ON MY SOAPBOX

From Spencer Baculi
for
"Bounding Into Comics":

According to Doctor Who casting director Andy Pryor, the backlash to the series’ race-swapping of real-world historical figure Sir Isaac Newton has nothing to do with historical accuracy or a growing exhaustion with identity-politics, but is instead based solely [on] – you guessed it – viewers’ own racist attitudes.

Taking place in "Wild Blue Yonder", the second of three new Doctor Who holiday specials helmed by returning showrunner Russell T Davies’ and produced in honor of the series’ 60th anniversary, the historical revisionism in question saw the real-world English physicist brought to life by half-Indian "The Witcher: Blood Origin" actor Nathaniel Curtis, in doing so portraying him not as the white man he provably was, but rather as someone of an unspecified ethnic descent (despite his actor’s noted heritage, the episode never specifically addresses the background of its race-swapped Newton).

Following the special’s premiere, Pryor provided insight into his subversive casting decision during an interview with Digital Spy’s David Opie.

“That was Russell’s idea, actually,” Pryor added. “We had talked about trying to get Nathaniel in the show at some point and I think it’s a sort of rather cheeky, but fun interpretation of Isaac Newton. You know, it’s not a historical drama [Laughs]. Let’s just have some fun with it.”

From Wikipedia:
"Doctor Who" was originally intended to appeal to a family audience as an educational programme using time travel as a means to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history."

That's not just in Wikipedia, which anybody can edit and slip in untruths.  And from what I understand, there was some pushback when alien monsters were introduced, because it would take away from the original thrust of the series.

So I do take issue with Pryor tossing aside the show as historical drama.  I'm all for taking certain liberties with such a concept, but only if it can still end with the established timeline.  (For instance, hiding the deviations from public knowledge.)  Otherwise it violates the first major rule of the Whoniverse:

Isaac Newton meets the Doctor and Donna?  Not a problem.  He creates the word "Mavity"?  Okay, that's a bit of a glitch when dealing with a universe connecting plenty of TV shows in which all of the other shows have said "gravity" if it came up.  But hopefully that can be rectified.  As far as I know, only the Doctor and Donna have used "Mavity".

But to have Isaac Newton be of mixed heritage?  They are rewriting History.

And that's why I object to it. 

I also take issue with Pryor's other assessments:

• “It’s sad that we’re in a time where people villainise minorities.”
• “I don’t really have any time for bigotry at all.”

That's a generalized, blanket accusation which I refute.  I have no problem with minorities in period dramas.  Explanations can always be found if it's a problem with some cases.  But the exception must always be the historical characters.  It just causes Zonks - discrepancies - with other shows in the same universe which deal with the same figures from History.

When it does happen, I have no choice, as the Toobworld  Caretaker, but to move those shows to alternate Toobworlds.  

And since the TARDIS can cross over to other dimensions, that provides me with a way out of the situation.  The Doctor and Donna happened to end up in another dimension in which their Isaac Newton was of two heritages.  As such, that wouldn't have any effect on their return to Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.  (Except for the fact that both of them were now saying "mavity".)

That way, there is no Zonk when we see the televersion of Isaac Newton in other shows, like in 'Star Trek: Voyager' when he was summoned to the Future by Quinn of the Q Continuum. 

And in the previous 'Star Trek' series ('The Next Generation'), there was a close approximation of how he really looked in the main TV Universe with a holographic image.

Trying to keep certain historical facts inviolate is not an act of bigotry villainizing minorities.

A TOOBITS AWARD WINNER!

Every year in the Inner Toob blog, I do an awards presentation for "Best Of" categories for the year just ending... just like every other media site.  'Doctor Who' gets plenty of attention since it returned in 2005, mostly for historical revisions, guest characters, and of course, for "Recastaways" when it happens every few years.

This year, it's for Best Crossover Character between two different media.  (Mediums?)

On Christmas Day, as BBC and Disney+ launched the 'Doctor Who' Christmas Special ("Joy To The World"), Mashable published a story by Kristy Puchko about a minor - but intriguing! - member of the guest characters:

'Doctor Who' has returned with the tender yet tear-jerking holiday special "Joy to the World." And amid a rollicking adventure across time involving dinosaurs, holograms, game night hangouts, and villainous capitalism, returning writer Steven Moffat also dropped some exciting new lore into the canon: James Bond and Doctor Who exist in the same world.

