Moderator's Note: This is Mike's original McGann summary:

Given that he only had two hours to develop a new persona, I think McGann did an excellent job. I really would have liked to have seen a series develop from the telemovie. Fox must have really had its head up it's collective.....I mean, what were they thinking? At the same time Fox that the ratings weren't good enough for a new Who, they debuted (with great fanfare) a new series called "Firefighters," a sort of "ER" meets "Melrose Place." It lasted all of about 4 episodes.
I know a lot of you posters have a problem with the telemovie, but try to think of it as a pilot and cut it a little slack.


Given all the ghastly things McGann said about fandom in general and female fans in particular, I rather dislike him. But I adore the eighth Doctor! Despite suffering from post-regeneration amnesia, AND being forced to snog, he fitted so perfectly into the role. I have one quibble, though - when Grace says 'He's British', the Doctor says 'Yes I suppose I am', whereas when asked a similar question, the First Doctor gives the infinitely superior reply, 'Your ideas are too narrow, too constricted. I am a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot!'

A lot of you posters? You wouldn't mean me?

McGann was the only thing that saved the movie from being total @%*)?><:~@:{}:}{:}{"£$("&$")^$("*^($*^("^"*($^$"^(*$"^

Given more time I expect McGann would have made a good Doctor. But they should have left more 'mystery' about the Doctor, instead of revealing loads of stuff in what was for some people the first episode. And I won't cut it that much slack, as An Unearthly Child was quite good, and still stands up to repeated viewings (I mean the episode, NOT the story, as the caveman stuff is rubbish)

I don't know - I have a feeling the first Doctor almost regarded himself as British or something, especially when Ian questions him about the bacon from the food machine in The Daleks and the Doctor is adamant it wouldn't be too salty because it's British. His harrumphing is almost akin to national pride.
I watched ST:TNG's pilot just recently and felt if that's all we ever saw of the show, we'd have a very poor opinion of Picard et al. I agree with many of Edje's points but given time to grow and develop 90s Doctor Who could have become as good as ST: TNG became (and if you hate it, please don't put up a post saying so. It's simply an analogy).
Revealing too much was the telemovie's biggest fault, although the first season of St: TNG was worried about losing the old audience as well and there were many nods back to original Trek in there as well. Not quite so blatant as the telemovie though...

The Fox telemovie's biggest weakness was that it was a product of a committee. It tried to be everything to all people, and that never works.

Yesterday I was pondering a puzzling fact about remakes. The whole reason for a remake is to appeal to the core group of fans, they being pretty much pre-sold on the idea of watching the show/movie. Then, for some reason, the producers feel obligated to monkey around with the sets, costumes, etc., to make it more "up to date." Why? We liked it fine the way it was.

Case in point--the Fox TARDIS interior. I liked it, but I liked the original interior even better. Why change perfection?

I have a hideous of example of doing a remake right--"A Very Brady Christmas." Okay, now I'm pretty sure most Who fans are not Brady fans, but I happened to be married to a die-hard Brady fan. Anyway, when the producers of this deathless classic started working on the sets, they didn't try to monkey with the Brady house. It had been established, so they reproduced the interiors and exteriors exactly. The reason is simple--they knew the Brady fans would be watching, and they would know. Did the Fox producers think Who fans are less knowledgeable?

While I often look for the sick bag when A Very Brady Christmas is on - alright, I confess, I have a copy of Barry Williams' Growing Up Brady - I'm sure some of the interior has been remodelled. Different carpet and couch or something. Or am I thinking of The Brady Brides?
I guess they wanted the TARDIS interior to have a bit more grandeur - can you imagine the Enterprise-D bridge looking exactly like Kirk's did? Besides, although similar in appearance, there was a markedly noticable difference between Hartnell and McCoy's TARDISes.

Having a different look for the two Enterprises was valid, because they were two different ships, built 80 years apart from each other.

I know that Hartnell's and McCoy's TARDISes were different, but only slightly. I assumed the intervening Doctor's had monkeyed around with some of the bits and made some "improvements." The Fox TARDIS was a complete gutting and rebuilding, including the silly Eye of Harmony set. That last part made no sense to me.

I believe you are thinking of "The Brady Brides", and a slap on your wrist for even knowing that:) If you see the 2 theatrical Brady Bunch movies, you'll see they went completely overboard in keeping the same set design, including the horse statue, Greg's beaded curtains, and the Astroturf lawn. Now THAT was good research.

Yes and apparently the upstairs window on the left of the house isn't actually there. Every time they took a shot of it for every Brady spin-off they put a special frame.
The word you're looking for is "reconfiguring" - the way they explained how the TARDIS was redesigned over the years. How do we know that McGann's console room wasn't the one from The Masque Of Mandragora redesigned?
And there's explanation for the Eye Of harmony in Lance Parkin's Cold Fusion - all TARDISes are supposedly fitted with a small eye which forms a direct link back to Gallifrey and this is how they get their power.
Mind you, you'd think if this was the case the Time Lords could have tracked the Doctor down before the War Games by tracking his artron enegery trail.

