... and the Dr’s other Scottish links

THE appointment of Ncuti Gatwa as Doctor Who is just the latest Scottish link to the beloved sci-fi series.

The first Scot to play the lead role was Sylvester McCoy, who was the seventh Doctor from 1987 to 1989.

David Tennant, right, took the controls of the TARDIS as the tenth incarnation from 2005 to 2010, with Peter Capaldi taking on the role from 2013 to 2017.

Glasgow-born John Barrowman played sidekick Captain Jack Harkness in 2005, before he went on to star in the spin-off series Torchwood. Invernessian Karen Gillan, far right, now a hot property in Hollywood, got her big break as Doctor Who’s companion Amy Pond from 2010 to 2012. However, as far back as 1966, an 18th Century kilt-wearing Jamie McCrimmon, played by Frazer Hines, accompanied the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. The character inspired author Diana Gabaldon to write her international best-selling Outlander novels, which have since been adapted into a hit TV series.

Over the decades, the various incarnations of the Doctor have repeatedly headed to Scotland to do battle with aliens. Tom Baker donned a Glengarry, kilt and tartan scarf to battle evil and save the North Sea’s oil rigs in the 1975 episode Terror of the Zygons while a decade later, the episode Timelash saw the sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker, suggest that the

Loch Ness monster was the evil Borad, ‘timelashed’ in the 12th Century Highlands.

More recently, Tooth and Claw in 2006 saw Tennant land his time machine in Scotland and become embroiled in an adventure with Queen Victoria.

The Eaters of Light in 2017 took Peter Capaldi and the TARDIS back to 2nd Century Aberdeenshire on the trail of the legendary Roman ninth legion. Even the show’s long running executive producer, Steven Moffat, 60, is a Scot.