Who will be Who?

People are having great fun guessing, suggesting and wishing who could be the next Doctor, and I'm not any different. As I said in my previous post, I expect a lot of up-an-comers to jump at the chance to launch their careers off The Doctor's newly global fanbase.

So, that leaves us with a few different lists; Who I expect we'll see, who I'd like to see, and who I definitely DO NOT want to see.

Who I expect we'll see

Just going by previous form, I expect whomever to take up the mantle of The Doctor to be young, good looking (even if just in a quirky way), and relatively unknown. Not being overly familiar with talent in this pool in England at the moment, I couldn't really offer any names.

These criteria are based on where Steven Moffat seems to be driving the show. The Doctor must be marketable as primarily a credible love interest or object of affection for hot young female companions.

Brando Lars over on Nerditis has suggested maybe Richard Madden from Game of Thrones could be a good choice. Now he's far from my ideal choice, but he does fit the criteria above pretty well, and he'll be looking for something new too... umm... spoilers? Sorry.

Who I'd like to see

As regular readers may have picked up, I'm not a huge fan of The Doctor being a sexual being, and even less of a fan of the companions (and everyone else) always having a crack at him. With that in mind, I'd welcome an older, grumpier and more grizzled Doctor. I want to see a Doctor that isn't lusted after by all and sundry, but possibly loved in a paternal way, as befits his role of protector.

The teaser with John Hurt at the end of The Name of the Doctor blew my mind because Hurt was my idea of the perfect new Doctor. Dramatically different to the last couple. Of course Hurt is already pretty much locked in as a previous Doctor, so we couldn't see him taking over from Smith. Or could we? More on that later.

Who I definitely DO NOT want to see

I know people love to speculate about a gender-reassignment regeneration, but I don't want to see a female Doctor. As I have said before, I'm not a hardcore Whovian, and I haven't explored any Doctor Who material beyond the TV stories, but the only reference I can recall to spontaneous gender swapping between regenerations was in The Doctor's Wife. Well, that and the hilarious Comic Relief sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death:

All excellent candidates for the role

I don't care about race, age is flexible, but The Doctor is a dude. Let's keep it that way.

My ideal situation would be to have a season or two that are essentially "prequel" seasons where we can explore The Last Great Time War in detail, following John Hurt's Ninth Doctor through the darkest part of The Doctor's life. With Jenna Louise Coleman already confirmed as returning in the next season, this could be difficult, but not impossible. If The Doctor is somehow blocking many of the memories of this time, perhaps he's forgotten Clara too. This would then leave things open for Matt Smith to return again after a hiatus.

It all depends on what's in store for the 50th Anniversary show.

Anyway, I'm still holding out hope for a cranky old curmudgeon in 2014.

Time to regenerate?

So the rumours have been running thick and fast and the BBC has now announced that Matt Smith is going to be stepping down as The Doctor. We've known for a while he was looking to kick start a movie career in the US, but I thought we may have gotten another season out of him.

Matt Smith as The Eleventh Doctor

This has come on top of the announcement that Karen Gillan has signed on for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Now that the US has been opened up as a major audience of Doctor Who, I think we can expect to see more actors using it to launch US careers. This could be a real problem.

Eccleston's single season tenure as The Doctor was problematic because it didn't give him enough time to solidify his version of The Doctor. Tennent and Smith have had around the same time as The Doctor, but I still feel Smith hasn't made his presence felt as much as he could have. Perhaps this is a symptom of Steven Moffat's focus on the companions over The Doctor himself.

As my mate Reece on Nerditis put it:

I feel he was never really given a fair chance, instantly hated by a section of the fan base that thought he was too young and increasingly sharing the animosity that fans have been feeling towards Steven Moffat, despite in my opinion him being a great actor and often the highlight of an episode.

Good luck Matt. You did a good job with what you were given.

Now can begin the speculation on who will be the new Who.