RUMOR: Is Paul McGann returning as the 8th Doctor?
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 2:40 pm Category: doctor who, News, Rumors, Top
Ok, take this with a grain of salt, as there is a lot of speculation and educated guesses involved, but it’s looking very likely that Paul McGann will be reprising his role as the 8th Doctor in the upcoming season of Doctor Who. There has been no official announcement, but if you analyze certain bits of news that have come out over the last couple of days, it starts to paint quite an interesting picture.
First up, geektyrant reports that McGann’s recent appearance at a New Zeland convention unveiled a new costume for his incarnation of the Doctor. This is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First, WETA Workshop, the renowned prop makers were commissioned to create a new Sonic Screwdriver, the Doctor’s signature gadget. WETA’s work does not come cheap, as it is said that the BBC gave it’s blessing for its creation. Second, the only media the 8th Doctor currently appears in is in the various audio productions by Big Finish. They are new stories, but for cover art, they always use production stills from the 1996 Fox Doctor Who TV Movie, as that is McGann’s only televised appearance as the Doctor.
Detail of WETA's new Sonic Screwdriver.
It could be a flight of fancy on McGann’s part, as it has been reported that he never liked the original garb of the 8th Doctor. We’re fans though, and fans like to dig for evidence. Today, the BBC released the trailer for Series 6 of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith. It’s an overview for the whole upcoming season. Give it a watch, then I’ll share something with you.
Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, as pointed out to me by Talking About Games editor Addam Kearney if you look at the trailer at around the 37 second mark, you see the interior of the TARDIS in a bit of trouble, but it is not the 11th Doctor’s TARDIS.
Just in case you don't want to hunt for the screenshot
To the astute eye, you can see based on the architecture, this is the TARDIS of the 9th and 10th Doctors. When we met the 9th Doctor in 2005, he had just reached his 9th incarnation, so this TARDIS also belonged to the 8th Doctor. Couple that with the throwaway lines in the railer regarding the Doctor “killing all the Time Lords”, thoughts go back to the often talked about, but never shown Last Great Time War. The Last Great Time War was during the tail end of the 8th Doctor’s tenure. When you add all of these bits up, it paints a very interesting picture.
9th on the left, 11th on the right.
Like the headline says, this is just a rumor. We don’t know if it’s true or not, but it seems more likely than not. Tell us what you think in the comments, and we’ll keep you posted as this develops!
Responses to “RUMOR: Is Paul McGann returning as the 8th Doctor?”
This would be so effing cool.
I would love to see another Doctor pop up. And since McGann didn’t get to do much as the 8th, it would be great to see him again.
I don’t think the BBC would be able to keep a McGann reprisal this secret for this long. Especially with McGann showing off his new gear at a convention. I know McGann has great affection for the role, and — um — did not have great affection for his TV Doctor Who costume/wig. it appears as of now that the new look and sonic were created either for Paul himself. (And maybe as a fun pro-bono side-project by fans at Weta? Pure speculation.)
Of course, I’d be thrilled to see myself proved wrong! McGann has become a favorite Doctor of mine with his audio stories, which are superb.
Also, there were some missing and/or extra words in one of those sentences I just wrote. Whoops!
Yeah, it’s certainly possible that it was just a fun side-project. We’re all speculating at this point, but it does seem like they are going to be in the retro-TARDIS for something or other.
I interviewed Paul mid-late last year and while he said he’d love to do the new show he had never been asked. He did say he had some big projects coming up though.
i hope that this will also launch off another spin-off series for the 8th doctor and that we’ll FINALLY see what happened in the time war
This does mean we’ll be seeing at least three different TARDIS console rooms this series: the 9th/10th Doctor’s version, the 11th Doctor’s, and the ‘Lodger’ TARDIS.
Just a little something to throw out there…
If that shot is of the TARDIS interior during the 8th Doctor’s tenure, and it happens to remain the same for the 9th and 10th Doctors, why does his sonic look that much different from Eccelston’s (sp) and Tennant’s?
Remember that the 10th Doctor burned out his sonic on the moon when he first met Martha Jones. When he got a new one, it was pretty much the same as the previous one (the prop itself having been modified due to its fragile nature during the 2005/2006 series). We don’t see a real refresh of the sonic until the 11th Doctor when the TARDIS regenerates and supplies him with a replacement for, yet another, burned out sonic.
Just some stuff to consider.
If this is the case I’d at least like some explanation as to why the Eighth Doctor chose to ditch his ultra-snazzy TARDIS interior for the silly one-room coral model…
And the Weta sonic is more in line with the TVM console than the 9/10 one (the 9/10 sonic is more in line with the 9/10 console and 11′s sonic is more in line with 11′s console).
I would love there to be more Eighth Doctor stories on screen (maybe as a replacement for the Doctor Lite stories or as a mini series) but this looks like a flashback to the explosion when 10 became 11 (which wasn’t explained at the time).
