TOP 10 WASTED CLASSIC WHO GUEST STARS

10) Graham Crowden (Soldeed, The Horns of Nimon): The otherwise versatile talented actor is handed an unconvincing, over-the-top, and babbling idiot character in an equally poorly conceived story. Crowden tries his best to breathe some believability into the character of Soldeed, but his attempts are way too dramatic, and sometimes overtly theatrical; Soldeed’s death scene is hilariously uncanny, the character can’t even die with any dignity. Soldeed is the generic ‘elder’ character, who is promised wealth and conquest by fake Gods. He rambles through his lines as though he’s in a sub-part Shakespeare stage play and its almost hard to believe the actor was seriously considered for the part of The Fourth Doctor, several years prior.

9) Wolfe Morris (Padmasambhava, The Abominable Snowmen): Whilst the actor put in a great performance, the character of Padmasambhava is otherwise restricted, and poses very little threat and is a weak villain that barely does anything. The character would have been better suited as the ‘walking corpse’ type of monster instead of being hidden away behind curtains, who simply pushes buttons (model Yeti) around on a ‘chess board’. The actor adds some complex layers to the character, but his minimal overall screen time, amounts to very little, and the character could have been so much more.

8) Patricia Maynard (Miss Winters, Robot): The actress shines, but the character is bland and duller than the darker shade of gray. Miss Winter is simply a spoilt schoolgirl who has never been told ‘no’ in her life and is hardly believable as the leader of a Think Tank group which plans to take the world with nuclear threat. Miss Winter’s isn’t threatening to be intimidating, nor is she developed enough to be interesting. She (and the rest of her crones) are defeated far too easily and her Miss Winter’s early exit from the narrative only reaffirms how much the narrative didn’t really need her at all, and would have been [even] better if she was absent.

7) Brian Glover (Griffiths, Attack of the Cybermen): The popular film actor lands a very small and not-so-flattering part of a bald buffoon who is simply involved in the narrative to struggle, struggle, and eventually die before he can reach his end goal, and survive to tell the tale. The actor is wasted in a role that is supposed to provide some ‘comedic relief’ but the character fails to bring any comedic elements within a narrative that is so concerned on a high death count and bloody gore overtones. The character also provides very little to the plot, and is almost meaningless, and the actor’s appearance is nothing more than a ‘stunt casting’ gimmick.

6) Ingrid Pitt (Dr. Solow, Warriors of the Deep): What can be said about Dr. Solow, other than ‘I know who that is it’s Ingrid Pitt’. In her second appearance with classic Doctor Who, the actress provides a less-than-pleasing performance within a serial that suffered so many production problems. The character makes for a secondary rate villain; the other human villains are equally pathetic as well, and the moment Dr. Solow bows out of the serial is jaw-droppingly hilarious to the point where Doctor Who briefly descended into a farce.

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5) Anton Diffring (De Flores, Silver Nemesis): The well-known German film actor is clearly uncomfortable in the role, and barely puts in any effort into his character. The actor strolls from one plot point to the other, with a confused look on his face as though he can’t believe what he has gotten himself into. The actor did apparently admit he had no clue what Silver Nemesis was about, and it clearly shows. He hasn’t the energy, stamina nor the care in the world throughout his appearance and was a major misuse in Doctor Who’s final days.

4) Edwin Richfield (Mestor, The Twin Dilemma): Mestor, Mestor, Mestor, what a waste of a perfectly potential villain and cast a talented actor but incase him in heavy latex makeup and a costume that can hardly move. The actor puts in incredible amounts of effort, in the one of the worst Doctor Who serials of all time, but the lumbering costume and lack of mobility makes Mestor an extremely difficult character to play right from the get-go; its very lazy to write a villain who sits down most of the time, and the actor has to do very little acting to bring the character to life. A potential fantastic villain let down by ill-conceived writing.

3) Beryl Reid (Briggs, Earthshock): If there was an actress who didn’t want to be in Doctor Who, then look no further. The actress is clearly bored with her role, from the moment she arrives to the moments she departs. Her interactions with other actors and actresses make it seem like she’s dealing with child actors, and her lack of enthusiasm is more evident as the serial progresses. The character doesn’t seem that bothered that her world is facing total destruction nor is she unfazed that her freighter craft is holding an army of Cybermen that could annihilate her and her fellow cremates in a matter of seconds; a Cybermen could point a gun in her face, and she would just stare back and ask ‘what are you doing’. Behind-the-scenes footage shows the actress asking for clarification on certain plot points, in a tone that really spells out, just how much little time she had with her time on the show. A talented actress in other projects perhaps, but as a guest star in Doctor Who…….

2) Alan Tilvern (Forester, Planet of Giants): An early misused guest star pits the actor in a cliched role about a businessman who wishes to make a quick buck by any means necessary. Whilst the actor is great, the character is less convincing, who descends into the typical murder sub-plot just to keep his darkest secrets hidden. He does very little evil doing throughout his three-episode narrative, and the character could have been substituted with any other character from any other walk of life. He isn’t mafia boss menacing and he isn’t believable as someone who runs a company which is only interested in money and profits. He isn’t that interesting as a character, and only becomes duller as the plot progresses.

1) George Coulouris (Arbitan, The Keys of Marinus): The popular and overused big budget movie actor is perhaps the first wasted guest star to appear in the overall serial. He plays a generic mad scientist role, who simply sets up the whole plot by using expositiona, and merely fills in the main characters (and the audience) on the back story of Marinus and the titular Keys of Marinus. His involvement in the plot is reduced to a single episode, and the character is ‘disposable’, and is disposed towards the end of part 1. Arbitan’s death scene is poorly acted out, and the actor makes very little impact on the serial at all, and is almost forgettable