The Chiropodist
The Chiropodist was a "shifty chap" who once visited Garglespike's vampire bar in the Horsehead Nebula. He objected to the vampires' practice of forcing village youths to drink various kinds of alcohol before draining their blood to enjoy the peculiar alcoholic flavours, disdainfully comparing it to "force-feeding geese to make foie gras". He also signed the waitress up to "a bunch of magazine subscriptions" without asking her, and kept the complimentary tablet computer offered as a bonus for himself. The waitress later mentioned this incident to the Corsair. (PROSE: The Bloodletters)
Behind the scenes
Before his mention (authorised by Bill Baggs) in the novel The Bloodletters, the Chiropodist, or "Foot Doctor", originated in BBV Productions' spoof film Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet?, where he was played by Sylvester McCoy. He was a self-parody on BBV's part of their unlicensed "pseudo-Doctors" like the Dominie and the Stranger, depicted as a "poor man's Doctor" who travelled in a Time-Washing Machine and was a Chrono-Duke instead of a Time Lord. With the help of the Salesman, the Chiropodist defeated the Licensor by tricking him onto Unlicensed Earth. Due to its spoof nature, the film is not considered a valid source on this Wiki.
According to Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who, the Foot Doctor was initially intended to be played by George Telfer in a Victorian outfit comparable to the Eighth Doctor's, and written as more verbose and eloquent than the finished product's character — making him, on the whole, more similar to the Ninth Doctor of The Curse of Fatal Death. Sylvester McCoy's casting was a late decision, and McCoy, who thought the script's jokes lacked "inner logic", made many ad-libs. He also supplied his own novelty patchwork coat to serve as the Foot Doctor's outfit; McCoy also wore it when reprising the role of the Seventh Doctor in the unlicensed fanfilm Gene Genius around the same time.
