Season 12 of Doctor Who aired last year on the BBC with Jodie Whittaker taking on the role of the first female Time Lord in the show’s history. Doctor Who fans across the world tuned in to watch the Broadchurch and Black Mirror actress taking over from Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. Along with Whittaker, the show introduced fans to three new companions in the form of Yaz Khan (played by Mandip Gill), Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole) and Graham O’Brien (Bradley Walsh).
The show has previously seen former companions making a comeback, most notably Sarah-Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), who was reunited with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) in the episode School Reunion which was penned by Being Human and The Game creator Toby Whithouse.
Sarah-Jane proved to be so popular that she landed her own series which even had Walsh taking on a role as a villain. Could we see more classic characters making a comeback to Doctor Who?
Speaking to media including Express.co.uk, former Doctor Who stars Frazer Hines and Anneke Wills revealed whether they’d want to return to the show.
Both gave an affirmative yes about their desire to return to the sci-fi series.
Hines, who portrayed, companion and Highlander Jamie McCrimmon to Patrick Troughton’s second Doctor said: I was worried it was going to be a woman Doctor then when I saw – I loved the way she kept her accent.
“I’d love to work with her and go, ‘My legs are better than yours, Doctor!’”
While Wills went on to explain: “Well, one of the things I loved was the moment when us – the whole Doctor Who fan world – we all sat to watch that moment [Jodie Whittaker was unveiled as the Doctor].
“Have they done it? Is it going to be a woman? I loved the process. We said, ‘It’s a cloak. Ah! It’s a boot! Ah-ha! It’s going to be-’ Then the hand, ‘No – they’ve done it!’ “Then she’s revealed. The world went, ‘Oh my god, they’ve done it! It’s a woman!’ Brilliant. I’d love to be a part of it.”
However, the star – who played assistant Polly Wright – made an admission: “So I have to be honest, I think Jodie is lovely.
“I watched most of the first one and then I let go because it’s not my Doctor Who. It’s new Doctor Who for the new world and I’m not part of it really anymore – except if they ask me to be in it.”
Their words come as the BBC gives a classic Doctor Who tale a new lease of life. The broadcaster will be releasing an animated version of the 1967 story The Macra Terror which they starred in alongside Troughton’s second incarnation of the time traveller.
The Macra Terror is one of the so-called “lost episodes” of Doctor Who, among an estimated 97 other stories that were deleted as part of the BBC’s policy in the Sixties of recording over old tapes.
This policy meant hundreds of programmes were lost in the annals of time. But thanks to die-hard Doctor Who fans, who managed to record the audio live off their television during the one and only original broadcast, these stories were preserved in some form.
The Macra Terror has now been reinvented as a colour animation using the audio recording made by a Whovian but is not a perfect recreation of the original due to the constraints of the animation process.
Aside for 1967, the Macra has only made one other appearance in Doctor Who turning up in the 2007 adventure Gridlock featuring Tennant and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman).
The Macra is just the latest animation, another lost episodes to get the animation treatment was Power of the Daleks which came out in 2016.
Reflecting on the legacy of Doctor Who, Wills explained: “You’ve heard it all before, we’ve said it all before but if it hadn’t been for Patrick, who took over the role of the Doctor, we wouldn’t be sitting here today.
“It was because of the nature of the man because he was so sweet and incredibly humble and if he’d come in to take over the role in a more Jon Pertwee way, we wouldn’t have accepted him.
“It was because he was the way he was that the British audience could say, ‘Yeah, we’ll have a completely different Doctor.’ So, we should always be grateful to Patrick.”
The Macra Terror will be out on DVD and Blu-ray from 25th March
