7 Reasons Doctor Who Fans Should Give Sylvester McCoy A Break

6. He's One Of The Most Alien Doctors

Perhaps one of the most distinguishing features of the Seventh Doctor is his ability to turn on a dime. One moment funny, the next scary, in an instant cruel and then all of a sudden he's kind. McCoy's elastic face and hyperactive nature make him one of the most other-worldly incarnations of the Time Lord and, while this quality has come to be celebrated since the show's revival, in the 1980's many found McCoy's brand of other-worldliness to be rather alienating (if you'll pardon the pun) indeed. The Seventh Doctor seems to have one of the most timeless and alien personalities and this shines through in every episode of McCoy's run. The Doctor's eccentricities feel less like affectations and more like an inherent part of this Doctor's personality. While some actors deliberately try to be quirky, McCoy lets his natural eccentricities shine through, grounding the Doctor in the real world, while simultaneously allowing the Doctor to appear more extra-terrestrial than ever before. In terms of the show's history, McCoy's performance should be held in such high regard as Tom Baker's utterly bonkers interpretation of the role, however, critics and fans alike tend to see McCoy as an easy target due to the era's poor production quality and see this as an excuse to blame the show's shortcomings on McCoy's wonderfully out-there performance. On the topic of poor production quality...