14 Doctor Who Urban Legends That Are Actually True

7. The Odds Were Against Him

Sylvester Mccoy Doctor Who
BBC

It€™s often suggested that Sylvester McCoy€™s portrayal of the Seventh Doctor was directly responsible for Doctor Who€™s controversial cancellation in 1989 (more on that later) but it€™s unfair to assume that he was the only factor that contributed to the show€™s untimely demise. Actually, that€™s just not true at all. To say he was initially unpopular, though, isn€™t entirely without evidence. The results of the BBC€™s internal research into his debut series at the helm of the TARDIS were interesting to say the least. 30% of the audience claimed to like absolutely €œnothing€ about his incarnation of the titular Time Lord as he received a personal summary index figure (which is basically the BBC€™s posh way of asking people to rank how good he was) of 46 which was said to be considerably less than his €œonly moderately popular€ predecessor Colin Baker. Oh dear. It wasn€™t just bad news for poor old McCoy, either. His first companion Melanie Bush, played by Bonnie Langford, also suffered as a result of a turbulent tenure in the TARDIS - both on and off screen. In fact, a landslide 56% of questionnaire respondents revealed that they wished she€™d actually been eaten during the 1987 serial Paradise Towers. Tell us what you really think, why don€™t you? They never stood a chance.

Doctor Who Editor
Doctor Who Editor

Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.