WHO was Wymark
According to Internet legend, Patrick Wymark was considered as a replacement when it became clear that William Hartnell could not continue as the lead in Doctor Who.
It's intriguing to speculate how far the BBC took this casting suggestion off the back of their envelope.
Wymark had used the Royal Television Society Awards at the end of 1964 to announce that he would not be making any more series of The Plane Makers. Sydney Newman, the drama chief who inspired Doctor Who, had written to Plane Makers producer Rex Firkin in November 1964 to congratulate his team on the episode "A Lesson for Corbett". Wymark's stage roles had demonstrated his wide range of performance, so he would certainly have been "on the radar" when it came to consider a new Dr Who.
But the first series of The Power Game was in production by the time William Hartnell came to regenerate into Patrick Troughton in 1966. So, it's unclear how far Wymark got off any back of the envelope wish-list (unless of course, something else materialises on Twitter). Certainly, as one of the most popular actors on TV at the time, Wymark's casting would have been much more of a sensation than the relatively unknown Patrick Troughton.
The story apears to be given credence by the fact that of the lead actors from The Plane Makers and The Power Game were offered guest roles in Dr Who after Patrick Troughton took on the role - Peter Jeffrey played “the Pilot” in the lost adventure “The Macra Terror”. Wendy Gifford and Peter Barkworth both appeared in “The Ice Warriors” (with Barkworth in particular ‘pushing the envelope’ in terms of performance). Jack Watling appeared twice as Professor Travers in “The Abominable Snowmen” and “The Web of Fear” (emphasising the debt that the Yeti owed to Universal’s Mummy movies, Travers was aged in the second adventure, with 30 years separating the two stories). .
Was Peter Jeffrey's brainwashed administrator in "The Macra Terror" an echo of James Cameron-Forbes MP?
It's also said that, if he hadn't been taken ill, Patrick Wymark would have played the part of Professor Maxtible in "Evil of the Daleks".
But by the same token – William Hartnell had appeared in the first series of The Plane Makers, shortly before being cast as Doctor Who. Roger Delgado appeared in the episode "The Front Men" before being cast as the Master, the Doctor’s nemesis. Delgado delivers a strong performance, emphasising the fact that these were actors on the "A List", whether or not they had appeared in a particular show.Similarly, Deborah Watling had appeared as a precocious schoolgirl sitting in the next aeroplane seat to Peter Barkworth in the 7th February 1966 episode "Late Via Rome". The daughter of Jack Watling, she had played the niece of "The Invisible Man" in the 1959 TV series, and had more recently starred as "Alice" in Dennis Potter's 1965 "Wednesday Play" about Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell (Coincidentally, Ian Holm, who plays Sefton Kemp in The Power Game, would star as Lewis Carroll in Gavin Millar's 1985 remake "Dreamchild").
She then went on to play Victoria, the Doctor’s companion who made her debut in “Evil of the Daleks”.
And looking forward, Barbara Murray starred in the Peter Davison adventure “Black Orchid”. The third series of “The Power Game” was particularly fruitful. Barrie Ingham as Minister Garfield Kane had, of course, played one of the Thals in the Amicus film "Doctor Who and the Daleks". Michael Jayston, who played Lincoln Dowling would be cast as the Valyard in the final Colin Baker series of Doctor Who (the Valyard was some malevolent manifestation of the Doctor’s own future – a kind of photocopy paper jam between incarnations). Richard Hurndall, who played Dowling’s chief in “The Power Game”, achieved the ultimate guest star slot in “The Five Doctors” when he played William Hartnell.
But the idea of Patrick Wymark playing the new Doctor Who opposite Ben and Polly is an intriguing one. A memo which has been floating around Twitter recently sheds little light on their ideas for the new Doctor Who, other than that he would have the keen eyes of an explorer, wild hair and a "fly-blown" version of William Hartnell's clothes and would also be a master of disguise.