That, of course, leads to a whole "Time Lords controlling the Doctor for their own ends" conspiracy, which needn't be brought up here...\
I quite liked the film, having seen it with a whole bunch of Who fans (the Oxford University Society of Doctor Who and Cult Television, or DocSoc for short). Cheering the Jelly-baby moment (and the assassination of Sylv, strangely enough), hooting uproariously at the "kid goes into TARDIS, takes one look, runs out" and the police bike sequences.\
Ok,so there were a few bits and pieces which didn't go down well, but I think even the kiss works ok. The guys in post-traumatic shock, he's overjoyed to be remembering things, etc etc. Besides which, he must be getting towards his 1000th Birthday by now... it's about time he thought about settling down and enjoying his middle years...

Chris- re: Eye of Harmony. This is also explained in 'State of Change', a Virgin missing adventure, but that probably isn't canon anymore.

You mean the book by Christopher Bulis? I read that but can't recall the Eye of Harmony bit.

I vaguely recall the Docotr muttering something at the beginning about the link between the TARDIS an the eye of harmony. It wasn't a massive plot point or anything.

Speaking of McCoy regenerating into McGann, has anybody ever wondered why the 7th Doctor just waltzes out of the TARDIS after it's just been fired upon by machinegun-toting gang members? Did he have a death wish? The producers should have had a short scene showing the 7th Doctor getting a blank visual on his scanner, because not even the 4th Doctor would have been reckless enough to just walk outside against those odds.
As for the console room being reconfigured into a den/library, I still don't like it. The roundels are an intrinsic part of a TARDIS's design (the Master's TARDIS also has them). I could accept all those gloomy areas inside the Ship, but in another room.
As for the 8th Doctor, I really liked him, almost from the start. By the time he cries out, "YES! These shoes; they fit perfectly!" I was hooked. Also gotta give credit to the costume designers; really liked his outfit.
I need some help here, though; I've heard that there are numerous references to the series, but I only know of a few; 1) McGann finds a multi-colored scarf, and 2) the man in charge of the millenium event starts chanting, 'Ohm, ohm.'
Anybody know where the others are?

The gold dust offered to the Change Lee is a nod to a weakness of the Cybermen.
The sonic screwdriver - around from the second Doctor to the fifth Doctor (well, a few stories) - the seventh must have built a new one.
The reference to Skaro at the beginning and the Daleks there.
Time Lords, Gallifrey, regeneration and Time Lords having 13 lives - all references.
Gallifrey being in the constellation of Kasterborous.
The TARDIS exterior being stuck in the police box form on a previous misadventure.
The Cloister Bell in the TARDIS - the ominous boom at the sign of trouble.
The TARDIS console mentions a Rassilon era - Rassilon is an important figure in Time Lord history.
The jelly babies, often carried by the fourth Doctor.
The fact the Doctor has two hearts. His post-regenerative confusion and loss of memory.
The hat worn by the seventh Doctor was worn previously by him.

I think the Doctor had a few other things on his mind when the TARDIS was forced to land, such as a critical timing malfunction and the Master's escape so I can see how he might have overlooked checking before he left the TARDIS. Like forgetting if you've left the iron on when you're in a hurry.

And anyway, he DID have a death wish. Or at least he knew he was due to regenerate, if you believe the several Virgin NAs dedicated to pre-regenerative angst.

It has to be said, Chris, that seeing all those references in list form only goes to show just how much was crammed in! And that doesn't even include the plot or any new revelations.

Yes, there was just too much crammed in there for a plot that was fast-paced - is it any wonder new viewers wondered on earth was going on?

'Fast paced' isn't exactly how I'd describe the telemovie, given that the first half consists mainly of the Doctor wondering round saying 'Who am I?'

(Not that I'm complaining. Wonderful stuff!)

I feel like such a Cybermat for not listing the sonic screwdriver or the Rassilon emblem in my list of things that were references to the series, but I'm well aware of the obvious ones (the Doctor's 2 hearts, jellybabies, the Daleks, regeneration, etc etc). I was of the opinion that there were more subtle clues, like the gold dust you mentioned. The 'death wish' of the 7th Doctor is a product of the New Adventures, and as a movie viewed by anyone that hasn't read them it would seem a really bad idea to confront the gang with the guns outside the TARDIS.

Even without reading the novels, I think you could imply from McCoy's performance that his incarnation was near the end. He played it with a great sense of gravity and ennui. Just look at the way he reacted to being shot--no gasp or astonishment, just a gentle sigh and he collapsed to the ground. The NA's just supply a bit more motivation to this reaction.

I thought that the morphing regeneration scene in the morgue was handled really well, and probably one of the best. Second would be the regeneration from the First to Second, then the Fourth to the Fifth. the Sixth to Seventh, the Third to Fourth, the Fifth to the Sixth, and the Second to the Third. (I'm talking about level of special effects here).
There was a near-seamless transformation from Hartnell to Troughton that one might not even realize what's happened until the next scene, while the blazing lines obscure Davison into C.Baker. Too bad they couldn't go back and computer generate the various images of T.Baker into Davison smoother. And speaker if which, has anyone else noticed that Davison has a '?' on his left cheek just before his skin clears up from all that makeup?

It seems fast-paced compared to say, The Invasion, or several other Who stories.

Actually my favorite regeneration is the Davison one, although it is hampered by the bugger that says the most inaccurate line in the series history "Change, and not a moment too soon!"

I dislike the new console room intensely, because it bears no resemblance to the old one (barring the actual console). The TARDIS interior was too dark. I like the white walls, because they do give the ship an alien feel- when soemone step on board, it is totally alien, different to the place they have left. Ian and Barbara might have thought they'd just walked into too another part of the junkyard if this had been the set then. The console controls were too specific- better just to have lots of buttons and switches that the Doctor seems to press randomly. And why all the human specific rubbish on a Gallifreyan ship?

