For seven long years, Sylvester McCoy had a cloud hanging over his legacy in Doctor Who. He was the last actor to play the lead role when the series appeared to have finally come to an end in December 1989, just a short time after its 26th anniversary. It seemed he would be at risk of being the man who had killed Doctor Who, even though there were other forces and factors in play.
The BBC had been determined to be rid of the show, by hook or by crook. Their first attempt in 1985 had failed after there had been a backlash, leading to them claiming that the plan all along had been for the show to be ‘rested’ for 18 months. This time around, the bigwigs scheduled it directly opposite Coronation Street, that seemingly unassailable juggernaut of television, which saw ratings dip as low as 3 million. In this modern streaming age, some programmes would be glad to reach those giddy heights. The past, as they say, is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
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However, in 1996, Doctor Who returned for one night only, in a big-budget TV movie, which was a co-production with Universal and Fox, with Paul McGann taking up the mantle. McCoy returned for the regeneration, finally being able to hand over the TARDIS key to a successor. No longer would there be that albatross around his neck, as another Doctor had followed him. McCoy would return to the part in 1999, for Big Finish’s audio dramas, and would rightly go on to be respected as an ‘elder statesman’ Doctor, appearing as the character in a Blu-ray announcement trailer, as well as in Jodie Whittaker’s finale, and – most recently – on iPlayer, featuring in Tales of the TARDIS.
Sylvester McCoy’s era on the programme was certainly one of the most creative and vibrant, with a wealth of fresh and upcoming talent, and you can see just what a phenomenal job everyone was doing in difficult circumstances, with the rug slowly being pulled out from beneath them by the BBC. In the last of Reeltime Pictures’ series of The Doctors DVDs looking at the classic era of Doctor Who, we get to hear from some of those backroom boys who had worked on the show during such a turbulent period, ably interviewed by Robert Dick, Nicholas Briggs, and McCoy’s final companion, Sophie Aldred.
The first disc in the set focuses upon the writers, kicking off with Ben Aaronovitch, who got the 25th anniversary season off to a memorable start with ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. Hailing from a talented brood, with siblings Owen and David being an actor and journalist respectively, you get a sense of how Ben Aaronovitch carved his own path, with Doctor Who acting as a springboard for far bigger things. Aaronovitch‘s name is perhaps best known to readers as the author of the urban fantasy novel series Rivers of London, but you do get a sense of his great pride for his two tales for Doctor Who, and he also speaks with a refreshing candour about some of what he perceives as his own shortcomings.
Ian Briggs also wrote twice for the series, with one tale being 100% studio-bound, the other shot entirely on location. Two very contrasting sets of production requirements resulted in quite different experiences, and Briggs talks about all of the challenges this presented. He also gives a very clear sense of how seat-of-the-pants some of the production actually was during this time, giving some insight into his own hands-on involvement while ‘The Curse of Fenric’ was being filmed. It should be noted that Briggs introduced Aldred’s Ace, and he seems in equal terms pleased and incredulous she should be returning 35 years on for Whittaker’s swansong.
Wrapping things up for the writers is Stephen Wyatt, who happened to give us two of the most remarkable stories of not just the McCoy era, but the show’s entire run: the dark satire on high-rise living which was ‘Paradise Towers’, and the eerie and unsettling ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’. As with Briggs, Wyatt’s two contributions were divided up equally between one solely studio-based, and the other in its entirety shot on location, although that was only due to an asbestos scare shutting the BBC’s studios. Wyatt comes across as someone genuinely touched that what could have been a footnote in his career is not just remembered but also greatly appreciated to this day.
Moving onto the second disc, we hear from director Andrew Morgan, with the interviewing duties divided between Dick and Aldred, the former concentrating on Morgan’s non-Who work, dipping his toe into the realm of BBC sci-fi on Blake’s 7. Dick’s thoughtful and intelligent questioning manages to perfectly complement Aldred’s personal connection, having worked with Morgan on Ben Aaronovitch’s ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. Aldred and Morgan’s portion of the interview is a rather different beast, being more like a casual chat between old friends, and the pairing of these styles works beautifully, giving a very novel flavour to proceedings.
Visual effects supervisor Mike Tucker is somebody who has been able to bridge the gap between old and new Who, and can give us an overview into how much things have changed with TV production techniques across the decades. Cutting his teeth working in-house with the BBC, Tucker was there right at the very end of Doctor Who’s original run way back in 1989, and as well as giving us a sense of just how shoestring and tight the budgets were back in the day, he also manages to highlight how there is still an awful lot of commonality in many ways, in terms of how things are done today. Tucker’s enthusiasm and passion is undiminished, and he makes for an engaging subject.
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Last – but certainly not least – is Keff McCulloch, somebody whose work was literally instrumental in the McCoy era as it ended up on our screens, as he would compose the score for several stories, as well as proving a rather controversial new arrangement of the famous theme tune by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire. McCulloch is certainly under no illusion as to how his work was received, and is quite self-effacing over it all, with the discussion of his career before and after Who proving to unexpectedly be even more fascinating than the section focusing on his time providing incidental music for the series. It all goes to show that Doctor Who need not be a full stop, or the only line on one’s CV.
Going out on a high with The Doctors: The Sylvester McCoy Years – Behind The Scenes, Reeltime Pictures’ series of The Doctors interview collections has proved to be a remarkable supplement to all the bonus material made available via the BBC’s official DVDs and Blu-rays. Here’s hoping that we get a future run based on the show post-2005 revival, as there are an awful lot of stories still to tell. Until then, bask in the glory of this superlative range.
The Doctors: The Sylvester McCoy Years – Behind The Scenes is out now on DVD from Reeltime Pictures.
