Sheppard Hopeful for Canton Return

Mark Sheppard would like Canton Delaware to become a recurring character in Doctor Who.

Sheppard is hoping that the popular character will return to the show again in the near future: “I hope I’m back, I really do. I’d be honoured,” he said in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

“My dad [Morgan Sheppard, who played older Canton] may be back before me. It depends whether they do 2011 or 1969, or later.

“I got a chill when [in The Wedding of River Song] the Doctor says, basically, ‘I wanted to die surrounded by my friends.’ Because Steven could have left it that Canton just happened to be in Utah at the time, bringing with him a can of gasoline. You don’t know why he’s there. He’s got a TARDIS-blue envelope, but it may just be expediency.

He adds: “To come to the end of the series, and have it be that Canton is one of the Doctor’s closest friends… that’s kind of cool. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Then, of course, to have the Brigadier not be able to make it… it gave me this sense of hope about perhaps returning, given that Canton is probably more like the Brigadier than he is Amy or Rory. That was my era, the Brigadier and Sarah Jane. If I could return half as many times as they did, I’d be a very happy man.”

Your move, Moffat.