The Doctor is Out
 

Well: had to happen sooner or later, and I think most fans kind of expected sooner. Matt Smith has announced the end of his tenure as the Doctor: we have the big anniversary special (concluding the story from the series finale) and then the Christmas day episode, in which the Doctor will regenerate.

I'm sad about it, natch, I always am. But also kind of ready. I'd love one more series from him, but that's the best way to leave, with the audience wanting more. They've taken Smith's Doctor though so many different stories and the emotional journey he's had seems kind of complete. Not to say they couldn't find more to do if he'd wanted to stay, but it seems to me they've run the gamut, as they had with Tennant by the end. Time to shake off some of the baggage that's gathered over the last few years and start again with a fresh perspective.

I'm sad and also a little excited to see who will take it on next. Oh, and also slightly nervous too. Always am. Alays slightly nervous they'll make a dud choice and the next one just won't match up...

Cue months of press speculation in the UK, with made-up news stories of people who are definitely, no really, honestly, being considered. And articles asking whether now is the time for a woman Doctor (answer: no, it really isn't) or a black Doctor (no objections here), or an older Doctor (again no objections), and claims of leaks in the Sun naming the new Doctor as Joanna Lumley.

Me, I'm going to enjoy the various anniversary goodies that are floating about, and look forward to the conclusion of the current Doctor's story...and try not to get caught up in the surrounding 'new Doctor' noise.

hahahahahaha. Just after I pressed send, the radio were reading out headlines and comments and the words: 'The next Doctor may be a woman' just floated out the speakers. 'Unnamed sources at the BBC...' blah blah. Followed by the inevitable comment from one of the female presenters that: 'of course it's time' and 'that would be great for our daughters'.

.

Tennant made himself my Doctor, but I will miss Matt Smith.
He was a good Doctor.
Sigh.

I don't want a female Doctor. And I can't really say why. A ginger Doctor would be fantastic though.

It will be someone out of nowhere, like the last three were.
A new Doctor will be along soon and I'm bound to like him anyway.
I'd say Doctors are like buses, but that might be confused with real GPs.
Who are nothing like buses. Even with the parlous state of public transport in this country, I've never heard of anyone waiting over two weeks for a bus (private grumble, very unhappy at present with my GP practice)

Good. Sorry, I never got into Matt Smith. He's like the Windows Vista of Doctors, let's hope the next Doctor is a Win7--not an 8.

You know you could always go for an American Doctor. The U.S. is a huge market and a non-British Doctor would be an exotic choice in Europe.

You want a combination of quirky, intense, humorous, and tragic. My picks would be (in order of preference):

Gary Busey
Nicholas Cage
Steve Buscemi
Johnny Depp

Has there ever been an Aussie Doctor? Geoffrey Rush would have been great for it about 10 years ago.

This is the one thing we have that is British and still cool. It has to be a Brit. Superman does not have a Home Counties accent. The Doctor has to be a Brit.

Dear God, we're still arguing about whether or not he has to be basically English (Syl McCoy had a Scottish burr, but Tennant, a Scot, had an English accent as the Doctor).

But outsourcing is all the rage, Dana, I think they call it globalization or some such.

No.


British, male, white. Just this one case.

You can have a purple hermaphrodite Chinchilla for PM for all I care, but don't mess with The Doctor.

Now, keep in mind that I am speaking out of my ass, and may have already been proven wrong because the American broadcasts are several episodes behind the British, and I don't do spoilers.

But there is a woman who is an obvious choice. She's already proven herself to be an impossible girl who exists in multiple timelines and doesn't seem to die. I had been guessing she would eventually be revealed to be a daughter of River and the Doctor, but now, with this news, I'm thinking she's being set up for grander things than that...

An appropriate range of emotion for contemplating the oldest question in the universe.

:eek: squared?!

Is this because the Cage made such a good job in the re-imagining of The Wicker Man? Not the Bees!!!!

Momentarily stepping aside from my absolute and ever-lasting opposition to an American Doctor...

Brent Spiner could pull it off. William Macy, maybe.

Back to Brits: Not gonna happen, but I'd love to see what Tom Hardy would make of it. Guy has serious range.

Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Ginger, I tell you. The way forward.

Oh God yes! he would be an awesome Doctor. He's got the eyes. You could believe him to be a thousand years old.

Oh! Unlikely, given the recent tendency towards younger Doctors, but how good would Peter Capaldi be?

Also: Jason Watkins would be interesting.

Nobody expects the older Doctor...

Tendencies can be reversed, just look at British politics.
And the ascendency of Phillip Schofield.

Oh!
I'd say he'd be tidy.

