I have heard it said that anything in life can be improved by the liberal application of Paul McGann. As statements go, it’s obviously not a hundred per cent accurate, but there’s some truth in there.

The problem with celebrating Paul McGann’s Doctor is that, for most people, he only appears in the TV Movie, and he’s not even in that for the first half hour. The TVM, by the by, is a slightly odd beast. Essentially, it’s a series finale trying to do the job of a pilot episode. Imagine, if you will, that The End Of Time Part Two was broadcast instead of Rose. Can you imagine how that would go down? The questions that would ensue? When did The Master gain that power? Who are all these people? Is Doctor Who always like this?

Fortunately, despite turning everyone into Chandler Bing out of Friends, the TVM gives us a new Doctor to enjoy. This helps a lot, especially when McGann’s Doctor is so exuberant, dashing and approachable. The Doctor is having fun again; he has no Machiavellian schemes to embark upon. Certainly, the Eighth Doctor’s character is drawn as a marked contrast to his predecessor, and his stories initially moved away from the early 90s trend towards dark and gritty.

This is possibly exemplified by the first Eighth Doctor novel, The Dying Days, a tremendous romp of a story culminating in an astonishing action sequence. Plus, the Brigadier’s in it. The last time we saw the Eighth Doctor in a book, he was jumping into the unknown. That’s just the kind of guy he is: heroic, fond of jumping off stuff, and completely unhindered by budgets.