"Outlander" author Diana Gabaldon recently revealed to Scotland Now that she actually based her bestseller on an old episode of "Dr. Who" set in Scotland. The author said she based her leading man, Jamie Fraser, on the character Jamie McCrimmon.
"I was thinking a historical novel might be the easiest kind of book to write for practice when I happened to see a really old Doctor Who re-run," Gabaldon revealed. "Jamie struck me with his attitude and male gallantry and I thought the kilt was rather fetching."
The next day, while in church, the author said she decided to write a story set in Scotland during the 18th century.
Initially released in 1991, "Outlander" is now a hit TV show. Fans are eagerly waiting for its second season, which is not until spring 2016. Meanwhile, to make the wait more bearable, we unearthed eight more facts every "Outlander" fan must know:
1. The time-travelling aspect of the story wasn't initially intentional. According to Gabaldon, this sort of just happened when she was writing the part of Claire.
"I introduced this English woman, no idea what she was doing or how she got into the plot. I introduced her to a cottage full of Scotsmen to see what she would do," the author shared. "One of them drew himself up and said, 'My name is Dougall Mackenzie and who might you be?' without stopping to think I just typed, 'My name's Claire Elizabeth Beecham and who the hell are you?'"
She said that the woman's character insisted on a modern tone. "She kept making smart ass modern remarks and she took over and started telling the story herself and I thought, 'Go ahead being modern and I'll figure out why later,'" said Gabaldon.
2. Liam Neeson and Sean Connery were considered for the lead roles. "This was years ago when I was first approached about adapting Outlander, when it was a feature film," Gabaldan told E! Online.
3. Yes, "Outlander" was originally proposed as a film, not a TV series. Katherine Heigl was offered to star as Claire Randall.
4. Laura Donnelly originally auditioned for Claire's role. On the audition day, she re-connected with Sam Heughan, who was her old schoolmate. Heughan got the lead role as Jamie Fraser, and Donnelly was given the role of Jenny, Jamie's sister.
5. Grant O'Rourke (Rupert) is another old friend of Heughan and Donnelly. All three of them went to the same university.
6. According to Daily Record UK, costumes in the show are made to be as authentic as possible. All clothes are run over with cheese graters and burnt by blow torches to get that "old" look. Furthermore, No zippers and velcros are used in the clothing. Kilts are worn as 18th century Scots would wear them -- with nothing underneath. Sam Heughan reportedly finds kilts to be "liberating."
7. Gaelic was the used language in the era, so the actors had to learn the language. It's not an easy task, and a Gaelic coach had to be present during filming to guide the cast.
8. Caitriona Balfe was the last to be cast. The producers had a difficult time choosing "the one" until Balfe came in for an audition and delivered a specific line from the script that made them say "Oh my God, that's Claire."
The line was from the pilot episode where Claire is on a horse with a badly injured Jamie. She says, "Help, stop, he's going over."
