Paul McGann finds recognition and validation in the Whoniverse

Doctor Who’s Paul McGann talks about playing the iconic time-traveller on screen, stage and in audio adventures.

Paul McGann as the eighth Doctor Who.

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When Doctor Who returned to television screens 20 years ago this month, Paul McGann, who had portrayed the time-travelling eighth doctor in a stand-alone movie, was hopeful of returning to the iconic role. Instead the lead role went to Christopher Eccleston and there would be no regeneration into the new doctor.

But McGann’s doctor remained a fan favourite in the space-time continuum, occupying the ­TARDIS blue police box for audio adventures in the so-called “wilderness years” between the classic series (1963-89) and the current one (2005-), and he has since returned to the role for the screen, in more audio stories and recently live on stage.

“When the series came back in 2005, I kind of expected the phone would ring and they would say, ‘Okay look now you know the protocol says that you have got to come in and shoot a regeneration scene with Chris Eccleston’,” a chatty and energetic McGann, 65, recalls. “But the phone never rang.”

When McGann was announced as the eighth doctor for the television movie that would be screened in July 1996, he was already an accomplished actor with credits including cult classic Withnail & I (1987), Alien 3 (1992) and The Three Musketeers (1993). He would go on to appear in the series, Hornblower (2001-03), among many other roles.

The plan was that he would succeed the seventh doctor, Sylvester McCoy, in a new series travelling the universe with companions wrestling with huge moral questions, battling aliens and enemies and using intelligence, wit and the sonic screwdriver to save the cosmos from destruction. McCoy returned to film a regeneration scene with McGann, handing over the keys to the TARDIS.

McCann succeeded Sylvester McCoy.

Christopher Eccleston succeeded McGann.

“McCoy was with me when we went out to shoot it and kind of held my hand a little bit and calmed me down and guided me through the first week or so,” McGann remembers. “And, in the end, it was all right. But I do remember the nerves. There was a lot of pressure.”

Stepping into the role of the Timelord from Galifrey was freighted with history, given it had been portrayed by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and McCoy. The hope was that the movie, a joint UK-US production, would lead to the series being recommissioned. It did not.

“Stepping into other people’s shoes is nerve-racking in its own way, but this felt different because it was a big deal,” McGann recalls. “The idea was to try and get the series off the ground in North America and so it felt like a big thing.”

Producer Philip Segal gave McGann little latitude in shaping the character and personality of the eighth doctor. The challenge was to balance tradition with something new. The costume of the doctor, Segal thought, had to look exactly right.

“I had really little or no say in that,” McGann says. “That was fine. I wasn’t looking to have a particular say or to try and individualise it. Phil and I talked more in principle about what would happen when we went to series. We talked about the kind of direction it might take when we’re in the first year, the second year, the third year of a series. Of course, that never transpired.”

McGann with Richard E. Grant in a scene from the 1987 film Withnail & I.

As eager fans switched on the television to see the return of Doctor Who, with the eighth doctor battling arch enemy the Master (Eric Roberts) as the clock wound down to midnight on December 31, 1999, heralding the new millennium, it was unlike anything seen before. It was fast-paced, modern and fun. But audience reaction was divided.

Some fans were positively shocked when they saw the rather traditionally non-sexualised time-traveller kiss his companion, Dr Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook). It was a tabloid scandal.

“That never struck me as contentious or out of the ordinary,” laughs McGann. “And anyway, I thought that kiss was rather chaste. I mean, it wasn’t like when (David) Tennant did a snog, didn’t he, years later? Tennant you know, sort of went for it. But, anyway, I just thought it was funny.

“Because it was the first time I was involved in Doctor Who, it was a lesson, you know? It was unlike any other thing that I had ever worked on. People are quite attached and there are ways which have to be observed. I do find it quite funny.”

The stand-alone film, Doctor Who: The Movie, was not the end of time for the eighth doctor. A few years later, McGann joined Big Finish and began a series of audio adventures that kept fans engaged, along with animations and novelisations, while it was off-screen.

He had worried about the eighth doctor being forgotten alongside Peter Cushing who starred as the doctor in two big-screen stand-alone films in 1965 and 1966. Over 25 years, McGann has recorded dozens and dozens of audio stories, and often joined with other doctors from the series, including the story Faithful Friends released earlier this year.

“Big Finish was the only show in town – it was the only Doctor Who,” McGann recalls. “So, that felt exciting in itself. It felt like something that we could do and also, as far as the eighth doctor is concerned, it was a lifeline.”

McGann and Ioan Gruffudd in Hornblower.

McGann did return to the screen, finally, in a mini-episode in 2013 and in the series, alongside Jodie Whittaker’s doctor, in The Power of the Doctor (2023). He featured alongside others in the ex-doctors club, Tennant, McCoy, Davison, Colin Baker, and David Bradley as the first doctor and Jo Martin as the fugitive doctor.

“I felt happy that I was back and particularly to shoot Jodie’s last episode, that felt like vindication,” he says. “That’s the only episode I’ve ever been in. That took nearly 30 years but the Who world kind of obeys its own rules.”

Last year, McGann performed the audio adventure, The Stuff of Legend, live on stage in front of an audience and wore his costume from the 2013 mini-episode, The Night of the Doctor: green frock coat, gold vest, white shirt and cravat. He was joined by India Fisher, returning to her role as companion Charley Pollard. It was a huge ­success.

McGann in 2024.

“We did four shows over two days and it went down like a storm, not least because the audiences that we had knew that they were being recorded and you had that absolute direct connection and response,” he says. “I just had a ball. It was great. And we hope to do it again.”

Almost three decades since the stand-alone television movie, McGann’s eighth doctor has been recognised and validated, with a growing legion of fans in the Whoniverse. The Big Finish audio adventures breathed new life into the character and sustained it ever since. “I’ve now done hundreds of hours of audio adventures in the 30 years since I’ve been involved with Doctor Who but I’ve been on screen less than two hours,” he says. “We may see more of the eighth doctor on screen but that’s how it’s been. And I’m happy with that.”

The Eighth Doctor Adventures and other audio series is available from Big Finish Productions