Paul McGann

Paul McGann
Birth date:	14 November 1959
Work in the DWU
Main roles:	Eighth Doctor, Durian
Main jobs:	Actor
Stories:	See Credits Section
Main time period active:	1996, 2001-present
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You may be looking for his DWU counterpart or his invalid counterpart.

Paul John McGann (born 14 November 1959) is a British actor who played the Eighth Doctor, beginning with the 1996 TV movie Doctor Who. He reprised the role in audio stories for BBC Radio and Big Finish Productions, and reprised the role twice onscreen in the Doctor Who mini-episode The Night of the Doctor and the special The Power of the Doctor.

Career

He was born in Surrey, although his family moved to Liverpool when he was a young child. His brothers Mark, Joe, and Stephen are also actors; the four of them starred together (as four brothers) in the 1995 television miniseries The Hanging Gale. They also formed the pop quartet "The McGanns", releasing the single "Shame About The Boy".

McGann made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role of Percy Toplis. Following that part, he was cast as the eponymous "I" in Bruce Robinson's cult film comedy, Withnail and I (1987). He also starred as Anton Skrebensky in Ken Russell's 1989 adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow.

McGann was offered the lead role in the ITV series Sharpe in 1993. Unfortunately, during the filming of the series' first instalment, Sharpe's Rifles, McGann was injured while playing football and subsequently had to withdraw. The role was then given to, and made famous by, Sean Bean.

Doctor Who

Paul McGann reportedly found out about the Doctor Who TV movie during the production of the 1993 film The Three Musketeers. Tim Curry was offered the role of the Eighth Doctor and he was interested in playing the role because he's always interested in a role that isn't a villain, but he didn't know how to play the character. One day during filming, Curry approached McGann on how he would play the Eighth Doctor if he were cast. Curry turned down the role of the Eighth Doctor because of scheduling conflicts with several movies, and McGann would be cast as the Eighth Doctor.

During the production of the TV Movie, McGann participated in the documentary Bidding Adieu: A Video Diary, Sylvester McCoy's personal documentary of his then-final outing as the Seventh Doctor.

Post-Who work

Since Doctor Who, McGann's career has concentrated on television work including the Hornblower series. His voice was featured in the 1997 video game Ceremony of Innocence, together with those of Isabella Rossellini and Ben Kingsley.

McGann portrayed power-hungry ambassador Durian in The Minister of Chance series, a spin-off of Doctor Who.

In 2013, McGann appeared as himself in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, alongside fellow classic Doctor actors Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy.

From 2017 to 2018, McGann played sinister surgeon John Gaskell in forty episodes of the medical drama series Holby City (1999-ongoing).

Reprising the Doctor

McGann had given permission for his likeness to be used in BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures novel range and the monthly Doctor Who Magazine comic strip continuing his character's adventures without him having any actual involvement. As a result, in the many years before television Who returned to production, the Eighth Doctor remained the "current" Doctor in all the new Doctor Who spin-off media with the character's mannerisms extrapolated from his brief performance.

In 1997, McGann made his first foray into Doctor Who audio when he recorded several audiobooks for BBC Audio, beginning with an audio adaptation of The Novel of the Film and continuing with a collection of short stories, Earth and Beyond. In 2000, he joined the roster of Big Finish Productions, reprising the role of the Eighth Doctor for the Main Range, and was treated as the "current" Doctor by the majority of fandom and the BBC until Christopher Eccleston assumed the role in 2005. He also made his webcast debut with the animated Shada. McGann continues to play the Eighth Doctor in Big Finish's main Doctor Who range, as well as Eighth Doctor Adventures, a second series of audios produced by Big Finish for broadcast on BBC7 Radio.

McGann participated in a commentary and other material for the DVD re-release of his own TV Movie. He has narrated material on other classic Who DVD releases as well, for example, the Five Doctors DVD featurette "The Ties That Bind Us."

