The New Doctor Who

Doubt there will be a regeneration on TV, if Paul McGann ends up being better than Chris Ecclestone in his few scenes, people will start asking why he wasn't cast instead...

If there is a regeneration, it will probably be in the BBC Books series.

Don't call them "assistants", they're called COMPANIONS, dammit!!!

I'm a huge Doctor Who fan and have been since I used to watch Tom Baker, but this is just a load of fanw*nk.
Regeneration is not what the Doctor is about - it's just a facet of the series used to explain the change of lead and keep the series going.

One of the things (of the many problems) that confused viewers of the TVM was the whole 'change your main character actor part way through'. By the time the new series airs it's going to be 8-9 years since Paul McGann was the Doctor, so seeing the change itself is irrelevant.

The new series has to grab viewers and get a good audience (and new fans) immediately if it is going to succeed and be recommissioned. Wasting part of the first story on a fairly minor but potentially confusing regeneration is pointless and not going to achieve that aim.

Otherwise we're going to end up in the same sort of situation which happened in the 80s of many stories over-relying on the series mythology and not going for good strong stories showing dangerous and exciting situations and how the Doctor deals with them.

<end rant>

Well said Neil. They have apparently said that they won't be doing a regeneration sequence, which is definately a good thing in my opinion.

Even if McGann didn't want to do it, they could do a Time & The Rani-style regeneration, but it would be a bif of an embarassment.

Corin, didn't spot the Paradise Towers reference! Don't tell me Richard Briars will be coming back!!

I think the McGann re-generation could be handled in a Big Finish audio or maybe a feature film as the beeb still have the rights and were planning to do a feature film with doctor who even after the announcement of the new series.

I am sad that McGann isn't coming back though, but i would love to see him come back in an anniversary special, like another two doctors story, but two, three and five doctors has been done, so we need four doctors to do the anniversary special

Did you never watch "Our Friends in the North" in which Christopher Eccleston played the lead character? A tower block of appartments of the worst kind (just like Paradise Towers) was a major element in the early episodes.

Hi there I don't like the sound of this new Doctor Who character Chris Eccleston, and I wanted to see Paul Mcgann as the new Doctor but he might be a sucess!.

Regards
Craig

Yes, but isn't that always the case whenever a new actor takes the role?

It took me ages to get used to Tom Baker after John Pertwee.

I know. I'm dreading the next Monarch of the Glen series. Tom Baker in Glenbogle just WON'T seem right.