I dislike a lot of the movie intensely- I don't paticularly like the regeneration, it seems a bit 'messy'.

I caught McGann in the film Withnail and I the other night at an outdoor cinema. Then I had a very elaborate dream about me meeting someone from the BBC in a garden and explaining why they *had* to bring Doctor Who back and giving them umpteen reasons why it was so necessary. Amazing the impact - McGann had a touch of the Doctor then too.

Did you know McGann was in Aliens 3? I can't believe this has been mentioned nowhere I've read, including Doctor Who Magazine, since he was originally cast in 1996. You'd think they'd quickly mention any other sci-fi connections.
I came across the credit by chance and a quick check of the IMDB quickly indicated he was indeed in Aliens 3.

Probably because he's pretty hard to spot - I sat through the whole of Aliens 3 with my eyes peeled for my Hero, and managed to completely miss him. Of course, I'm rather bad at recognising people, even Doctors. When McGann cut all his hair off at the end of Withnail and I, I could have sworn he'd regenerated into a completely different person.

I have never seen "Alien 3", but I read an article about it somewhere which mentioned that much of McGann's role was cut from the film shortly before its release. Apparently preview audiences failed to care about the character McGann was playing and his contribution to the story. That article, by the way, was the first place I ever saw Paul McGann mentioned--later on some article about the TV movie mentioned McGann had been in "Alien 3", and so I found the article about "Alien 3" again and saw it was McGann whose role was lessened by the cuts.

Who'd have thought we'd ever see Paul McGann return to the role, albeit in audio form? Do you think we're likely to see him onscreen again, even for a regeneration scene?

Huh. The way things are at the moment, we'll be lucky to have ANY more Doctor Who, EVER...never mind if it remotely sticks to established continuity, let's not even THINK about a regeneration scene.

I heard somewhere (probably radw, and therefore unreliable) that McGann's agent didn't tell him about the earlier audio offers. I never did trust Tegan.

Actually, I think I made that up...

This is how Big Finish's Gary Russell explains the situation in Doctor Who Magazine #294:
"We made an approach when we first got the licence - and while Janet [Fielding] was terribly nice about what we were doing, it was made clear that it wasn't a direction she thought Paul should go in.
"After Janet moved on, dialogue with agency was restarted - and over the next few months we got to the stage where they were asking to see storylines and scripts."

Huh? Is this a joke that's going over my head, or is Janet Fielding of Tegan fame actually Paul McGann's agent? How did that happen? Or, as seems more likely, is McGann's agent simply someone with the same name as the Tegan actress? I can see how Who fans would find that coincidence amusing.

Until recently, Janet Fielding - yes, the Tegan we all know and *ahem* sometimes love - was indeed Paul McGann's agent.

From memory, wasn't Jackie Lane (Dodo) Tom Baker's agent for some time?

Just saw this from the Dr Who Alliance of North America weekly e-newsletter, which is affilitaed with Gallifrey One website.
" Paul McGann is having a street named after him... well, him and his three
acting brothers. The Liverpool City Council have approved the name "McGann
Street" for use in the city, in honour of the acting family. The street to
bear the name has yet to be chosen."

Is Liverpool running out of famous people to name streets after?

In Exeter, (for those not in the know, a small harmless place in the south of England), there were plans to name a road Wallace and Gromit Street. For no apparant reason. The decision was upheld.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a Zarbi Drive? As Emily can vouch, there's a Mandrell Close in London, and if 'Nightmare of Eden' can get a look-in, then it's about time the other stories got recognition! Androzani Minor Lane, anyone?

There's an Axon Street in Perth, Western Australia!

As a youth, my feloow DW loving pal and myself regularly used to cycle past a house called 'Autons'. One day we were in a silly mood so we knocked on the door and asked the owner - an old lady, the reason behind the moniker. Unsuprisingly it was'nt because she was fond of the 3rd Doctor's first alien foes. Actually can't remember the reason she gave now!

I have a problem with the eighth Doctor. No, it's not the kiss or the half human bit. It's his ability to know what is going to happen in the future of Grace and some strangers. He seems to know what is going to happen to Grace in the future, but Grace tells him not to tell her. He seems to know about what is going to happen to a security guard who apparently will do great things once he passes his English Lit class or whatever. Where did this come from? It can't be a memory from a past regeneration, is it?

Every indication is this is the first time he has met Grace and security guard, and he has suddenly developed extradinary powers of prognostication, something the Doctor is not exactly famous for.

Yeah, that's always worried me...and he can read minds as well as seeing the future - i.e. Grace's desire to hold back death *embittered laugh*. I don't imagine for one moment that he'd met the guard in some past incarnation and was told in boring detail about how he'd nearly answered the wrong question, and then looked him up in the TARDIS data banks and discovered he'd invented earthquake prognosticators or whatever. I'd just assume it was some consequence of the new regeneration - his genes and his telepathy AND the time around him haven't settled down yet(exacerbated by the planet beginning to turn itself inside out), not to mention he's left strands of his biodata all over San Francisco (Unnatural History). Only he does it again in The Bodysnatchers, and in Dominion (only he gets things spectacularly wrong) so don't ask me what's going on. Still, every regeneration has got its own special skills, and prognostication is obviously Eight's, just as Susan was gifted with more telepathy than most.