[...] Big Shiny Robot) [...]
@terobi – Maybe it wasn’t his decision to change the TARDIS interior. At the beginning of last season, Smith’s incarnation ponders aloud while standing outside “what have you got for me this time?”… or something to that effect.
Mind you, 5 remarked “you’ve changed the desktop theme”, like it’s as much a conscious decision of the pilot to change it compared to the TARDIS’s decision/necessity to change. Perhaps the coral model was more functional and battle-ready, and that’s why 8 changed it in the first place.
Who knows. Write an episode of Doctor Who and explain it how you want. If BBC makes it into an episode, then it’ll be part of the canon once and for all.
Wait, there’s an established canon for Doctor Who? ;-p
Ok I’ll try and type in full sentences but I’m just fangirling so much I don’t know if I’ll be able to! I always felt sorry for 8/Paul McGann as he never got a fair shout at being the Doctor plus he usually gets a bad wrap from some fans for being a bad Doctor. My only complaint from the movie was Eric Roberts, he’s a good actor but he was a really bad Master IMO. I would LOVE it if we could see more of 8 and find out what happened in between the end of the original series and the movie. To me the screenshots do scream out some kind of time crash (pun intended!) not a flashback, or maybe there is some kind of time crisis and time starts to merge. But seriously I’m crossing my fingers for an 8 return and maybe, as someone else suggested, a spin off to show what happened in the Time War (just hope we go in with proper protection and don’t lose it like Dalek Caan!)!
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but part of the story is false. We interviewed Magnus Hjert of Weta Workshop in December 2010 and asked him about the Paul McGann visit.
http://podcast.theomegapodcast.org/2010/12/18/the-omega-podcast-episode-1-35-the-next-doctor.aspx
Magnus said the outfit and sonic screwdriver were just created by employees who were big fans and were not commissioned by the BBC.
Good ideas with the screenshots though!
From the trailer, isn’t that him on the right? The three spacesuited people. I know the one on the left is the actor who played Chris Skelton, in Ashes to Ashes/Life on Mars.
I would love Paul McGann to show up, but it’s not all that crazy.
Since we see the 9th Doctor at the start of his regeneration (or maybe moments after since he hasn’t caught a glimpse of himself) in ‘Rose’.
Then the 8th Doctor MUST have bee…n using the same console room as the 9th, since the 9th never says anything like… “wow, new console room”! or “this is new I’m just getting used to it”.
So really that console room MUST have been used by the 8th, the 9th and the 10th doctors.
The person on the right is Rory.
If the picture at the top is true, it would certainly give some explanation for the sudden drop in ostentation between the 8th and 9th Doctors’ wardrobes; maybe 8 got tired of looking like he rummaged through 4-7s’ closet and decided low-key was the way to go, which subsequently followed him through 9 and, to an extent, 10, and is only just now starting to get back into the flamboyant with 11. I’d like to see McGann get more time in as the Doctor, he was very shortchanged.
What leads you to believe the Doctor had only recently regenerated before “Rose”? When Rose goes to visit Clive, we see evidence that the 9th Doctor had had many previous adventures (JFK, the Titanic, etc). I like to think that before meeting Rose he spent many years travelling alone, mourning Gallifrey and tidying up the loose ends of the Time War…
It’s a bit incongruous to be sure, but in “Rose” he isn’t familiar with his own reflection. I like to think that since the Doctor is a time traveler, those just happened later in his own personal timeline and we just didn’t see them.
To be honest, I’d LOVE for Paul Mcgann to return, and I’m crossing my fingers that it’ll happen, but in that screenshot you’re showing, isn’t that figure in the right of the old Tardis pretty obviously David Tennant?
If so, that’d be a nice coup too, (unless it’s a flashback with old footage).
If this is true, there is only one choice for the Master: Richard E. Grant. Full stop. Anyone who’s seen Withnail & I has to agree.
I totally miss the anthemic doctor stacks…like “The Five Doctors” or “The Seven Doctors.”
The pictures that Clive showed rose could have come from the bit at the end of that episode where the tardis disappears then reappears about 30 seconds later, 30 seconds from rose’s perspective,but the doctor could have spent months visiting the titanic and 1963 ect (timey wimey!)then popped back to give rose another chance to travel with him
Big Finish’s Eighth Doctor audio plays have recently ended. The BBC forbids Big Finish from using any elements from the new series that the BBC owns, or anything of the BBC’s that properly returned in it (e.g. they can use Terry Nation’s Daleks but can no longer use Davros due to his return). Put those two facts together and what do you get?
Ian Wolton: I’ve always liked that theory. It explains why the Doctor looks so unhappy in those pictures. Oh, and they’re all related to disasters and atrocities, so there’s THAT.
i mean i love the 9th doc but he was death obsessed (understandably) what’s the first thing he shows rose? the death of her home world! then you wanna see your father die? lets see it twice!
