Your Doctor Who No. 12 casting speculation thread

And we're off. Early candidates: our own DJP and VegemiteGrrl.

chuckle brothers at 3:1

Paterson Joseph would be an ace Doctor Who.

Yeah he was the (guessed) pick before Smith was announced

surely its time for a woman.

or are there such rules that this cannot happen in the doctors world.

Calling Gillian Anderson.

given her role in the current 'the fall' thriller, thats not beyond the limits you know ..

(though she could suck in her cheeks a bit less .. )

mcgann needs a second go. he only got a movie :(

McGann's Big Finish stuff is great. It would be wild to have him show up but they'd have to figure out how to work the 96 film in. Maybe series 8 could begin with the 8th hanging out at the Gallaghers

Seems like Rory Kinnear is the bookies favourite at the moment.

Calling Gillian Anderson.

would watch the fuck out of this

oh lol fucking lol if it turns out to be jenna-louise coleman

'i saved myself! 14 times!! gelolimo!!'

They need to do something different this time. I can't be arsed with handsome white alpha males, want to see a Dr Who with some damaged outsider cred.

matt smith was literally the blandest, safest choice out there. moffat's idea of "something different" would be "white male with a hairy chest"

"chest hair is cool"

where do we stand on spoilers in this thread? i know something that's just in the bbc press release, so probably not technically a show spoiler, but i still don't want to ruin it for anyone

just excited, basically

"The Doctor can be clown and hero - often at the same time

AND NOTHING ELSE EVER

(that wasn't the thing, that's another thing)

Gerald Wright

@paulwhitelaw 13m
#DoctorWho fans need to calm down. Ian Levine might be a GREAT twelfth Doctor, for all we know. Let's give him a chance.

Gerald Wright

― ...also i'm awesome (Nicole), Sunday, 2 June 2013 10:19 (27 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OH YES YES

if the first episode opens with doctor #12 humping the console i will be a pig in shit

dalek: 'WE WILL DESTROY THE UNIVERSE'
doctor #12: 'don't get me started'

who is gerald wright?

and what's he doin'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wright_Way

sorry for derail

oh ok lol

matt smith was literally the blandest, safest choice out there

Dude, you do know that David Tennant was the Doctor before him, right?

oh lol

if tennant was bland then smith is some vanilla cheesecake

ridiculous

Smith is the best Doctor ever, Tennant is the worst

Calling Smith bland is a flag post offense, just so we're clear.

Tennant is not the worst Doctor srsly I will fite u

Colin is worse on telly but the best on audio and great in Ridgway

Tennant/ Piper is some "kill the families of everyone involved" bullshit

you are all dead to me

if you're not fond of david tennant as the doctor, might i suggest watching an episode starring david tennant as the doctor

Will Moffatt remain after the Doctor switch up? If so, not really getting to the root of the problem...

i will stand and fight for rose/tennant even if I must do it alone ... & ultimately lose bcz yall are some fierce bitches

you are not alone

michaeljacksonshirtlessinanemptytheatre.jpg

Will Moffatt remain after the Doctor switch up? If so, not really getting to the root of the problem...

otm

agreed

i would rather smith stay & moff go but oh well

yeah

we'll get some comedy emo or something

russell brand as sexy postmodern ballbag-mentioning comedy doctor number twelve

lol

I like Peter Toms' idea.

RT @godownmatthew Give Dr Who to Bela Tarr and let him cast a sad, old donkey as Dr Who.

This also involves "deafening wind" as the Doctor's new companion.

this bears repeating

@warrenellis You won't be as excited about Doctor Who when Operation Yewtree nails him for trapping young girls in a box all through the 1970s.

oh fuck

if you're not fond of david tennant as the doctor, might i suggest watching an episode starring david tennant as the doctor

brb, watching Fear Her

jesus

lol sic

Think about what you're asking for, people. If a female Doctor happened, Steven Moffat would be the one writing her scripts: "Cleavage. I have cleavage now. Cleavage is cool!"

yeah, for a female doctor to work the production needs female writers

atm it's just an obscene sausage fest

as opposed to the whole ...two? solo female-scripted stories in the first 26 years

(NB I think it would be a good thing if there were female writers now, writing things other than Daleks In Manhattan, but "atm" is absurdly loaded)

(also last time Moffat wrote a female lead she wasn't all othered out or laden with dialogue tics tbf)

what's jane baker doing atm

I don't suppose there's much hope in the next Doctor being an older, patrician-like figure.

what's christopher biggins doing atm

Dexter Fletcher? Plus, in a meta touch, Spike from Press Gang as companion

We've just had one of those except oops I'm misremembering he was only ever a clown.

humperdinck baldersnatch?

maybe he's too hollywood now

Benedict Cumberbatch (funny name rite?) ruled himself out last time round, turned off by the promotional tours and public appearance stuff that now comes with the role. And, yes, he's become a movie star in the interim.

But now that Doctor Who has caught the attention of the Yanks/Hollywood, I wonder if it will have an impact on how long future actors playing the Doctor will stay, cf: Matt Smith being lured away by to star in a Ryan Gosling film next year.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is the current bookies fav. He was awesome in The Shadow Line.

Pearce Quigley.

Gerald Wright FTW

"We must proceed using Time and Relative Dimension in Space! Acronymically..."

looool

'clara, take me through my throbbing anus'

Why not bring the whole dream team aboard and Ben Elton can replace Moffat.

ha !

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/from-time-lord-to-time-lady-could-the-next-doctor-who-be-played-by-a-woman-8641128.html

Grint / Tovey is worth an exclamation, the main suggestion turns up every time, like clockwork.

Dexter Fletcher YESS

ooh or Dylan Moran. Drunk surly doctor!

Richard Ayoade would be cool. Maybe *too* quirky tho

Chris O'Dowd seems to be in everything lately.

i like him too

Noel Fielding. Now thaaaaat would be rad.

a girl can dream

Maybe it's time for a more down to earth guy, a Doctor of the people. I nominate Peter Kay. Or wait - Johnny Vegas.

Is Ronnie Barker still alive

Noel fielding isn't the craziest suggestion although I fear that could lead to paloma faith as a companion as latter day Bonnie Langford.

god I would pee EVERYWHERE if Noel becamethe next Doctor

I would support AA being trapped in a world where Noel Fielding got the job, as a lesson in what a shouty one-note clown actually does look like.

http://s1.favim.com/orig/15/hair-llama-love-noel-fielding-Favim.com-186202.jpg

AF OTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yaoiL5srGQ

I love Noel Fielding. But I don't think I like the idea of Steven Moffat writing for him.

i like idea of noel being on my telly every saturday night, sod the writing

i'll watch with the sound off :)

That's my problem with a female Doctor -- I don't think I would like the.way Moffat would write it. Which is too bad, because season 5 is probably my favorite season of Nu-Who but the writing has steadily declined. Xxp

I think Julian Barrat might actually make a better Doctor than Noel Fielding. I think he's a better actor for a start.

I like Julian better than Noel too.

julian's great.

but noel has prettier hair

The doctor is only supposed to have 12 incarnations, right? or did they already address this?

