{"id":52888,"date":"2024-06-08T01:20:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T23:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2051664"},"modified":"2024-06-08T03:13:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T01:13:42","slug":"did-doctor-who-just-drop-a-canon-shattering-reveal","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/did-doctor-who-just-drop-a-canon-shattering-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Doctor Who just drop a canon-shattering reveal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The entire history of the show looks like it’s been rewritten in a single moment. <\/p>

By Morgan Jeffery\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 08 June 2024 at 23:20 PM<\/p>

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Doctor Who fans are used to the show\u2019s established canon being rewritten (the Timeless Child<\/a>, anyone?), but the latest episode might have just snuck in another huge game-changer that rewrites history all over again.<\/p>\n

Rogue<\/a> sees the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) encounter a charismatic bounty hunter (Jonathan Groff) \u2013 though an attraction develops between the pair, their relationship gets off to a rocky start when Rogue mistakes our hero for a member of the shapeshifting Chuldur race.<\/p>\n

Rogue escorts the Doctor at gunpoint to his craft \u2013 hidden from prying eyes so as not to cause a stir in Regency-era England \u2013 and performs a scan to identify his captive\u2019s true origins.<\/p>\n

The scan surfaces holographic representations of previous Doctors \u2013 the likes of Jodie Whittaker, Peter Capaldi, William Hartnell, Tom Baker and David Tennant (twice!) all appear, as one might expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a Chuldur,\u201d says the Doctor. \u201cI\u2019m something each older and far more powerful \u2013 I\u2019m a Lord of Time, from the lost and fallen planet of Gallifrey. Now let me go, bounty hunter! We have work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more \u2013 another face also appears alongside the Time Lord\u2019s past incarnations. Though the hologram image is a little distorted, it appears to be Richard E Grant<\/strong>, representing a former face of the Doctor.<\/p>\n

\"Richard\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Richard E Grant.<\/span><\/figcaption> VALERIE MACON\/AFP via Getty Images<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Grant has appeared in Doctor Who<\/a> in live-action before, playing Dr Walter Simeon in 2012 episode The Snowmen<\/a>, and later The Great Intelligence, a faceless entity who assumed Simeon\u2019s image, in 2013\u2019s The Bells of Saint John<\/a> and The Name of the Doctor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no good reason for an image of Simeon\/the Great Intelligence to appear alongside the Doctor\u2019s old faces, though \u2013 instead, Grant\u2019s holographic cameo in Rogue appears to be a nod to another previous association with the Whoniverse\u2026<\/p>\n

In 2003, the Oscar-nominated star of Withnail and I voiced a new incarnation of the Doctor in the animated web series Scream of the Shalka<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A tale of worm-like aliens residing in an eerie English village, the six-part series \u2013 streamed on the official Doctor Who website \u2013 saw Grant\u2019s gothic Doctor team with new companion Alison Cheney (played by Sophie Okonedo) in an effort to prevent a plot to terraform the Earth.<\/p>\n

Scream of the Shalka was announced in July 2003 \u2013 with seven years having passed since the Paul McGann-starring TV movie<\/a> had failed to initiate a series, Grant was billed as McGann\u2019s official successor: the bona fide Ninth Doctor.<\/p>\n

\"Alison\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Alison (played by Sophie Okonedo) and the Doctor (Richard E Grant) in Scream of the Shalka.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Then came the 2005 live-action reboot spearheaded by showrunner Russell T Davies \u2013 and with Christopher Eccleston cemented as the \u201creal\u201d Ninth Doctor, Grant\u2019s animated version was relegated to unofficial status and written out of the canon.<\/p>\n

So, what exactly does his inclusion in Rogue\u2019s parade of past Doctors mean?<\/p>\n

Are we to understand that the \u201cShalka Doctor\u201d is in fact part of the show\u2019s established history, with the events of the animated webcast taking place at some point prior to the adventures of the Fifteenth Doctor?<\/p>\n

(Before anyone pipes up, yes, Grant did also play a version of the Doctor in 1999 Comic Relief sketch The Curse of Fatal Death<\/a>, written by none other than future Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, but we\u2019re going to assume it\u2019s not that short-lived incarnation being referenced in Rogue \u2013 or else where are Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent and Joanna Lumley among the holograms?)<\/p>\n

\"Jo\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
The Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin) and the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) in Doctor Who.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

This wouldn\u2019t be the first time that Doctor Who has sprung a \u201csecret\u201d Doctor on us: in 2013, we met the War Doctor (John Hurt), a previously unseen version who slotted between the established Eighth and Ninth incarnations, and in 2020, we discovered that dozens of different regenerations \u2013 including the Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin) \u2013 had preceded William Hartnell\u2019s \u201cFirst\u201d, a twist first hinted at way back in 1976 story The Brain of Morbius<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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