The link between these epic British heroes (and their franchises) is a bombshell named Sylvia Trench. In an interview with Mashable, Doctor Who executive producer and "Joy to the World" writer Steven Moffat revealed the details of her Whoniverse appearance and what it means.

Sylvia Trench was the first Bond girl. The late British actress Eunice Gayson played the sultry spy's love interest in 1962's "Dr. No" and 1963's "From Russia with Love". Notably, it's in 1962 that this stylish character crosses paths with the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa).

In "Joy to the World," the two-hearted time traveler zips through several Time Hotel doors, popping into 1940 Manchester, 1953 Everest, and 1962 Italy. The last of these is where he meets a beguiling brunette in a coral-colored skirt suit, cradling a copy of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" — along with a handwritten love letter.

The woman never reveals her name, but the episode's end credits identify her as Sylvia Trench (played here by Niamh Marie Smith, who teased the appearance on Instagram on Oct. 4). This detail connects our lovely traveler to James Bond, and gives greater context to her scenes in the episode, as well as her life beyond Bond.

In our interview, Moffat confirmed this Sylvia Trench is intended to be the same chic stunner from "Dr. No" with a simple "Yes, yes."

Moffat felt Sylvia deserved better than she's gotten from pop culture. "Sylvia Trench remains James Bond's girlfriend for the first two films. He has a regular girlfriend back home in the first two films!" Moffat emphasized, "But while she was doing all that, she was also having an affair with the woman and traveling on the Orient Express. I thought, 'That's inevitable.' I felt I was doing her justice, you know? Because she's the most cheated-on woman in the history of fiction, right? Because she made the mistake to go out with James Bond."

In "Joy to the World," Moffat gives her a surprising new spin. When the Doctor comes back to Sylvia during the climax, he takes a look at the love letter she carries and scoffs, "You are better off without him. His sentence structure is appalling."

O'Bservation: But she wrote the letter.

The Doctor tries to recover with a smile and by saying, "Great letter! You should send it to him." To which she retorts tartly, "To her!" And as fast as the Doctor skedaddles out of her train compartment, Moffatt has re-imagined Sylvia Trench.

No longer is she a tragic Bond girl left waiting for her globe-trekking spy boy to come back. She's off on her own adventure, racing across Italy in the Orient Express, penning a letter (however poorly structured) to her Sapphic lover.

Thank you, Ms. Puchko, for that article.  When my brother and I watched the episode, we knew there had to be something about her.  Because it was 1962, we knew it couldn't have been a recasting of Agatha Christie - she was too young!

Sylvia Trench is my 2024 Toobits Award winner for Best Crossover between Toobworld and the Cineverse.  (Unfortunately, the character did not appear in any of the Ian Fleming novels.  That would have been a fantastic triple crossover!)

A LOST CROSSOVER - "DOCTOR WHO" & "DEEP SPACE NINE"

From Screen Rant:
A proposed ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Star Trek’ crossover would have sent the Doctor to ‘Deep Space Nine’. In the early 2010s, IDW released a crossover that saw Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor meet Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise. The book was a hit with fans and critics, and IDW began plans for a follow-up, titled “Domination”. However, due to licensing issues, the series was scrapped early on, depriving fans of what could have been an epic crossover.

Rich Handley, a noted ‘Star Trek’ comics historian, provided more details about the aborted crossover on his website. Details about the project were scarce, but it would have seen the Doctor arrive at Deep Space Nine. While the site did not specify which Doctor the series would star, two clues point towards it being Matt Smith. First, the crossover would have seen print in 2013, and Smith was still the incumbent at that time. Second, “Domination” would have involved companion Clara Oswald, who, while serving with Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor, also traveled with the 11th.

For fans, part of “Domination”’s appeal would have been watching the Doctor interact with Deep Space Nine’s crew, some of whom have rougher edges than their counterparts on the Enterprise. How the Doctor would have taken to former revolutionary Major Kira or Doctor Bashir is anyone’s guess, and thanks to licensing issues, fans will never know. Likewise, fans have been deprived of watching the Doctor potentially put the Founders and the Vorta in their place, which would have been satisfying to read. While another ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Doctor Who’ crossover may be a pipe dream at this point, there are always possibilities—including the potential to go to ‘Deep Space Nine’.