It's been explained in the EDAs that every Doctor has different abilities. The 8th Doctor can (apparently) 'feel' along certain people's bio-data and see their own personal futures.

There've been no new posts in the past 24, so I went fishing and came up with this:

Emily: Huh. The way things are at the moment, we'll be lucky to have ANY more Doctor Who, EVER...never mind if it remotely sticks to established continuity, let's not even THINK about a regeneration scene.

I have a vague and confused memory of having watched this when it came out, so I watched it again today.

I still have a vague and confused memory of it...

I'm very, very glad that, in the end, they waited and gave us the Doctors they gave us these last few seasons.

Someone said it was fast paced? I was waiting for *something* to happen for most of the movie.

From Wikipedia:
McGann (1996–2005) is tied with Sylvester McCoy (1987–1996) for serving the longest period of time as the "current" Doctor, at nine years each, though McGann actually had the role for 40 days more.

At least it goes on to acknowledge that he had the shortest screen time, but I just found that a pointless observation.

Does being the last Doctor before a series is cancelled count? One could just as easily say William Shatner is the longest-serving Starfleet captain.

I just found that a pointless observation.

There is no such thing as a pointless observation when discussing Who. Besides, this fact came in extremely useful yesterday when a friend was pointing at my latest McGann Big Finish and laughing how appropriate the title 'Situation Vacant' was. I was able to inform him that, in point of fact, McGann has the honour to be our longest-serving Doctor. He was crushed. (Alright, he wasn't - he just said that time didn't count. I suppose I should count myself lucky he didn't say 'McGann doesn't count', a la Queer as Folk.)

The Eighth Doctor has a new costume:

http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-eighth-doctor-costume-revealed.html

I was desperately hoping this meant he'd be appearing in the new series...until I looked at said costume.

That headline was so out-of-nowhere that I couldn't even remember which one WAS the eighth Doctor before the page loaded, and this after just having re-watched the Telemovie AND the new commentary.

I agree it's not a good costume. I like the old one (and the hair) but I didn't like that they felt they had to make it a Halloween costume.

Guess I just like my Doctors having that out-of-time dress which the new series Doctors lack.

Matt might not be EDWARDIAN-style out-of-time, but...the geography teacher look is a few decades out, at least. And as for his delusion that bow ties are cool...

Matt MADE bow ties cool, same as Tennant did for tight suits and Tom for long scarves.

Hmm. I'm not convinced. Tennant and Tom never went round SAYING 'tight suits are cool' or 'long multi-coloured scarfs are cool'. The fact that Matt feels the need to make this claim suggests that he has some way to go in the 'cool' stakes.

(And, let's face it, few people (least of all Amy and River) were convinced by his 'Fezzes are cool' declaration...)

'I suppose the universe was bound to do this to me eventually - it was bound to push me to the edge.' - yeah, and why HAVE Big Finish done this, exactly? SPOILERS FOR TO THE DEATH Slaughtered three Companions - including the Doc's own great-grandson - in a single episode and got Poor Diddums very, VERY upset? I could understand why the books put McGann through hell - they were stuck with him for what seemed likely to be forever *Brief pause to give thanks to the Lord Our Saviour Russell T God* and they had to do SOMETHING with a bloke with about an hour's screen-time behind him, so having him blow up Gallifrey and suchlike was quite understandable (even if his constant amnesia wasn't). But why are the AUDIOS putting Eight through the wringer NOW when he doesn't stand a chance in hell of equalling Eccy or Tennant in an anguished mood...?

'Although I was Doctor Who for six weeks, sixteen years ago, it never goes away - it only ever seems to get stronger - I'd love to do that again' - DARLING McGann! SO unlike A CERTAIN OTHER DOCTOR I COULD MENTION!

Tom Baker?

You know PERFECTLY WELL I wasn't referring to the Hero who gave Who seven years of his life, and continued being so devoted he even degraded himself in Dimensions in Time and Magrs audios...

DWM interview with Paul McGann: He would have turned down the new series had he been offered it. He walked out of the telemovie premiere. And Eric Roberts could be 'amazingly good' or 'amazingly bad'. Plus he keeps going on about a WIG for some reason. ('It took an extra hour a day to get this thing on and off...This thing's like a helmet...I'd never do it again. No more wigs.')

This thing's like a helmet...I'd never do it again. No more wigs.

So? Eccleston proved that the Doctor doesn't need to sport a mane to BE the Doctor. And there would have been a perfect reason for McGann to go from long to short hair, the Time War. Seriously, passing up such an opportunity because of such a trivial problem just does not compute.

Lawrence Miles is a baaaaaaaad person:

http://twitpic.com/chgcsu

DWM: 'Paul Cornell paints the [Eighth] Doctor as a Celtic hero, taking glorious risks and trusting in his spirit and his goddess (time, fate, whatever) to see him through. We got a scattering of nods to the pagan Horned God: the Doctor as the one who changes all that he touches' - Oh-kay. Didn't the Doctor ALWAYS take glorious risks and ALWAYS change all that he touches without dragging gods or goddesses into it?

'Paul McGann said...he saw his audio Doctor as the "camper younger brother" of the one he'd played on TV in 1996' - he DOES?

