6 Doctor Who stars who showed up early
The Doctor Who Team
On 1 September 2012 Jenna Coleman unexpectedly made her Doctor Who debut in Asylum of the Daleks. We knew that Jenna would be joining the Doctor but we hadn’t expected to see her quite so soon.
But Miss Coleman isn’t the only Doctor Who star to jump the gun and turn up a little early… So, here’s our guide to the actors whose first Doctor Who appearances were ahead of their time.
1. Jenna Coleman as Oswin
In Asylum of the Daleks Jenna played Oswin Oswald, the junior entertainment officer of the Starship Alaska, which had crashed on the Dalek Asylum. When the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory were sent to disable the Asylum’s impenetrable force field, Oswin took a break from baking soufflés and listening to Carmen to help them find a safe path through the most insane Daleks in the universe.
Unfortunately for Oswin, she soon discovered that during her stay at the Asylum she’d been converted into a Dalek but had been able to resist her Dalek conditioning. She was able to lower the Asylums defences so that the Doctor, Amy and Rory could escape and the planet could be destroyed, but not before wiping all information about the Doctor from the Dalek data banks. What a hero!
2. Peter Capaldi as Caecillius
All the way back in 2008, Peter Capaldi guest starred as Caecillius in The Fires of Pompeii. Caecillius was a marble merchant who was saved from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius by the Tenth Doctor. Many years later the Twelfth Doctor, fresh from his regeneration commented that he was sure he’d seen his face before… But it wasn't until he helped the Viking villagers in The Girl Who Died, that he realised he’d chosen that face to remind himself to save people.
3. Karen Gillan as the Soothsayer
The Fires of Pompeii was also the first episode to feature Karen Gillan, a whole two years before she first appeared as Amy Pond. Karen played the Soothsayer who was the first of the Sibylline Sisterhood to see the TARDIS, whose arrival in Pompeii had been foretold in prophecy.
4. Freema Agyeman as Adeola Oshodi
Freema Agyeman is best known in the Doctor Who world as Martha Jones, but she first turned up as Adeola Oshodi in Army of Ghosts. Adeola worked at Torchwood Tower and when she snuck off for a romantic rendezvous with a colleague, she was upgraded by the Cybermen. The Doctor Who production team were so impressed by Freema’s performance as Adeola, they offered her the opportunity to become the Doctor’s new companion and cast her as Martha Jones. The strong resemblance between the two characters was explained in Smith and Jones when Martha mentioned that her cousin Adeola had worked in Canary Wharf but didn’t return home after the Cybermen attacked.
5. Colin Baker as Commander Maxil
In 1984 Colin Baker materialised on our screens as the flamboyant Sixth Doctor, but this wasn’t his first time portraying a Time Lord as he’d already graced Gallifrey with his presence as Commander Maxil in Arc of Infinity. Maxil was a member of the Gallifreyan Chancellery Guard and was sent to intercept the Fifth Doctor when he was recalled to his home planet. Believing the Time Lords might try to kill him, the Doctor did his best to evade the Chancellery Guard. However Maxil, dedicated to completing his task, found the Doctor and shot him – thankfully, he did not shoot to kill.
6. Lalla Ward as Princess Astra
Before she was the second Romana, Lalla Ward was Princess Astra of Atrios aka the sixth segment of the Key to Time! When the Fourth Doctor and Romana travelled to Atrios in The Armageddon Factor in search of the final segment of the Key to Time, they were shocked to discover it was in fact a human being – Princess Astra.
Astra fulfilled her destiny by transforming into the sixth segment and the Key to Time was finally complete. However the Doctor soon realised the Key was too powerful to be entrusted to any one being, and that Astra would be forever imprisoned within it, so he scattered its segments across the universe, returning Astra to her human form.
Later when Romana regenerated she chose the appearance of Astra saying she “thought it looked very nice on the Princess”.
