The inevitable (and awesome) has finally happened: Mark Sheppard, the man behind Badger/Romo Lampkin/Benedict Valda/Crowley/Manservant Neville/every other shifty but strangely lovable science fiction character of the last decade is playing a "huge role" on the next series of Doctor Who.


Apparently having run out of genre shows to appear on in the United States, Sheppard is finally appearing on a show in his native Britain. The news comes from a ValleyCon press release explaining why he had to cancel his appearance there:

We had just booked Mark's airline tickets a week ago when less than 12 hours later he got the dream job of any kid who grew up in England-and many kids here too. He landed a huge role in the new Dr. Who but they needed him there the next day.


Here's hoping he really did land a "huge" role - since he's based in Los Angeles, I'm guessing the series wouldn't bring him in unless they had something big in mind. In any event, you can officially add Doctor Who to Sheppard's genre credits, which already include (very deep breath) Firefly, Medium, Bionic Woman, 24, The Middleman, Burn Notice, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Chuck, Warehouse 13, and Supernatural, not to mention early appearances on The X-Files, Sliders, and Star Trek: Voyager. [Doctor Who News Page]