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Paul McGann WON'T be on the 50th anniversary...

I don't think Capaldi will be the new Doctor. But he is so beloved by critics and journalists after The Thick of It that casting him would win a whole load of goodwill for the show. Plus that motherfucker can act! I think he would be far from a bad thing.
 
I think it's too soon to say Capaldi would be a disaster !

He can obviously act, and if he does get the job, we won't know how good he is until we've seen at least a few episodes.
 
Green Lantern said:
Technically, JNT did, but it was in his era when the show began to die. McCoy was just the nail in the coffin (although I love them both.)

I just have a feeling that if Capaldi becomes Doctor 12, only bad things will happen.
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The BBC killed Doctor Who. They wouldn't let JNT go, they kept slashing its budget, they kept moving it, they IN FACT killed it twice... once during Colin's term, and the 2nd time with McCoy.

So, technically and factually, the BBC killed Doctor Who.

Not saying there weren't creative problems the last few seasons, but the BBC didn't do anything to solve those problems, except to take it off the air.

Capaldi would be great. And more likely the Elba. But, I doubt they would be do it.
 
Capaldi as the Doctor wouldn't be bad, but what does it have to do with Paul McGann not being in the 50th anniversary?
 
Ya know what would be a pretty awesome mindfuck? Cast a fan/critical favorite actor for the Christmas Special and then have him only be the Doctor for about half of it before getting killed and regenerating again into some "who the heck is that?" casting.

Oh, and back on topic, I don't actually see McGann saying he won't be in it. The only thing he says for sure is he didn't visit the set, but does that mean he couldn't have filmed something off somewhere else with a second unit? Or did some little webisode as a separate production? It is probably unlikely, but he never outright says he isn't involved at all.
 
It doesn't seem likely to me that they would make a 50th anniversary show with only 2 modern doctors. Unless they REALLY couldn't get any of the others because of money/budget issues, whatever your feeling about Moffat, I don't think he's such a dick that he didn't even reach out to the other actors.

I'm hoping that McGann is contractually obligated to deny, deny, deny.
 
Wouldn't BBC's policy of not lying to the audience be at odds with contractually obligating an actor to lie to the audience?
 
McGann being in it, even if just for a brief cameo, would be great for me. Sadly though, I can't see it happening. I also can't see any other classic series Doctors taking part. It hurts, but I won't kid myself. :(
 
sttngfan1701d said:
It doesn't seem likely to me that they would make a 50th anniversary show with only 2 modern doctors. Unless they REALLY couldn't get any of the others because of money/budget issues, whatever your feeling about Moffat, I don't think he's such a dick that he didn't even reach out to the other actors.

I'm hoping that McGann is contractually obligated to deny, deny, deny.
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But this is the first '0th' anniversary where the show has been on air in 30 years. When it celebrated its 10th anniversary, Hartnell was alive, though in poor health and Troughton was still kicking around. 10 years later, for the 20th they recast Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee looked enough like they had before for audiences to suspend disbelief. Tom famously didn't come back, of course.

That was 30 years ago and the youngest Doctor at that time is now older, chubbier and balder, his successor is even more so in all respects (though 7 and 8 have aged well). I know Time Crash can explain all of that away but whether it works in a full-length episode is debatable.

Moreover, I think a lot of the modern audiences just don't know or care that much about anyone pre-Eccleston, shocking as that seems to the rest of us. And I think even more than that the BBC doesn't. That's why the old show is virtually never repeated and BBC publicity focusses on the new version, never the old.

Based on nothing at all, my suspicion is that Moffatt - who wrote Time Crash, after all - would have liked to include classic Doctors but has been overruled by the Beeb. After all, he did meet with Eccleston and I'm sure he had an idea as to what his character would have done in the story. It wouldn't have been too hard to rewrite for McGann. But I suspect that the BBC wasn't interested in paying for an actor who appeared once 17 years ago, in an American co-production.
 
McGann has aged very well. I think Eccleston has aged more in 8 years then McGann has in 17. McCoy aged terribley between 1989 and 1996, but since 96 has pretty much stuck.
 
^Yeah, he has. I think there's no reason for not including him other than (a) the story doesn't require him or (b) the BBC (by which I include anyone of any importance involved in the show) doesn't really want him.
 
Captaindemotion said:
^Yeah, he has. I think there's no reason for not including him other than (a) the story doesn't require him or (b) the BBC (by which I include anyone of any importance involved in the show) doesn't really want him.
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Wonder if it had to do with Licensing (IE: Big Finish you stay out of our playground, and we'll stay out of yours) or if it really was narrowminded worry about the inclusion of Classic Doctors that the audience in General wouldn't be familiar with. Personally, I think that's an unfounded fear, there is no reason the inclusion of a Classic Doctor or two (even in small roles) would have to confuse or otherwise irritate "NuSeries only" fans.
 
I don't imagine that Big Finish is an issue. IIRC, they have a Time War story coming up soon but the anniversary special is rumoured to cover the same subject. If TV Who wanted to feature a character or do a storyline, I imagine they they'd do it regardless.

I think you're probably right about the second point and I'd agree with you that it's a groundless fear. I remember watching the 5 Doctors as an 11 year old and, even though I'd never seen more than a handful of episodes featuring the first 3 Doctors, I was excited about seeing them (well, two plus Hurndall). Given that the current run has has numerous flashbacks to older Doctors, not least of all in The Name of the Doctor, I would think that fans who've only known the new series wouldn't be in the least bothered by the inclusion of Doctors from the classic show or TV movie.

There are probably fans watching now who don't even remember Eccleston or Tennant, come to think of it!
 
Captaindemotion said:
I don't imagine that Big Finish is an issue. IIRC, they have a Time War story coming up soon but the anniversary special is rumoured to cover the same subject. If TV Who wanted to feature a character or do a storyline, I imagine they they'd do it regardless.

I think you're probably right about the second point and I'd agree with you that it's a groundless fear. I remember watching the 5 Doctors as an 11 year old and, even though I'd never seen more than a handful of episodes featuring the first 3 Doctors, I was excited about seeing them (well, two plus Hurndall). Given that the current run has has numerous flashbacks to older Doctors, not least of all in The Name of the Doctor, I would think that fans who've only known the new series wouldn't be in the least bothered by the inclusion of Doctors from the classic show or TV movie.

There are probably fans watching now who don't even remember Eccleston or Tennant, come to think of it!
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Yes, I was trying to be generous and trying to find a legitimate reason, that really was beyond their control :alienblush:
 
I don't think Big Finish is an issue simply because they're licensing Doctor Who and BBC decides on what they can and can't do and BBC doesn't have to adhere to anything they do.

Also, if you're referring to Gallifrey VI, we don't know with any certainty that it has anything to do with Time War anymore than we know the anniversary special does, but I seriously doubt either of them deal with the Time War beyond tangentially. Either way, the anniversary special is far more likely to deal with it than Big Finish.
 
They had also previously done "Time Crash" which featued the 5th and 10th Doctors so they had already done a story featuring a classic era Doctor.
 
A Paul McGann return has been rumoured every year since 2005. The past few years it has been the exact same liars on GallifreyBase that have hoodwinked everybody each time.

I'm genuinely shocked people still believe people like Mr. F and The Doctor's Trainers. This year especially their false rumours have been particularly tiresome.
 
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