I could probably get behind Julian with Noel as assistant - particularly if ever go back to having a bunch of them.

Yeah, they at a minimum sorted it out in Let's Kill Hitler - see the previous thread for other references.

i'm still in the last season of tennant so I won't spoil it for myself

It's not a spoiler to say I don't envy you having to watch The End of Time.

I trust that they will look to cast a decent actor (more than likely a relatively unknown one) and again ignore all this think-of-an-eccentric ritual that goes on every three years or so. I mean, I cannot honestly think of anything worse than the Doctor played by some forced-zany TV personality like Twitter-bully Noel Fielding.

What if one of the previous ones came back?

Rupert Grint and his Amazing Facial Expression might give him a run...

http://io9.com/bookmakers-are-already-placing-odds-on-the-next-doctor-510915300

Jason Statham (100/1)

David Beckham (250/1)

Simon Cowell (250/1)

Tom Cruise (250/1)

John Terry (500/1)

Ayoade would be an amazing choice tho

I would love that, but it probably won't happen.

There has been some money for Ben Daniels, he has been in stuff I have watched but I still can't picture him. Ejiofor is my favoured candidate, but I think like Cumberbatch he probably couldn't be arsed with all the brouhaha that goes with the gig.

Don't know why I keep clicking this thread, I guess I enjoy having my supposed Anglophilia get a reality check because who are these people.

What if BC is just saying that as a smokescreen? I mean, I'm sure he denied in interviews that he was playing [REDACTED] in ST:ID.

I think he's getting too much film work to bother with DW unless the BBC threw a lot of money at him, which they're not likely to do.

I would really hate him as the Doctor at any rate.

he's already done Sherlock and he's everywhere...as good as he would be,I kinda dont want him to be "BBC Cumberbatch"

If he hadn't done Sherlock he would be an excellent Dr, but yeah totally agree.

When Sherlock started there was all kinds of Cumbertalk but he did say he wasn't into the whole rigamarole around being the Doctor, eg. action figures and whatnot.

Instead he's an action figure for Star Trek?

Or maybe it's a "No action figures" stipulation, one action figure is ok.

Appearing in some hollywood schlock is way less of a commitment to being DW and probably pays a shitload more.

seems obvious to me that it will be someone relatively unknown (and therefore cheaper) who can act (e.g. matt smith)

especially now that the bbc is looking for ways to keep costs down

Well, of all the prev doctors, how many were 'proper famous' already?

Jon Pertwee.

How many were a bit famous?

Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Mark McGann, um...

Eccleston and Tennant were pretty well known.

Helen Mirren (20/1)

Would watch the hell out of a 'Prime Suspect'-style nuWho that was less morning zoo quirk and more like Pertwee-era spookiness.

McGann is the only one I'd say was properly famous, followed by Ecclestone and Davison. The rest were mainly jobbing character actors; Pertwee was known for the Navy Lark on radio, and Tom was working on a building site when he got the gig. Tennant was in the ascendency after Blackpool and RTD's Casanova.

I'd just like to see a grown-up in the role next. But then, maybe that's because the Doctor looking younger than me is just jarring .

Eccleston was pretty famous, surely?

I can understand the reasons for keeping the Doctor male, although one day I would like to see a female one. But I can't understand any reason for keeping the Doctor white. Much as I really like Ayoade I think he'd be too quirky and too similar in a way to Smith (I can see him saying "bow ties are cool" etc). I said it last time but I'd definitely be down with Paterson Joseph. Is Idris Elba on the 'too famous' scale now?

I don't know who Chiwetel Ejiofor is, though.

Chiwetel Ejiofor was last in Dancing on the Edge, Poliakoff miniseries for BBC2:

http://media.timeout.com/images/100612831/660/370/image.jpg

Ahh, I missed that. Just looked him up and he's a good mid-point in age, too - young enough to be marketable but old enough to have substance beyond 'sexy doctor'.

One little thing: LOSE THE TACHE.

I'm really not down with a female Doctor while Moffat is in charge, so it's a good thing Zawe Ashton is a bit young for it ATM.

Ecclestone had been in one big film and had just had a well recieved (RTD?) mini series a year or so before. Tennant's ascendancy is a bit retrospective I think - if he'd not got the Doctor he'd be ... well, Russell Tovey.

I actually like the stache, he looks so foine in that picture. xp

He'd been in a couple of pretty big UK TV dramas (Our Friends in the North, Clocking Off).

xpost

I'm really not down with a female Doctor while Moffat is in charge, so it's a good thing Zawe Ashton is a bit young for it ATM.

― on the sidelines dishing out sass (suzy), Monday, 3 June 2013 07:38 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed, if his Jenny and the Lesbo Lizzard (guest starring a Killer Potato) spin-off pitch is anything to go by. If there's any justice, the stroke Moffat will inevitably get thinking of Zawe Ashton and Alex Kingston lezzing up will hasten his demise.

Is there any actual such pitch?

I've just assumed it was implied by the reoccurring characters and the media pouting about Moffat not being able to do his Torchwood and SJA.

Eh, I really like those characters. Way more interesting than most of the leads, tbh.

He'd been in a couple of pretty big UK TV dramas (Our Friends in the North, Clocking Off).

RIP DC Bilborough

dear lord

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/270109_601301816569392_136743107_n.jpg

I mean... no

No.

Christ no. I'd rather have Nick Frost tbh.

I would totally endorse Burn Gorman tho, esp if he played The Doctor similarly to his portrayal of Owen on Torchwood

Thank fuck there is no way that would ever happen. That would just be beyond awful.

xp (re: Pegg)

I love that Burn Gorman is totally evil in everything he appears in.

Simon Pegg would be THE WORST.

Might as well be Bonnie Langford...

Re thread title, it's actually the Chief Whip lives at No.12 Downing Street, don't even kno if dr who has a grace and favour residence at all

I should rewatch some Mel stories because honestly I don't remember hating her nearly as much as fandom did

Simon Pegg has ruled himself out of the job, saying he isn't getting it and didn't want it anyway.

I have rewatched Dragonfire and Paradise Towers recently, and while Mel might not be as bad as people say, she's still the worst or second-worst companion ever*

*NB: I have not seen a Dodo story

Ben is next worst btw

Craig Charles... just throwing it out there...

y'all gotta give up hope on a doctor older than 30 tbh

Dame Edna

do you know how old Humphries is btw

i'll guess 70

oh shit 10 years off

christ he's spry for an old fart

he's also retiring because old fart

bloody good innings

otm

spry

saw him on (the first leg of)* his farewell tour last year - dancing and elephant-riding in the Edna set, and three different set-ups and quick costume changes in the first half (Sandy, Les and a brand new character, the disgraced Brother Gerald Patterson). Since the Australian tour he's also curated, presented and performed in a season of Weimar-era music with Meow Meow and the ACO, including doing the Charleston and a tango with Meow Meow, and is about to do Peter & The Wolf with the SSO as Edna

*I assume he'll do it in LA and long runs in London and New York at least, over the next couple of years**

**also at the end there was a newly-shot montage of him in costume as every stage character he's ever done, annotated with dates of first appearance, before he came out as himself and thanked everyone and trusted we'd come to his next farewell tour

Tennant was 34 when he started, Ecclestone 41.

that was then this is moffat

Moffat, who has said over and over he specifically wanted to cast an actor older than Tennant or Ecclestone, who had shortlisted Patterson Joseph and approached Bill Nighy, until he was blown away by Matt Smith's audition?

well i don't know him personally but yeah that one

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/318544/Paris-could-be-new-Dr-Who/

This story is hilarious, bless them for taking this seriously.