'With consciously cool-and-clever new recurring villains running rings around him [in the novels, audios and comics], it was even harder to keep the Doctor from being overshadowed. Like Marwood in Withnail, he still wasn't the dominant figure in his own story.' - the Doctor is ALWAYS the dominant figure in his own story!

Make it go away make it go away make it go awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56h_JuBZ9_0

You're just seeing this now? I guess you haven't played the DVD much.

As I've said before, the reason McGann is considered canon is because he didn't get a full series. If he had, the had plans to completely change his character (as they'd already started his one story--half-human indeed!) and remake classic stories, recasting them in America (not sequels--REMAKES). There'd've been no way to tie it into existing continuity, and we'd be talking about the McGann abomination on par with Cushing.

Ugh! Where did Emily move our discussion of "Night of the Doctor"???

Some freakin' consideration please!!!

I didn't move it anywhere! I've been operating a strict hands-off policy where I watch everything being put in the wrong section and just sob quietly to myself.

Night of the Doctor was, in point of fact, discussed under Day of the Doctor instead of HERE or in its CORRECT place of Televisual Uncanonicities: New Series.

I've been wondering, would it be a good idea to start a second Doctor Who program, one showing the adventures of the eighth Doctor and starring Paul McGann? It could be a good way to have someone other than RTD and Moffatt have a go at the Doctor's mythology. It could be limited to two or three seasons, enough to properly flesh out the Eighth Doctor's persona, and end with the events leading to Night of the Doctor.

Haven't they already? It's called "Big Finish Productions"....

[ready for the verbal assault from our moderator....]

would it be a good idea to start a second Doctor Who program, one showing the adventures of the eighth Doctor and starring Paul McGann?

Yeah, I'm sure I mentioned this YEARS ago SOMEWHERE on Nitcentral - and why stop with McGann? It's a programme about TIME TRAVEL, Who should be on ALL YEAR ROUND with different Doctors and production crews.

It's called "Big Finish Productions"....

[ready for the verbal assault from our moderator....]

I wouldn't DREAM of verbally assaulting you.

I am, however, dreaming of PHYSICALLY assaulting you, so if you want to live long enough to meet more than our Twelfth Doctor's eyeballs, I suggest you STOP comparing that audio drivel with a PROPER season of The Sole Justification For Humanity Bothering To Crawl Out Of The Primordial Slime.

Given you need a hip replacement my dear Emily you are welcome to try- and of course, all the evidence that you committed it is here on the board....

Given you need a hip replacement my dear Emily you are welcome to try

What makes you think my new CYBER-hip isn't capable of kicking you into next week?

(OK, so you're quite right. It isn't.)

- and of course, all the evidence that you committed it is here on the board....

I can use my Moderatorly powers to make the evidence vanish. The Doctor's clumsy attempts to rewrite history are as nothing compared to mine.

Good thing I took a screengrab then....

I apologise to the Doctor. This 'changing history' lark is harder than it looks.

Changing history is easy.

Changing history without erasing yourself in the process, that's hard.

Moffat in DWM: '[Eccy's] a brand new Doctor in Rose, he's absolutely, definitely new. It couldn't have been Chris who pushed the button in the Time War...I also had trouble, I have to be honest, imagining it being Paul McGann's Doctor' - you - total - CRETIN. Did you not SEE Night of the Doctor?? Did you not, in point of fact...write Night of the Doctor?? Y'know...the six minutes that PROVED, beyond all doubt, that the floppy-haired half-human wuss COULD, effortlessly, have made a War Doctor who'd've made the wispy-bearded elderly grumbling Hurt-thing you inflicted on us QUAKE IN HIS BOOTS?

'That was the other thing that I was worried about if we'd used Paul McGann. Would he just be the third face of a modern Doctor? Dashing, young and handsome. I know he' sactuallly older, but he doesn't look it! So you have to do something else' - No - you - ••••••• - don't. McGann doesn't look REMOTELY dashing, young and handsome in Night of the Doctor. He just looks, utterly unmistakably...LIKE THE DOCTOR.

Do you have the impression that the REAL reason Moffat came up with Hurt as the War Doctor was that he really, REALLY needed Matt's Doctor to be the thirteenth and last incarnation of the Lonely God? Because I do.

To be fair to the git - er...the Living God - Moffat DID have a couple of meetings with Eccy, who I personally blame for the infliction of the Hurt Abomination upon unsuspecting fandom. Sure, Moffat bent over backwards to get to Number Thirteen (Ten's 'vanity issues' my ****) but how vital WAS this (highly embarrassing and utterly magical) new regeneration cycle to Time of the Doctor? Matt could STILL have blown the Daleks to smithereens (the way he blew poor Sexy the LAST time he regenerated) and it wouldn't have necessitated TOTALLY IGNORING the fact HE BLOODY MET Capaldi AND a future Tom-Doc LAST MONTH...

Paul McGann is the subject of a story in the current issue of Private Eye.

A story about a govt spin doctor reveals that in a previous life working for the Sunday Times he made up quotes from McGann to suggest that Paul had quit stage work owing to stage fright.

Ugg.

Actors really have to SUFFER for the supreme honour of becoming the Lonely God's avatar-on-Earth/TV, don't they.

Of course, this is no excuse for quitting, YOU ECCLESTONIAN BASTARD.

A story about a govt spin doctor reveals that in a previous life working for the Sunday Times he made up quotes from McGann to suggest that Paul had quit stage work owing to stage fright.

