Doctor Who’s Paul McGann has fuelled online discourse with new comments about David Tennant. The actor, 64, portrayed the Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who television film in 1996, and has since reprised his role in voice form for the Big Finish Audio series.
In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine (via Huffington Post),McGann, alongside India Fisher, who voiced companion Charlie Pollard for eight years, reflected on the romantic history of their two characters.
In an episode of the audio series, titled “Scherzo”, Fisher recalled that her character was set to kiss the Doctor. Rewrites altered this sequence of events, and changed to them “melding into one” instead.
“Now, of course, the Doctor is snogging all over the shop,” Fisher revealed in the interview. In response, McGann said: “That’s because of David Tennant! The David Cassidy of Doctors!”
“The Doctor cannot be a love interest. It’s impossible,” he said, and continued: “I think that’s the rule you don’t break. I think if that happened, Doctor Who would lose one of its hugest advantages. You can’t go back after that.”
The remarks were shared online, and fans of the long-running sci-fi series were quick to point out that McGann was the first incarnation of the Doctor to kiss a companion. In 1996, he shared an on-screen snog with Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook).
“Very funny thing for the first Doctor to kiss a companion on-screen to say,” one Twitter user writes. “Pot Kettle Black, Mr McGann! You started it!,” another adds. “He kissed someone first can’t blame David for that,” a third chimes in.