I have one suggestion for a plot sideline – the sonic screwdriver should have in its databanks a record of the DNA for Lady Cassandra O’Brien.  And in a moment of idle curiosity on board the space station, the Doctor surreptitiously takes a reading from Commander Miles O’Brien and finds that through his daughter Molly, he is a direct ancestor to the “Human Trampoline” who was present at the “End of the World”.  

What he does with that information… well, that I would leave in more capable hands.

WELCOME, SHALKA DOC!

We've seen in the past that RTD snuck an "alternate" Doctor into the accepted lineage of Incarnations with a sketch of Paul McGann from the Fox TV Movie in the mid-1990s.  This made his Doctor officially the Eighth Incarnation.  (There were some who ignored his one appearance, despite Big Finish audio dramas and the appearance of Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Incarnation to hand off the role in a particularly violent regeneration sequence.)

And this past season, another... Rogue Doctor... has been embraced into the club.  

We just don't know exactly where he fits in....

From Marisa Williams
For Collider

While many fans were watching the 'Doctor Who' episode "Rogue" for the Regency Era 'Oh my Bridgerton' feel of the episode or seeing just how things would play out between The Doctor and Rogue, there was an important cameo that viewers may have missed in the excitement. Richard E. Grant is not an unfamiliar face to Doctor Who, playing Dr. Walter Simeon, associated with The Great Intelligence, the big bad of Season 7B of Doctor Who. Grant has also lent his voice to the decades-long franchise, and that brings us to the man, who is affectionately nicknamed, The Shalka Doctor.

During the scene where The Doctor is trapped on Rogue (Jonathan Groff)'s ship, he reveals himself, including all of his past faces. And if you thought they'd be in order, to finally have a definitive answer to where Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor sits in canon, that opportunity would not present itself. In a seemingly randomized order, holograms of the Doctor's previous faces float around him, including Grant's.

But why? For a long time, that incarnation of the Doctor was not considered part of the main canon. Showrunner Russell T. Davies' answer may surprise you.

"Just fun, a joke. It's funny. It's that simple. I sat here in this office with them and they just thought 'an unknown Doctor' – that's what the script said because we had to work out who to get and how we could get him."

So, no, there wasn't a bigger reason to re-introduce the character, according to Davies, other than "really, it’s not just fun, it’s a nice thing to do."

The biggest issue with fitting the series into the main Doctor Who canon was, as Davies says "we completely replaced [The Shalka Doctor] with Christopher Eccleston as the [Ninth] Doctor." He goes on to say "how nice [it was] all these years later, to take a little lean back and sort of say, the door’s open now, thanks to 'The Timeless Child', and you can come in and own your Doctor again." This is also not the first time that Davies is reiterating that he will be carrying the threads of Chris Chibnall's 'The Timeless Child' and how it's changed canon into his second tenure as Doctor Who showrunner.

The animated series aired before the rebooted live-action 'Doctor Who' (2005) began. Cornell wrote Grant's Doctor intending him to be the Ninth Doctor after Paul McGann's Eighth's. The rebooted 'Doctor Who', as Davies said, effectively erases Grant's Doctor from the canon, with Christopher Eccleston taking on the designation instead. To keep the two separate, Grant's is often nicknamed 'The Shalka Doctor', referencing the main antagonist of the series. Grant's Doctor finds himself in 2003 Lancashire and must team up with a barmaid, Alison and The Master (yes that Master) to defeat The Shalka.

We've seen in the last season that RTD has embraced the 'Timeless Child' concept.  I was hoping it would just be forgotten, but so it goes.  I'm in this for the ride and always ready to see where it leads.

CLOTHES MAKE THE TIME LORD

THE LIEUTENANT AND THE DOCTOR

[A CONTINUING SERIES?]

I have written about this photoshopped picture in the Past; that it was a great jumping-off point for a fanfic crossover between ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Columbo’.

But now that picture might have a sequel….

In the previous blog post, I expounded on a possible fanfic story in which Dorothy McShane (AKA Ace) teamed up with the Curator, a future incarnation of the Doctor who had “retired” in order to tend to his duties in the Under Gallery.  (The position of the Under Gallery’s Curator had been an appointment by his wife, Queen Elizabeth I of England.)

