List of Doctor Who historical characters

This is a list of historical, mythical and fictional characters who have been portrayed in in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, or who have supposedly encountered the time traveller known as the Doctor, .

This list is divided into four parts:

• Historical characters who have appeared on the programme
• Characters from mythology who have appeared on the programme
• Characters from fictional works who have appeared on the programme
• "Name-drops": Historical or mythological characters who the Doctor has claimed to have met, but who have not been seen on screen.

All but the "Name-drops" are listed with a reference to the story they appeared in and the actor who played them.

Historical characters

• Emperor Nero - Derek Francis in ''The Romans
• Poppaea - Kay Patrick in The Romans
• Tigilinus - Brian Proudfoot in The Romans
• Caecilius - Peter Capaldi in an episode of Season 4 of The New series
• Princess Joanna - Jean Marsh in The Crusade
• King Richard I of England - Julian Glover in The Crusade
• Saladin - Bernard Kay in The Crusade
• Saphadin - Roger Avon in The Crusade
• King John of England - in identical replica form - Gerald Flood in The King's Demons
• Kublai Khan - Martin Miller in Marco Polo
• Marco Polo - Mark Eden in Marco Polo
• King Charles IX of France - Barry Justice in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
• Gaspard de Coligny - Leonard Sachs in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
• Nicholas Muss - David Weston in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
• Queen Catherine de' Medici - Joan Young in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
• Queen Elizabeth I - Vivienne Bennet in The Chase (where she is seen in the Time-Space Visualiser) and Angela Pleasance in The Shakespeare Code
• William Shakespeare - Hugh Walters in The Chase (where he is seen in the Time-Space Visualiser) and Dean Lennox Kelly in The Shakespeare Code
• William Kempe — David Westhead in The Shakespeare Code
• D'Artagnan - John Greenwood in The Mind Robber
• Blackbeard - Gerry Wain in The Mind Robber
• Madame de Pompadour - Sophia Myles in The Girl in the Fireplace
• King Louis XV of France - Ben Turner in The Girl in the Fireplace
• Paul Barras - John Law in The Reign of Terror
• Napoleon Bonaparte - Tony Wall in The Reign of Terror
• Robespierre - Keith Anderson in The Reign of Terror
• George Stephenson - Gawn Grainger in The Mark of the Rani
• Abraham Lincoln - Robert Marsden in The Chase (where he is seen in the Time-Space Visualiser)
• Captain Benjamin Briggs - David Blake Kelly in The Chase
• Albert C Richardson - Dennis Chinnery in The Chase
• Charles Dickens - Simon Callow in The Unquiet Dead
• Queen Victoria - Pauline Collins in Tooth and Claw
• Billy Clanton - David Cole in The Gunfighters
• Ike Clanton - William Hurndall in The Gunfighters
• Virgil Earp - Victor Carin in The Gunfighters
• Warren Earp - Martyn Huntley in The Gunfighters
• Wyatt Earp - John Alderson in The Gunfighters
• Doc Holliday - Anthony Jacobs in The Gunfighters
• Kate - Sheena Marshe in The Gunfighters
• Bat Masterson - Richard Beale in The Gunfighters
• Johnny Ringo - Laurence Payne in The Gunfighters
• Louis Pasteur - in Time and the Rani
• H. G. Wells - David Chandler in Timelash
• Agatha Christie - Fenella Woolgar in an episode of Season 4 of the new series
• Albert Einstein - in Time and the Rani
• John F. Kennedy - himself with the Doctor in a digitally altered photograph in Rose
• The Beatles - themsevles in The Chase (where they are seen in the Time-Space Visualiser)
• Queen Elizabeth II - in Silver Nemesis and "Voyage of the [...]"
• Courtney Pine - himself in Silver Nemesis

