Dave's Seventh Doctor Page
Played by SYLVESTER McCOY 1987-1996, reprised 1997 (C.D.R.O.M.).
Sylvester McCoy's Doctor was perhaps the Doctor which surprised us all. He started his journey through space offering little promise. While Sylvester was not an actor, he was very experienced in other areas, comedy work, mime, and stunts. A funny little man, his first Doctor Who stories tended to show the comic side of his nature. At the time of his debut, he was not certain how to play the part and decided that to opt for comedy would be the easiest option. It certainly entertained us, with his playing spoons on Kate O'Mara's chest in Time And The Rani, and later singing very badly in The Happiness Patrol, but it was not the Doctor Who we had come to know and love. Was Doctor Who becoming a parody of itself? Not quite, it never went right over the edge, but there was a danger it could do so. Encouraged by producer John Nathan-Turner, Sylvester worked with the writers of his latter episodes to develop the character of the Doctor. He (and they) decided not only to give the character back some of its mystery, but also to change the way in which the Doctor behaved. He would become almost prescient, although he would have been able to discover anything he knew from a previous trip to the place and concerned, albeit possibly in a different time. He would become a manipulator of things and people. Whilst he was ostensibly helping Group Captain Gilmore to fight the Daleks, his plan was in fact calculated to keep the humans out of the deadly crossfire of a war between two Dalek factions.
The manipulative aspect of the Seventh Doctor was also one of his weaknesses. He used his companion Ace in ways which traumatised her and left her with feelings of self-doubt. He lied to her and kept important elements of his plans from her. But he remains heroic because we (and Ace) can see in the end that he only did it for the greater good, and as the Doctor can tell you, the ends justify the means...don't they?
The seventh Doctor was my favourite because of his ability to switch from comic clowning to serious plotting in the twinkling of an eye. In some respects the most interesting Doctor, we could almost believe that he was a different person from the others, an interloper, perhaps. Was he a Time Lord? Or more than a Time Lord?
DOCTOR WHO: THE EIGHTIES, but Howe Stammers & Walker gives a reasonable account of Sylvester's first three years in the role and some background to his early years. He has no biography or autobiography yet.
You could also look at: A page all about Time's Champion
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Mail me: dfarmbrough@cix.co.uk.