Sylvester McCoy, the 7th actor to play the title role in the long-running BBC science fantasy television series Doctor Who, has been accused of “inappropriate behavior” on during a Sci-Fi Cruise.

It’s quite the tale.

One Samantha Lee Howe is outraged that Sylvester McCoy has been invited back to the next Sci-Fi Cruise despite her claims of being targetted and physically assaulted by the actor. Samantha Lee Howe says she’s the victim of an on-going whisper campaign against her, villifying her and claiming uncited abuses of others. McCoy’s spokesperson says that one of the observers of the incident likens the situation to “handbags at dawn”, and that McCoy felt compelled to stand up on behalf of the people whom Howe allegedly abused.

Howe describes herself as an “abuse survivor”, without going into detail about what that means. She claims none of the behavior alleged to have originated with her against others actually took place, and that McCoy’s actions feed into the lies. McCoy’s Facebook page, in return, says that Howe’s conversations on social media on the subject have done nothing to stem the confabulations that McCoy’s physical interaction with her somehow amounted to some sort of sexual assault, which from appearances, witnesses and video evidence, did not actually happen.

Some of you will perhaps have seen the Facebook post from Samantha Lee Howe expressing her displeasure that Sylvester had been asked back to Sci Fi Cruise “after verbally and physically man-handling her” on the last one. There was indeed an altercation between the two of them; no denying that. And those present saw it. However, the context of it, and the full facts leading to the event, have absolutely not been presented and have led to the most appalling stream of speculation that he is guilty of unconscionable sexual abuse.

Samantha has clearly been following responses to her post but no effort has been made to correct any of those misconceptions despite seeing them being so unjustly reached.

It now seems she is making some posts more private. But very late in the day and with the unacceptable damage already floating round the ether.

I have also seen that she has openly tried to influence future employers to cancel him. I now feel I have no choice other than to give the regrettable incident the further context you deserve.

After months of witnessing Samanatha behaving in an unkind, and inappropriate manner to two young professional friends, he discovered they had encountered it again from her on the Cruise. He hit his “something needs to be said” wall and went immediately to address the issue in their defence. He still feels he had a responsibility to say something on their behalf, but he does feel regret for the manner in which he did so that evening. He did, during the confrontation, put his hands on her shoulders; this he is aware he absolutely shouldn’t have done, and for which he apologises. But it was neither with any physically abusive intent, nor in sexual molestation as people are being allowed to interpret from her words.

As a result of Samantha raising the issue with security, they quite rightly spoke to him, but also to others who were present. They also reviewed the actual CCTV footage of the altercation. And as the Cruise organiser has already stated publicly, they concluded no further action was appropriate. They didn’t just wave it off; they took their safe-guarding responsibilities seriously before reaching their conclusion. He would hope no-one feels unsafe under their care going forward and it would be most unfair if their business was subsequently affected by her post.

He and I have spoken many times today. This is a really distressing episode all round. He knows he was fuelled by extreme passion and vehemence that night, and I suspect another time in that situation of perceived injustice he will still feel he needs to act but that he will handle it differently.

Someone from that night described it to me as ‘handbags at dawn’. I suspect that is probably a fairer representation of the incident. Social media offers us all such wonderful opportunities to bond as communities with shared interests, but I do personally feel that sometimes we really do need to hold ourselves accountable for what we share on it. Just as he knows he needs to be accountable for the choices he makes in how he handles any confrontation he feels compelled to make; however passionately he feels someone is being bullied and deserves protection.

From Samantha Lowe’s posts, it appears to us that while McCoy may have acted from sincerity, he might also have been fed misinformation about Lowe’s behavior which led to the incident.

The cruise, Sci-Fi Sea Cruise, has issued their statement:

Regarding recent posts/comments made by one of our past Guests in reference to behavior by another of our past Guests:

The incident was reported to, and investigated by, the ship’s security office. After interviewing both parties, it was resolved at the time to the satisfaction of security, and both parties were advised that no further action would be taken unless things escalated before the end of the voyage, which they did not.

Most of the comments on the Facebook page have been mostly supportive of McCoy, who has a strong reputation for being a champion of the oppressed.

The biggest takeaway from our perspective is how easy it is to get sucked up into fan altercations, and that situations can be easily manipulated by the omission of critical facts, or the introduction of unverifiable ones to the conversation. That seems to have been in evidence on both sides of this dispute.

The Sylvester McCoy Page on Facebook has also issued this supplemtary statement, presumably once again by McCoy manager Clare Eden:

Update: may I reiterate that I believe kindness and sense is best offered by everyone on both ‘sides’ – in my personal view no one should be encouraging the cancelling of either party. We would all honestly be better off finding something positive and wholesome to do instead, Clare.

How heartening to see some more sensibly minded, calm jurors in the “Facebook jury” now. Thank you.

In response to some of the points made :-

• Yes: my reputation as a human and a professional is sacred to me. And yes, I do not post this without making sure I am writing with integrity.
• As a woman I do not take this lightly. It is essential that our society listens to women. And as essential that women are responsible. When one is a wordsmith and understands how to use words. it is unconscionable to me that they write ‘loosely’ and then sit back and watch their words be misconstrued and say nothing to correct.
• I hope I have made it clear that both Sylvester and I know that he should have handled it differently no matter how aggrieved he felt on his friends’ behalf. And yes, he regrets that and openly says so.
• It was been a torturous 24 hours but he is similarly heartened to see the support on here, and sent directly to him, and thanks you for that.
• Can we all put the handbags back in the closet and move on with kindness and integrity? Both are free and yet both bring riches to our own lives and to the lives of others.

Sylvester McCoy, a veteran actor and fan favorite, is best known for his portrayals of the title role in 42 episodes of Doctor Who from 1987-1989, as well as his portrayal of Radagast the Brown in three of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. His filmography, however, includes 124 roles since his first TV series Vision On from 1965-1976, and numerous returns to the role as The Doctor in various BBC specials and numerous Big Finish Audio productions.