Samuel West, an actor with plenty of plaudits and high-profiles, says his brief on-screen appearance in Doctor Who is the “finest point of my career”.

It occurred in Dimensions in Time, a two-part story broadcast in 1993 that lasted 12 minutes and was actually a crossover between the show and EastEnders. The significance of his appearance, and little slice of dialogue in this story is because he took on a role that had been earmarked for Sir Ian McKellen.

Cyrian was the companion of the Rani, the villian of the piece.

“I got to say ‘30 seconds to computer achieving full power status’ which is still my finest moment, the finest point of my career I think,” he recently told the Radio Times as he promoted his return to the role of Morbius in a new Big Finish boxset. He previously played Morbius against the Eighth Doctor in 2008’s The Vengeance of Morbius. He went on:

“I was very touched. I said, to my agent, who has since retired, ‘Look, I’ve played Hamlet, I can juggle five balls, I’ve read the shipping forecast, I only have one professional ambition left and that’s to be in Doctor Who but Doctor Who is ending and I haven’t been in it,’ and she said, ‘Okay, leave it with me.’

“And she called me back about a week later saying, ‘They’re doing an episode for Children in Need and I’ve got you a job as Kate O’Mara’s assistant. The catch is it was originally offered to Sir Ian McKellen, who turned it down. So he’s called Cyrian.’

“At the time, I thought that was it. Since then, of course it’s come back and [is] better than ever, and I’m looking forward to one day being in New Who, I hope.”

West currently has seven acting credits to his name in the Doctor Who universe (preceding the release of his Dark Gallifrey: Morbius boxset), following up his television and then first appearance as Morbius with a BBC audio drama in 2010, a turn as famed playwright Aristophanes in a Big Finish Main Range release in 2014, two stories as ‘Mr Song’ in the first series of The Diary of River Song, then a raft of original characters in another Main Range release in 2018.