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
Space and Time (Doctor Who) canonical. The canonicity of the two mini-episodes was affirmed by Moffat in "Doctor Who Magazine". Moffat stated that, unlike "The Curse of Fatal Death", "Space" and "Time" is not a spoof or a sketch, but rather "a little miniature story" in the style of the "Children in Need" mini-episodes. He described it as "A moment of life aboard the TARDIS. But obviously life about the TARDIS instantly gets you into terrible jeopardy, and all of causality is threatened. As I'm sure it is every day when they get up and have their coffee..." The concept of a TARDIS inside the