The website dedicated to Sylvester McCoy, the seventh Doctor Who, induces an eerie sense of being suspended in time. In 1989 to be exact. McCoy was the last Doctor of the old series: his tenure in the Tardis came to an end amid falling ratings and a general feeling that viewers had fallen out of love with the mysterious alien time-traveller with two hearts and an eccentric dress sense.

But on the forums of the Sylvester McCoy Appreciation Society, his legacy lives on. Avid fans of the seventh Doctor discuss such probing questions as “In which story do you think Ace starts to mature?” — Ace was McCoy’s faithful if slightly dimwitted companion — and “What If the McCoy era hadn’t gone against Coronation Street?’ Every subplot is dissected, every minor character mythologised. One shivers to think of the relationship status of someone who dreams up the question: “Do you think Davros looks cute in Remembrance of the Daleks?” It all seems a little, well, nuts.

“I’m not a great computer person,” says McCoy diplomatically. “But I am aware there is a responsibility that comes with being a Doctor. It attracts very dedicated followers. They live and breathe the stories, they break them down and study them, the what ifs and the maybes. I think it’s very flattering. It takes on a life of it’s own. I feel privileged to have been part of that.”

At the time, McCoy had his critics. In the first series he played the Doctor in a comic fashion, as something of a buffoon who played the spoons and mixed his metaphors. He was the first non-Englishman to play the role and many purists were scandalised by his soft Argyll lilt. He made an ignominious entrance having to stand in for his predecessor Colin Baker, who broke with tradition by refusing to return for the pivotal regeneration scene. McCoy was required to wear a frankly ridiculous blond curly wig for the part.

As his character arc developed, however — between 1987 and 1989 he starred in three series — the writers gradually transformed him into a darker, more complex figure with a sinister side that hinted at exciting things to come. Then, after 26 years, the BBC cancelled the series.

“I wasn’t told until eight months after we’d finished the previous series,” he says. “I expected to be told we were starting the new one. But that’s how these things go — I’m an actor and that happens in my profession. It was a bit sad as I felt I hadn’t finished with the Doctor.”

McCoy, though, is not a man to dwell on missed opportunities — and there have been a few. He was slated to play Governor Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a role that eventually went to Jonathan Pryce. In general, blockbuster roles have eluded McCoy. The success of the new Doctor Who series, though, has given his profile a boost.

“I was the last of what they now call the classic doctors, the last Doctor of the 20th century.

“We’re now in the 21st century, of course,” he adds with the keen perception of time of a man practised at playing a time-travelling alien.

He can’t help but envy the current series’ budget and special effects.

“I am desperately and wildly jealous, of course,” he says. “The things they get to do are amazing, though I talk to a lot of people who complain that the sets don’t shake any more.”

What tickles him most is that a whole new generation of children are acquainting themselves with episodes he made over 20 years ago.

“That’s what’s really glorious,” he says. “Every day I meet young kids who are watching the old episodes because of their love of the new series. The come up to me and remind me of stories I’d forgotten.”

Then there are the endless Doctor Who conventions, which he fits in between theatre and television commitments. He is currently playing Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors, which comes to Glasgow in April.

He is a fan of the new series and, so far, the actors who have followed in his footsteps.

“I loved Christopher Eccleston and was sad when he left, then David took over and did a wonderful job,” he says. “The new chap [Matt Smith] has a hard act to follow. I don’t know much about him but he looks interesting, he’s got a great face, kind of unusual — I think that’s important for the Doctor.”

McCoy was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith in Dunoon, in 1943. He trained to be a priest but then changed his mind when he fell in love with a nun.

Wanderlust took him to London where he found work in the Roundhouse theatre’s box office. He quickly realised acting was the career for him and became part of the Ken Campbell Roadshow, touring Europe pulling ferrets out of his trousers and exploding bombs on his chest.

“I was known as the Human Bomb,” he says. “We did the show in Israel once, though you couldn’t do that now, it wouldn’t be tasteful.”

He now lives an altogether quieter life in north London, married with two sons. Does he have any advice for Tennant as he prepares to hand over the sonic screwdriver to Smith?

“David is a fantastic actor with a great career ahead of him but you take a little bit of the Doctor with you, you just can’t help it,” he says. “What did I take with me? Well, I still have the umbrella, a couple of jackets and the question mark pullover.”

One suspects there is more of the Doctor in Sylvester McCoy than even he cares to admit.

Little Shop of Horrors, the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, April 6-11. The Doctor Who exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow runs from March 28 until January 4 2010

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