Normally I don’t come up with the fanfic myself; I just make suggestions.  But based on a picture in that last post, it would appear that the Doctor somehow came into possession of Columbo’s shabby raincoat.  Either that, or he was so enamored of the look that he had one made in the replicator on board the TARDIS.

It probably wasn’t the first time that the Doctor filched clothing from Toobworld characters found in other TV series.  

Apparently he raided the wardrobe of the arch-criminal known as The Riddler in Gotham City…..

FANFICCER'S FRIEND - "ACE & THE CURATOR"

I consider publicity pictures and promotional photos to be valid sources of inspiration for fan fiction and can be used to illustrate the stories which they inspired.

Screencaps, on the other hand, wouldn’t be acceptable on Toobworld terms.  Those are moments which have already happened in the Toobworld timeline, frozen in Time.

This is the screencap which I always use as an example of why they should never be used to represent other characters.  Seen here are Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo and Gene Barry as Dr. Flemming in the first pilot movie for the TV series, “Prescription: Murder”.

That is all that it could be.  It can’t be re-used as an example of Daniel J. O’Brien (‘Trials of O’Brien’) with Captain Amos Burke (‘Burke’s Law’); we can’t even claim that it could be Lt. Columbo with his boss, Captain Burke, when they met to talk about a case at the LAPD’s Homicide Division.

So with that in mind, I present to you this publicity photo from 1990 which shows Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred on a museum exhibit celebrating ‘Doctor Who’.

Their characters – the Fourth Incarnation of the Doctor and Dorothy “Ace” McShane, respectively – never met in the course of the series.  In fact, she didn’t enter the Doctor’s life until several regenerations later.  (Ace was the last Companion to the Doctor – in his Seventh Incarnation – during the original run of the series.)  

The main O’Bstacle would be that the Fourth Incarnation should be time-locked to look as he did when he was on the show from 1974-1981.  As he appeared here from nine years later, Tom Baker looks more like the character he played in an episode of ‘Miss Marple’.

But!  This photo could be the inspiration for a fanfic adventure for the Curator teaming up with Ace, one year after we last saw her in Toobworld (“Survival”), and 23 years before we officially met the Curator at the end of the 50th anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor''.

What that adventure could be is not for my conjectures.  The point of the Fanficcer's Friend feature during the "Who's On First?" blogAthon is to provide my readers (hopefully, there are a few) with inspiration to create those adventures themselves.

I will point out as a suggestion that the Curator's TARDIS chose as "her" holographic decor the console as it was best remembered from the series original run.  Might be good for an O'Bservation by Ace?

I just ask that if you do come up with a story based on this photo, you might send me a copy to read.  (I always ask with each "Fanficcer's Friend", no matter the show, but so far I have yet to see any returns....)

It’s sort of comforting to see that some future incarnation of the Doctor took on the task of being the curator for the Under-Gallery at a younger age than we first met him, before he supposedly gave up gallivanting across the galaxies.  (At least, that’s according to sources outside the Toobworld canon, which is anything telecast in any of the TV dimensions.)

A 2025 TOOBITS AWARD WINNER (AND POSSIBLE FANFICCER'S FRIEND)

One of the Toobits Awards categories which I pass out every year is for Best New Child Character.  And this year, it goes to Lenny Rush, who played UNIT science advisor Morris Gibbons in several episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ in the first season of the 15th Incarnation’s tenure.  (Apparently, a passing asteroid somehow bathed him in cosmic rays which significantly amplified his intelligence.)

I expect we’ll see him again when the show returns later in 2025.

But....

Maybe he won't be coming back.  Or perhaps the show will not be delving too deeply into his background.  All we have is his word for that asteroid being the "splainin to do" as to why he is now hyper-intelligent.  Of course, he gave that splainin in front of several UNIT witnesses; they could have spoken up and called horse hockey-pucks on that story if he was lying.

But were they eye-witnesses to the transformation?  Was anybody there?

Keeping this Toobworld-centric, what if there is no such person as Morris Gibbons?  What if this small-fry scientist is someone who is descended from a combination of human genetics with those of humanoids from Sahndara and the Time Lords of Gallifrey.

