Season seven of Outlander is in the works with the cast and crew filming the forthcoming outing. The new series will be hitting screens in the summer but before then many fans are keen to know more about Outlander including its origins. Express.co.uk spoke exclusively to actor Frazer Hines, whose portrayal in Doctor Who as Scottish Highlander Jamie McCrimmon inspired American author Diana Gabaldon to create the character of Jamie Fraser (played by Sam Heughan) and write Outlander.
Frazer, 78, said: “Diana Gabaldon – I met her. She told me she was watching me in Doctor Who as Jamie.
“She said: ‘Love Jamie, love the kilt.’ And the next day she went to church, all she could think about were ‘your legs and Jamie’s stoic-ness and I had to write a book.’ She sent me a book Cross Stitch which is the first one.”
Despite Hines taking the novel to the heads of broadcaster Yorkshire TV and trying to pitch it as a TV show, it wasn’t to be.
There were numerous attempts throughout the years to make various film and TV adaptations of Outlander, but it only came to screens in 2014 after Starz picked up the project.
READ MORE: Original Jamie Fraser star on 90s Outlander getting scrapped
Hines said Gabaldon had caught him in the Doctor Who serial War Games, the last story in season six of the show.
The 10-part series originally aired in 1969, however, Gabaldon caught a repeat later on which led to the inspiration for Outlander.
War Games saw the second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) battling an alien war lord, who was abducting human soldiers from across human history, wiping their memories and then using them to fight his own battles on other worlds as he planned his conquest of the galaxy.
The Time Lord’s companion Jamie, who was a Jacobite, was also among those to be kidnapped by the war lord for their own ends.
Hines said it was “spooky” Gabaldon had chosen to call her lead ‘Jamie Fraser’ given his friar name and particularly as TV show title credits didn’t show which actors portrayed which parts in those days.
Hines addressed the parallels between his Doctor Who assistant and Gabaldon’s hero: “The two Jamies are very similar.”
He went on to say: “I think they are very similar with a loyalty to their loved ones and their clan members and I think Jamie Fraser is more proper than Jamie McCrimmon.
“But then again, I don’t know how Jamie Fraser would be under the spotlight tortured by Cybermen. Both of them are clever.”
Interestingly, he later appeared in an episode of Outlander back in season one, portraying the prison warden Sir Fletcher Gordon as an Easter Egg for Doctor Who and Outlander fans alike.
Hines landed the role of McCrimmon after his role in the BBC drama The Silver Sword caught the attention of Doctor Who producers, who enlisted him to take on the companion.
He was only originally supposed to be a one-off character in the four-part serial The Highlanders.
However, he won over the executives and was bumped up to a regular companion.
With one exec asking him: “How do you feel about joining the old Tardis crew for year?”
The star pointed out he couldn’t due to one technicality: “I filmed at the end of the episode saying goodbye to the Tardis.” Thankfully, this was quickly rectified and the rest was history.
Hines went on to become the longest-serving Doctor Who companion, racking up a whopping 113 episodes to his name.
Behind him was the late Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith with 86 episodes in total. She also later got her own spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures.
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Although Hines considers himself British, his mother is Scottish and this helped him with his accent which was initially a Highland accent but over time became “TV Scottish”.
“My mother was Scottish and my father was from Ipswich and I was born in Yorkshire,” he said.
Reflecting on his own identity, Hines said: “If Scotland plays football, cricket, rugby, I’m rooting for Scotland.
“We’re usually the underdogs anyway but I always root for Scotland in every sport.”
Outlander season 7 is in production and seasons 1 to 6 are streaming on Lionsgate+ now
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