I can see that. When you're doing TV and movies, if you flub a line, they just stop and reshoot the scene. You flub a line on stage, you have to keep going regardless.

Perhaps Mr. McGann just preferred the relatively safety of television and films.

I like the idea of him as the "joie de vivre" Doctor. That's obvious from both the TVM and the opening moments of "Night of the Doctor." He looks on the bright side, and he offers second chances where other Doctors might not. This is a man who entreated the Master not to fall to his death, in what would have been the perfectly justifiable flip of "Logopolis." He lives in the moment - doesn't he say something like, "I can't save your life forever, Grace, but I can save it today"?

With that in mind, I really like the description some of the EDA writers gave him of "Life's Champion." One moment that always comes to mind is when the Master breaks Chang Lee's neck - the Doctor absolutely bellows in his anger, and bear in mind how little he knows Lee. This is not someone I'd expect to rest very easy with the death caused around him/because of him.

Personally speaking, he always strikes me as a bit of a literary character: someone who comes from a large, rich, and very old family - the family in Gormenghast, for instance - and is probably the black sheep thereof because he refuses to sit around and talk politics or play billiards or count money. He's a romantic - listen to the way he describes the meteor storm on Gallifrey. And he's an idealist.

On the downside, I doubt he accepts responsibility very well. Like a teenage boy.

This is a man who entreated the Master not to fall to his death, in what would have been the perfectly justifiable flip of "Logopolis."

Yeah, but MOST of the Doctors would have done the same.

OK, except for Eccy and Colin and Hartnell and McCoy.

(I've always assumed that McGANN was the softie who tried to save Davros from flying into the jaws of the Nightmare Child but what do you know, it turns out to have been our supposedly ruthless War Doctor.)

He lives in the moment - doesn't he say something like, "I can't save your life forever, Grace, but I can save it today"?

'I can't make your dreams come true forever, but I can today' (I think). Which is weird, come to think of it. He KNOWS her dream is to hold back death. How the hell did he know that Sexy would miraculously bring her and Chang Lee back to life against all precedent (and, indeed, sanity) in a fit of sentimentality? Instead of leaving the usual number of corpses in his wake?

I suppose he must have been using his magic-psychic-foretelling abilities, the one's we've never seen exercised before or since.

With that in mind, I really like the description some of the EDA writers gave him of "Life's Champion." One moment that always comes to mind is when the Master breaks Chang Lee's neck - the Doctor absolutely bellows in his anger, and bear in mind how little he knows Lee. This is not someone I'd expect to rest very easy with the death caused around him/because of him.

Excellent point. And not in any way consistent with the revelation in Gallifrey Chronicles that he blew up Gallifrey and didn't give a ••••.

On the downside, I doubt he accepts responsibility very well. Like a teenage boy.

I suppose that's ONE way of explaining his suicide in Night of the Doctor.

FRANCES in Doctors: War Doctor (Hurt): The 8th Doctor just wasn't ruthless enough to be a warrior. too jolly and keen on the preciousness of life.

Actually how would we even KNOW? He was bouncy enough in the telemovie, but then Tom was skipping, chopping bricks and dressing up as a Viking in Robot - post-regeneration euphoria wears off QUITE FAST, sadly.

Also, a few years (not to say centuries) of war would have knocked the jollity out of him. Just look at Tennant. Merely mislaying a couple of Companions turns him from adorably chirpy to sobbing depressive in no time.

NATALIE in Apocrypha: Magazines: DWM 401-500:

Face it Em, maybe McGannDoc just likes to wear a wig?

Apparently Paul McGann wanted to go short-haired and leather-jacketed but wasn't allowed to (he really SHOULD have smashed his OWN head against the TARDIS console in the hope of becoming Eccleston at that point. NO ONE would try to make ECCY go long-haired in a velvet jacket).

As for the Eight Doctor, as I said, we SAW him regenerate into all that hair. (Though I suppose if Hartnell's clothing changed when he became Troughton, you COULD try claiming that a wig might possibly have materialised atop McGann's bald head...but you'd be on VERY shaky grounds.)

And, of course, the telemovie is no longer the only time we have the pleasure of gazing upon the McGann coiffure. You can hardly accuse him of pouncing around THE TIME WAR wearing wigs. (Now, if it was the Eleventh Doctor and hats, it would be another matter.) Plus it would SURELY have fallen off when he smashed a spaceship into Karn and...y'know...DIED.

Time, Unincorporated:

'One thing the eighth Doctor lacks that all his predecessors had to some degree or another is arrogance. Even the second and fifth Doctors became indignant when someone questioned their intelligence. All the other incarnations might almost be characterized by their assumption that they are better than the people they meet. The eighth incarnation has none of this – he is almost pedantically polite' – yeah, but Davison PUT THE SODDING UNIVERSE at risk to be polite vis-a-vis that Dutch woman's shopping. And doesn't 'The universes hangs by such a fragile thread of coincidence. There is no point in trying to tamper with it unless, like me, you are a Time Lord' kinda undermine the not-better-than-you argument...?

