Is The Shalka Doctor Canon?
With Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary celebration fast approaching, and David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor poised to grace the TV screens in November, now is the best time to reflect on past anniversary celebrations. Of course, the 50th Anniversary saw the release of “The Day of the Doctor,” a feature-length epic with three Doctors facing the consequences of the Time War. But what of the 40th Anniversary?
In 2003, Doctor Who had been off-air for seven years, with the last outing for the Time Lord being the 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. Even so, the BBC wasn’t going to let the milestone pass, commissioning a brand-new story, titled “Scream of the Shalka.” The one difference? It was an animated adventure. This new animation introduced the original Ninth Doctor, who was voiced by Richard E. Grant, and was supposed to launch further adventures. However, these adventures never happened. It then begs the question of where this leaves “Scream of the Shalka” and its version of the Doctor.
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Doctor Who’s The Shalka Doctor, Explained
“Scream of the Shalka” was announced in July 2003, just seven years after Doctor Who: The Movie aired, and 14 years after the original series ended in 1989. At the time of the animation’s announcement, the idea of Doctor Who returning was a distant dream to fans. Despite still being able to consume new expanded universe material, fans never thought they’d see the Doctor and his TARDIS on screens again. This announcement was met with a positive reaction, and the casting of Richard E. Grant as the voice of new Doctor only thrilled fans even more. Grant even appeared on the front cover of Doctor Who Magazine like every Doctor after their announcement.
Grant was well known to Doctor Who fans, thanks in part to starring in the cult classic, Withnail and I (1987) opposite Eighth Doctor Paul McGann. Grant also appeared as the Doctor in a comic relief sketch some years earlier. The sketch was written by future Doctor Who showrunner, Steven Moffat, and was titled “The Curse of Fatal Death” and starred Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor. However, this version of the Time Lord is rather clumsy, resulting in several regenerations in a matter of minutes, with other Doctors being played by Grant, Jim Broadbent, Dungeons and Dragons star Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley.
“Scream of the Shalka” was designed to be the first in a new series of animations with Grant as the official Ninth Doctor and was written by Paul Cornell. In a document written for future writers of the animation series (later published in Doctor Who Magazine #464), it was revealed that the new Doctor had retired on Gallifrey after his adventures and fell in love with The President’s (potentially Rassilon) Daughter. Gallifrey was invaded by aliens, and although the Doctor and the Master defeated them, the whole planet was destroyed. Despite their physical deaths, the Time Lords uploaded their minds to The Matrix, and sent the Doctor and an android Master (whose physical form perished in the destruction) on missions. Shalka saw one of these missions and starred Sophie Okonedo as the new companion Alison, and Derek Jacobi as the Master, who, ironically, reprised his role in Season 3 of the official revival series. Shalka even had a special cameo appearance by David Tennant himself a few years before his eventual Doctor Who casting.
The Canonicity of the Shalka Doctor in Modern Doctor Who
Months before “Scream of the Shalka” was set to air, fans of the show were shocked to learn that Doctor Who would be returning to BBC 1 in 2005 as a live-action TV program. This revival series was to be written by Russell T Davies, and it was announced that Christopher Eccleston would be playing the official Ninth Doctor. This announcement immediately created questions over Shalka’s fate and status in Doctor Who canon. After all, how could there be two Ninth Doctors? While “Scream of the Shalka” was still released as planned, the sequels were all canceled, with the Shalka Doctor appearing only once more in a short story titled The Feast of the Stone in 2004.
The Doctor’s return to TV screens in 2005 made the Shalka Doctor a bizarre footnote in the show’s long and complicated canon, but there have been explanations for the existence of this Doctor and how he can possibly co-exist. The first would be to simply say he is an “Unbound” Doctor. Much like the late David Warner’s Doctor, Unbound Doctors are Doctors that featured in a series of stories for Big Finish Productions, telling what-if stories set in alternate universes. These Doctors can still be canon, but just don’t exist in the main continuity of the televised show.
Another explanation for The Shalka Doctor’s existence is offered in the BBC books Doctor Who: The Tomorrow Windows by Jonathan Morris and Doctor Who: The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin which all mention the possibility of the Doctor having three Ninth incarnations. At the time this was a reference to Grant’s Shalka Doctor, Eccleston’s official Ninth Doctor and Rowan Atkinson’s Ninth Doctor from the aforementioned sketch. However, this could now be interpreted as a reference to John Hurt’s War Doctor, who is technically the Ninth Doctor. Doctor Who canon is not set in stone, as evidenced by The Timeless Child, but it’s always fascinating to think of the many possibilities and alternate timelines regarding Doctor Who. In one of these alternate timelines, the Shalka Doctor could be bumping around in his rickety old TARDIS.
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