Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor

And so Paul McGann utters the words that are probably much truer than he intended. Until this weekend, there was little indication of any participation of the surviving Classic Doctor Who actors in the 50th Anniversary celebrations. Sure they're happy to be part of that history but as far as appearing on the new series as their Doctors, Tom Baker (Fourth), Peter Davison (Fifth), Colin Baker (Sixth), Sylvester McCoy (Seventh), and McGann (Eighth) had made no indication that they'd be doing something like "The Eleven Doctors" (a play on the celebration specials from the old days).

Because of the timeliness of this mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" and the looming countdown of the anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor" coming closer and close, I skipped ahead some to get to McGann's Doctor, the one with the shortest screen time and yet technically the longest serving Doctor, thanks to the abundance of novels and comic strips that continue his story past the 1996 movie. But if you have been paying attention to these Doctor profiles I've been making, I'm going to go back to 5-7, and finish up with 9, 10, and 11, just in time for November 23 to arrive.

Tragically I cannot make too many comments as I have for the previous Doctors for the Eighth Doctor. After the Fourth, Second, and Fifth Doctors, he's my other favorite, simply because McGann created such a fun and interesting character that I feel got slighted terribly by the fact that the movie did not generate a new series. Part of this may have been the attempt to make the series in America...Doctor Who should always be a BBC production, and is as much a part of British culture as the monarchy. It's difficult to separate it from England. But I digress...McGann should have have a longer tenure as the Doctor, and was certainly young enough at the time and talented enough to have had a go at Tom Baker's legendary seven season run. He might not have, but we'll never know for sure. 

McGann is in the unique position that the two most clear points about his on-screen appearances are that they are regeneration stories: the 1996 movie begins with McCoy's regeneration into McGann, and the mini-episode is about McGann's regeneration. If you haven't been following what's been happening in Doctor Who at this point, I am sorry if you find this filled with spoilers.

I will have to go back and track down the old Virgin "Eighth Doctor Adventures" and read those, along with the audio plays. I've become a fan of those as of late and McGann's are usually hard to find at conventions for some reason.