Man I was hoping for Paris Hilton, then lex would start watching and waiting for her to sing.

DON'T EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT

That is so insane that it just might work.

One Night In TARDIS

well she has that song Stars already, I mean

I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL

police-box blue is totes her color DJP, cmon admit it

Her wonky eyes make her believable as alien/time lord.

she can only time travel to warm climes, is the only thing

http://i.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/paris-hilton-river-viiperi-bikini-topless-shorts-hawaii-sun-sexy__oPt.jpg

and she can camouflage herself as a praying mantis which comes in handy on alien worlds

Her feet *must* be big enough to fill the shoes of [insert name of male thesp here].

once I develop Scanner abilities, you all are so screwed

Doctor Who? More like Doctor Hott

so so screwed

:D

Man now that original story that started this sidetrack looks too light hearted

http://www.tmz.com/2013/06/05/paris-jackson-hospitalized-attempted-suicide-911-call/

New Doctor to be announced tomorrow? Could be bollocks. Of the three, I think we can rule Dominic Cooper out. He's too much of a conventionally good looking rugger type. I haven't consciously seen him in anything though, so who knows. I really liked Daniel Kaluuya in The Fades - a bit weird and obsessive, but hugely likeable - plus it could help pave the way for Jack Thorne writing for the show, which I would love. However, he's already had a Doctor Who bit part in Planet of the Dead, so that could rule him out. Domnhall Gleeson - not seen him in anything, but he does look the part of a modern day Doctor - i.e. unconventionally handsome, a wee bit dandyish.

http://tennantnews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/will-twelfth-doctor-be-announced.html

too bad they can't afford Sean Bean

why do they all look 16

no teen doctors, I want MEN goddammit

lady leshurr should be the next dr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dJq4tdVIa4

your new 12th doctor

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_S4rqtpLktRc/S_QFH3Y3mYI/AAAAAAAAArU/NkDrUXvO94M/s1600/Linux-Babies-Angry.jpg

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110928000913/2001/images/f/f6/The_Star_Child.jpg

"You were expecting someone else?"

'open the tardis bay doors please tardis'

fyi DavidM I stole that for Twitter

Chris Addison's odds are shortening, Betfair has him second favourite behind Rory Kinnear.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0y4buVTVj1qfj180o1_400.jpg

Nooo! Thankfully these type of betting markets are not always a true indication of what is going on, well hopefully.

I have/had a slight crush of shame on Chris Addison (luckily I can make it go away quite easily by reading his twitter feed) and even I am able to admit that it's a terrible idea

They'd have to chop his hands off to stop him from being on Twitter all fucking day and night. Look for an actor who doesn't have a social media addiction for D12.

someone older please

although except for mccoy they seem to have gotten younger with each iteration

Certainly they've gone for young with the new series because there are a lot more stunts involved for the actor playing the Doctor

I don't really care about the age of the Doctor but please someone other than a standard slightly camp middle class fop.

although except for mccoy they seem to have gotten younger with each iteration

Except for McCoy and Pertwee and Baker II and Eccleston, you mean

55-46-51-40-29-43-41-36-41-34-26, something like that? Maybe a year off here and there.

Ah, swap 43 and 41 - McCoy older than C Baker.

William Hartnell was only 55 when Doctor Who started???? I would have pegged him as ten years older at least.

I think they should go for a really short dude next, enough of these tall lanky Doctors.

Addison must be older than Matt Smith cz he's older than me and Smith is younger than me. But he is still all wrong, obv.

Ronnie Corbett would be a great short Doctor xp

Ideally, you need someone who can remember Tom Baker in the role, specifically someone whose memory of his Saturday morning promotional kids' TV appearances is stronger than those of the actual show. I think that's the ideal background.

And, yes, Hartnell was actually born in the 20th century, and too young for the Somme at that.

Solid choices on Desert Island Discs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/871de38d

William Hartnell was only 55 when Doctor Who started???? I would have pegged him as ten years older at least.

hope it won't rock your world when I reveal he was wearing a wig

I'll hold off on the Kate Pierson doxxing until I see how that one went down

Ciggies as Hartnell's Desert Island luxury item. At least he didn't say something like "a TARDIS of course, haha!".

Pertwee:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/567c6534#p009y4mq

Tennant:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/89614f11#b00pdz1n

Wow Tennant has atrocious taste.

lolololololol "The West Wing" lololololololol

Back to the speculation: the choice has to be someone willing to live in Cardiff for a couple of years, which rules out anyone with a foot in Hollywood's door and kind of means 'younger Doctor'.

Also, Tennant's could've been much worse. RUNRIG.

I got the back of anyone who chooses The Housemartins, but... "Me and the Farmer"?

Yeah, I'd actually defend anyone choosing the Proclaimers, but Over and Done With is a shite song an' all.

Me and the Farmer is about SOCIALISM, right?

4.
Deacon Blue -
Dignity

Seriously, fuck Tennant for liking that shite. I'd disown anyone for liking that song.

Reports that Ladbrokes have stopped accepting bets due to rumours Rory Kinnear has been offered the role..

as of yesterday, rory/his agent hadn't been approached & he suspects he's being used as a decoy.

Moffat is probably laying the hell out of him on the betting exchanges.

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsK/9449-21386.jpg

oh wait nm

his dad.

far out

Rory approx the same age as his dad was at the time of The Bed Sitting Room, which clinches it.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/aug/02/who-next-doctor-who-sunday

The rumours will finally be put to rest at 7pm in the live BBC1 show beamed to fans against a backdrop of a swirling vortex, Daleks and the Tardis.

The new Doctor will be interviewed by Zoe Ball in the half-hour special, which will also feature contributions from the show's executive producer, Steven Moffat, and Smith, who is bowing out after four years.

"The decision is made and the time has come to reveal who's taking over the Tardis. For the last of the Time Lords, the clock is striking twelve," said Moffat.

http://www.oddschecker.com/novelty/next-doctor-who/winner

Who's Peter Capaldi or Aneurin Barnard, anyway?

with bookmakers already installing The Thick of It's Peter Capaldi as favourite

lol

Aneurin Barnard was once in a thing with Karen Gillan, therefore has seemingly-important link to Doctor Who which seems to inform most bookies' choices.