I'm talking about Dr. Miguelito Loveless from 'The Wild, Wild West'.

In his double hands-full of episodes, Loveless always looked like he died at the end (if he didn't escape somehow.)  But because he had Time Lord DNA, he apparently regenerated.  However since he always came back looking the same, that was due to his blend of human and Sahndaran DNA.  (The main contribution of his Sahndaran genetics is that he looked like a refugee from that doomed planet named Alexander.)

As I said, this all depends on what more we learn about Morris.  But I like the idea that he was able to alter his appearance, perhaps with something mundane like plastic surgery.  Or maybe some magical elixir or glamour spell from some other TV series.

As for working on the side of "goodness and niceness", maybe he's just biding his time.  Maybe... he's playing a... Long Game.

FANFICCER'S FRIEND - C.S. LEWIS

 

'Doctor Who' started out as a way to introduce an audience of children to the major events of History.  But it wasn't long before space aliens were added to the mix and eventually, History showcases seemed to be swept under the rug to make way for pure sci fi adventures.

Since the series returned in 2005, History often has been showcased again, but often with some kind of peril to it remaining intact due to those space bugaboos and/or other Time Lords.  

We've seen the London Blitz, the coronation of Elizabeth the Second, the invention of television, the construction of the Empire State Building, the destruction of Pompeii, and the 2012 Summer Olympics.

We also saw the Doctor interact with Rosa Parks, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, Madame du Pompadour, and most affecting of all, Vincent van Gogh.

These historical interludes were not confined to just the Doctor's adventures in Toobworld.  They also can be found in the other metafictional universes of 'Doctor Who' - novels, comics, and audio plays.

That quote above from the Curator about C.S. Lewis is a good example of how History can still be included, even changed, without making it into some big, showy piece of interstellar derring-do.  

Here's the TARDIS Wiki entry about Lewis:

• C. S. Lewis was a writer. He was a friend of the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond.
• One well-known work by Lewis was "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". (AUDIO: Lost Property)
• Lewis belonged to a group called the Inklings, as did his friend John. They met at a pub called the Eagle and Child. He read a fantasy story inspired by the Doctor's adventures. It had fictional versions of Amy and Rory as its heroes, alongside "the Professor". The Doctor suggested that the story should include a wardrobe. (COMIC: 'The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop')
  

• The Curator, a retired incarnation of the Doctor, remembered Lewis as "dear old Jack". He remarked that Jack, as he was known to friends, always disliked being called Clive. (AUDIO: Lost Property)
• Sarah Jane Smith told Clyde Langer that C. S. Lewis' children's books could be enjoyed at every age. (AUDIO: Wraith World)

Behind the scenes:

• The story in which he appears implies that C.S. Lewis rewrote his tale about a bookshop into the Narnia books "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "The Magician's Nephew".
• C.S. Lewis wrote the Narnia books for children. He also wrote a "space fiction" trilogy, which, like early 'Doctor Who' involved ordinary people visiting alien planets. Many commenters have compared the TARDIS to the magical wardrobe in Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", the first-written of the Narnia books. The 'Doctor Who' story "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" borrows the form of its title, some visual imagery and plot elements from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".
• Lewis died on the same day as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 22 November 1963, which was also coincidentally the day before the very first broadcast of 'Doctor Who'.
• Matteusz Andrzejewski refers to the author that created books about the land of Narnia and the character Susan in the 'Class episode' "Detained", but does not identify him as Lewis.
  

When Russell T. Davies first took over the 'Doctor Who' series and reignited it, there were several episodes in which the Doctor and his Companions met famous writers throughout History - Dickens, Shakespeare, Agatha Christie.  (H.G. Wells was on an adventure with an earlier incarnation.)

Maybe C.S. Lewis might get a spotlight in the TV Universe.  For my own preference, there was that friend of his, John - I'm certain that could be J.R.R. Tolkien.  I have imagined that he could travel with the Doctor (perhaps during the front line battles in World War I?) and meet denizens from the Forest of Cheem (like Jabe in "End of the World".)  They, in nturn, could be the inspiration for his future creation of the Ents.

As for C.S. Lewis, perhaps while in the company of the Curator, he happened to cross paths with a Daemon from Daemos (and not necessarily an evil one.)  After a successful conclusion to that adventure, Lewis might have been inspired to create Mr. Tumnus.  

