left Doctor Who

12. Patrick Troughton

Doctor Who Patrick Troughton Second Doctor
BBC Studios

Patrick Troughton reportedly thought that regeneration was a naff concept. "I didn’t think it was a particularly good idea of the BBC to replace Billy", he said. "I thought it was pretty silly, really."

However, he was eventually persuaded to take the leap – the consistent pay cheque no doubt played a role in that decision.

Like Hartnell, Troughton found Doctor Who's production schedule highly demanding. With dozens of episodes being produced per year, it's easy to see why! This is largely what influenced his decision to exit the role in 1969, with three seasons under his belt.

After he left, Troughton advised Fifth Doctor Peter Davison to also follow the three-year model, in an effort to avoid being typecast. Over the years, this has become something of an unwritten rule that many Doctors abide by, intentionally or not.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!