Dragon*Con 2011 Video: Sylvester McCoy Recites Lines From ‘Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens’
Posted by Tom Cheredar | September 2nd, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Sylvester McCoy, the seventh actor to portray The Doctor on classic British TV show Doctor Who, made his first appearance at Dragon*Con today.
Not only did McCoy reveal the humorous origins of his name, but the actor also read a scene from recent Doctor Who episode The Pandorica Opens, which was originally performed by Matt Smith.
Why would McCoy do such a thing?
Partially, I think it’s because he is very fan friendly. The reading was done at the request of the panel moderator, who wanted to dispel the notion that McCoy was a bad doctor by giving him some decently written dialogue.
McCoy was also given the choice to take home one of several toy sonic screwdrivers, the device used by the Doctor to get out of many ‘o sticky situations.
For those who aren’t aware, John Nathan Turner, the showrunner during McCoy’s tenure, didn’t allow the actor’s version of The Doctor to have a sonic screwdriver because he felt it made the writers lazy — meaning, every time the Doctor had a problem, the writers used the screwdriver to fix it instead of being creative.
“When I did finally get a sonic screwdriver it was in the TV movie with Paul McGann,” McCoy said. “If you’ll notice, the shot of me holding the screwdriver is blurred because I was actually holding it upside-down.”
“I didn’t know,” he added.
I’ve embedded a video clip of McCoy’s reading below. Check back soon for the full panel upload.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press