Line #37 Creator/PaulMcGann


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/liv_20130728_afe_016_28356312_i1_2.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor He's a Doctor. Though, probably not the one you're expecting.]]]]
3
4	->''"I'm not a sci-fi lover; I wasn't from the start. So perhaps I miss that passion for other worlds, other dimensions, that sort of scope and that magnitude of storytelling; that's not my thing though I meet plenty of people whose thing it definitely is."''
5
6	Paul John [=McGann=] (born 14 November 1959 in UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}}, England) is an English actor who made his name on the [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] serial ''The Monocled Mutineer'', in which he played the lead role. He's also known for his role in ''Film/WithnailAndI'', playing Bush in ''Series/HoratioHornblower'', and for portraying the [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor Eighth Doctor]] in the 1996 ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie television movie]] and subsequent ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio plays, along with [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor a brief appearance]] in the revived series.
7
8	Despite his extremely brief on-screen tenure in ''Doctor Who'', his Doctor is well-loved due to his being a connecting thread during ''Who'''s cancellation years; his comic series and audio adventures have quite a large fandom. Starting in 2008, he stopped being a regular in the monthly episodes and started starring in his own separate ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' series ''The New Eighth Doctor Adventures''. [=McGann=] finally got to canonically connect the dots between his Eighth Doctor and Creator/ChristopherEccleston's Ninth Doctor seventeen years later in the minisode "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]".
9
10	In 2022, he again reprised his role as the Eighth Doctor in the BBC Centenary Special "[[Recap/DoctorWho2022CENThePowerOfTheDoctor The Power of the Doctor]]".
11
12	His three brothers Stephen, Mark and Joe are also actors. Stephen is probably the best known, playing Dr. Turner on ''Series/CallTheMidwife''. All four [[RealLifeRelative starred together as brothers]] in ''Series/TheHangingGale''.
13
14	[[Website/{{Twitter}} Tweets]] as [[https://twitter.com/pauljmcgann @pauljmcgann]].
15
16	----
17	!!Filmography:
18	%%Please help fill this out, especially with works that have articles here.
19
20	* ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'': Walter Golic. You might remember him better as "The inmate that called the Alien a dragon".
21	* ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993'': Gerard and one of the Cardinal's guards.
22	* ''The Monocled Mutineer'': Percy Toplis
23	* ''Film/WithnailAndI'': Marwood ("I")
24	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor Eighth Doctor]] in:
25	** ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie Doctor Who: The Movie]]'' (1996)
26	** ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' (2001-present)
27	** ''[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]'' (2013)
28	** "[[Recap/DoctorWho2022CENThePowerOfTheDoctor The Power of the Doctor]]" (2022)
29	* ''Series/TheHangingGale:'' Father Liam Phelan.
30	* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': Lieutenant Bush
31	* ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'': David Talbot
32	* ''Film/LesbianVampireKillers'': Vicar
33	* ''{{Series/Luther}}'': Mark North
34	* ''Series/RipperStreet'': Stanley Bones
35	* ''Podcast/TheMinisterOfChance'': Ambassador Durian
36	* ''Film/AlwaysCrashingInTheSameCar'': Bill Mackinnon
37	* ''Series/{{Annika\|2021}}'': Michael
38
39	!!Tropes associated with this actor's works include:
40
41	* CozyVoiceForCatastrophes: His deep, soothing voice has led him to narrate documentaries on uncomfortable and/or frightening subjects. (Counting multiple-episode documentaries, he's narrated nearly a hundred.)
42	* EvilIsHammy: Whenever he plays a villain. A good example is the Doctor's evil SplitPersonality Zagreus from [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho050Zagreus the Big Finish story of the same name]].
43	* MrFanservice: Almost every movie he's in casts him as a lust object.
44	** ''The Rainbow'' pushed the trope to its natural limit by having him frolick naked through the woods.
45	** ''Film/WithnailAndI'' could easily just have been called "Paul [=McGann=] Is Almost Naked A Lot".
46	** He spends his first ten minutes as the Eighth Doctor wearing nothing but a sheet.
47	** Lampshaded a bit in a ''Big Finish'' episode where, despite it being a sound-only medium, he ''still'' manages to lose his shirt. Twice.
48	** ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': He's not the only one Mr Fanservice is this series, but his Mr Bush tends to get wet a lot and has some glorious {{Shirtless Scene}}s.
49	** He [[http://31.media.tumblr.com/dfca6fafb65987ecc6b06eceaadc3c0d/tumblr_mwqyy34SAB1r5s4n9o1_400.gif appeared]] in the Series/DoctorWho after-credits behind the scenes feature to [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/dbd26157a6588d97c4fb7e12f43d9e74/tumblr_mwqyy34SAB1r5s4n9o3_400.gif wish the show a happy fiftieth birthday]]... Which he then followed up with a [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/9eef46a83bbae9f1e2740bdbd32606e7/tumblr_mwqyy34SAB1r5s4n9o2_400.gif kiss]] while looking seductively at the screen. Woof.
50	* OlderThanTheyLook: Time has been very kind to him between [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/gallery/tvmovie/images/1024/dw52.html the Doctor Who movie]] (mid-30s) and [[http://i.imgur.com/zxCjcBZ.jpg the present]] (late 50s). This allowed him to play the Doctor on screen ''17 years'' after his first outing without much problem.
51	* OldShame:[[invoked]] A mild one, but don't bring up the wig he wore for his role as the Eighth Doctor for the TV movie, he '''hated''' wearing that wig. One of the reasons he got cast was the producers like his naturally curly mop top which he had for his roles in ''Film/WithnailAndI'' and ''Series/TheHangingGale'' (which according to Paul his role as Father Liam helped get him the part of the Doctor). Unfortunately he had to cut it for another role, so when he arrived in Vancouver to begin filming the makeup people hastily produced a wig to match his old look. When he was asked to return as the Eighth Doctor for ''The Night of the Doctor'', reportedly his only condition was that he didn't want to have to wear the wig again.
52	* TheOtherMarty: He was cast as the title character in ''{{Series/Sharpe}}'', but was forced to drop out mere days into filming, following a knee injury. He was replaced by Creator/SeanBean in his StarMakingRole.
53	* WhatBeautifulEyes: No matter what he's in, it's almost a guarantee his blue eyes will get at least one close-up.
54	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
55	** He was the second choice for the role of James Bond in ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'' before the casting of Creator/PierceBrosnan.
56	** He was the ''first'' choice for the title character of the ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'' TV series, but a broken leg meant the role went to Creator/SeanBean.
57	** He was considered to return as the Eighth Doctor when Doctor Who was revived again as a series in 2005. But producer Creator/RussellTDavies ultimately decided to start with a [[Creator/ChristopherEccleston new Doctor]] instead. There were then brief talks of having [=McGann=] shoot a regeneration scene to start the first episode, but Davies worried it would be too confusing for newcomers.

Context Creator / PaulMcGann