McGann Comments

Paul McGann, the last television Doctor (from the 1996 movie) has weighed in on his choice for a new Doctor in an article in the Telegraph: "I think it's high time that Doctor Who was a woman," McGann says. "There is nothing in the stories to say that the Time Lord can't be female. I'd like to see somebody really scary, Amazonian, highly intelligent and gorgeous in the role: someone who could be a complete handful. Rachel Stirling [the actress daughter of Dame Diana Rigg] could do it because she's got great charisma. Dame Maggie Smith would be brilliant. I'd like to see the Doctor as diva, rather than being played by some dippy, wide-eyed girl." McGann adds: "For too long the Doctor has been played as a very heavy, melancholic man with Victorian gravitas. I'd also like to see a black actor, like Chjwetel Ejiofor [the British actor who starred in the 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things] take the role. The producers of the ninth series should cast their net slightly wider than the usual white male, but it'll probably end up going to James Nesbitt, the star of Cold Feet, because his stock is so high at the moment and he'll be a ratings winner." The article also quotes Telos publisher David Howe ("It is a family show and there is no place for overt sexual relations," Howe says) and Sophie Aldred, who played Ace: "I'm very old school and I don't think they should really change anything, ... I think Richard E Grant would be good and I'd like to see Sylvester McCoy make a comeback." (Thanks to Steve Tribe)