Talk:List of guest appearances in Doctor Who

Guest Star vs Guest Appearance.
As has been discussed at great length before, including several AfD nominations, if we make the bar for entry just any old actor that has appeared in an episode of Doctor Who you end up with a pretty comprhensive list of every bit part actor to have worked in the UK for the last 47 years. This would be an enourmous, arbritrary and meaningless list. Hence the consensus has been shown to clearly support that there be some notabillity to the person appearing. i.e. at the time of them appearing thier appearance was a notable thing, as opposed to just an actor doing a job. --ThePaintedOne (talk) 09:16, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Please don't take this the wrong way, but are you out of your mind? Look at the names you've removed: Ian McNeice, Bill Paterson, Helen McCrory, Toby Jones. They've all had long and distinguished careers and should at the very least qualify as "guest stars." You even removed Alex Kingston and she's still listed in the Tenth Doctor section! If you want to be consistent, why not remove most of those names while you're at it. 149.119.226.145 (talk) 13:18, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Now now, no need to get personal. If you want to make a case for someone, go ahead, but by what stretch is Darren Morfitt notable? As for the others, I checked each one's wiki page before removing them. They may have long careers but they are hardly A-list actors. They have long careers being character actors playing workaday characters in TV dramas, exactly as they have done in DW. None of these are the kind of actors who most people would go 'oh looks its...' when they appear on screen. Note, this is no critisism of them, its just what they do for a living. As for Alex Kingston, she is probably most notable now for playing River Song! Other than that she's played a bunch of character parts and a long term character in ER. Now I've never watched ER, so maybe that was a more notable role than it seems. But yeah a case can be made for her, OTOH, she's half way to becoming a companion now. Have a look back at the exstensive discussions that there have been on this subject, plus take a look at the criteria that's been used in the past, and judge honestly whether all these are consistent with that.--ThePaintedOne (talk) 18:15, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

OK, OK, I'm sorry for getting personal. My point is that the people I mentioned may not have the most recognizable "names" in show business but they themselves would be recognizable to a regular viewer of British television and/or movies. I've heard that Doctor Who is one of the few shows that can request guest stars rather than have them be assigned. I'll bet you anything the production team specifically sought out people like Paterson and McCrory rather than just any old "workaday actors". I concede your point about Darren Morfitt but again look at the Tenth Doctor section. Michael Brandon? Hugh Quarshie? Maybe the criteria should be actors who've had prominent roles in popular movies and/or been a regular on a TV show that ran for several years. Just a suggestion. And FYI, Alex Kingston was a regular on ER, a show which received high ratings in the US and the UK, for seven years. That makes her notable in my opinion.149.119.226.145 (talk) 13:01, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The fact that some of the existing names on the list are dubious shouldn't necesarily be taken as a guide to putting in new ones. The list used to be way, way longer than this and has been progressively trimmed down to something approaching sanity. At one point it was more or less every single person who had appeared in Doctor Who without becoming a regular, which for a show that's been active for around 30 years is a big list! There is no real 'rule' for inclusion, which is partially why the previous debate has been so heated at times. For me the criteria should be along the lines that the appearance itself should be notable, so as you suggest an average TV viewer would go 'oh look its such and such from xxx'. OTOH, I'm not sure whether Sophie Okonedo qualifies for that, but as an Oscar nominated actress I think it reasonable to keep her in. I'm a regular UK TV viewer and I didn't really get that reaction to most of the names I took out, but I don't have any monopoly on who is notable here. As a suggetion, why don't you review the ones you put in, in light of this discussion, and take out the ones you think on reflection don't meet the bar. Feel free to dip into the tenth doctor ones you mention as well. I think that would give a reasonable compromise answer?--ThePaintedOne (talk) 13:44, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Returning Regulars.
Over the last couple of days a number of entries have gone in for people who were previosly regulars on the show, coming back in for a one off. e.g. All the previous Doctors in the multi-doctor stories and various companions doing a guest spot.

I'm not necesarily opposed, but thought it worth maybe discussing if this is within the scope of the article and any guidelines we might want to think about?

A few instances caught my eye as being possibly 'edge cases'

In some cases the person is only really notable for thier previous DW work, does that count?

Richard Hurndall in the Five Doctors. From just looking at his wikipedia article, about half of it is concerning this guest spot standing in as William Hartnell. On his own I don't think his appearance would be notable, does it become notable when he's doing a stand in?

Sarah Jane and Captain Jack, both have other series active in Doctor Who and indeed mentioned on this page. Does that make thier appearance in DW a guest spot or semi-regular? The same would presumably apply to the Doctor appearing those other shows?

The Brigadier has appeared in lots of stories scattered throughout the show, surely he is just a very long term regular?

Again, I'm not really advocating a particular approach, just thought it worth discussing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ThePaintedOne (talk • contribs) 11:02, 19 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Although I'm not delighted at seeing the page being expanded again, looking at it, I'd have to agree that some of these are valid. William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton did make guest appearances in The Three Doctors, in fact, I'd say that these are the epitome of a guest appearance. However, I have removed some. Tom Baker and William Hartnell didn't guest in "The Five Doctors" - they just used old clips (same goes for The Beatles in The Chase). Also removing Richard Harndall and Bret Vyon - not guests. Mostly it's fair enough though.--Tuzapicabit (talk) 12:21, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Alexander Siddig
Hi, After seeing quite a bit of discussion about who goes in and who stays out I thought I'd better propose rather than be bold (especially if he's been deleted before). I think Alexander Siddig might need to be added to the Big Finish section. He's been in 3 productions. His notability for this is having previously had a regular character in Star Trek:Deep Space Nine (I note that the same section of the article currently includes Peter Jurasik who similarly had a series regular role on rival show Babylon 5). Ka Faraq Gatri (talk) 22:46, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd say he definitely qualifies.--ThePaintedOne (talk) 07:17, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Fab. I've added him.  Ka Faraq Gatri (talk) 10:19, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Archive
As the page now seems to be relatively stable, and the existing talk was rather lengthy and in places acrimonious, I've put in an archive. New editors wishing to be bold would probably be well served by reviewing the old conversations though!--ThePaintedOne (talk) 07:34, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Peter Glaze
Could someone with authoritative sources check this one please: there was a persistent rumour at the time that PG, then "notable" as a comedic presenter on the childrens' programme Crackerjack, appeared on DW in the story "The Sensorites", as one of the Sensorites. -- Simon Cursitor (talk) 14:03, 7 September 2012 (UTC) Or possibly as a human -- Simon Cursitor (talk) 13:15, 12 September 2012 (UTC) I have obtained a copy of the BBC DVD which lists him in cast as "Third Sensorite". On this basis I propose to include PG in the article itself. -- Simon Cursitor (talk) 10:11, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Andrew Garfield
I added Andrew Garfield as a guest star for the 10th Doctor. He was in two episodes, and is probably notable enough now to make the list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.250.130.50 (talk) 14:47, 3 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Removed. Note the opening paragraph of the article: "These actors were well-known names at the time of their appearance in the series, which frequently caused interest in the media towards the latest story. Actors who became famous after their Doctor Who appearance are not present in this list." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.184.24 (talk) 23:20, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

Tamsin Greig
I'd like to propose Tamsin Greig as a Ninth Doctor addition. The same episode as Simon Pegg actually (The Long Game). She played (and is credited as) the Nurse. Black Books (from where I previously recognised her) finished airing in 2004 which predates this episode. JDC 13:55, 29 July 2017 (UTC)