@Blake: It’s really not, you know.
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/Christopher_Pike/Doctor%20Who/3-12.jpg
Bringing the eighth Doctor back would be quite easy, due to the alternate universe cybermen introduced during the David Tennant era.
The universe the Cybus Industries cybermen hail from has a Torchwood Institute.
In the standard Who universe, Torchwood was established because Queen Victoria considered the Doctor to be a threat to the human race.
Ergo, if there is an alternate universe Torchwood, there has to be an alternate uinverse Doctor… and perhaps he hasn’t regenerated into Christopher Eccleston yet.
So perhaps McGann coul come back temporarily as an alternat universe version of the eighth Doctor.
Simple.
In fact, ‘any’ of the surviving previous Doctors could be wheeled out as the alternate universe Doctor.
I’d love to see either Paul McGann or Tom Baker come back for a 60th anniversary cross-over story in a couple of years time.
I would really like to see Paul Mcgann return. I don’t get why people think he is so bad? The movie did have issues, but he was great! As an actor you have to work with what you have. The one thing that actually shocked me is that Russell T. Davies said that the 8th doctor doesn’t count? But if he doesn’t Why does he refer to Eccelston as the 9th doctor? I think Mcgann does matter to the character because if you look at the 8th and 9th, they are similar, but the 9th is much darker do to the war so it makes sense. I would love to Mcgann back if only for one episode that would help with the story and the time war. Looking at the trailer it does have a few references to the time war, so we just might see a glimpse of what happened, which would be spectacular. If there isn’t a petition to have him back I am truly shocked and I would start one because as a fan I would want to see him back.
Hi,
Just a thought for you all regarding the picture of the 9th/10th doctors tardis console room, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this or not, but the figure watching the globe of light in the centre of the room is NOT Rory(arthur darvill) but is, and in my mind bears a remarkable resemblance to, the 10th doctor, mind you, given that recently on you tube some set photos have been posted that show someone looking remarkably live david tennant walking about during the current run of shooting for the 6th series of doctor who.
Tis all for now and remember time wounds all heals
Ciao folks!!
Hi
Just another thought for you all, it could equally be the 9th doctor watching the globe of light since the photo of paul mcgann does bear a marked resemblance to the figure…
Regards
It’s a rumour and rumours are frequently wrong, but it would explain why we see Amy and Rory in the Coral Tardis. Speculation is rife and I can’t wait to see the outcome.
It also occurs to me that the quote about Russel T saying that 8 does “not” count is inaccurate since the BBC Dr Who website lists 8 as valid. So all of this speculation while fun, will just have to wait and see what is really going on.
rory & amy being in the coral console room could be explained by the tardis setting the secondary or tertiary console room to resemble its previous primary console room
As unlikely as this rumor seems though, there seem to be an awful lot of coincidences. First we have an interview in which Paul Mcgann himself declares how he’d love to be in more Doctor Who, then this sudden surgence of a new costume idea, plus new sonic screwdriver for his Doctor, then we have his only appearance as the Doctor suddenly getting released in America, after years of delays and red tape. Then Moffat takes over as show runner (and we allready know he likes multi-doctor stories, Time Crash anyone?) and then we have this picture from the trailer. It all seems to be building up to something, in my mind. I just hope it comes to a head sooner rather than later. =)
As for the figures in the Tardis, upon looking closer at it, and similar stills, (and a little help from blogtor who’s podcast about the trailer, I’ve realized that that’s Rory and Amy. Amy has her arms around Rory, and we can only see her hair. But it’s obviously them. Now, if only it could be Paul Mcgann coming out of the light…. ^_^
my hope for the 50th anniversary is the return of all the living doctors (the baker boys ages could be explained away by them playing parallel universe versions of their doctors that never regenerated)peter & paul & david & matt could do their docs (obviously!) could play their doctors sean pertwee could play his dads role,david warner or danny webb could be the first doctor ( i’m stuck as to who could play the second doctor!)if eccleston wont come back then richard e grant could step in as the shalka doctor + if you want a younger 4th doctor for a bit of comedy interaction with tom baker get jon culshaw!!
What a dream come true! I always liked the 8th Doctor, but if he returns, the publicity still shows him becoming a lot like the 9th. We barely got to know #8 before he was taken away from us – no explanations, only speculations. But if he has an encounter with #11, that would be wonderful. They might answer some questions for us, especially concerning the Time War. I like the thought of all the Doctors appearing, but the two Bakers really don’t look like the Doctor any more, and the first three Docs are dead. You would end up having to do what they did with the 1st Doctor once – cast look-alikes to play them as we remember them. Recastings get done all the time, and we should understand that happening here.
Wot would be interesting is if the BBC re-released, well released the very original trailer. Why I say this? Well it showed the 8th dr regenerating into Eggleston 9th. But Russell Davis and the been never showed it
I have lucky to see it once. But the 8th dr in that trailer want McCann!!!