Jackson at the 1993 Super Bowl. He would have been hopelessly miscast

Speculation over who will succeed Matt Smith as the Doctor has included some improbable names, but none is quite as surreal as the casting choice made by Hollywood executives.

A book about thwarted attempts to make a Doctor Who feature film reveals that Paramount wanted the title role to go to Michael Jackson.

Charles Norton, author of Doctor Who at the Movies, discovered that the King of Pop was the studio’s first choice when it agreed in 1988 to back a film by Daltenreys, the British production company that held the film rights.

Peter Litten, co-founder of Daltenreys, visited several studios in the hope of striking a distribution deal. Paramount expressed interest in the screenplay but with conditions.

“We turned down a number of