Doctor Who question: Which Doctor is Peter Cushing regarded as?

Question

I read on the net, these are the list of Doctors:


First Doctor - William Hartnell
Second Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann
Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
Tenth Doctor - David Tennant


now, considering that Peter Cushing played the Doctor in Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966), Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)

shouldn't Peter Cushing then be regarded as the second Doctor? and another question is, why didnt William Hartnell star in these two Doctor Who films considering they were made during his Doctor Who years?

Answer 1

It was through his association with Milton Subotsky that Cushing entered the world of Doctor Who, starring in the 1965 film Dr Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD a year later. Cushing jumped at the chance to play the Doctor and despite suffering from illness when making the second film, he never lost enthusiasm for the project.

Sadly, the two films were considered failures in the all-important American market so plans for a third Dr Who movie, presumably with Cushing in the lead, were dropped. However, this did not end Cushing's association with the popular TV series. In 1967 Stanmark Productions Ltd promoted a planned series of serialised radio dramas based on popular fictional characters, with 'Doctor Who starring Peter Cushing' being one of the major selling points of the series. Sadly, the project never came to fruition, Cushing's ill-health at the time apparently being a contributing factor.

While Cushing was never to play Dr Who again, he did play another popular cult hero, this time on TV. Following his stand-out portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the 1959 Hammer film adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, he went on to star in a 16-episode Holmes series for BBC TV, his only regular TV role. One of his last film roles before he retired was again as Holmes, in the TV movie The Abbott's Cry (1986), a sequel to his appearance in The Masks of Death (1984), with Sir John Mills as Watson.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Peter Cushing is not an 'official' Doctor as his movies were cinema adaptations of two of William Hartnell's TV stories, independant of the BBC programme (a sort of re-make rather than being at a point in the 'official BBC story timeline) What makes Paul McGann official is that during the made for TV movie, official 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy regenerated on screen to Paul McGann making a clear continuation of the role. Questions remain about what happened between McGann and Christopher Eccleston as the regeneration has never been seen or dated so the numbering could one day be found to be off. Now David Niven, the original Casino Royale, official James Bond or not ???

Answer 4

Peter Cushing is an alternative doctor and doesn't appear in the TV series list.

Having said that, Paul McGann shouldn't be considered a Doctor wither since he was only ever in that one TV Movie.

I think the only reason he is considered a Doctor is because S McCoy regenerated into P McGann in the TV Movie.

Peter Cushing neither regenerated from William Hartnell nor regenerated into Patrick Troughton.

Besides, doesn't a Time Lord only regenerate 13 times? If they included P Cushing, there'd only be space for two more Doctors, now they can have three...

Perhaps it's time they sorted out the fiasco and regenerated Gallifrey... I believe an extension can be arranged to allow a TL to regenerate more than 13 times...

That should spin out Russell T Davis' pension a few more million quid...

Answer 5

The Doctor has also appeared in two cinema films: Dr. Who and the Daleks in 1965 and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD in 1966. Both were essentially retellings of existing stories on the big screen, with a larger budget and numerous alterations to the series concept. In these films, Peter Cushing played a human scientist named Dr. Who, who travelled with his two granddaughters and other companions in a time machine he invented. Due to this and numerous other changes (not to mention the storylines that duplicated televised episodes), the movies are not regarded as part of the ongoing continuity of the series, although the Cushing version of the character would reappear in both comic strip and literary form, the latter attempting to reconcile the film continuity with that of the series.

Answer 6

Hi.

Peter Cushing is regarded as an 'alternate' Dr, and his background history is quite different, making him essentially an entirely different character. In the movies, he's an eccentric human professor, with grandchildren, as opposed to the eccentric alien of the TV series. He's also the only Doctor to refer to himself as 'Doctor Who' rather than 'The Doctor'. Therefore, it shouldn't be considered canon, more a spin off, or at best a DC style 'Elseworld'.

As for Hartnell not doing the movies, I don't know for certain, but he's not nearly as big a star as Cushing, and they probably felt they needed that star-power to get people into the movie. Also, Hartnell was notorious for fluffing his lines, so whilst that's forgivable in TV, in the expensive world of film, he would have been a liability.

Answer 7

That's show business!