Harry Potter

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Published in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Harry Potter was a series of novels by British author J.K. Rowling. The novels chronicled the early life of a young wizard as he was groomed to defeat an evil wizard.

They consisted of 11 novels, the Doctor holding the complete set of novels in his TARDIS. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

By his tenth incarnation the Doctor had read the seventh Harry Potter novel, and cried upon reading the ending of the seventh book. Martha Jones also knew the books and suggested Potter's magic word "expelliarmus" to William Shakespeare to help defeat the Carrionites. The suggestion worked. (DW: The Shakespeare Code) Donna Noble jokingly referred to a centaur she met as Firenze - the name of one of the centaurs in the Potter universe (BBCR: Pest Control). A copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the first Potter novel) can be seen in a display case on Platform One. (DW: The End of the World)

Behind the scenes

Trivia

  • In real life, only seven Harry Potter novels (plus several shorter spin-off works) have been published. In EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles, written in 2005, a character picks up a copy of the last Harry Potter book in the TARDIS, before replacing it next to its "ten other sequels." While this can be seen as an anachronism, likely the author was unaware Rowling only planned to publish seven books. It should be noted that since the publication of book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling has not dismissed the possibility of writing more Potter books in the future (perhaps in the Whoniverse she did in fact write additional volumes). It also should be noted that the title Deathly Hallows is not mentioned in The Shakespeare Code, as the Doctor simply refers to it as "Book Seven" (in real life the title of the book was unknown at the time the episode was written). There is precedent for book series to be continued by other authors, i.e. Eoin Colfer's continuation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy published in 2009.
  • In 2005, Russell T Davies asked Harry Potter's creator J.K. Rowling if she would write for Doctor Who. She refused, saying that she was "was amused by the suggestion but simply doesn't have the time."[1] She was writing the sixth Harry Potter novel at the time.[2]
  • In The Christmas Invasion, a Hogwarts-style uniform briefly appears as the Doctor considers what clothes to wear in his new incarnation.
  • The Shakespeare Code, in which the Doctor references reading the seventh book, was broadcast before the book was published, during a period of intense anticipation for its release. The Doctor doesn't mention the book's title, as it had not been revealed by the time the episode began filming.
  • According to his 2008 autobiography A Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies also considered basing the 2008 Christmas special around an appearance by Rowling.
  • To date, the most prominent Potter films cast member to be connected to Doctor Who is Sir Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) who has been confirmed by the BBC as appearing in the 2010 Christmas Special.[1]
  • Harry Potter star, Daniel Radcliffe, was a name thrown out by Russell T. Davies to play the Eleventh Doctor.
  • Other actors who have appeared in the Harry Potter films who have been considered for the role of the Doctor include Jim Broadbent, John Cleese, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Griffiths and Alan Rickman.
  • A copy of this book Harry Potter's and the Philisopher's stone is visible in a display case seen in End of the World.
  • When filming the 2005 series Russell T Davies commented upon the difficulty of finding little person actors for Doctor Who because Harry Potter and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were filming at the same time.[3]
  • Harry Milling, who plays Dudley Dursley in the film series, is the grandson of Patrick Troughton, however he never met him as Patrick died before he was born.

Actors who have appeared in Doctor Who and Harry Potter

In the audiobooks ranging from Big Finish and the BBC itself a number of actors have used their talents as well as David Tennant and Jessica Hynes as mentioned above who have also been involved.

Other Notes

Pooky Quesnel who played Moaning Myrtle in the Order of the Phoenix video game; appears as the captain in the Christmas Carol Other references can be observed by the fact that Harry Melling who plays Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter is the grandson of Patrick Troughton. Also Alfie Enoch who plays Harry’s friend and dorm-mate Dean Thomas is the son of William Russell who played Ian Chesterton.

Stephen Fry, narrator for the UK Harry Potter audio books, voiced a character for the Webcast story WC: Death Comes to Time, and was at one point to have written an episode for Series 2, but due to various factors including a change in the Doctor's companion, the episode was never produced.

In addition, Richard Curtis (co-creator of Blackadder and writer of DW: Vincent and the Doctor) conducted the cast interviews included in the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ J.K. Rowling Turns Down 'Dr. Who'
  2. ↑ A Brief History of Time (Travel): Rose
  3. ↑ "Dr Who is hit by a shortage of dwarfs" - Daily Record, 12th January 2005
Harry Potter
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