:D

Here's a crazy hypothetical: Tom Hardy.

Ohmigod it's Peter Capaldi!!!!!


Could not be happier with this choice.


@ Flint: Tom Hardy was also on my list of best actors to play the Doctor. Would love to see what he made of it. But of all of them Capaldi is my dream Doctor.

Sorry, Flint. I did post after I knew Capaldi was the new Doctor.

I heard on 5 Live and the way it was handled made me quite cross.
To be fair to the presenter, he is a cricket expert, and it just happened to be announced while he was presenting.
He made a couple of numbskull comments including "Peter Capaldi uses quite strong language in The Thick of It.." Eh? Capaldi = ACTOR not scriptwriter.
He also kept referring to the new Doctor Who. No, he is the new Doctor. I know that's geeky, but this is a BBC radio station for goodness sake.

I do have to forget my dislike of Frobisher (Torchwood: Children of Earth)
Capaldi gave a great performance of a shitty person. But I do associate his face as that of a shitty person.

But yes, I am happy with the choice.
I can have a crush on someone older than I am again.
Never fancied Smith, just enjoyed him. Tennant edged in as just over a year older than me but gosh he looked younger.

My main question is whether he will be a Scottish Doctor, or an English one?
Either is good for me.

I didn't know they already picked the new Doctor.

I just have a non-gay man crush on Tom Hardy. He can be sophisticated, threatening (with subtlety), and just look at the--possibly crazed--intensity in that picture--doesn't he remind you of someone how reminds you of someone? . . . Plus, a Doctor who can kick your ass?

Oh I've always likes Tom Hardy.

Did you see him in 'Stuart: A Life Backwards'?



Compared to his role in Bronson:



Amazingly versatile actor

Then again, so is capaldi:

My God, no I have not seen Stuart: A Life Backwards. But I will now.

To perpetuate the non-sequitur:
Tom Hardy will play George Mallory in Everest, and also will star in a new Mad Max film--both in 2014.

And here is me still pining for Tom Baker. I even knitted a scarf like his for one of my sons.

I believe there may be pics here of my wife, Pooka, with the Tom Baker scarf she knitted, to spec. If not I'll have to post them.

Oh yeah! I thought he was very Paul Newman-esque in Lawless.

Stuart: A Life Backwards is brilliant. Hardy's peformance is stunning. Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant in it too.

It's based on a biography, written by Cumberbatch's character:

I haven't read the book, but I intend to at some point.

Capaldi's recent role: W. H. O. Doctor.

* NSFW *
 

Presented without comment, Peter Capaldi:

Yep, that's about how I feel about Star Wars. :)

My favourite scene from The Thick of It:

Malcolm Tucker's career is pretty much over at this point. So he goes out with a bang.

i'm not sure about this...

i love the doctor, and i am happy they picked someone older, but this guy looks like he suffers from bitchy resting face...

can anyone find a scene where he doesn't look aggravated?

My Doctor, I won't mention his name for privacy reasons, I told look I came in here and you told me I was going to have to be on meds for the rest of my life I accepted that the first time, I was BlindNil might have even been court ordered, I told ought right I'm a lab rat I do lab rat addition, I have zero authority over any thing medical, kind of sucks I can't even date a nurse, and when I see red I think "NOT FUNNY". Any way I told the doctor as I was leaving (the study) (that I get paid for) Hey I don't need the money but it's fun to have.

yea well in case you haven't noticed I been building GTX in my spare time... Bran New Q-T-Q right off the press like that wow...

and when I see yellow I think sunshine and when I see orange I think Florida OJ. Why waste time hacking banks when you already have everything you need??

He doesn't look 'bitchy' to me.

he has character and depth.

and when I see yellow I think sunshine and when I see orange I think Florida OJ. Why waste time hacking banks when you already have everything you need?? And I have an appointment friday to have a sist removed from my tail bone I don't know the risk, I only know that it's just so damn annoying... so If your a doctor right know I am officially "coming clean", please be gentle I just want to be a normal human being with a little zing.

Hang on, is JBK allowed to wander around freely like this?

Re Capaldi, why shouldn't the Doctor have a bitchy face?
He has much to be furious about.
And after all, Capaldi is an actor. He has handled aggravated roles with aplomb. Who's to say we haven't missed his Bottom at the National?

cu·mu·la·tive
/ˈkyo͞omyələtiv/
Adjective
Increasing or increased in quantity, degree, or force by successive additions.

i just watched him in "The Fires of Pompey." Great face, great choice.

maybe, its just my first impression from watching a few clips after finding out he's going to be the new doctor... can he do a devil smile without looking grumpy or sarcastic? show me a pic where he does that and i'll accept him as the doctor :D

Not sure if this is exactly what you're talking about, but from a Google image search for "Peter Capaldi mischievous:"

looks shopped ;)





























(ok ok ok, i love steven moffat work, so i'm probably going to watch it anyway)

Peter Capaldi is a very respected actor in this country. I've seen him play very gentle characters and ones who sound like they'd happily rip your throat out given half the chance.



