Fan Casting American Doctor Who - The Second Doctor (1966-1969)

Towards the end of Ray Walston's third season as the character of The Doctor, he had a small health scare and wanted to leave the series because he didn't want the series to die with him if he did so. The production of the series was in chaos. They didn't know what to do with their main star leaving. Walston suggested they simply recast him, but they felt like it was too cheap. A writer of the series suggested that they recast him with someone entirely different, as The Doctor was technically an alien, so they can explain it was part of his biology. They took the idea and ran with it, deciding to go for someone younger and ties to comedy. They eventually settled on Jack Lemmon, who wanted to go back into TV. In order to compete with NBC's upcoming show Star Trek, they ultimately decided to make the series in color as well as have a focus on alien planets and heavy sci-fi. Here we enter Jack Lemmon's era as The Second Doctor.