A reminder that David Tennant reportedly stopped JK Rowling appearing in Doctor Who

David Tennant fans are remembering that the actor and staunch trans ally is believed to have prevented JK Rowling from featuring in a Doctor Who story. 

As the Harry Potter author makes headlines once again – she recently accused trans Paralympian Valentina Petrillo of being a “cheat” – savvy social media users have dug deep into the archives to find supposed proof that Tennant hasn’t been a fan of hers for quite some time.

In 2008, the Daily Record reported that 10th Doctor Tennant apparently “scuppered” a plan to have Rowling feature in that year’s Christmas special, set in London in 1851.

The newspaper claimed to have seen emails sent by Doctor Who supremo Russell T Davies, who wanted Rowling to join the sci-fi series, in a bid to match the previous festive special, Voyage of the Damned, which had starred Kylie Minogue onboard a doomed spaceship called Titanic.

Davies had written a plot for The Next Doctor, which involved Rowling’s imagination coming to life, with the Time Lord having “to battle through a snow-covered world of wizards and witches”.

Tennant’s reported reason for not wanting the author to appear was that he thought it would have been too much like satire.

The Daily Record reported Davies saying: “He thinks it sounds like a spoof, so we’ve paused slightly, wondering whether to win him round or just abandon something that he’s not going to be happy with. We’ve got to keep him happy, he keeps us happy.”

The paper also noted that Davies had once asked Rowling to write an episode of the sci-fi series, but she declined.

While the allegedly binned cameo took place 12 years before the author first aired her thoughts on the transgender community, it was a premonition of sorts, given that she and Tennant certainly do not get along now.

In June, Rowling accused the Good Omens star of being part of the “gender Taliban”, while Tennant has said he believes transgender people should have “the right to be who they want to be… as long as they’re not harming anyone”.

Rowling’s post on X/Twitter came after Tennant criticised then equalities minister Kemi Badenoch for her persistent anti-trans comments and policy suggestions.

Speaking at the British LGBT Awards, he said Badenoch should “shut up”, and that people who stand against the trans community are “a tiny bunch of little whinging f**kers who are on the wrong side of history,” adding that they would “all go away soon”.

Over the past couple of years, Tennant has become one of the most prominent celebrity allies of the transgender community, raising money for charities and speaking out regularly for trans equality.