As reported by The Mirror, Russell T Davies and Disney are eyeing up a return for the fan-favourite Doctor, played by Paul McGann.
As the countdown to Doctor Who's 60th anniversary gets underway, one Doctor in particular seems to be sending rumours flying more than any other. And, weirdly, it’s the only one who hasn’t had his own TV series.
The star of a 1996 TV movie attempt to reinvigorate the franchise, Paul McGann has remained a firm favourite with a sub-section of the fandom. “The fans call me ‘the longest and the shortest’”, he told Film Stories last week, referring to the hundreds of hours of Big Finish audio adventures he’s supplied his vocal chords to.
For his part, McGann hasn’t been exactly shy about his willingness to make a return, hinting to us in the same interview that he’d be well up for new Who experiences after his appearance in The Power Of The Doctor last year.
But now, with Disney taking on international broadcasting rights for Russell T Davies’ upcoming reinvention of the show, cast and creatives from the show’s past have been ruminating on the possibility of all number of spin-offs, keying into Davies’ vision for an almost Marvel-style, interconnected universe that the House of Mouse’s money might just make possible.
According to The Mirror, something with McGann is high on that spin-off list. “Russell likes the idea of bringing back McGann with his own set of episodes in the TARDIS. Disney are on board as they want more original content and want to fully exploit the franchise as they know how big it could become,” their source says.
So, while it sounds like this is more an idea being taken seriously internally than a done deal, with the increasing number of excited noises coming out of the McGann camp in recent weeks, it sounds like dreams of a full series of sorts for the eighth Doctor could, finally, be about to come true.
Read more: Doctor Who in the 1990s | The Paul McGann movie and other hiatus adventures
