New Doctor Who Series Discussion *Spoilers*

Personally, I think Ben Whishaw would make a great Doctor.

ben-whishaw-skyfall.jpg
 
I'm not sure what's happened here but I am sure the confirmation that Matt Smith would leave after the next Christmas special has been common knowledge for a while now? I remember a quote from him saying something along the lines of 'but I am around for another whole year, and that's a long time' maybe I dreamt it? :) My 2 cents on a female Doctor, it wont happen because The Doctor is a Timelord, Romana/The Rani are Timeladies, hence they are female.
 
I'm not sure what's happened here but I am sure the confirmation that Matt Smith would leave after the next Christmas special has been common knowledge for a while now? I remember a quote from him saying something along the lines of 'but I am around for another whole year, and that's a long time' maybe I dreamt it? :) My 2 cents on a female Doctor, it wont happen because The Doctor is a Timelord, Romana/The Rani are Timeladies, hence they are female.

Male Timelords can become female and vice versa. That quirk of Timelord regeneration has been established in the current series.

Hell, maybe Romana was Roman before he became a she :)
 
Ben Wishaw, thought of him when I saw Skyfall, doesn't quite seem to have the chops when you watch him in The Hour though. For my two cents, we need someone who can *really* act this time. MS is a cool guy but he isn't effortless like Tennant or Eccleston.
 
If the Doctor regenerates into a female Timelord, I will eat my hat in surprise.

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Ben Wishaw, thought of him when I saw Skyfall, doesn't quite seem to have the chops when you watch him in The Hour though. For my two cents, we need someone who can *really* act this time. MS is a cool guy but he isn't effortless like Tennant or Eccleston.

Totally agree
 
Quick read and catch up...
NO to Simon Pegg, not just as the Doctor, but in general. (He's ruined Scotty, but that's another story)
Not sure who I'd want but looking back, most of the Doctors in The Cure of Fatal Death were OK.
I know he was a lot younger then but it's one of the few not-annoying things I've seen Hugh (um, er, gosh, crikey) Grant do. Richard E Grant was great (and did well in that Shalka webcast), but he's probably out due to having played such a prominent (and recent) villain.
Jim Broadbent? I could see him working if they wanted the older, bumbling type of Doctor. Heck, Rowan Atkinson played the Doctor well, too, but I doubt I'd be able to watch him without having Blackadder or Bean in mind.
So that leaves...? Joanna Lumely? Well, if they really want a female I reckon she could do it justice.

And, yes, keep the Doctor British. We've had precious few decent sci-fi creations. Besides, we all know what happens when you try to Americanise the show. That's not an insult to US viewers, rather the creative people. They try to change it to appeal to the US market, forgetting that they were already enjoying it.
 
I just seriously cannot think story-wise why The Doctor would need to be a woman. Nothing to do with sexism or in-equality, it just would not make any sense and as Organic Mechanic stated it would be purely for shock value and "because we can" mentality, and at that point they might as well try to turn it into a reality show as well..
 
Well, in The Curse of Fatal Death the 'gag' was the Doctor turned into Joanna Lumley after using up his (apparent) limit of regenerations. Everyone thought he was dead, then suddenly - breasts! So the idea that he might regenerate after incarnation #13 but what we'll get is unpredictable could be a good story device. Perhaps the combination of No Timelords + River's regeneration energy means he can go past #13, but it's dangerous.
 
Well, in The Curse of Fatal Death the 'gag' was the Doctor turned into Joanna Lumley after using up his (apparent) limit of regenerations. Everyone thought he was dead, then suddenly - breasts! So the idea that he might regenerate after incarnation #13 but what we'll get is unpredictable could be a good story device. Perhaps the combination of No Timelords + River's regeneration energy means he can go past #13, but it's dangerous.

First, I wouldn't use a parody as a supporting argument for anything in canon, even if it was written by Moffat. Second, Joanna Lumley was Thirteen in that story so it doesn't support your argument anyway.

If the best choice for the role is a woman, that's fine with me. It'll take some getting used to, and would be a big change, but I'm not going to completely rule it out. I doubt that they could afford Helen MIrren unless she's willing to work for tv money to do the part.

Organic, are you implying that a female Doctor would be wantonly screwing everything with compatible bits? I don't see how the potential to become pregnant becomes an issue unless you're treating it as a strong possibility. The Doctor is generally portrayed as asexual, so it'd have to be a major shift in behavior for pregnancy to even be a possibility with a female doctor. An utterly baffling argument and bordering on the offensive if you ask me.
 
Yeah, I just re-watched it and realised Lumley was #13. Still, it was portrayed as unusual because the zectronic beam should have killed the Doctor.