(Having suggested that the Daemon didn't have to be evil, I'm thinking now that maybe he should be.  Being so devout a Christian, Lewis would likely remake the Daemon to be gentle faun in order to reclaim - at least in his writings - salvation for their species....

FANFICCER'S FRIEND - PERI AND THE SIXTH INCARNATION OR...?

I have advocated this in the past - bring back Colin Baker to 'Doctor Who'... but not as the Sixth Incarnation.

Prime-Time has marched on and Baker no longer looks like his Doctor at the point of regeneration.  This was proven within the soul of the Thirteenth Incarnation when she communed with the "spirits" of some of her past Incarnations.  

At least there, it was a landscape of the soul and mind, they could look like - or wore - anything they preferred.

But we see him and Peri here on board the TARDIS now helmed by the Fifteenth Incarnation.  If he was to have a physical presence in some hypothetical fan fiction, than I suggest applying the principle of Occam's Razor and go for the simplest "splainin to do":

Baker would not be appearing as the Sixth Incarnation of the Doctor.  He would be on board with Peri Brown as an earlier character he played - Commander Maxil.

From the TARDIS Wiki:
Zealous and humourless, Maxil was a Time Lord commander of Gallifreyan Chancellery Guard and Castellan of the High Council.

Maxil became Commander of the Chancellery Guard. During this time, he stunned the Fifth Doctor with a staser blast and confined him in a cell under the Capitol to await the judgement of President Borusa and the High Council. He also planted a listening device in the Doctor's TARDIS on the orders of Castellan Jerricho. (TV: Arc of Infinity)

He may have been a Time Lord but that doesn't mean he is frozen in Time in any particular Incarnation.  That body would have continued to age until it was forced to regenerate.

So if Baker is in this picture as Maxil, then we can assume he didn't regenerate since last we saw him.  

And as for fanfic...?

I think it would be sweet if Maxil was reunited with Peri and where once they were antagonistic to each other, perhaps she was able to break him out of his hard-hearted humorless shell.  And eventually she could see something of the Doctor, more than just something of a facial resemblance. 

It would make a nice variation to the Beauty and the Beast trope.

TV ON TV - A 'DOCTOR WHO' SPIN-OFF/COMPETITOR

THE SISTER BONIFACE MYSTERIES
PROFESSOR Y

From the IMDb:
Sister Boniface investigates when the creator of a "Professor Y" convention goes missing in her village, unraveling a mysterious disappearance.

The inaugural convention of the canceled BBC science fiction show Professor Y comes to Great Slaughter, hoping to have the show recommissioned. Organized by obsessed fan club president Roger Crabtree, Barbara Pierce who has invested her inheritance and fan Sister Peter, it stars lead actor Kirk Fabricant, actress Celeste Carmichael and even more blase script writer Douglas Wiseman, who is particularly loathsome to the fans and is more interested in promoting his new show starring Celeste Carmichael.

When a pool of blood and a mysterious green liquid is found in Wiseman's hotel room, Sam and Felix interview everyone while Sister Boniface looks for forensic clues that lead to a number of suspects and their troubled lives. Newspaper reporter Norman Whalley, still smitten with Peggy, desperately hopes for the scoop to save his job. Professor Y's performer and his major enemy the metallic Zybok go missing adding to the mystery.

There are too many references to 'Doctor Who' as a TV series in other TV shows to deny the existence of its televersion. 

Just a few examples:

• 'The Big Bang Theory'
• 'Criminal Minds'
• 'Supernova'
• 'Kingdom'

The actors who played the Doctor in the TV Universe included the televersions of Peter Cushing, Jon Pertwee, and David Tennant.  (And a few who are not connected to the show in the Trueniverse.)

And of course, being a popular series, of course it would be lampooned.  Hence, 'Professor Y' within an episode of 'The Sister Boniface Mysteries'.

However, it was supposedly presented by the televersion of the BBC.  The televersion of 'Doctor Who' would have been presented by Toobworld's Auntie Beeb as well. 

So why would they put on an obvious rip-off to their cash cow?

Maybe they weren't ripping off 'Doctor Who'.  Maybe within the TV Universe, the BBC presented 'Professor Y' as a spin-off?

Meh.  It's possible.....