Sylvester, the new Time Lord, is the Real McCoy!
- Publication: Evening Chronicle
- Date: 1987-08-25
- Author: Phil Penfold
- Page:
- Language: English
FEATURES THAT GET TO THE HEART OF THE STORY
IT WAS most unlike a Time Lord, but the new Doctor Who arrived at the BBC ..... on a bicycle.
"Sorry I'm late," said Sylvester McCoy, "but next time I'll use the Tardis!"
Quite right too. You can't have television's perennial time traveller held up ignominiously in traffic. Not when there are Daleks, Cybermen and Lord knows what other nasties from the Universe and beyond lurking in the nearby special effects department.
Sylvester matererialises as Doctor Who Mark VII on Monday, September 7. Following in the footsteps of William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison And Colin Baker, he looks set to bring a fresh injection of eccentricity to the role, as befitting a former pub performer who once held the world record for stuffing ferrets down his trousers.
Not to mention a seasoned pantomime performer with fend memories of a long run one year at Newcastle's Theatre Royal.
At first, Sylvester McCoy doesn't look like a fellow who is 953 years old. has two hearts and lives in a police box.
The chirpy chappie sipping orange juice looks closer to 43, probably has a Dutch wife called Agnes (a nurse), two young sons called Sam and Joe and lives in North London.
PERSONALITY
But then again, body regeneration has been known to play hell with the Doctor's identity. This time, it's even made him talk with a Scots accent!
Soon, however, the real Doctor emerges. What you might call the Real McCoy, in fact.
"My Doctor will he different because he's obviously smaller, he says with a beady stare. "I'm five feet six so it will be difficult to do a Tom Baker type of Doctor because Tom is six foot odd".
Like the Tardis, Sylvester McCoy is bigger on the inside than on the outside.
"He's a very dominant personality, full of energy, strong on comedy and very physical," says Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner, who spotted Sylvester when he was playing the Pied Piper at the National Theatre.
Hype active Sylvester looks as if he's going to be one of the most active Doctors ever, doing his own stunts, forever falling down flights of stairs, rolling out from under the feet of giant robots and spinning Bonnie Longford (the Doctor's companion, Melanie) over his head.
"But the Doctor will never ever fight, anybody" says Sylvester, his Time stare intensifying a few degrees, feel quite strongly about that. The Doctor should never use a gun. He's a man of peace who has to do battle with the forces of war. But he will never ever wantonly harm anyone. He uses his brain, his wits, his humour and his ability to run very fast to beat his enemies".
And there are plenty of those in the new star-studded series. Kate O'Mara, Richard Briers and Den Henderson are among the gallactic villains, with the likes of Ken Dodd, Stubby Kaye and Hugh Lloyd as fellow travellers in time.
Some of the dangers he'll encounter in this series include batlike creatures called Tetraps, a futuristic tower block where the robot-cleaners are running amok, a chase across time and space to a 1950's holiday camp (Maplin's?) and an alien world of ice were a dragon lies in wait, What next? Who knows?
"I didn't have a set approach for the part" says Sylvester, who, in another dimension, features in the children's television series Tiswas, and who has also distinguished himself in many classical film roles, most recently in Antony and Cleopatra with Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy (007) Dalton.
MONSTERS
"For the moment I've got to fit into the script because when they wrote it they had no Doctor. They've changed one or two things as they've got to know me. Future scripts will be written around my personality - assuming they don't exterminate me first!"
The new Doctor's rise to stardom is a far cry from the. Roman Catholic seminary in Aberdeenshire where he once studied herd for the priesthood. "I was aged between 11 and 15 -- they like to start you early — and it was a terrific preparation for an acting career. But I went off the idea of becoming a priest when I discovered girls."
He's already, even before the series opens, received sackloads of mail from Doctor Who fans from all over the world, and has attended Doctor Who conventions in the U.S.
"After being in the business for over years, I seem to have acquired instant fame and instant responsibility, but it hasn't affected me yet. Maybe it will when the series starts.
Caption: Sylvester McCoy: He looks as though he is going to be one of the most active Doctors, doing his own stunts, such as rolling out from under the feet of giant robots.
A NEW series of BBC Television's Doctor Who starts, next month with the new Doctor being played Sylvester McCoy. Following in the footsteps of William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and the others, he is set to bring a fresh injection of eccentricity to the role as PHIL PENFOLD found out when he spoke to him.
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- APA 6th ed.: Penfold, Phil (1987-08-25). Sylvester, the new Time Lord, is the Real McCoy!. Evening Chronicle .
- MLA 7th ed.: Penfold, Phil. "Sylvester, the new Time Lord, is the Real McCoy!." Evening Chronicle [add city] 1987-08-25. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Penfold, Phil. "Sylvester, the new Time Lord, is the Real McCoy!." Evening Chronicle, edition, sec., 1987-08-25
- Turabian: Penfold, Phil. "Sylvester, the new Time Lord, is the Real McCoy!." Evening Chronicle, 1987-08-25, section, edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Sylvester, the new Time Lord, is the Real McCoy! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Sylvester,_the_new_Time_Lord,_is_the_Real_McCoy! | work=Evening Chronicle | pages= | date=1987-08-25 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=20 April 2024 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Sylvester, the new Time Lord, is the Real McCoy! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Sylvester,_the_new_Time_Lord,_is_the_Real_McCoy! | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=20 April 2024}}</ref>
