The Books

The Books

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Robbing Peter to pay Paul?



A great many Doctor Who fans of a certain age were delighted to see the return of Paul McGann in the BBC's special red-button/online 'minisode' Night of the Doctor, a prequel to the main attraction Day of the Doctor coming on Saturday.

In fact, some went so far as to say that they had enjoyed it more than McGann's previous 90-minute outing as the Doctor, or more than some recent Matt Smith episodes. While I would not want to make such spurious comparisons, I agree that Night of the Doctor was hugely enjoyable, the best 'minisode' the BBC have done in 7 years of online Who extras, with the Tennant/Davison double-header Time Crash coming a close second. (Of course, there were the usual spoiler-related shenanigans, with some people protesting that McGann's appearance had been publicised too soon by those who had seen it - and others going round all day like the Likely Lads in that episode where they are trying to avoid seeing the score of a football match.)

Now, of course, speculation is rife about what a full-length McGann episode under the current regime would look like. Very good, if Night of the Doctor is anything to go by. He was charismatic, entertaining and utterly Doctorish - just the man to star in a 45-minute episode on prime-time BBC-1, looking a very romantically, Byronically youthful 53, with a dashing new costume (and without the unfortunate wig he was lumbered with in 1996).

But then again, we already have a charismatic gentleman in his 50s lined up to play the Doctor from next year, and one would not want to take any of the glory away from Peter Capaldi in his first season. But perhaps the odd adventure with 'the flashback Doctor' would not do any harm? It's new territory - nobody has been in a position, or willing especially, to do this before. Peter Davison's Time Crash outing reminded us all how much affection his Doctor is held in, but didn't particularly lead to a call for him to do odd episodes alongside David Tennant. Everyone was happy with his status as a 'past Doctor'.

But there's always been this sense that Paul McGann, despite his many appearances in books and on audio, is owed another few outings on TV - for one thing, it would give fans a bit more choice in those perennial 'best story' polls! Ultimately it will come down to time and money. But Doctor Who production teams have done brave and unexpected things many times before... who knows?

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