Destination America for the Doctor
- Publication: Reading Evening Post
- Date: 1988-10-14
- Author: Syd Gillingham
- Page: 10
- Language: English
WHEN Dr Who takes his tardis to America he is guaranteed the time of his life.
For Sylvester McCoy, who plays television's most famous time traveller, is feted and fussed over wherever he goes.
He has recently returned from a trip to San Jose, California, and has visted the States twice before this year and five or six times last year On each occasion in one American city or another they have done him proud.
Next month, would you believe, they're taking him cruising from Miami to Mexico and back.
Dr Who fan fever in the States is running at an all time high - previous series are shown time and again on television and conventions held, attended not only by the current doctor but also by others who have played him down the years.
We Brits have been a little more restrained about Dr Who since William Hartnell as the first doctor took him into orbit in the early 1960s - in fact, the new 14-week series just launched on BBC1 is the Silver Jubilee Season
Resident loony
"In San Jose," said Sylvester, "they screen a half hour of Dr Who every weekday night with a bumper version at the weekend - and this goes on all the year round. While I was there I watched Colin Baker playing the doctor and next month they are running my first season."
This is Sylvester's second series as the doctor and he is contracted to make a third next year which seems well and truly to dispose of the rumour some time ago from on high at the Beeb that 'Dr Who' should be given the old heave-ho.
So what was the 45 year old, Dunoon born Sylvester McCoy the seventh Dr Who, doing when this marathon was beginning its run a quarter of a century or so ago?
Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith, as he was then, was probably working in insurance in the City - job he believes he landed because staff at the Youth Employment Centre he went to on arrival in London duly noted his double-barrelled name
Ill-fated expedition
He was 27 before he became an actor, and that was after working in the box office at the Roundhouse Theatre in North London He jokes about how he started as star turn, stuntman and resident loony of a tour ing road show, but in the theatre and on TV he has been seen in some very weighty productions.
For example, he played Birdie Bowers one of Scot's companions on the ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in ITV's serial The Last Place on Earth', in the theatre he has played in Brecht, Beckett and Shakespeare. and in the cinema he appeared with Lawrence Olivier in the film 'Dracula'
"I first saw Dr Who when the late Patrick Troughton was the doctor" recalls Sylvester "And I soon became hooked on it But my work as an actor meant that I was seldom al home to watch it."
"It's a lovely part and I was delighted to get it - although playing the doctor is a big responsibility. The exciting thing about it is that you can bring quite a lot of yourself to the role.
"Strangely enough, a lot of people have told me over the years that I would make a good Dr Who but I never dreamed I would actually play him."
Home for Sylvester and his wife Arnes, who is a fully qualified nurse and two sons Sam. 12, and Joe 10 is in North West London
Are Sam and Joe suit ably impressed by their dad being Dr Who?
"They are quite pleased about it." said Sylvester "But not really as impressed as their friends at school are You see, we don't go on about it much at home."
Theatre project
Does he as an actor worry about forever being known as Dr Who?
"I don't think so. All the other actors who have played him have not really suffered. I am rehearsing a play called 'The Zoo of Tranquility' at the moment I'm doing a children's programme on BBC in November and in January I'm doing a theatre project about Spike Jones and his City Slickers playing Jones."
Caption: Sylvester McCoy with his latest partner Sophie Aldred
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Gillingham, Syd (1988-10-14). Destination America for the Doctor. Reading Evening Post p. 10.
- MLA 7th ed.: Gillingham, Syd. "Destination America for the Doctor." Reading Evening Post [add city] 1988-10-14, 10. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Gillingham, Syd. "Destination America for the Doctor." Reading Evening Post, edition, sec., 1988-10-14
- Turabian: Gillingham, Syd. "Destination America for the Doctor." Reading Evening Post, 1988-10-14, section, 10 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Destination America for the Doctor | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Destination_America_for_the_Doctor | work=Reading Evening Post | pages=10 | date=1988-10-14 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=9 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Destination America for the Doctor | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Destination_America_for_the_Doctor | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=9 May 2025}}</ref>
- Title: Stars stays in orbit as seventh Dr Who
- Publication: Birmingham Daily News
- Date: 1988-10-21