Ben Whishaw is beautiful but too young

ben action-man-eyes whishaw

Who's Peter Capaldi

SBd you for this

ben whishaw oh i wish but yes, a bit young

My torrent of Thick of It has been stalled out at like 75% for a month now, so I haven't shotgunned the entire show yet

but still, LOCAL fuckin HERO

also the only half-good bit of Torchwood, an actual Doctor Who ep, being in charge of the Scottish Dr Who fanclub in the 60s, singing in a punk band that Craig Ferguson was drummer for

plus he wrote and directed an Oscar-winning short starring sometime Doctor Who Richard E Grant in 1995

plus Dangerous Liasons, Lair Of The White Worm, lots and lots of telly, directing Getting On etc etc etc

plus LOCAL FUCKIN HERO

also The Thick Of It works much better with a year or three's gap between series, not shotgunned.

NB: the first two series are three eps each, followed by two specials that have a year between each of them

capaldi would make an A+ Who

agree, but is absolutely at the top level of fame for an incoming Doctor. On par w/ if not above Pertwee and Tennant. Maybe a smidge below Eccleston?

is that a problem? or do u mean that makes him unlikely

yeah, less likely

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcmnhgbfeG1qcaebao1_1280.jpg

but how awesome would it be if it DID happen

i mean look at him

it would have to be someone cheap and underexposed, surely

Autumn Almanac for the new Doctor

also (and sic will prove me wrong because this is a doctor who thread and he is sic but) iirc eccleston was contracted for one (1) year mainly to give the reboot a boost out of the gate, so the act of comparing his casting to any decisions made this year is fraught with peril xp aw

sicbot 5000 powering up for rebuttal in 3...2...1

<3

"aa you are wrong and also a dick"

there, done

completely wrong: Eccleston gave notice unexpectedly during the first filming block due mainly to extreme dissatisfaction with a) incompetence of one member of production on that block and b) conduct of other members of production towards crew

but you're not a dick

irl lol

all circumstances of his casting are singular in programme history though obv

thanks sic

Dr. Malcolm would be pretty awesome but I think it would be hard for me to watch it without thinking "why isn't he constantly swearing?"

lol good point

thanks for that, now I'm imagining Rob Riggle as The Doctor

so who did eccleston have a problem with? I've never been able to sort this out.

it's not important

it is

Bookies have closed betting on Capaldi.

iirc, they'd closed betting on Paterson Joseph before Matt Smith turned up.

Yeah, I'm not convinced. I think it'd be a cool choice though.

When the new Doctor is revealed on Sunday I'm almost certain it'll be someone I've never heard of.

Matt Smith was a bit "oh, it's thingy, he was in, oh, what did I see him in before?", I expect another of those. I think Capaldi would be brilliant, I can't think of a thing he hasn't completely ruled in.

including this photo:

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68520000/jpg/_68520960_p-02318-j.jpg

Ha, yes.

Ha, that's amazing.

Would love Capaldi ... but I think the producers are really aware that the general popularity of the show depends on how physically attractive the Doctor is, it's sad but I see the trend of younger and younger Doctors continuing (it's kind of a trend in all TV and film production really)

Corbin Bernsen

Heard some proper gossip yesterday re: Capaldi but it's possible that people close to the production are having just as much fun muddying the waters as some of the close-but-no-cigar actors appear to be having on Twitter.

Zoe Ball is just incompetent. So far she's pronounced both Peter Davison and Steven Moffat's name incorrectly. (With a second 'd' and an 's' on the end respectively.)

Rufus Hound has just referred to Peter Eccleston.

a dalek dance number would be welcome rn

u_u

also rufus said 3 knocks instead of 4

kill him someone plz

What the hell!!!!!!

This is freaking awesome

Actually fucking delighted about this. I love Peter Capaldi.

Ace

OH HELLO CAPALDI

wheeeeeeeeeee

Congratulations Davros, you've just laid your first giant egg of fuck.

expecting lots of this type of thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5iRmPBve80

Can't wait for the S8 thread title

This is going to be so so great.

that's great! might actually start watching it now. he's pretty great in "the hour" as well

It's also a pretty good way of breaking the run of younger and younger Doctors without losing people.

an older doctor at last!

yeah I'm happy

totally jazzed

It'll be monumentally entertaining watching him play Alan Rusbridger, too.

Holy shit the bookies were right

lol awesome

as you were, nerds

lol the run of a whole two Doctors in a row that were younger and younger

From Capaldi's IMDB page

World War Z
W.H.O. Doctor

next series MUST be post-watershed and feature a Tuckeresque Doctor

FUCKITY BYE

please god make it happen

Still in Smith's second season, really enjoying him actually, but really looking forward to this.

I hope this is the plot of an actual episode at some point: http://dawnlestaffs.tumblr.com/post/50118503766/about-half-an-hour-ago-you-said-i-was-in-with-a

lol FUCKITY BYE

hang on, did that live show say he was 15 when he wrote to the Radio Times in 1988?
Maybe he is actually a timelord

ah wait it was before that

Good, because I was just about to post "He is NOT 40. I refuse to accept that."

It said "in 15 years time, in 1988". Making it 1973 when he was 15.

That is acceptable to me.

stand down, nerds

mr veg pulled down The Thick of It for me to enjoy malcolm marathon in celebration of this joyous occasion

Rewatching In the Loop right this second, the better to renew memorization of all Tucker dialogue

I wonder if this means he's going to stop getting on the w7 to finsbury park with me in the morning

SCOTTISH AGENDA

Earlier today a flurry of excitement was sparked when a BBC blog site appeared to reveal the identity of the new doctor ahead of the announcement as Welsh actor Aneurin Barnard, who currently plays plays King Richard III in BBC One series The White Queen.

The URL, or page address, for the site remained blank while its URL included the words "aneurin-barnard-is-the-twelfth-doctor", prompting a frenzy on Twitter.

But the URL later changed to suggest that "Barry Chuckle" was the new doctor.

okay, i will be watching this show again now

but moffat's still in chargr

shh. capaldi gives the pleasing illusion of a new day. leave us to our soylent green

ill stick yer facking mouth with a dalek eyestalk so you can see your gummy insides while i'm sonically screwin ya

SHUT IT YOU RATTLING FUCKING PETROL CAN

I am so happy about this. I'm sure the stories will be awful, but this is the best news aside from actually having a non-white non-male Doctor.

otm

Wait until he is speaking Estuary.

Yeah I was wondering about that. Hope they just let him be Scottish. Lots of planets have a Scotland.

I really hope this signals the end if Doctor/companion sexy times

Until Evelyn Smythe comes back!

That unveiling show last night was one of the worst half hours of TV ever by the way, when they wheeled him out with the confetti and the fireworks and everything it was like he'd won fucking Dancing On Ice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Blf073f2Lc

Yeah it reminded me of Blind Date. Tbh I wouldn't put it past them to choose the next doctor in that way...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45d8kn5hApg

haha last two are awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45d8kn5hApg

ahh i see now why it didnt embed

hahah awesome

'ewwwww gross he's ooooold'

if twitter is anything to go by (and the bbc webpage comments) it was not an uncommon reaction. It could lead to quite a drop in viewers?

idk

they all say they wont' watch now but when it starts up again half of them will tune in out of sheer curiosity and because we're all crackheads for this silly blue box

I was thinking last night, god wouldn't it be awesome if he ripped Clara for her stupid souffle girl twaddle

I do hope he gets to be full Scot

omg that last video is fucking incredible

it makes me so so so happy

I'm getting feedback from a lot of people who will recommence watching now!