Paul McGann finally returned to the screen as the Eighth Doctor in 2013, when he reprised the role in The Night of the Doctor. Though it was only a brief outing, the mini-episode allowed him a chance to at last depict his regeneration story. Following this, he bragged that Colin Baker was now the only previous Doctor to have never filmed his regeneration sequence, due to his forced dismissal from the role, which was later rendered a moot point when Baker himself recorded his regeneration in the audio anthology The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure released in 2015. During his regeneration story, McGann also briefly portrayed the newly regenerated War Doctor, making him one of two actors to have technically portrayed two different incarnations of the Doctor (the other being his predecessor Sylvester McCoy, who similarly briefly played the Sixth Doctor during his regeneration sequence).

According to Nicholas Briggs, McGann nearly stopped doing Big Finish during his initial run with companion Charley Pollard, but changed his mind following the casting of Sheridan Smith as new companion Lucie Miller and the new direction for the Eighth Doctor.

In the DWU

A version of Paul McGann was mentioned as being one of the actors in the Doctor Who TV movie, in Hospitality, a short story featuring the "lesbian novelist" Iris in Iris: Abroad.

Another version of Paul McGann appeared in the 2001 short story Father Time: "Set Visit", a speculative piece about what if the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures was part of the television series.

Credits

As the Eighth Doctor

Television

Doctor Who

• Doctor Who
• The Power of the Doctor

Mini-episodes

• The Night of the Doctor

Other

• The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

Webcasts

• Shada

Audio

Doctor Who Main Range

• Storm Warning
• Sword of Orion
• The Stones of Venice
• Minuet in Hell
• Invaders from Mars
• The Chimes of Midnight
• Seasons of Fear
• Embrace the Darkness
• The Time of the Daleks
• Neverland
• Zagreus
• Scherzo
• The Creed of the Kromon
• The Natural History of Fear
• The Twilight Kingdom
• Faith Stealer
• The Last
• Caerdroia
• The Next Life
• Terror Firma
• Scaredy Cat
• Other Lives
• Time Works
• Something Inside
• Memory Lane
• Absolution
• The Girl Who Never Was
• The Company of Friends
  • Benny's Story
  • Fitz's Story
  • Izzy's Story
  • Mary's Story
• The Silver Turk
• The Witch from the Well
• Army of Death
• The End of the Beginning

Special Releases

• Living Legend
• Shada
• The Four Doctors
• The Light at the End
• The Legacy of Time
  • Lies in Ruins
  • Collision Course

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventuress

• The Mummy Speaks!
• Eclipse
• The Slaying of the Writhing Mass
• Heart of Orion

The Eighth Doctor Adventures

• Blood of the Daleks
• Horror of Glam Rock
• Immortal Beloved
• Phobos
• No More Lies
• Human Resources
• Dead London
• Max Warp
• Brave New Town
• The Skull of Sobek
• Grand Theft Cosmos
• The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
• Sisters of the Flame / The Vengeance of Morbius
• Orbis
• Hothouse
• The Beast of Orlok
• Wirrn Dawn
• The Scapegoat
• The Cannibalists
• The Eight Truths / Worldwide Web
• Death in Blackpool
• Situation Vacant
• Nevermore
• The Book of Kells
• Deimos / The Resurrection of Mars
• Relative Dimensions
• Prisoner of the Sun
• Lucie Miller / To the Death
• What Lies Inside
  • Paradox of the Daleks
  • The Dalby Spook
• Connections
  • Here Lies Drax
  • The Love Vampires
  • Albie's Angels
• Audacity
  • The Devouring
  • The Great Cyber-War
• In the Bleak Midwinter
  • Twenty-Four Doors in December
  • The Empty Man
  • Winter of the Demon
• The Stuff of Legend

The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller

• The Dalek Trap
• The Revolution Game
• The House on the Edge of Chaos
• Island of the Fendahl

Dark Eyes

• Dark Eyes
  • The Great War
  • Fugitives
  • Tangled Web
  • X and the Daleks
• Dark Eyes 2
  • The Traitor
  • The White Room
  • Time's Horizon
  • Eyes of the Master
• Dark Eyes 3
  • The Death of Hope
  • The Reviled
  • Masterplan
  • Rule of the Eminence
• Dark Eyes 4
  • A Life in the Day
  • The Monster of Montmartre
  • Master of the Daleks
  • Eye of Darkness

