Who do you want to be Who? VOTE for the BBC's next Time Lord Peter Capaldi will demateralise as the 12th Time Lord this Christmas after four years. Capaldi was cast as Doctor Who by franchise owner the BBC in 2013 but will bow out with a regeneration during this year's Christmas special. Regenerations are always a reflective and throat-tightening event. Thanks, BBC – there goes my …
I can't think of a Doctor I didn't eventually enjoy (can't blame the actors for the writing) but I think the new incumbant has had the best chance when he's been an obvious contrast to his predecessor. David Tennant and Matt Smith were a bit too similar for my liking (young and full of laughs), so poor ol' Matt had a hard time putting his own stamp on the character.
Gravitas is a definite must-have though. Peter Capaldi (without the guitar or specs) brought that back to the part in a way that the younger actors couldn't always portrey alongside their goofy scripts. After all, this is a guy who has lifetimes of experience; he's at his best when that shows.
What about Ivanno Jeremiah (Humans, Max) as the Doctor? Definitely a calm contrast to Peter Capaldi's fire.
I leave, for your consideration, her portrayal of Laureline in the up and coming Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
A Thousand Planets? more like a thousand times no...
The part of the Doctor needs a character actor, not some passing fad or expedient 'politically correct' choice, by all means, have a female doctor, so long as the actress is up to the role, Oh, and please, no bloody USians, the leeches at BBC Worldwide can keep their fingers out of the pie..
I've no real candidates, but, hey, if they can bring Peter Cushing back for Star Wars, then I'll have a CGI Margaret Rutherford in full Madame Arcati mode as the next Doctor please..
Mmmmh. Seen a lot of good suggestions, seen a lot of crazy ones... Let's start from the top.
* Jeremy Clarkson would be great for a funsies one-off two-hour special, especially with Richard Hammond and James May as companions... As themselves, and rather bewildered as to why Jezza is acting more strange than usual. You can end it all when the real Jeremy Clarkson (played by Jeremy Clarkson, as himself,) shows up to track them down because they need to get filming, gets upset that some overweight tosser in a police box nicked his mates and starts a fistfight... With himself... That ends with the two of them toppling over a railing in the TARDIS, falling out of shot. Then the Gong o' Doom starts ringing, the real Jezza comes sprinting out and heading for the exit saying that he's made a terrible mistake and they need to just run. Cue trio, exiting from the TARDIS and off-screen sound of some kind of supercars starting up and burning rubber away, and then the real next Doctor climbs back up, and says something like "What a bunch of [CENSORED]."
*Sir Patrick Stewart or Sir Ian McKellan would be too like Capaldi... But Sir Patrick Stewart AND Sir Ian McKellan would be interesting. Two old guys who've had far too much of this nonsense, yet not nearly enough of this nonsense.
* Rowan Atkinson caught me offguard, but yeah, I could see that, actually. Blackadder proves he's more than capable of doing one character who's capable of being bitterly caustic and cynical, serious, and yet funny at the same time.
Anyway, I'm sure it'll be someone nobody has ever even thought of as the Doctor. And hopefully, it'll be good. I had severe misgivings about Capaldi, but now I'm kind of sad to see him go.
To think about it from the other angle, what kind of Doctor would you need to try and counter the Trump/Brexit age?
Personally, I want to see Capaldi go darkside as a reaction to all the cruelty/stupidity, requiring his companion to actually force a regeneration/reroll to stop him. I think Capaldi would appreciate getting his teeth into that.
The next Doctor would need to work on reattaching a culture to reason, and how all simple solutions are delusions. I vote for the next Doctor being a teenage girl boiling with internal chaos and the horrendous realisation we're all still predatory animals wearing fake skins, lying to each other about how civilised we are, while she tears apart each reassurance the companions try and use with cold cruel clarity.
Howabout an unstable doctor who keeps flipping between two characters/genders.
There was a Gaiman story (Books of Magic I think) with a character (Constantine) who was male on one side of a portal, but a bladewielding woman (Rose) on the other side, to the shock of the unchanged protagonist, but no others.
or Jo Brand, or maybe Sandi Toksvig - though I cannot imagine any of them running around much.
I would like to see a non-white and/or non-male though and nothing made of it at all - no remarks from the new doctor when he/she appears about skin colour or sex - this could be truly non-racist and non-sexist.
It might be seen as treason by the "Tom Baker will always be the best doctor ever" crowd, but I think he was the best doctor ever. Just the right combination of rough edges, self doubt, braggadocio and deadpan. Plus he had the look in his eyes that someone who has lived 2000 years would probably have.
I have really hated the succession of younger and younger doctors, trying to make him into a pin up boy. The doctor should be middle aged or older. I'm fine with a woman, just don't make her a hottie, that's not what Doctor Who is supposed to be about!
Its time to go back in time and give Paul McGann a few seasons as the 8th Doctor.
The 199x US tv Movie was frankly dreadful on many levels but McGann was great and when they did that very short little online Night of The Doctor episode just ahead of the 50th anniversary episode he shone.
Cant think of a single reason not to give the man a decent run at the role.
"The 199x US tv Movie was frankly dreadful on many levels but McGann was great and when they did that very short little online Night of The Doctor episode just ahead of the 50th anniversary episode he shone."
I know, I know, I keep plugging Big Finish, no I don't work for them. But!!!! Paul McGann does a great job as the 8th Doctor on audio. And all the BF Who scripts get clearance from the Doctor Who team so are effectively canon.
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