Nobody I know with insider info is the kind of person who'd go into a betting shop.

OH MY GOD HE'S OOGLY

:D

more crap stories by moffatt in the end will put a lot more off watching than not having an "eye candy doctor" one would think.

but yeah that videos lols

i wonder how she will react when she realises he's Scottish :)

does smith's last season tank hard or something? because really so far (I'm halfway through his second) they're fine. or are you people just pickier than I am?

It's terrible, barring the last episode.

the first story is great and the last story is great; the ones in between tend to start strong and then have a big wet fart for an ending

The mini-season thing sucks as well, it's just a momentum killer

i got off the boat at the end of tennant's run when everything just got straight up stupid; everyone i trusted who stayed on board suggested nothing's improved since

Most of Smith's run I've really enjoyed, up to and including the end of S6. S7 just seemed ill-conceived structurally, and ultimately its awkwardness made for a massive amount of shoehorning and assumed emotional investment into a character you've just barely gotten to know.

There was definitely some great Smith stuff in amongst the dross. But a lot of dross.

i like smith but there was too many one-off episodes with no discernible arc & Clara talked like a meme generator the whole time & it drove me batty

djp otm

Smith was great Moffat is sadly crap.

Remember how excited we all were when Moffat took over?

Moffatt was mostly fine until he forgot to actually make us give a shit about Clara

I think he's been over reaching the last few years what with running Who and Sherlock. When he was only writing one or two episodes a year they were consistently brilliant.

I lost all hope in Moffat when he twice resolved season-long arcs with really lame get-out-of-time-jail-free cards. I liked how he resolved the mystery of Clara but it was cold comfort for the rest of it. There's no point in making the doctor a super-smart scientist and then having the power of love be the answer to everything.

again? i know i'm outta the loop but isn't that how they resolved tenant's arc?

yes, and it was bullshit then, too

although admittedly the way Moffatt deals with romance is about 500 times better than the way Davies dealt with it, which was to take all of his Who dolls and pair them off with each other for no discernible reason

I think when Moff writes a front-to-back story like in the early days they're kinda unfuckwithable

but I also think he struggles with the science-fiction element of Who, he isn't very good at getting his stories out of the holes he puts them in, timewise etc.

idk.

I would definitely suggest to forks that he gives Smith & Moffat's first year ago though - particularly if you pretend it ended there, it's great stuff.

is some of this letdown post Amy and Rory? I think she's the best companion of the new series by far. Will this Clara be around for Capaldi?

Clara is around for Capaldi and may make more sense with him (kind of like how Rose made more sense with Eccles)

That's not true, he paired off Martha and Mickey because they were both black. Xpost to Dan

Sticking up for Amy is liking eating poison, she was two ciphers - a domestic abuser and a walking zingmoster. She's a wifebeating Dommy P.

I don't like or have any affection for Amy as a companion. She spent too much of it being an amalgam of too many other things, all of her bad character traits were put down to timeywimeyness so she just became a completely unknowable entity for me, I got tired of figuring out when she was and who she was etc etc etc

I'd argue she was more of a whiner than The Jovanka as well.

Amy is kind of horrible, but it's a compelling, watchable, relatable horrible IMO

also thanks for reigniting my complete and utter contempt and hatred for the storytelling of Russell T. Davies; I had thought he'd redeemed himself from the Virgin NA Damaged Goods debacle even with the wizened mini-Doctor and the 10/Rose wankfest right up until Martha ended up with fucking Mickey, because hey that's what black people do, marry the closest other black person in proximity

fucking useless shit, Children of Earth is the only unambiguously thing he was involved in

Reminding other people what a cunt Rusty is: my pleasure.

I just remember how horrified I was that he was the one reviving Doctor Who and cringing at the idea of him working some of the bullshit from Damaged Goods into the series, but then the first season happened and it was mostly great and I lowered my guard just in time for him to smack me with "btw the Doctor totally wants to bone Rose now"

I'll prob try the first year i missed at some point. Just hard to find time for a new series!

like seriously, I've been disappointed in some Moffatt stories but since he didn't decide that the two primary black characters in the cast should get married because duh, I am willing to forgive a lot

I think I'm at the same place as akm, and the same temperament too. I'm looking forward to Clara! So far I'm just starting Season 7 and by now I've heard enough "Oh, _____ is horrible!" and made it through unscathed that I remain optimistic. I'm not that crazy about the actress who plays River - in "Let's Kill Hitler") I was disappointed in the transformation because I was looking forward to seeing Mels.

All the Moffatt-bashing I can understand from a OH HERE IS A GAPING PLOT HOLE angle, but for the most part his eps are really fun, really complex, and play with time in creative and joyful ways I haven't seen since Back to the Future. Power of love, indeed!

"The Big Bang" may be my favorite episode of Smith's, mainly cos of all the timey-wimey jumping back and forth.

"the actress who plays River" dear lord I'm old, or other people bailed on ER way before I did

All the Moffatt-bashing I can understand from a OH HERE IS A GAPING PLOT HOLE angle, but for the most part his eps are really fun, really complex, and play with time in creative and joyful ways I haven't seen since Back to the Future. Power of love, indeed!

he's certainly inventive, but 1. he sets up intricate plots with devastating outcomes, says 'oh but it's no cheap trick' then timey-wimeys his way out of it, proving it was a cheap trick all along 2. he crams waaay too much ~clever~ into his timey-wimey plots, officially in the service of the show but really to show off gosh what a big brain he's got 3. by the end of smith's run he was in clown-shoes mode 100% of the time (no light or shade, just raggedy man being raggedy ALL THE TIME) 4. clara has turned out to be memegenerator.com as vg has already stated

I like River but her mannerisms started to get pretty old.

not to mention her reason for being there at all

i used to love her, but ultimately her appearance just meant moffat was being ~clever~ again

I enjoy clown-shoes Doctor!

let's see how you feel by the end

i imagine we're going to get a more serious and possibly meaner doctor with capaldi though. mean would be good again; haven't had mean since Colin Baker (I guess Eccleston was kind of mean sometimes but he was also annoying a grinny)

i mean okay, fine, obviously it's okay to enjoy clown-shoes doctor, but that character should (and usually does) do more than bumbling fool/accidental genius xp

i imagine we're going to get a more serious and possibly meaner doctor with capaldi though.

that would be fantastic. someone with gravitas (smith did not have gravitas)

the last thing we need is another colin baker.

well yeah no but at least he had kind of an interesting edge. oddly enough he was the only one in an actual honest to god clown costume though

Yeah but I sort of thought Colin was just kind of snippy and bossy, I'm thinking it would be good if he were more like McCoy; where he didn't feel the need to explain his actions and had ulterior motives and such.

again? i know i'm outta the loop but isn't that how they resolved tenant's arc?

