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
The End of Time (Doctor Who) The End of Time (Doctor Who) The End of Time is a two-part story made up of the fourth and fifth of five special episodes of the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who" broadcast between December 2008 and January 2010. "The End of Time" was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 25 December 2009 and 1 January 2010, and is the fifth "Doctor Who" Christmas special. This is the last story for lead actor David Tennant, who handed over the role of alien time traveller the Doctor to Matt Smith. It is also the last