There’s many a slap ‘twixt a cup and a lap, and most of them happened in the Seventh Doctor’s era. Let’s take a look back at some of Sylvester McCoy’s finest moments…
5) I can’t stand burnt toast…
‘Ghost Light‘ is often regarded as one of the highlights of the Seventh Doctor’s time and, curiously, it was the final story to be filmed before the BBC unceremoniously pulled the plug in 1989.
And the Doctor’s “burnt toast” speech, brief and understated as it is, is a powerful moment for the Time Lord and his companion Ace. In the scene, he has tricked his friend into returning to a foreboding building that she razed to the ground as a teenager. When Ace learns the truth of what he’s done, she confronts the Doctor, asking: “Don’t you have things you hate?!”
“I can’t stand burnt toast,” he answers. “I loathe bus stations. Terrible places, full of lost luggage and lost souls… Then there’s unrequited love, and tyranny, and cruelty… We all have a universe of our own terrors to face.”
It’s possibly one of the greatest Doctor-companion moments of Doctor Who‘s classic era.
4) If we fight like animals…
Although ‘Ghost Light’ was the last Seventh Doctor story to be made, the last to be transmitted was ‘Survival‘ by Rona Munro. In the adventure, the Doctor has an epic showdown with his old enemy the Master, who is being slowly being overcome by the power of the Cheetah planet. He even has fangs.
That’s not what makes our next Seventh Doctor moment so special, though. In this scene, the Doctor and the Master have a literal fist-fight as the planet burns around them. And the Doctor comes close to bludgeoning his old enemy with a rock, until he comes to his senses. “What am I doing?” he asks himself. “I’ve got to stop! We’ve got to go! If we fight, we’ll destroy this planet. We’ll destroy ourselves!”
But the Master doesn’t heed his advice, of course, and the Doctor grows increasingly desperate. “If we fight like animals, we’ll die like animals!” he yells.
The scene then comes to a rather anti-climatic end when the Seventh Doctor finds himself transported back to West London, kneeling on a suburban driveway and shouting into thin air. The Master’s fate, however, remains a mystery…
3) The greatest explosion in the galaxy
‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ wrapped up Doctor Who‘s 25th anniversary season, and saw the Seventh Doctor do battle with the Gods of Ragnarok – an iconic event that was referenced as recently as 2023 by the newly-regenerated Ncuti Gatwa.
The confrontation itself is somewhat controversial due to its heavy emphasis on comedy; the Seventh Doctor tries to distract the gods by performing all manner of bizarre magic tricks which serves, if nothing else, as a showcase for Sylvester McCoy’s myriad talents.
But perhaps the highlight of this adventure is the moment when the Seventh Doctor finally overcomes his adversaries and walks, nonchalant, out of the circus tent, not even stopping to look back as it explodes behind him.
Sadly, there was no time to rehearse this scene and it had to be done in one take. Sylvester McCoy had no idea how strong the explosion would be, and if you look carefully you can see the actor flinch as he marches from the flames. According to the actor, the effect was so big, and so intense, he couldn’t even be sure that his clothes had survived!
2) End my life
In ‘The Happiness Patrol,’ the Seventh Doctor finds himself on a planet where it’s a crime to be unhappy, and owing to his naturally rebellious nature he soon finds himself being stalked by the local snipers.
But the Doctor is nothing if not disarming, and he defeats the gunmen using pure psychology. He joins the pair in the snipers’ nest, and confronts them. “Pull the trigger, end a life – simple, isn’t it?” He says. “Makes sense, doesn’t it? A life killing life… Why don’t you do it then? Look me in the eye. Pull the trigger. End my life. Why not?”
It’s chilling, and it works. This is one of the Seventh Doctor’s most powerful moments, and a testament to the range of the actor Sylvester McCoy.
1) I have defeated you
Perhaps the defining moment of the Seventh Doctor’s era is his confrontation with the last surviving Dalek in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks.’ He finds it alone and abandoned in a back alley, desperately trying to comprehend what has happened.
Interestingly, the Doctor arrives with a full complement of troopers, but as in ‘The Happiness Patrol,’ he decides to use words as his weapon du jour.
“Dalek, you have been defeated,” he utters, as he slowly approaches. “Surrender. You have failed… Your forces are destroyed. Your home planet a burnt cinder circling a dead sun… Even Davros, your creator, is dead. You have no superiors, no inferiors, no reinforcement, no hope, no rescue… You’re trapped a trillion miles and a thousand years from a disintegrated home… I have defeated you. You no longer serve any purpose.”
The Dalek then has something of a meltdown, spinning in circles and decrying the lack of data. It self-destructs, and the Doctor, barely flinching, scrapes his umbrella through the remnants, uttering the words: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…”
And as with the confrontation with the Gods of Ragnarok, this moment was later referenced in the modern series by the Tenth Doctor. “It’s not like I’m an innocent,” he says to his friend Wilf in ‘The End of Time.’ “I’ve taken lives. And I got worse, I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long…”
But tell us, what is your favourite moment from the Seventh Doctor’s era? Let us know in the comments below.
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