I thought that was annoying as well but par for the course for RTD... I suppose I just had more faith in Moffat to not take the easy way out of perplexing stories like "the doctor is killed" or "the universe is being slowly erased and forgotten." I thought Day of the Moon/Impossible Astronaut was an awesome two-parter and the way he defeated the silence was pretty clever, but then at the end of that season they explained the events at Lake Silencio in a far less satisfying way... I mean the Moff made a big point of saying "yes! The Doctor really dies!!" and so the whole way through I'm thinking about paradox engines or temporal anomalies and stuff like that and it ends up being something rather pedestrian and the whole tension of the season is predicated on a lie. I was also highly annoyed by how they ended The Pond's run as companions cause it was kind of like "oh hey here's something tacked on to the last five minutes of what seemed like a standard adventure story. I liked it better when the worst thing that happened to companions was that they no longer went on amazing journey's through space and time.

These don't seem like pretty important complaints but I know I'm not the only one who has been dissapointed by Moffat's showrunning. Maybe its because we all had unrealistic expectations built from Blink and The Girl in the Fireplace.

My interest in this show lives or dies solely on the appeal of the actor playing the Doctor so this is a welcome improvement, as I found Matt Smith unbearable. otherwise, incomprehensible stories, ludicrous plot mechanics, contrived silliness all par for the course imho.

Interesting. I really liked Smith but it seems like with the scripts he was given didn't really get to show his full range and always had to play a bumbling ADHD-afflicted noodle-brain. There were plenty of glimmers that showed what he could do with more serious material -- such as in the most recent Christmas special where he started out as a very sullen and bitter man-who's-lost-everything. And then instead of slowly getting back into being The Doctor he just seemed to flip a switch halfway through and was totally back to his normal self... they could have kept the special maybe 5 minutes longer to show a more gradual return to his old self. I thought that was a really good special, btw -- but that part annoyed me.

Like, even with his bumbling play-the-fool nature I could easily see that as a put-on to disarm possibly hostile others, a classic Troughton strategy... but the scripts didn't give him a lot to go on to show he really did know what was happening and was actually several steps ahead of the others involved in the mystery/conflict/etc. But I'm died in the wool Smith > Tennant partisan (even though before the show started I had suspicious that such a fresh-faced, hip younger guy could pull off such an iconic role.

Of course, I don't have a problem with silliness or light-hearted romps either (I might be the only one who actually liked the Shakespeare episode), my major peeve is when they start a story with serious and dire consequences based on frightening or unknown enemies and then it's resolved in a fluffy fantasy that comes way out of left field (IE... oh no Daleks are pretending to be WWII era combat robots in order to enact some sinister plan buy having the UK military mass produce them... but the magical auton they make has FEELINGS and diffuses the self-destruct bomb through ~luv~. and then everyone's most nostalgia inducing & emotionally charged fighter plane the Spitfire is upgraded in 5 minutes to fly in space!

20/20 hindsight editing for sure, but I would've had them fly UFOs they had black-ops confiscated from the Luftwaffe.... having the Doctor be responsible for the legend of foo fighters.

In conclusion, BBC books should let me write some of the Dr. Who novles.

I'm watching "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", and the Doctor seems to be getting more and more stylized this season. He's got a gang like he's in Scooby Doo, and he slides across the floor at one point like a cartoon character. He also doesn't realize he has materialized the Ponds into TARDIS. He's dancing around like Bugs Bunny.

I see a huge love for b-movies, cartoons, monster films, comic books, pulp pop trash, etc. throughout the rebooted series. Even the very first episode is a bunch of killer mannequins - how b-movie is that? Moffatt is definitely turning up the Pop Trash affectations in Seasons 6 & 7. The way that blinding crack in time peered through at the end of every episode, like the "TO BE CONTINUED!" last splash page of a comic book series. The way the Doctor always waves his hands and fixes thing at the end of the episode, like Bugs Bunny drawing a hole and escaping from his own cartoon.

OK these wisecracking robots are a bit much.

Well, those killer mannequins have been in the Doctor Who universe since 1970, so that was less "homage to b-movies" and more "tying the new series back to the old series"

fyi I'm still back on "OH MY GOD HE'S OOGLY"

Dan, you need to go watch Lair of the White Worm and then report back to us.

i got off the boat at the end of tennant's run when everything just got straight up stupid; everyone i trusted who stayed on board suggested nothing's improved since

FORKS! people you trust are wrong! Matt Smith is an incredibly great Doctor, and S5 is my favourite season in the fifty-year history of the show. do find time to squeeze it in.

(S6 is also very very good*, and a third to a half of S7 is pretty good and very occasionally great. It's just that there's a bunch of episodes that are back down to RTD-level quality in between. Including a Chibnall that seems to be written as a direct RTD homage.)


*the run from the last few stories at the end of S5, the first Smith Christmas special, and the opening 2-parter of S6 is the strongest consecutive batch of stories since at least 1977 (Holmes and Hinchcliffe's last stretch together) or maybe 1967-8 (Faceless Ones in og S5 through Web Of Fear in S6)

Moffatt is definitely turning up the Pop Trash affectations in Seasons 6 & 7. The way that blinding crack in time peered through at the end of every episode, like the "TO BE CONTINUED!" last splash page of a comic book series.

that was before 6 & 7! no spoilers for forks

i'm willfully skimming comments here with the intent of EVENTUALLY getting caught up prior to Doctor Malcolm coming on board so spoil away

and I'm going to optimistically stan for Moffatt 100% until at least November next year:

- there's still no-one better I can think of to take over*,** so I'm happy for his half-brilliant, half-occasionally-troublesome reign to continue
- last time we had Moffat and a new Doctor, it worked out great (not to mention how much his two-parter defined Eccleston's Doc)
- he originally planned to cast someone much older before Smith blew everyone away in audition, so elements of that old plan might be around to energise him too
- there's no half-seasons next year to interrupt momentum
- the fact that he's been plotting for a year, and allowed himself longer than usual to actually write next series, bodes well [okay except that S7's biggest problems were things where he changed his mind at the last minute from the long-range plan]
- Capaldi should be fucking fantastic
- Moffatt's top and tail episodes on S7 were still the best eps of the season
- Name Of The Doctor was 98% solid nerdglee, ie the very last thing we've seen (and second-last thing he wrote: the Xmas special was 22 pages in at SDCC)

*caveat: if they hire a 28-year-old showrunner, with no TV experience, who hires exclusively new writers that have never worked on Who before, that COULD turn out to be the best thing ever to happen to the show. But what are the odds of that happening twice? ***

** really: how happy is anyone going to be if Chibnall or Gatiss ascend to the throne?


*** it's a huge bummer that Cartmel's wish to come back and write for the new series, & bring Aaronovitch to co-plot, has never come to fruition.****

**** I read both Warhead and Transit for the first time the other week

ok sic I'm convinced

CAN WE START THE SEASON NOW PLZ

October 2014

i hate u

oh man Cartmel/Aaronovitch would have been AMAZING

Transit rules but Aaronovitch really peaked with his Banks pastiche The Also People, which I think is probably the best Virgin New Adventure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NwvjPlcC3w

- there's no half-seasons next year to interrupt momentum

Oh, thank christ. Hated the mini-season format.

