Doctor Who Just Canonized One of the Franchise’s Weirdest Doctors

Doctor Who is currently in the middle of a bold new era, with the adventures of Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor continuing to subvert the expectations of its audience. The series’ most recent episode was no exception — especially since it may have just officially folded in one of the franchise’s long-forgotten Time Lords. Spoilers for Season 1, Episode 6 of Doctor Who, “Rogue”, below! Only look if you want to know!

Part of the episode concerns the Fifteenth Doctor and his dynamic with Rogue (Jonathan Groff), a cosmic bounty hunter investigating the secret invasion of the shapeshifting alien race the Chulders. Rogue accuses The Doctor of being a Chuldur, and utilizes the scanner on his ship to confirm that he is a shapeshifter and send him to his death. Moments before that can happen, The Doctor knocks the scanner so it can register all of his past regenerations. The faces of the previous Doctors scroll by — including, briefly, a shot of fan-favorite actor Richard E. Grant. While this made some wonder if Grant might be on deck to play The Doctor down the line, it actually makes a few pieces of past Doctor Who lore canon. 

Who Did Richard E. Grant Play on Doctor Who?

Although Grant is far from the first or last actor to portray multiple characters on Doctor Who, having already played the Great Intelligence in Season 7, he does belong to an exclusive club of actors who have actually portrayed multiple Doctors. Grant first appeared in 1999’s The Curse of Fatal Death, a Red Nose Day-exclusive special that originally sought to parody the existing franchise, which had been on hiatus since 1996. Co-starring Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, Jonathan Pryce, and Joanna Lumley, The Curse of Fatal Death saw Grant play “The Quite Handsome Doctor,” who was technically the special’s version of the Tenth Doctor after Atkinson’s regenerated. While this special might not have been designed to be canon to the larger world of Doctor Who, it has been co-opted by Doctor Who Magazine and other pieces of the franchise’s fan media.

A few years later, Grant once again joined the franchise through the 2003 animated series Scream of the Shalka. In it, Grant voiced an alternate version of the Ninth Doctor, who has affectionally been dubbed the “Shalka Doctor” by the fandom in the years since. As with Grant’s Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death, the Shalka Doctor has not fully been believed to be canon to the main franchise, with fans safely assuming the events of Scream of the Shalka only existed in some sort of parallel universe. Given how “Rogue” deals with parallel universes, with The Doctor remarking later in the episode that there are as many universes as there are atoms, it certainly seems as if the Shalka Doctor is believed to be canon, without it directly impacting the line of Doctors established in the main franchise. (It also continues a fun trend of projects involving both Grant and Kate Herron, who co-wrote “Rogue” and directed Grant in the first season of Marvel Studios’ Loki series.)

New episodes of Doctor Who air Fridays at 7pm ET on Disney+, followed by a debut on BBC iPlayer at 12am GMT on Saturdays, and a broadcast premiere on BBC One later that day. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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