Doctor Who: historical characters

Doctor Who: historical characters

Besides the aliens and monsters time travel also provides the opportunity to weave meetings with historical characters into the storyline, including recently: Queen Victoria, Madame de Pompadour, and Agatha Christie.

The characters

Agatha Christie: In the episode ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ the Doctor and Donna meet Agatha Christie who is visiting lady Eddison during the novelist’s mysterious disappearance. Naturally enough a 1920s dinner party turns into a murder mystery with a unique twist – a giant wasp.

Queen Elizabeth I: At the end of ‘The Shakespeare Code’ an angry Queen Elizabeth I (Angela Pleasence) arrives at the Globe looking for the Doctor – someone else he’s upset on his travels.

Queen Victoria: In ‘Tooth and Claw’ queen Victoria (Pauline Collins) is revealed to be more human than normally portrayed but ultimately is she is definitely not amused by her encounter with the Doctor, a werewolf and some sinister warrior-monks on the Torchwood estate. Sheelagh Wells was the makeup designer; unusually for an aged Queen Victoria this makeup involved no prosthetics.

Madame de Pompadour: Madame de Pompadour (1721—1764) was a well known courtesan and the famous mistress of King Louis XV of France. In ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ a girl in 18th century France has been haunted by a stranger called the Doctor since she was seven and is being stalked by 51st century clockwork robots – one day the robots attack and Madame de Pompadour (Sophia Myles) is left calling for the doctor.