In the Loop is streaming on Netflix yay, will be watching that shortly.

thick of it is only on hulu to my annoyance.

i fought my way through their ads, that's how good that show was.

is chibnall awful btw? how is broadchurch? running in the US starting tomorrow.

people say Chibnall is awful, I think he's mostly okay

I haven't watched Torchwood yet either

DJP I trust you on these things more than most

^_^

The first season of Torchwood alternates between okay and indescribably terrible, but in season two they found their storytelling footing and were consistently good, leading into season 3's "Children of Earth" story which is one of my favorite pieces of televised science fiction ever. They then set up a really interesting idea in season 4's "Miracle Day" and then proceed to completely fuck it up in a manner that made me long for the merely indescribably terrible season 1 episodes.

Just found out taht IMDB has Peter Capldi listed on the castlist for World War Z as W.H.O. Doctor when I went to see if any of his prior roles might give any indication as to what his portrayal would be like. Assume taht is just coincidence. It's about his last released role prior to the announcement of his new one.

also I know people are kind of down on Davies but has anyone read Writer's Tale? I saw it the other day and thought it might be an interesting look (it's correspondences between him and a journalist throughout the writing and production of Series 4).

I read his Doctor Who novel Damaged Goods, which managed to completely trivialize HIV/AIDS, which was why I was so terrified of him being the Who show runner.

The press office in The Thick of It is... Number 12 (Downing Street). There's a classic Moffat troll in some press release or other about 'who will be putting their spin on The Doctor' and 'finding Number 12'.

LOL.

If you are even on the fence about how Rusty is the greatest genius ever then stay the fuck away from the Writer's Tale. I lasted about 30 pages before I put it down, never to pickit up again, after reading how he was the most important thing to happen to television EVER and noting blatant contradictions to his DWM columns at the time (to the point whether its now not clear whether he was living in Manchester or Cardiff at the time). There's a whole chapter on the first Christmas episode where he was fighting, and throwing away the BBC's money, trying to secure a Star Trek crossover because it was what "everybody" wanted and would have been a HOOT, for example.

An indication of what Capaldi might be like, I would hope, would be his performance as Angel Islington in the BBC Neverwhere.

Oh, and in terms of short seasons all the rumours are that this season will be in isolation and will be followed by at least a 12 month hiatus which will have a film in there (rumour also says this is why Capaldi is hired because there's a film in the gap).

aldo otm, he was great in Neverwhere!

neverwhere was awful, from what I remember

i mean, good story, bad production

untrue imo, ymmv

http://www.slashfilm.com/neil-gaiman-says-a-black-actor-turned-down-doctor-who/

Idris I wonder?

it was me, guys

I'm sorry but the money wasn't right

It was kind of an open secret that Paterson Joseph was offered the job before Matt Smith, which was why the bookies stopped taking bets on him.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (so says my OTM-lately grapevine, anyway).

I defer to the showbiz

djp why u braek heart

daddy needs a Lambo before 2023, just sayin'

The anger inspired by this (truncated) comment from Gaiman, a writer with a solid track record re: female characters afaik, is baffling.

http://fromonesurvivortoanother.tumblr.com/post/57383029702/searchingforknowledge-face-down-asgard-up

I think going with someone older than 30 was about as risky as they could go with casting.

I'm sold on the idea of Gillian Anderson or Tilda Swinton next time though.

- the fact that he's been plotting for a year

oh jesus

gillian would be A+ as doctor

Gillian is british?

no but

she grew up here and apparently talks irl with an english accent

if that gives her a pass they might as well cast Madonna

that'd be awesome

i think going to school in the UK is what gives her a pass

anyway how many of the great american icons came from the uk?
Charlie Chaplin
Stan Laurel
Bob Hope

...any one of which would have been a fine 12th doctor.

hahahaha yes!

a golf playing doctor bob hope replacing peter davison the cricketing doctor was sadly passed on

You can ask, but seeing that it was something I was told in confidence by the actor in question, you won’t get an answer.

like dude, just say "no"

Paterson Joseph isn't even any good, I genuinely don't understand why he's the go-to hypothetical black Doctor every single time. Most of what I've seen Ejiofor do has been pretty serious and I'm not sure I can see it working. Idris would have been the most fun out of the three but his career is way past that point now.

Pretty sure when a black Doctor is cast, they'll make the transition smooth by making that person an ectomorphic nerd in excelsis and/or Zawe Ashton.

This reply to the tumblr thing otm (apart from the "Neil Gaiman is fabulous" at the end:

before tackling the Doctor as a female character, it might do some good to have more female writers, well-written female characters, more equal female companions

Also why are people angry at Gaiman (apart from because it is fun), was it even slightly his decision to make?

if that gives her a pass they might as well cast Madonna

yeah no, fairly sure they are not at the same point on that continuum

iirc I have heard G. Anderson's British accent and it was passable (this is a dim memory of a TV appearance which was probably 12 years ago though)

Paterson Joseph is the go-to guy because his Marquis de Carabas was the closest thing there was to a Doctor on television post-McCoy for a large element of the Who community.

Just throw in Alan Davies and be done with it.

It wouldn't surprise you there's a pro-Davies lobby then, for exactly the reason you'd expect. (Sheridan Smith in common as companion also)

HE'S GOOFEH, HE'S SKINNEH...

Jonathan Creek is already like 75% Doctor Who

(Sheridan Smith in common as companion also)

Sheridan Smith is already one of the best 20-odd companions ever (nb: I've only heard her final season and a few from her first)

Transit rules but Aaronovitch really peaked with his Banks pastiche The Also People, which I think is probably the best Virgin New Adventure.

I have made a chronological Kindle "playlist" of 95 of the apparently best NAs, MAs, EDAs, PDAs, Bennys and Who Killed Kennedy which I'm working through. I'll get there!

The press office in The Thick of It is... Number 12 (Downing Street). There's a classic Moffat troll in some press release or other about 'who will be putting their spin on The Doctor' and 'finding Number 12'.

LOL.

