Sylvester McCoy with Jessica Martin recording a recent trilogy for Big Finish

Despite appearances in the Hobbit trilogy and Sense8, genre fans still most associate Sylvester McCoy with his role as the seventh Doctor. He played the part from 1987-1989 for the BBC, and then opened the 1996 Fox TV Movie. He’s continued to play the Doctor for Big Finish for over 20 years, and his original adventures will be finding a new audience as the entirety of “Classic” Doctor Who comes to streaming service BritBox on December 26. Paul Simpson caught up with him in-between his appearances at Long Island Who and Chicago TARDIS over Thanksgiving…

How are you enjoying America?

It’s sunny in New York at the moment – I’ve been to La Bohème at the Met, walked over the park, dined out in Chinese restaurants. It’s all been good. I’ve only been here two days. Then off to Chicago – I’m catching a train overnight to Chicago, do a weekend in Chicago then get the train for three nights to LA. I’ve done this journey before, but in the summer. I want to go over the Rockies and see what it’s like.

The first time we met was on the Haymarket Antony and Cleopatra/Taming of the Shrew production back in 1986 – with Timothy Dalton and Vanessa Redgrave. You went on to be the Doctor from that; Tim went on to be 007 – it should have been the other way round, really!

Well, exactly! I say this often – two letters arrived at the stage door; Tim was asked to do Bond, I was asked to do Doctor Who. (It’s all fantasy, of course.) It should have been the other way – I’m a Scot, and James Bond is a Scot. Tim, when he played one of the Time Lords [Rassilon in The End of Time], he was excellent. I was so impressed with that and I thought he would have made a great Doctor. We should have both been both!

They have to recast Bond now Daniel Craig’s going – maybe it’s your chance…

Yes, they should go back to an older Scottish r-rolling Bond.

With that, presumably you had no idea that a role like the Doctor was in your future; was that sort of role, one that’s to an extent taken over your life, ever part of your plan? Or have you just wanted to enjoy being the characters?

I never had a plan – I just open the door and think, “Wow what’s next?” I have this inability to say no, so I’ve said yes to so many things which mostly is a very positive thing – now and again, a bit negative – but it means that, when [1980s Doctor Who producer] John Nathan-Turner looked at my CV way back then (and I’ve done so much since) he said, “You’ve done everything in this showbusiness, everything from street theatre busking to grand opera, Shakespeare, modern plays, comedy, tragedy, except ballet.” Because of my comedy war wounds – my ankles have been fused – I can’t point so I’ll never be able to do ballet!

Is there a side of the craft that you enjoy most or does everything have its unique advantages and disadvantages?

The latter. I enjoy recreating things; I also enjoying things new and exploring new characters.

At the BFI screening of The Curse of Fenric, Sophie Aldred mentioned that there was an occasion recently where you had been quite surprised that members of the public held your Doctor and period in high regard. Why does it surprise you – is it because of the way the show was treated at the time?

Yes. When I got the part, I realised I was given a role that was equivalent to playing Hamlet in the theatre – so many people have played the Doctor, and therefore there was a competitive air about it. The fans, a lot of fans, don’t like new, they want to hang on to what they love and keep it that way. There were a lot of problems, then. There were also a small group of fans who were fanatically anti the producer, John Nathan-Turner, and that affected us.

I just switched off from reading anything about Doctor Who, which was the safest and most sensible thing to do, so I lost touch with it, and didn’t realise over the years that it was much loved. I switched off and got on with it. I’ve got a thick skin and just forgot about it – I thought “That’s what they think but I’m going to enjoy this amazing role as much as I can”. So I was rather taken aback and rather pleased. I was voted the best Doctor at something recently and got an award for it!

When you went to Vancouver for the TV Movie in 1996, did it feel as if the Doctor was out of place in that Hollywood-esque environment, or did it feel the same as at Television Centre?

Well, kind of a mixture of all those things. When I went onto the set, it was my console, the one I always fantasised having. I never really told anyone – someone must have been listening to my dreams. I was delighted to have that there – it was mine, not Paul McGann’s. I had it first! That was great.

It felt a bit like Doctor Who, but when I watched it, I realised the mistake – they shouldn’t have had me in it, because it was too much information. They should have started with Paul – because it was principally to grab an American audience, a universal audience rather than just PBS audiences – and it was too complex. Done a story with Paul and then brought me in to show how it all worked.

I also didn’t realise until recently that it was a satire on America – this is the first time Doctor Who visits America; he arrives in the box, opens the door, steps out and what happens? He gets shot. Welcome to America!

You’ve spent hundreds of hours playing the Doctor for Big Finish; do you find that the writers and producers are coming up with new slants on the character for you?

Oh indeed – that’s the joy of it really. As it carries on, there’s a whole new tranche of writers, and that’s the glory of mankind and womankind. They say there’s only seven stories under the heavens, and their genius is to take them and retell them in so many different ways.

Have you ever been tempted to pen one yourself?

No. Not really. When I’m doing them, I’ll make suggestions.

The show is coming to BritBox on Boxing Day which will hopefully bring it to yet another new audience. For someone who knows the concept of Doctor Who and maybe seen Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, how would you describe your Doctor, and what makes him different?

My Doctor became more mysterious, more unexpected; he brought back the question mark (literally and figuratively). My Doctor was a change of tone.

It has a more down to Earth atmosphere.

When I first saw Doctor Who way back in the Sixties, with Patrick Troughton, there was always a hint of social comment or criticism of, and a celebration of the new universal philosophy of the Sixties. When I was doing my Doctor Who I wanted something like that in it, so the Dalek one is about race; Delta and the Bannermen – I’m not sure what that was about… The Happiness Patrol – they were about something else rather than just the adventure plot.

Do you see yourself playing the Doctor for audio until the year dot?

I think so, yes. They’re already planning more for next year, so it carries on, delightfully.

Is there anything you’d still like to do with him? A musical or a ballet episode?

(laughs) Yes we could do the ballet. I did request once a silent movie one for the audio.

Play the piano yourself?

[Sylvester imitates 1920s piano player followed by Goon-esque sound effects – as pointed out to him at the time, how do you transcribe that?] I did put that to them and they got excited about it and they worked out how to do it. Then the BBC TV people said, “We don’t want you to do that, because we’re going to do something like that” – but they never did as far as I know.

The Crimson Horror has an overcranked sequence… maybe it’s worth asking again!

Whatever it was, I never found out how they’d worked out how to do it. I suppose they could write a story about silent movies being made – my Doctor meeting Charlie Chaplin and all those people.

What else is on the horizon for you?

I’ve just finished a film with Maisie Williams and Rita Tushingham (who was in Doctor Zhivago), and I’ve got to do the ADR. Sophie and I and Colin [Baker] did a road trip which is supposedly coming out sometime – five minutes each day on The Now Show. Then I head to LA to do a little bit in a film, then I’m off on a Doctor Who cruise – someone has to do it – in the Caribbean and then come back via Holland for Christmas.

 

Thanks to Sylvia Brendel for assistance in arranging this interview.

Doctor Who will be available on BritBox from Boxing Day.