'Gareth is going to be a famous seismologist – perhaps he meets the Doctor in twenty years time and confides to him about his time in college...Grace too is an exceptional woman: by her mid-thirties she's clearly a talented surgeon, she's rich she's on the board of ITAR. It isn't much of a leap to imagine that she'll be famous one day. As far as I can see, the Doctor uses his great knowledge, rather than demonstrating a new psychic ability' – nice try, but how boring would Gareth have to BE to regale a past-Doctor with That Time I Nearly Answered An Exam Question I Might Not Have Done Very Well In Twenty Years Ago?

'The eighth Doctor has a rich, multimedia existence, and - with all respect to him - while some people have been working on eighth Doctor stories for years and years, Paul McGann's prior contribution was a couple of days shooting a half-finished script in early 1996' – it was slightly more than a couple of days, but I take your point...McGann is NOT one of those Big Finish Doctors who sounds like he actually bothered to read the script before turning up to record a story...

Read in DWM's 50 Years Doctor Who: The Doctors in the piece on Eighth Doctor Paul McGann that McGann had played Beatle George Harrison on stage in 1981 in John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Bert.
Curiously enough McGann's brother Mark later played fellow Beatle John Lennon in the 1985 TV movie John and Yoko: A Love Story and this TV movie had Harrison played by future Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi who came close to being the Eighth Doctor before it went to P. McGann.

How close DID Capaldi come to being the Eighth Doctor? Or was he just on the longlist which apparently comprised almost EVERY male British actor?

The latter. He's quoted somewhere as not actively pursuing it through to a casting session, because he didn't think he'd get it.

This would've been for the 1994 Amblin series, which Spielberg eventually withdrew his interest in. The sample script from John Leekley's reimagined version of the Doctor leaving Gallifrey to search for his Father. Exchanges between the Doctor and Borusa about the Master, and another between him and a companion he picks up during the London Blitz.

Paul's audition is on the Revisitations TVM.

I know permission to use other candidates (like Robert Lindsay of GBH and My Family fame) was refused last time around. He bemoaned never having got to play the Doctor, while hosting an edition of Have I Got News For You.

Call The Midwife: The Casebook:
Shown between the 2016 Christmas Special and season 6, The Casebook is a documentary that looks at real-life stories that inspired the episodes of Call The Midwife including of course the memoirs by Jennifer Worth that the series is based on.
Presented by Stephen McGann (Dr Turner) and includes telling the viewer about how he came into the world of his family.
Stephen does not mention his name but it showed pictures of Stephen with his family including with his brothers when they were boys
Of course one of his brothers is Eighth Doctor Paul.

Saw the documentary Underwater Pompeii narrated by Paul McGann.

In Doctor Who, the Seventh Doctor visited Pompeii in the Big Finish story The Fires of Vulcan and then the Tenth in the TV episode The Fires of Pompeii.

Would it be possible to sue the makers of the DVD 'The Paul McGann Years' under the terms of the Trades Descriptions Act?

Does it mention Night of the Doctor?

Or the novels n'audios?

McGann HAS had years. Hell, MILLENNIA.

Yeah, he has!

Paul McGann is only a year younger than Peter Capaldi.

McGann is from good Liverpool stock (you wouldn't think Tom Baker is well into his eighties) whereas Capaldi has had a touch of Scottish life...

(This post is meant tongue in cheek and I hope that I've not offended anyone)

Paul McGann is only a year younger than Peter Capaldi.

Utterly ridiculous.

*Checks dates*

I'm not saying it's not TRUE, I'm just saying it's...utterly ridiculous.

Imagine jodie wandering around in just a sheet? Though she'd have to have the L shaped sheet or permanent brassiere.

Imagine jodie wandering around in just a sheet?

Hmmmmmmmm.

Sorry, the joke just had to be made.

Would like to see that.

It would be better than the clown trousers, at least.

J0die has tiddies while mcgann looked as smooth as cptn kirk did in that cloning machine.

It was an android making machine, not a cloning one.

Meanwhile, I can't help but feel sorry for this guy:

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-the-eighth-doctor-casting-newsupdate/

Not least because they wouldn't have had to fork out on multiple wigs for him.

That WOULD be...painful beyond belief.

It could have been worse. Imagine being told that you'd got the job then lost it because they wanted Colin Baker back.

Oh, THAT wouldn't be a problem.

Colin Baker could be made to...embrace the fate of that dark hour and you'd be in the running again!

"I'm half-human, on my mother's side."

Can you say Spock rip-off, ladies and gentlemen? I know you can.

Thankfully, RTD had the good sense to chuck this into the bin.

Not just Russell T God, the eighty-or-so novels and eighty-or-so audios dedicated to the Eighth Doctor also mysteriously fail to address the elephant in the room...

(Of course, the Timeless Children stuff might help explain this half-human nonsense - the regeneration shook up enough memory-cells for Himself to realise he's not a proper Time Lord and OBVIOUSLY in his confusion he'd assume that his alien DNA was human due to his tragic obsession with our planet.)

The Timeless Rubbish.

the eighty-or-so novels and eighty-or-so audios dedicated to the Eighth Doctor also mysteriously fail to address the elephant in the room...

My bad, Autumn Mist, for reasons best known to itself, decided to take the issue on. E.g.: '"We of the Sidhe have always had the best of relations with humans." I'm not human. Flattered, but not human." "Part of you is. That's enough." The Doctor gave a tight smile. "'That's debatable' would be more accurate."'; 'A Time Lord's biodata isn't just a linear structure like your basic DNA. It can change retrospectively and retroactively...Now I'm half human...Funny thing, regeneration.'

