Gandalf

Gandalf was a character in The Lord of the Rings. In John Waters' drag adaptation of the book, Gandalf the Witch was played by Joan Crawford. (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen)

When the Saxon Master sent a message to Martha Jones via a television broadcast, he showed her the aged Tenth Doctor and sarcastically said, "Say hello, Gandalf." (TV: Last of the Time Lords)

Later, the Eleventh Doctor said he was "the outer space Gandalf". (HOMEVID: Meanwhile in the TARDIS)

Behind the scenes

Gandalf as he appears in LEGO Dimensions.

• In the real world, Gandalf is a character from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Televised Doctor Who never explicitly makes this connection.
• Ian McKellen played Gandalf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy; he later provided his voice for the Great Intelligence in The Snowmen. He also made a cameo as himself in costume as Gandalf on the set of The Hobbit in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.
• Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker was briefly considered for the part of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy; coincidentally, Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy would later be cast as Gandalf's fellow wizard Radagast the Brown.
• Gandalf appears as one of the main characters in LEGO Dimensions.