{"id":48958,"date":"2024-04-03T20:00:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T18:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2018906"},"modified":"2024-04-03T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T21:12:10","slug":"doctor-whos-samuel-west-wants-to-play-morbius-alongside-ncuti-gatwa","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-whos-samuel-west-wants-to-play-morbius-alongside-ncuti-gatwa\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who\u2019s Samuel West wants to play Morbius alongside Ncuti Gatwa"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Morbius is the gift that keeps on giving.” <\/p>

By Louise Griffin\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 03 April 2024 at 18:00 PM<\/p>

\n\n

After the return of the Toymaker<\/a> in Doctor Who<\/a>\u2018s 60th anniversary special The Giggle<\/a>, perhaps there\u2019s potential for more iconic villains to return.<\/p>\n

Actor Samuel West<\/a> certainly hopes so, as he lends his voice to the villainous Morbius once more.<\/p>\n

The villain, first voiced on screen by Michael Spice in the 1976 story The Brain of Morbius, has returned multiple times in audio form, most recently for Big Finish\u2019s Dark Gallifrey series.<\/p>\n

However, chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a>, actor West expressed his hopes for the character to return to screens to face Ncuti Gatwa\u2019s Fifteenth Doctor.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019d love to [play Morbius on screen]. I hope I would be on the list for people should he return.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always hard to know what sort of shape he\u2019s going to be in. It may be that they need somebody who looks different or sounds different or moves differently\u2026\u00a0 but Morbius is the gift that keeps on giving.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe keeps coming back, and it seems impossible to annihilate him.<\/p>\n

\"Samuel\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Samuel West.<\/span><\/figcaption> Getty<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to. I think [the show] is in very good shape. I think Ncuti is brilliant casting and I\u2019d love to work with him. I think he\u2019s a fantastic actor. So yeah, I\u2019m cheap and available!\u201d<\/p>\n

As West mentions, Morbius has been seen (or heard) in various different forms throughout the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think vocally it allows you to be quite extreme because of the frustration of not having your own body and needing to embody something,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\"Ncuti\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor in Doctor Who.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC Studios\/Bad Wolf\/James Pardon<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cI mean, the good thing about the Big Finish episodes is that they\u2019re properly written, they\u2019ve got big mouth-filling speeches for the tyrants, and so they need a certain amount of vocal size.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had fun playing somebody who is disembodied, and also very badly injured, but who gradually, through assuming powerful people, gets some of his power and his voice back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ve always liked the fact that\u2026 I mean, Big Finish jobs are quick, but they allow you to give a performance, sometimes [as] several people, in a well worked out universe with a very faithful audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what Morbius has got in store in the Dark Gallifrey series?<\/p>

\u201cThere\u2019s some very nasty stuff up his sleeve. I like the fact that he\u2019s written with a certain amount of backstory. He\u2019s thought to be of bad blood, he was mistreated as a child \u2013 if you were playing him on stage and had lots of time for rehearsal, you\u2019d find things that made him who he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s also sociopathic and pulls the wings off flies and has had feeling beaten out of him to the extent that he needs to see other people suffer to feel anything, so he\u2019s a nasty piece of work!\u201d<\/p>\n