http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... 673189.ece

FORMER Doctor Who Paul McGann is making a surprise comeback to the Tardis next year.

The star of cult movie Withnail And I played the eighth Doc in a one-off TV film collaboration between the BBC and Fox in 1996.

But a follow-up series was never made and when the sci-fi show eventually returned to the Beeb in 2005, it starred Christopher Eccleston, 44, as the new Time Lord.

But Paul, 48, reprised his role in several audio adventures — some broadcast on radio — and has remained a firm favourite with fans.

He is expected to begin filming in October or November for one of four feature-length specials to be shown instead of a series in 2009.

Flashback scenes will see him battered from the Time War and shorn of the long hair he had in the film.

An insider said: “Fans loved Paul’s Doctor and feel he was never given the proper chance to shine. Reference is often made to the Time War which wiped out the Time Lords and this will give them a taste of that.”

Current Doc David Tennant will also appear.

Gee.

How super.

This thread is dedicated to Taft.

This thread will meet Taft in the Playroom where it belongs.

(Steven, you copied a truncated link.)

Well, I am psyched! Although not a fan of the movie (Doctor Who firing a gun! And kissing the girl!) I do think we need to see more of the 8th doctor and find out about the Time War. So, cool! But no series in 2009? Bummer!

I can't be arsed. I posted the entire article anyway.

Proper link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... 673189.ece

This is pretty cool, too (although would rather not see a name actor as a companion):

DOCTOR Who heartthrob David Tennant is negotiating to play the role in a movie version as part of his big comeback deal.

TV Biz has already told how BBC bosses are wooing the 37-year-old with a £1.5million contract.

And we can now reveal that the star has agreed to make a full fifth series in 2010 if the big screen role can be tagged on to the deal.

Beeb chiefs are in talks about funding for a movie. At the moment Tennant is only signed up to star in four specials next year, as well as a Christmas episode.

Last night, a show source said: “It looks like the film is going to happen in the next few years.

“For ages, BBC Worldwide held the rights and were planning to make a movie, but it got held up and former BBC1 boss Lorraine Heggessey decided to bring back the TV series in 2005.

“But everyone is keen now and the fans are clamouring. Part of David’s conundrum is that he wants to do films, so this looks like it would solve both issues.”


Both outgoing show boss Russell T. Davies and his successor Steven Moffat have already voiced their support for the film.

Yesterday, Davies told us he would love Catherine Zeta Jones to be the Doctor’s companion on the big screen. And last month Moffat said: “It would be good to see it in the cinema so long as it’s fantastic.”

David, who has wowed critics as Hamlet on stage, has already filmed the Dr Who Christmas episode. Catherine Tate is set to return as Donna Noble in one of the specials.

Two previous big-screen versions of Dr Who have been made, starring Peter Cushing in 1965 and Paul McGann in 1996.

I like the term "Beeb" in those posts.

Peter Cushing made two films, and McGann's was made for TV, so it wasn't "big-screen."

But DUDE. Telling the story of the Time War? AWESOME.

No regular Doctor Who episodes in 2009: Depressing.

More tales of the Eighth Doctor, with Paul McGann actually onscreen? Great!

Story of the time war: Doubleplus good!

Doublepost, not so good.

Is it really a surprise appearance if they're telling us about it a year before it happens?

Well, it's a surprise, whenever you first become aware of it. It surprised me, for example, when I read the news. It won't be a surprise to me when I later see it onscreen (unless of course the info here is incorrect) but it was a surprise at some point, nonetheless.

No. Monk. This entire thread is a lie. Forget about the whole thing.















(There. Now he'll be surprised later when he finds out it's true.)

Mc Gann was where the rot set in (firing a gun - kissing a human) - his escapade was clearly pandering to the overseas market and accordingly lost much of its essential (as opposed to touristy red buses up the apples and pears type) Britishness

Where the rot set in... I'm trying to get my mind around that because the next episode of Doctor Who was freakin' brilliant.

The rot set in some time before that when JNT figured out that they had a sizable adult audience in the States and started making various changes to appeal to this new-found audience. The irony of the situation being that the Americans never really saw much of the post-Baker years and his changes weren't embraced by the very audience he was attempting to woo. Those Americans who did enjoy the show enjoyed the very Britishness of the early Tom Baker years.

Although in JNT's case, I think just stemmed from him not being very good at anything involving stories. With the McGann movie, the British fell into the trap of far too many imports of treating the American audience as if they're a bunch of idiots who like nothing more than car chases. The problem being, if you actually think like that, then there's no way in hell you're going to be good enough at doing car chases to actually appeal to the stupid American audience. Yes, we like car chases, we've seen a lot of car chases in our time, and we can spot a car chase that's been tacked on and is total crap.

Although in hindsight, I think the Doctor Who fans really needed a new Who at that point and the blank slate of the failed 8th Doctor ended up being a good thing. They were able to *finally* move on from the McCoy/Ace years, where the franchise had been stuck for far too long. McGann ended up being a nice shot in the arm for the fandom.

More and less Doctor!

More per episode, less episodes.

Good and bad.

But I want to see the story.

JNT=Dan Didio=Bill Jemas

IAWTP

The McGann movie was bad on almost every conceivable level, I agree (although McGann himself was fine), but as a big ol' die-hard WHO nerd, I'm going to have to call shenanigans on the "he fires a GUN!" criticism. The Doctor's been shown wielding firearms since at least the early '70s - Pertwee blows away an Ogron with a gun in 'Death To The Daleks' , Tom Baker spends much of 'Seeds Of Doom' acting out James Bond-style macho posturing with a revolver, Peter Davison holds a gun to Davros' head, execution-style in 'Resurrection Of The Daleks', and Colin Baker shoots several Cybermen in 'Attack Of The Cybermen', all of which are far more out-of-character than the rather funny scene where McGann holds a gun to his own head in the TV movie, and none of which bother me in the slightest (OK, apart from the Colin Baker one, but most of Baker The Seconde's televised adventures are Aquaman to me).

I have to admit that the Kiss Heard Around The World isn't much of a problem for me, either - in principle, at least, although I agree that the way it was done could have been better. 'The Girl In The Fireplace' makes it clear that romance, done properly, can be a valid addition to modern DOCTOR WHO, and it's not entirely without precedent. Hartnell has something perilously-close to a romantic subplot in 'The Aztecs', Peter Davison's awkward flirtation with Nerys Hughes is one of the best things about 'Kinda', Tom Baker and Lalla Ward's on-screen chemistry owes a lot to the fact that they were TOTALLY doing it, and Pertwee's reaction to Jo Grant's departure is unequivocally that of a rejected lover.

There's also the fact that, if I'd spent the last however-many years looking like Sylvester McCoy and suddenly turned into Paul McGann, I'd probably leap at the first available opportunity for a bit of tonsil-hockey too.

The failure of the TV movie is more down to abysmal plotting, lumpen dialogue and piss-poor characterisation than anything else. The overall Americanized tone is definitely a problem, but the kiss and the gun are hardly the worst offenders on that score (half-human! HALF-HUMAN!).