As fans of Doctor Who wait to see the queer stars and characters showrunner Russell T Davies serves up when the new series begins, it’s worth remembering that the long-running BBC sci-fi series has a long LGBTQ+ history.
For every John Barrowman, who played the recurring character of Captain Jack Harkness, and Russell Tovey (Alonso Frame in the 2007 Christmas special “Voyage of the Damned”), there were at least as many lesser-known names in and out of those famous TARDIS doors.
For every Alan Cumming (King James in the 2018 story “The WItchfinders”) and Simon Callow (Charles Dickens in “The Unquiet Dead”, alongside Christopher Eccleston’s Time Lord in 2005), there was someone whose sexuality probably past you by or was hidden because of the times.
Here are just a few of the LGBTQ+ actors who appeared in Doctor Who before Ncuti Gatwa became the first out queer actor to play The Doctor himself.
Max Adrian
Max Adrian appeared in the third series of the Doctor Who classic period, playing King Priam in three episodes (when each story was longer and split into 20-minutes programmes – and, being 1965, made in black-and-white).
Adrian was a noted classical actor born in Ireland in 1903. Before his venture into time and space, he’d played Fagin, various Shakespearean characters and appeared both in the West End and on Broadway. His life-long partner was fellow actor Laurier Lister.
In 1940, Adrian served a three-month prison sentence for “importuning” another man at London’s Victoria station.
Stories abound about how William Hartnell, the first Doctor, did not take the news well and was said to be thoroughly unpleasant to Adrian, who died of a heart attack in Guildford, Surrey, in 1973.
Ryan Sampson
Jump forward several decades to 2008 and you’ll find Ryan Sampson. He played the genius, Luke Rattigan, in the two-parter “The Sontaran Strategem” and “The Poison Sky.”
Maybe better known for his roles of Grumio in Plebs, and Tommo in Brassic, he came out publicly by posting a photo of himself with his boyfriend on what was then Twitter in 2019. He was seen most recently starring opposite Danny Dyer in Sky’s Mr Bigstuff.
Bethany Black
Contrary to some beliefs, the first out transgender actor to appear in the wibbley-wobbly, timey-wimey WhoUniverse was Bethany Black.
“Now sit back and wait until The Mail realises the BBC have cast an open trans lesbian in a family show,” she told The Independent at the time.
Trans lesbian Black played a character only known as 474 in 2015’s “Sleep No More”. She was also the first trans woman to play a transgender woman in a leading role on British TV
when she starred in Dr Who supremo Davies’ Cucumber, Banana and Tofu the same year.
Also a stand-up comedian, she has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Dallas Adams
In the four-part story “Planet of Fire” in 1984, viewers were introduced to Professor Howard Foster, the father of TARDIS companion Perri.
According to producer John Nathan-Turner’s biography, Adams was the first – and largest – gay palimony lawsuit winner in English legal history, and his casting riled up the right-wing press. He died of an Aids-related illness at the age of 44.
Dursley McLinden
UNIT has been going almost as long as the series itself. The Doctor first meets members of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, as it was originally known – until the UN complained – in the 1968 story, “The Invasion”.
Among the military officers is Sergeant Mike Smith, played by Dursley McLinden in the four-part classic “Remembrance of the Daleks”, in 1988.
McLinden was another victim of the HIV/Aids pandemic, dying aged 30 in 1995, five years after being diagnosed. But, in a very typical move by Davies, he was remembered in the searing drama It’s a Sin, with Olly Alexander’s character Ritchie Tozer, an actor, playing a Trooper Linden in a fictional Who story called “Regression of the Daleks”.
The scene is the first where it becomes apparent to others that something is seriously wrong with Ritchie.
McLinden spent the last years of his life helping to raise money for a branch of the charity Cruisaid and went on working right up until a few weeks before his death.
Andrew Hayden-Smith
Possibly better known for his time in Emmerdale and Byker Grove, Andrew Hayden-Smith played Jake Simmonds in series two’s “Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Age of Steel” in 2006. In a deleted scene right at the end of the second episode, his character is revealed as gay too. He cropped up again in the third-series story “Doomsday”, famous for the exit of Rose Tyler.
Hayden-Smith came out to Attitude magazine in 2005, aged 21. He went on to appear in Davies’ dramas Cucumber and Banana.
Matthew Waterhouse
Matthew Waterhouse’s character Adric is best-known for being the first companion – he appeared alongside both Tom Baker and Peter Davison – to die, making his final appearance in series 19’s Cybermen story “Earthshock.”
Waterhouse continues to be involved in acting and has provided commentaries on DVD releases of the series, but now lives with his American husband in the US.
Queer men and women have constantly worked behind the scenes of Doctor Who as well. Peter Grimwade wrote and directed stories for Baker and Davison, Gary Downie was a long-time production manager on the show and the partner of producer John Nathan-Turner.
Warris Hussein directed the very first episode to air, “The Unearthly Child”, in 1963. That’s before Davies or gay series-writer Patrick Ness were even born!
Other more famous queer stars to pop up include John Sessions, voicing a character in “Mummy on the Orient Express” in 2014, who was outed by the Evening Standard in 1994, and Ian McKellen, voicing the Great Intelligence in the 2012 Christmas story “The Snowmen”. There’s even an oblique reference to Stephen Fry once being River Song’s husband.
And then there was Derek Jacobi, now 86 and still going strong, as Professor Yana and, fleetingly, The Master – no one has ever done it better – in one of David Tennant’s strongest stories, “Utopia”, in 2007.
Of course, queer characters and queer stars are now more prevalent – when the show started in 1963, homosexuality was still illegal in Britain – with the likes of bisexual Bill Potts, played by Pearl Mackie, who herself came out as bi in 2020.
“Sitting with her allowed me to realise there were some parallels there… some of the feelings I had when I was young, but pushed aside, were real,” she said.
Pearl married Kam Chhokar last year. Maybe it’s time for a same-sex wedding in the TARDIS – surely the Doctor is legally able to perform the ceremony.
The new series of Doctor Who airs at 6.50pm on Saturday 12 April on BBC One in the UK. It will be available on BBC iPlayer from 8am and airs on Disney+ in the US the same day.
The post 7 LGBTQ+ Doctor Who stars from history you might not know about appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.