And parody it may be, but if we ignore some of the deliberately played-for-laughs lines ("Six hundred yeas, in a sodding sewer!!) it still works as a good Doctor Who story. I know I've seen worse canon stories. Also, re-watching, I'm reminded how good Jonathan Pryce was as The Master.
So whoever the next Doctor is, I hope the actor and writing is good... no make that great. We've had 'good' for a while (as well as mediocre) it's about time for some really brilliant stories.
 
I'd love to get Jonathan Pryce on as a canon Master.

Forgot to point out that Ben Winshaw, superficially at least, strikes me as skewing closer to Matt Smith than they may wish to go.
 
According to Facebook:

Doctor Who Series 8 with have a uninterupted run of 12 episodes airing from the Autumn of 2014, with the Christmas Special of 2014, the Series 8 Finale according to sources. Steven Moffat will also return as Head Writer, with a new Executive Producer announced last month, and Jenna as companion. The Series begins filming in the autumn after the 2013 Christmas Special is filmed late next month/August. The 12th Doctor will be announced within the month, and to quote, the BBC has not ruled out hiring a woman to replace Matt Smith, although it is thought Ben Daniels has already been signed.
 
They've told us this 5 times maybe and then after that they say 11 is coming back. It'll be sad to see Matt go, he's done a wonderful job. Ijust hope they pick a good actor for 12 (or 13).

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Quick read and catch up...
NO to Simon Pegg, not just as the Doctor, but in general. (He's ruined Scotty, but that's another story)
Not sure who I'd want but looking back, most of the Doctors in The Cure of Fatal Death were OK.
I know he was a lot younger then but it's one of the few not-annoying things I've seen Hugh (um, er, gosh, crikey) Grant do. Richard E Grant was great (and did well in that Shalka webcast), but he's probably out due to having played such a prominent (and recent) villain.
Jim Broadbent? I could see him working if they wanted the older, bumbling type of Doctor. Heck, Rowan Atkinson played the Doctor well, too, but I doubt I'd be able to watch him without having Blackadder or Bean in mind.
So that leaves...? Joanna Lumely? Well, if they really want a female I reckon she could do it justice.

And, yes, keep the Doctor British. We've had precious few decent sci-fi creations. Besides, we all know what happens when you try to Americanise the show. That's not an insult to US viewers, rather the creative people. They try to change it to appeal to the US market, forgetting that they were already enjoying it.

Maybe not Simon Pegg, but someone with his type of humor and British-ness.
 
*SNIP*
Organic, are you implying that a female Doctor would be wantonly screwing everything with compatible bits? I don't see how the potential to become pregnant becomes an issue unless you're treating it as a strong possibility. The Doctor is generally portrayed as asexual, so it'd have to be a major shift in behavior for pregnancy to even be a possibility with a female doctor. An utterly baffling argument and bordering on the offensive if you ask me.

I am implying nothing of the sort.

The character of The Doctor has nothing to do with my statement.

I merely comment on the ridiculous nature of any species that could, potentially, change their sex mid-pregnancy. The Doctor is hardly the only Gallifreyan, as such his physical attributes must be their collective physical attributes. They are (were) presented as a species. A species that continued their existence through sexual reproduction. Any such species who had a quirk in their physiology that could cause them to change their sex, and therefor their entire anatomy due to injury or illness would have a hard time reproducing as it would tend to lead to the death of both parent and offspring.

Seems like a pretty lame weakness for such an all powerful race.

ie. Things can't get wibbly wobbly, or timey wimey enough for it to make the least bit of sense.

This is baffling and offensive...how exactly?
 
Granted, my Doctor Who fu isn't the strongest, but is it ever establish/suggested that Time Lords reproduce in a manner similar to humans? There's implications that the Doctor had has sex, and he's clearly been a parent and grandparent, but given he's an alien the two may not necessarily be connected. Lungburrow indicated that it was some sort of loom system that created them, and while not canon per se it included a lot of elements that were going to be introduced into the show proper at some point. For lack of evidence to the contrary I suppose it's simpler to assume that they reproduce the "human way," which would make pregnant regenerations tricky. Hopefully a pregnant Time Lady wouldn't be in a position where it was a possibility that she'd regenerate, and maybe if said happened she'd regenerate around the child. Damn complicated. As evidenced by Romana there's some degree of control over regeneration, so in any event one would hope that any pregnant Time Lady who did regenerate wouldn't gender flip in the process.

Anywho, I was reading it more as an objection to the possibility (however remote) of the Doctor getting pregnant and inferring unfortunate implications based on that, rather than just a concern about Time Lady biology in general. Still, we know that females of the species exist and regenerate, so using the possibility of a pregnant regeneration by any female of the species as an argument against a female Doctor strikes me as silly.

So yeah, I'll retract the baffling and offensive bit, that was me losing my head a touch. Sorry.
 
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