JUST NOT HELPING.

I've made the Doctors and Companions as EUIV countries.

The Eighth Doctor managed to unify Australia, New Zealand, and Papua, under the influence of Vicki Pallister, who owned most of the European coasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRxXe4FP_IA

Call The Midwife 2021 Christmas Special had Dr Turner saying about not being able to travel through time.

Dr Turner is played by Stephen McGann and his brother Paul can travel through time as he is the Eighth Doctor.

Paul McGann in the movie Queen of the Damned (2002):
https://64.media.tumblr.com/78fe96f01d43356f7badcaa31a74261a/tumblr_inline_mxcg78a9Ah1qa7sht.png

After noticing Emily and Kate debating the canonicity of the Eighth Doctor first appearing in the modern series as a drawing ('The Family of Blood'), I began to wonder if RTD accepted the TV movie as canon from the start, or if he was aware of the dozens of Eighth Doctor novels from BBC Books?
73 professional novels would have been hard to ignore and say, "Not in my Doctor Who universe; Eccleston is the new Eighth Doctor."
Or have I missed the boat, and RTD addressed this years ago?

In one of his columns in Doctor Who Magazine when the series returned, RTD specifically said "...this is the same Doctor (ie the Ninth) that fought the Master in San Francisco on New Year's Eve".

I found a transcript of the column, originally published in 2004: https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/srky6q/completing_the_matrix_may_2004_production_notes_4/

I began to wonder if RTD accepted the TV movie as canon from the start, or if he was aware of the dozens of Eighth Doctor novels from BBC Books?

He's obviously READ 'em, He nicked most of Lawrence Miles's stuff, for starters.

And even though He was all 'Paul McGann doesn't count' in Queer As Folk, He also, I seem to vaguely remember, blessed McGann with a cameo appearance at the end of His Seventh Doctor novel Damaged Goods.

I found a transcript of the colum

Nice work!

Some people debate whether Chris Eccleston is the Ninth Doctor, confused by the fact that Richard E Grant's webcast Doctor was called the ninth by BBCi

Time may not heal all wounds but it's certainly healed any delusions that Richard E Grant is the Ninth Doctor rather than, say, THE GREAT INTELLIGENCE.

Some lonely loudmouths would even deny Paul McGann official status, because his glorious, heartfelt Doctor was a BBC co-production, not 'pure' BBC

Well, more because the moron kept trying to snog people and claim he's half-human and dammit HE DIDN'T GIVE US A SERIES, I mean, even Matt and JODIE! who both manged to wipe out the universe still managed to give us three series apiece...

When in Los Angeles recently, Julie Gardner and I were lucky enough to meet Philip Segal, the man behind the 1996 Fox TV Movie. The flame was passed on!

'The flame was passed on!' is such a marvellously tactful way of putting it, I do seem to remember RTG strongly implying that he got HIS relaunch so right thanks to Segal demonstrating how not to do it...

I was dismayed that there was any doubt; that tiny, frothing pedants had undermined a fine version of this brilliant show

*Wince* Anyone else getting the hideous feeling RTG might regard US as...tiny, frothing pedants?

Of course he's the Eighth! Of course he bloody is!

Yeah, maybe you shouldn't have uttered the aforementioned Queer as Folk line, then...

And by the end of the week, we might have decided upon our first director.

NOT BOAK NOT BOAK ANYONE BUT BOAK...

Ok, what did Boak do (or failed to do) to earn that?

Well his direction was blatantly bad, even as non-visual a person as me could see that, say, the Auton brides threatening Jackie or OUR FIRST CLIFFHANGER FOR SIXTEEN YEARS went on for several minutes too long. And read the behind-the-scenes stuff and the guy was two weeks late on his first week of filming, oh and I'm assuming HE was responsible for pissing off Ecclestraitor so badly he broke my heart and ruined my life...

"...I do seem to remember RTG strongly implying that he got HIS relaunch so right thanks to Segal demonstrating how not to do it..."

I wonder what he meant by that when you consider;
-Segal's TARDIS interior did away with the bright white room with roundels, and RTD followed suit.
-The Eighth Doctor smooched his companion, Grace, and then the Ninth and Tenth did likewise. SEVERAL times, with NUMEROUS women.
-And Grace wasn't a damsel in distress companion (ie. "What are we going to do, Doctor? What is that monster, Doctor? Eeeeek!")
-The Eighth Doctor was accepted by the majority of fandom, in design and character, and is still so, 25 years later. Nobody is trying to forget he existed.
-The motorcycle/ambulance chase is light years ahead of that embarrassing run-around involving the Abzorbaloff.
-Nobody can complain about this Master's over-the-top behavior when we've seen it in the Simms version, then Gomez, then Dwahan.
-The story involved the near-destruction of Earth by the TARDIS. Not a small story if it involves the end of the world.

And that's just off the top of my head. Odd thing for him to say about Segal. I blame Fox TV not trusting there was a fan-base ready for a new series and airing it against a ratings hit like 'Roseanne' for any failures.

I suspect it was more about NOT shovelling mounds of continuity upon the Not We...combined, bizarrely, with utterly-uncanonical 'half-human' claims...and not even having MONSTERS, unless you count some squeaky mini fake-Daleks...

Paul McGann BEGGING to return to Who!

(OK, so I say 'begging'. He says 'wouldn't mind'. Same difference.)