I was looking through his filmography to see what clips to look for, and found that he played a transvestite in Prime Suspect. Which is funny, because David Tennant also played a transvestite early in his career, in Rab C Nesbitt.



he starts singing/miming a little over a minute in. It goes off to some other action whilst he does, but then comes back to him. Incidentally the guy chasing the young lad is David Thewlis, also in the top 3 of my list of actors I'd love to see playing the Doctor :P

Tennant in Rab C Nesbitt:

that's pretty good - a much wider range of emotions then his cop series youtube clips. i'm crossing my fingers on him bringing in a great version of the doctor - hoping he can capture him in his range of expressions - maybe with some new quirks added to the mix :)

Cop series? Do you mean Thick of It? In which case he isn't a cop in that he's a political advisor/fixer

I've decided to start wading through Whos to keep up with the canon, I'm only up to series 4, so no Matt Smith yet, I'm finidng Tennants characterisation of the doctor increasingly irritating.

I think I like the Doctor more Lordly than Jestery, this pic is from the Who wiki page, ote only the two recent incarbations are smiling.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...the_Doctor.jpg

I hoping Cipaldi goes more Old School, Troughton or Pertwee, sharp and abrasive, rather than melancholy and hyperactive.

Supplementary question: Watching on Netflix the episodes are about 50 minutes, do they air as a single hour long program each week, or do they a break, or are they shorter episodes shown each week, edited together on Netflix?

single episodes. I think the American eps are a few minutes shorter to allow for adverts though.

Yes, and the cable broadcasts in America are forced to make extremely awkward cuts in the action to keep in line with our standard commercial breaks. We're lucky they don't cut in on them mid-spoken-word.

so do you think they are really going to stick to the stated limit of 13 reincarnations? i can't imagine them cutting out the legacy just to keep in lore consistency (which with all my love for the show, consistency isn't really it's strongest attribute)...

but if it is, then this would supposidly be our last doctor (accounting for both peter capaldi and john hurt)

a la Hulu or some other streaming channels. very jarring.

I think that's highly unlikely :p

Besides, canon is a little vague as to how that works anyway. The limit on regenerations was initially mentioned in a Fourth Doctor episode. It was picked up again in a Peter Davison episode (Mawdryn Undead). It became accepted as canon, but they played around with the idea after that: the master was granted an extra regeneration by the Timelords - implication being that it is a managed limit rather than an absolute limit, in which case, with no Gallifrey or Timelords the limit might no longer apply.

The 11th Doctor (I think...might have been tenth) made a comment to the effect that the limit was into the hundreds. It was a throwaway line, put in to make the fans giggle, I suspect.

That's the thing about Who canon...it changes :P Things get dropped in s convenient plot devices, or because they seem like neat ideas at the time...then when they're no longer convenient they get written out by another convenient plot device or neat idea.

Of course, and it's perfectly in line with the character. Remember the first rule about the Doctor: the Doctor lies. :D

What I'd like to see for the 11th Doctor's finale is for the Doctor to somehow end up regenerating while wearing a sonic screwdriver that has been retrofitted with a thought pattern recorder (as was River Song's) which at precisely the right moment during regeneration captures the 11th Doctor's distinguishing essence, that which made him what River Song called "my Doctor"; so, the regenerated 12th Doctor can upload him into the data core of the Library as did the 10th Doctor with River. That way River Song would have her Doctor just as Rose Tyler has hers. Then we would have surviving elements of both the 10th Doctor (his mortal clone with Rose in a parallel universe) and the 11th Doctor (his thought pattern with River's in the core of the Library) and begin a new Whoniverse scenario in which the current Doctor could have reunions with normally aging previous incarnations.

Who's going to send this to Steven Moffat c/o the BBC for me?

Okay, so I'm coming up on my first Doctor regeneration as I finish out the 9th Doctor's series (he's got two episodes left). If the idea is that he's the same *person,* but in a different body... I'm confused. Does his personality change dramatically? I thought he has all the same memories and all?

He's sort of the same person but also sort of different. It's kind of a rebirth and fresh start.

He has the same memories. But it's like different aspects of his character come to the fore. So each doctor is different, but with some common threads.

The first couple of episodes of a new Doctor, you usually see him figuring out who he is this time.