Doom Coalition

• Doom Coalition 1
  • The Eleven
  • The Red Lady
  • The Galileo Trap
  • The Satanic Mill
• Doom Coalition 2
  • Beachhead
  • Scenes From Her Life
  • The Gift
  • The Sonomancer
• Doom Coalition 3
  • Absent Friends
  • The Eighth Piece / The Doomsday Chronometer
  • The Crucible of Souls
• Doom Coalition 4
  • Ship in a Bottle
  • Songs of Love
  • The Side of the Angels
  • Stop the Clock

Ravenous

• Ravenous 1
  • Their Finest Hour
  • How to Make a Killing in Time Travel
  • World of Damnation / Sweet Salvation
• Ravenous 2
  • Escape from Kaldor
  • Better Watch Out / Fairytale of Salzberg
  • Seizure
• Ravenous 3
  • Deeptime Frontier
  • Companion Piece
  • L.E.G.E.N.D.
  • The Odds Against
• Ravenous 4
  • Whisper
  • Planet of Dust
  • Day of the Master

Stranded

• Stranded 1
  • Lost Property
  • Wild Animals
  • Must-See TV
  • Divine Intervention
• Stranded 2
  • Dead Time
  • UNIT Dating
  • Baker Street Irregulars
  • The Long Way Round
• Stranded 3
  • Patience
  • Twisted Folklore
  • Snow
  • What Just Happened?
• Stranded 4
  • Crossed Lines
  • Get Andy
  • The Keys of Baker Street
  • Best Year Ever

The Eighth Doctor: The Time War

• The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One
  • The Starship of Theseus
  • Echoes of War
  • The Conscript
  • One Life
• The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two
  • The Lords of Terror
  • Planet of the Ogrons
  • In the Garden of Death
  • Jonah
• The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three
  • State of Bliss
  • The Famished Lands
  • Fugitive in Time
  • The War Valeyard
• The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four
  • Palindrome
  • Dreadshade
  • Restoration of the Daleks
• Cass
  • Meanwhile, Elsewhere
  • Vespertine
  • Previously, Next Time
• Uncharted: Reflections
  • Nowhere, Never
  • The Road Untravelled
  • Cass-cade
  • Borrow or Rob

The War Doctor

• Exit Strategy

Sontarans vs Rutans

• The Battle of Giant's Causeway

The Robots

• The Final Hour

The Paternoster Gang

• Till Death Us Do Part

Peladon

• The Truth of Peladon

Classic Doctors, New Monsters

• The Sontaran Ordeal
• Day of the Vashta Nerada
• Together in Eclectic Dreams
• If I Should Die Before I Wake

Once and Future

• The Union

Doom's Day

• The Crowd

Time Lord Victorious

• He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not
• The Enemy of My Enemy
• Mutually Assured Destruction
• Echoes of Extinction

The Diary of River Song

• The Rulers of the Universe

Susan's War

• The Shoreditch Intervention

Master!

• Hellbound

The War Master

• Rage of the Time Lords
  • The Missing Link / Darkness and Light
• Hearts of Darkness
  • The Castle of Kurnos 5
  • The Cognition Shift

Stage plays

• The Stuff of Legend

As Durian

Webcasts

The Minster of Chance

• The Minister of Chance: Prologue

Audio

The Minster of Chance

• The Pointed Hand
• The Broken World
• The Forest Shakes
• Paludin Fields
• The Tiger
• In a Barque on the River Hex

Other Roles

Audio

Doctor Who Main Range

• Zagreus - Zagreus
• Other Lives - Edward Marlow
• Klein's Story - Johann Schmidt

Master!

• Hellbound - Axon Doctor

The War Master

• The Cognition Shift - The Master

Audiobook Readings

BBC Novelisations

• The Novel of the Film

BBC Audio

• Earth and Beyond
  • Bounty
  • Dead Time
  • The People's Temple

Time Lord Fairy Tales

• The Three Brothers Gruff

Documentaries

• The Ultimate Guide
• The Ties that Bind Us - Narrator
• Getting a Head - Narrator
• Doctor Who Am I

External links

• Paul McGann at the Internet Movie Database
• The McGann Library fan forum
• On Borrowed Time - Paul McGann article at Kasterborous.com
• Paul McGann at the Disney Wiki
• Paul McGann at the Alien Anthology Wiki
• Official Twitter account (archived)