Shalka Doctor - Overview

Overview

Scream of the Shalka was designed to be an official continuation of Doctor Who. At the time, there were no plans for a continuation of the television series and plans for another film were progressing very slowly. The Shalka Doctor was intended to be the ninth incarnation, as two lines in Scream of the Shalka imply: the Doctor mentions that Andy Warhol once wanted to paint "all nine" of him, and comments that a dead cat has used up its nine lives, like he has. The Shalka Doctor's claim to being the "Ninth Doctor" was also backed up by BBC press releases.

However, the 2005 series was announced in September 2003—about two months before the webcast could meet its 13 November release date. This led to immediate controversy about the "official" status of the animated Ninth Doctor. Martin Trickey, executive producer of The Scream of the Shalka, noted these concerns when he was interviewed at the time of Shalka's release: "The BBC said it was the ninth Doctor, so that's great. Is it part of the canon? I don't know. There's a big argument raging on the message board. I just hope people enjoy it. That's the main thing. Whether people choose to see it as the official Ninth Doctor or not is really up to them." Fan speculation has put forward the possibility that this version of the Doctor is, in fact, the younger, more reckless past self of the First Doctor, given that they share several personality traits (including arrogance and eccentricity), a late-Victorian-Early-Edwardian fashion sense, and have a similar face and hairstyle.

As of 2005, Christopher Eccleston is established as the definitive Ninth Doctor:

• BBC press releases and advertisements have firmly established Eccleston as "the Ninth Doctor".
• The new series has also demonstrated this in various episodes.

• The Journal of Impossible Things from the two-part episode "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" contains sketches of all ten Doctors, with only Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor included.
• In the Christmas special "The Next Doctor", the ten incarnations of the Doctor known at that time appear through an infostamp projection. The footage for the Ninth Doctor was of Christopher Eccleston from "The Parting of the Ways".
• The Eleventh Doctor settles the matter on-screen in the episode "The Lodger", identifying himself to another character as "eleventh" after his nature as a Time-Lord is revealed.

To date the so-called "Shalka Doctor" has appeared in only three officially licensed Doctor Who products: the original webcast, the novelisation of the webcast by Paul Cornell which was released by BBC Books, and the short story "The Feast of the Stone" by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright which has to date only been published on the BBC's "Cult Vampire Magazine" webpage.