Upon the revival of Doctor Who in 2005, many longtime fans of the franchise were left scratching their heads as to why the series didn’t follow the tradition of showing the regeneration from one Doctor to another. This includes Paul McGann, who portrayed the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 made-for-TV film Doctor Who: The Movie, and was unceremoniously left out of the mix when Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor ushered in the modern era of the series.
In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine (via the official website), McGann revealed that when he first heard the rumblings that a new TV show was in the works that would once more bring the iconic franchise back to the small screen following its cancelation in 1989, he was ready and waiting for a phone call to at least make an appearance so that they could film the regeneration between him and Eccleston. Unfortunately, that call never came, leading to the actor painting a humorous portrait of himself alone, staring out a window.
“The rumors began to solidify that the TV series would come back, I was thinking, ‘Am I suddenly going to get a phone call?’ I was curious. I thought, ‘Well, surely the tradition is that there’s a regeneration.’
“I thought maybe they’d ask me to come and do a day on this thing. But no! [Laughs.] That’s proper ‘sad actor’ isn’t it? When actors aren’t working, they sit in a room, looking out of a window, waiting for the phone to ring. And that was me for all those years. And the phone didn’t ring!”
Of course, McGann’s response comes with tongue planted film in cheek, as he wasn’t just “waiting for the phone to ring,” but instead keeping busy by appearing in the likes of Paramount’s FairyTale: A True Story, and 2002’s Queen of the Damned, which is based on the novel by the late Anne Rice.
Why Didn’t Russell T Davies Want Paul McGann for Doctor Who’s Revival?
McGann eventually found his way back to the Doctor Who franchise, starring in the 2013 7-minute mini-episode “The Night of the Doctor,” which depicted his regeneration into John Hurt’s War Doctor ahead of the 50th Anniversary Special. He’d show up again in 2023’s “The Power of the Doctor,” which featured the return of several Doctor Who originals, including Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Jo Martin.
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Doctor Who is a trailblazing sci-fi spectacle that has become a TV staple for decades, and features some of the industry’s most charismatic stars.
As to why he was never featured in the revival’s first episode? That was due to a number of factors, including showrunner Russell T Davies wanting to create a fresh start for the series, and ignore the fact that McGann’s 1996 TV movie retconned the Doctor as being half-human, something that caused a lot of controversy back in the day, and a plot point that Davies wasn’t a fan of (kind of funny considering he’s broke canon himself). As such, he chose to gloss over that aspect of the lore in favor of presenting his own spin on the series, which – though it got off to a rocky start – went on to become a huge success that continues to this day, with Ncuti Gatwa portraying the Fifteenth Doctor.
Originally premiered in 1963, Doctor Who is a sci-fi series that follows a powerful being known as a Time Lord, referred to as the Doctor. Using an interdimensional time-traveling ship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor travels time and space with various companions as they solve multiple problems and help avert catastrophe as much as they almost cause it. Though the Doctor is always the same character, they experience regenerations, allowing them to be recast every few seasons as a unique immortal being with new personality traits.
- Release Date
- December 25, 2023
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Cast
- Ncuti Gatwa , Millie Gibson , Susan Twist , Michelle Greenidge , Angela Wynter , Jemma Redgrave , Yasmin Finney , Anita Dobson
- Seasons
- 2