Paul McGann Deserves a Second Chance at 'Doctor Who'

The Doctor Who 60th anniversary is almost upon us, which has brought with it the official launch of "The Whoniverse," the BBC's larger shared universe around the show that includes both new and classic episodes, spin-offs, documentary features, and ancillary material, like the new Tales of the TARDIS episodes or the An Adventure in Space and Time film that dramatized the series' origins.

The expansion of the franchise in this way has, of course, kicked off all sorts of rumors about what other sorts of stories we might see in the world of Doctor Who, from a rumored spinoff focused on the more Earthbound adventures of UNIT to one based on the series' various iconic villains. None of these have been officially confirmed, of course, but the latest rumors are perhaps the most enticing yet: That former Eighth Doctor Paul McGann (Annika) will reprise his role for a new series of adventures in the TARDIS.

Granted, the source of this rumor is The Mirror, so we should take all of this with a heaping grain of salt, but it's honestly a potential spin-off that would make complete sense. McGann only ever played the Doctor in the 1996 made-for-television movie of the same name, which was, admittedly, dreadful. It was so bad it essentially sent the franchise into hiatus for the better part of a decade and, as a result, was the only proper onscreen adventure the Eighth Doctor ever had. The show returned with Christopher Eccleston (The Leftovers) as the Ninth incarnation of the Time Lord in 2005, though McGann returned for a special mini-episode called "The Night of the Doctor" prior to Doctor Who's 50th anniversary that made his regeneration into Eccleston canon. (He also briefly appeared again in Jodie Whittaker's final episode, "The Power of the Doctor," alongside several other previous incarnations of the character.)