Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy (1987-89)

Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy (1987-89)

The Seventh Doctor / 42 episodes, approx 25 mins each.

Given the name of the blog that you're presently reading it seems fitting that I should give Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy's incarnation of Doctor Who a post of his own, seeing as how he was the Seventh Doctor and, as it was believed at the time, the last.

But you can't keep a good Time Lord down, and it turned out that he was merely the last incarnation in what's since become known as the 'Classic Era' of the show, which began in 1963 with English actor William Hartnell.

McCoy's introduction was atypical in the series history because he was introduced at the beginning of a new season (Season 24), rather than at the end of a previous one.

But that's the only noteworthy aspect of his arrival. The actual regeneration scene, in which he transforms from a fatally injured Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is damned awful.

Things continued to be pretty unspectacular for the next three serials in his tenure, Time and the Rani, Paradise Towers, and Delta and the Bannermen were all weak, but even in the worst episodes of his first season McCoy was evolving into a Doctor that would go on to be, for me, the most enjoyable that the show had had since Tom Baker hung up his ridiculously long scarf.

As bad as Time and the Rani was, though, it was somewhat fortuitous, too, in that it pitted him against a strong female (Kate O'Mara as Rani), which allowed the differences in character to how Colin Baker would've played it to really stand out. And while much has been made of the Seventh Doctor's clumsiness in the early serials — admittedly, he does fall down a flight of just two stairs more than once — it's not as bad as some claims may make it seem. He's not a bumbling idiot.

The dundrearyisms are a more accurate defining trait, but I don't view them as symptomatic of someone who's in a perpetually befuddled state. I've known people whose thinking process rushed so far ahead of their ability to communicate concepts verbally that what came out of their mouth would sometimes seem like gibberish to the uninitiated. That's how I thought of the Doctor, and at times the mixed aphorisms even made a kind of subtextual sense, whether by accident or design. Needless to say, I liked them and even wish they'd been used more.

As time went on he grew more cunning, tactical, and manipulative. You can get an approximate feel for where he is on that progression based on the hues of his chosen attire, which changed to match the persona, becoming darker but no less idiosyncratic.

- The Seventh Doctor's TARDIS interior. -

He had two travelling companions. The first of them was Melanie Bush, played by Bonnie Langford. Bubbly Mel had travelled with the Sixth Doctor previously and stayed on after his regeneration. Credit to Bonnie, she gave it her all, but she did sometimes make my ears shudder.

After her came Ace, a streetwise, rebellious youth played by Sophie Aldred. Ace was written as being sixteen-years-old, even though Aldred was clearly in her mid-twenties at the time, which made it seem somewhat ridiculous, but Ace was likable and a pleasing change from the norm. She was the Seventh Doctor's most frequent companion, appearing in 31 of his 42 episodes.

The series was cancelled in 1989, putting an end to the weekly adventures. It seemed like the end for Doctor Who onscreen, too, but seven years later a TV Movie finally gave McCoy his regeneration scene, after which he was succeeded by Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.