Doctor Who Doctor's nature, somewhere between the twelfth and final incarnation. On rare occasions, other actors have stood in for the lead. In "The Five Doctors", Richard Hurndall played the First Doctor due to William Hartnell's death in 1975; 34 years later David Bradley similarly replaced Hartnell in "Twice Upon a Time". In "Time and the Rani", Sylvester McCoy briefly played the Sixth Doctor during the regeneration sequence, carrying on as the Seventh. For more information, see the list of actors who have played the Doctor. In other media, the Doctor has been played by various other actors, including Peter Cushing in
Doctor Who (series 12) her second series as the Thirteenth Doctor, the most recent incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in their TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box on the outside. The series also stars Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill as the Doctor's travelling companions, Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan, respectively. The twelfth series was originally reported to be broadcast in late 2019 by "Starburst"; instead, the BBC confirmed after the eleventh series' finale that the series will premiere in early 2020. Ed Hime is set to write an