Mythological characters

• Achilles - Cavan Kendall in The Myth Makers
• Agamemnon - Francis de Wolff in The Myth Makers
• Cassandra - Frances White in The Myth Makers
• Cressida (as Vicki came to be known) - Maureen O'Brien in The Myth Makers
• Hector - Alan Haywood in The Myth Makers
• Menelaus - Jack Melford in The Myth Makers
• Odysseus - Ivor Salter in The Myth Makers
• Paris - Barrie Ingham in The Myth Makers
• Priam, King of Troy - Max Adrian in The Myth Makers
• Troilus - James Lynn in The Myth Makers
• Medusa - Sue Pulford The Mind Robber
• Minotaur - David Prowse in The Time Monster
• Kronos - Ingrid Bower in The Time Monster
• Morgaine - Jean Marsh in Battlefield
• Mordred - Christopher Bowen in Battlefield
• King Arthur - in Battlefield
• Satan - Gabriel Woolf (voice) in "The Satan Pit"

Fictional characters

• Cyrano - David Cannon in The Mind Robber
• Gulliver - Bernard Horsfall The Mind Robber
• Lancelot - John Greenwood in The Mind Robber
• Rapunzel - Christine Pirie The Mind Robber
• Arthur Dent - mentioned in "The Christmas Invasion"

Name-drops

• W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan in The Edge of Destruction
• Pyrrho in The Keys of Marinus
• King Henry VIII in The Sensorites
• Beau Brummel in The Sensorites
• Hans Christian Andersen in The Romans
• James Watt in The Space Museum
• Joseph Lister in The Moonbase
• King Edward VII in Inferno
• Sir Walter Raleigh in The Mind of Evil
• Chairman Mao Zedong in The Mind of Evil
• Adolf [...] in The Daemons (possibly)
• Genghis Khan in The Daemons (possibly) and "Rose" (at least his assembled hordes)
• Napoleon Bonaparte in Day of the Daleks - the Doctor recalls a conversation that did not happen in The Reign of Terror, when they never spoke
• Queen Elizabeth I of England in The Curse of Peladon - the Doctor thinks he may have been to her coronation (predates "The Shakespeare Code'')
• Queen Victoria in The Curse of Peladon (predates "Tooth and Claw")
• Horatio Nelson in The Sea Devils
• John L. Sullivan in Carnival of Monsters
• Harry Houdini in Planet of the Spiders and Revenge of the Cybermen
• William Shakespeare in Planet of Evil, City of Death and The Mark of the Rani
• Marie Antoinette in Pyramids of Mars
• John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough in The Android Invasion
• Leonardo da Vinci in The Masque of Mandragora, City of Death and Doctor Who (1996)
• Florence Nightingale in The Masque of Mandrgora
• William Tell in The Face of Evil
• Bede in The Talons of Weng-Chiang
• Galileo in The Sunmakers
• Ulysses in Underworld
• Jason in Underworld
• Maskelyne (unspecified which one) in The Ribos Operation
• Sir Isaac Newton in The Pirate Planet and Shada
• Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) in The Stones of Blood
• Julius Caesar in The Stones of Blood
• Albert Einstein in The Stones of Blood (pre-dating Time and the Rani)
• Izaak Walton in The Androids of Tara
• José Raúl Capablanca in The Androids of Tara
• Alexander Alekhine in The Androids of Tara
• Dame Nellie Melba in The Power of Kroll
• Theseus in The Creature from the Pit and The Horns of Nimon
• Thomas Huxley in Logopolis
• Sir Francis Drake in Four to Doomsday
• Guy Fawkes in The Five Doctors
• Puccini in Doctor Who (1996)
• Sigmund Freud in Doctor Who (1996)
• Marie Curie in Doctor Who (1996)
• David Lloyd George in "Aliens of London"
• Cleopatra in "The Girl in the Fireplace"
• Stephen Hawking in "Doomsday"
• Benjamin Franklin in "Smith and Jones"
• Emmeline Pankhurst in "Smith and Jones"
• Janis Joplin in "Gridlock"
• Ludwig van Beethoven in "The Lazarus Experiment"
• Bill Gates in "Last of the Time Lords"
• Tom Mix in The Gunfighters
• Thomas Jefferson in a deleted scene from The Lazarus Experiment (included on the DVD release of the 2007 season).

See also List of Doctor Who supporting characters.