I can't find any press release - are you thinking of his monthly column in DWM (Panini, not BBC, btw)? Not sure that this is all that nod-and-winky:

"I had to make up some scenes for the auditions, cos I haven’t written the real script yet. So here, in an exclusive, as a big old tease, is one of the imaginary scenes I wrote. Couple of things. Nothing to glean about what’s coming in the stories – this scene will never appear in the show itself. Also, you’ll learn very little about Number 12 – naturally, this was written before the casting began. And anyway, the scenes we use for the auditions are designed more as obstacle courses than 'proper' scenes. Fairly generic Doctor stuff, for someone to spin into a new version of the Time Lord. So, with the proviso that there’s nothing to learn here (won’t stop you trying, I know) here is – sort of, kind of, not really – the first scene for Number 12…"

woah wait back up a second, "Kindle 'playlist'"?

it required some heavy xlsing and editing metadata in Calibre before putting on the Kindle

I can show you in Boston unless anyone else is interested!

would it work for the Kindle app on my phone/iPad? or maybe something similar for my Nook?

you can enter metadata and then have Calibre create a Collection based on it on your Kindle device

http://calibre-ebook.com/

ok well finally having caught up with the whole series, I don't have nearly the rancor that others have had about Moffatt and the show's last year. Clara definitely not AS compelling a companion as some, and the repetition of things (doctor who, souffle girl, etc) did get a bit much, but I thought the stories on the whole were really well executed and I liked the intentional variety of each one, with each story taking on a different genre. By the end of series 7 Smith has really grown into the character and has a lot of great mannerisms that seem natural and well-suited to him as a second-coming of Troughton. A lot of humor recalled Adam's tenure as script editor. and Name of the Doctor was a phenomenal episode, and I hope that Hurt is a lot incarnation between McGann and Ecceleston, meaning hopefully we'll finally get a glipse of another regeneration in there, even if it's just a pretitle sequence.

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/capaldis-past-appearances-not-ignored-53407.htm

Oh what nonsense.

rmde

Sorry, what is rmde? Been meaning to ask for ages.

Google not helping.

roll my damn eyes

Am I gonna have to slap a fool over this

god please can you

K i dunno what this means really, and I'm not sure I want to. Whyyy is Moffat asking RTD for his ideas

Some people aren't telling the truth here. Rusty's big plan, which he discussed on screen and was broadcast in Torchwood Declassified during Children Of Earth, was that Frobisher was a descendent of the Roman guy and that killing his kids was the logical conclusion to the problems caused to the universe by the Roman children being saved by the Doctor. I don't see any possible way that can be spun into a cunty-wunty plot.

To be fair, Moffatt doesn't say that it's going to be a plot point, just that Rusty's theory will be explored. Which presumably means the universe is going to be explained as some kind of sentient entity which has a 'right' timeline. This has already been touched on in Father's Day with the Ptime Pterodactyls and seemed to be plot of the week with Emo Wub Doctor who kept whining on about fixed points in time that can't be changed and the like.

Alternatively, I've just looked at the photo accompanying the article again. Is it just me, or could that be a Human Natured Doctor and River grown old together? We know Moffatt is incapable of leaving River Song alone, given she's in brand new material on the S7 box set despite her story being "over".

The minisode on the S7 box is just one short skit with the Doctor and River Song getting into some swiftly resolved scrapes, presumably set well before the events of the Name of the Doctor. So I really do think River is done.

As for the RTD Capaldi theory... hmm, I doubt there will be little more to it than a quick 'the Doctor can choose a familiar face' handwave, which would neatly explain Colin Baker turning up in a Peter Davidson episode. But let's just suppose it is the basis of a story arc... this past face could be the Doctor's way of getting past the 13 regeneration limit? There's a lot of fan talk about this limit, one which we know RTD and Moffat recognise, but I wonder how engaging it would be as a story arc? Perhaps a bit too much fanservice? They could easily wave it away, especially as they've given themselves several outs (River Song giving the Doctor her regenerations, the Time Lords possibly giving the Doctor a new set of regens for the Time War, or the absence of the Timelords meaning such rules are null and void).

As sources go, DoctorWhoTV is a bit of a superior 'I can understand the arc because I am cleverer than you' type so I'd resist his attempts to spin this as a new story arc. Also, Moffat could just have the tease on...

Watching the first couple of minutes of the video... I wouldn't be surprised if it's not the Moff taking the piss out of the uber-nerdy questioning... (not knocking nerds, hell, this is a Doctor Who thread, but jeezo, these guys...)

NuWho already doesn't have a regeneration limit, it was handwaved away by Rusty in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures (spoken by The Doctor, on a tv programme, therefore undisputed canon).

A lot of people treat that as a joke though, hoping for some fanwank arc with a fatalistic 13th Doctor (which would be Capaldi if John Hurt counts - although obviously he won't). I'm quite happy for it to be handwaved though.
Having now watched most of that Nerds video I've actually warmed to them. Inevitably when written down, Moffat's comments look more significant than they sounded. It sounded more like speculation, kept deliberately vague, partly as a tease, and partly cos Moffat probably hasn't worked it out himself.

You might as well treat the original 13 reference as a joke, since it only appears once I think.

Bit more than that, the plot of The Deadly Assassin hinges on it iirc.

That's just about there only being so many regenerations, not it being specifically 13.

Oh ok. It's a while since I watched it.

Is the 13 thing not in Trial of a Timelord too?

No, just that between the 12th and 13th there is a dark incarnation. People compare it to The Watcher, but it's not the same at all there's actual interaction and a different character whereas The Watcher is just some kind of avatar.

In fact, The Valeyard provides exactly the model for the John Hurt 'Doctor' in that it's clearly a real regeneration but into something else that for some reason isn't considered to be the same thing as The Doctor. It wouldn't surprise me if Hurt actually is The Valeyard - existing canon and the numbering scheme wouldn't need to be redone because that would fuck up whole piles of BBC merchandise.

How about...

During the Hurt episode, we see him regenerate although not who into. It's not explained and we're supposed to assume it's into Ecclescake. Then at the end of Capaldi's first season, which I think is also Moffatt's last, he shockingly regenerates into John Hurt. Does that maybe tie in with the supposed Capaldi arc based on Rusty's theory of universal destiny?

I like that Aldo! So at the end of the 12th regeneration he regenerates into 8.5 to deal with something that the time matrix has to make right? And then after this he goes into the 13th? I think it's quite good but TBH I see that happening more between the 11th and 12th than the 10th and 11th.

Sorry I meant to say "I see that happening more between the 11th and 12th than the 12th and 13th."

Is the Valeyard a proper regeneration though? Doesn't the Master say summat like he's the distillation of the Doctor's dark energy. So he's more like a Dream Lord kinda figure, albeit corporeal. All this is stuff that was written way back when having 13+ Doctors seemed a million years away. Now it's an inconvenience Moffat have to get around, but most likely with a handwave rather than some kind of plot point.
I doubt Hurt will be the Valeyard. The 50th is designed to bring in casual viewers, so needs to stand alone to a certain extent. So while there will be references to nu-who story arcs, throwing a character in from an unloved 80s serial as a big reveal doesn't strike me as a likely or dramatically satisfying move, even to classic era fans. The same goes for the Omega theories. Future doctor idea doesn't work, because all he and Clara can see in his timeline is stuff from his past. It's pretty obvious that Hurt lies somewhere between 8 and 9 and has something to do with the Timewar. While the River Song arc ended up being needlessly convoluted, at other times, Moffat tends to go with a fairly obvious explanation, rather than something pulled out of the leftfield.

While the River Song arc ended up being needlessly convoluted, at other times, Moffat tends to go with a fairly obvious explanation, rather than something pulled out of the leftfield.

When has he ever done something simple? He ended up with two versions of Rory and Amy running around ffs, one of which was supposedly properly famous. He still hasn't finished the arc of The Silence. The voice in the TARDIS is still unresolved. The Doctor was "definitely dead, no maybes". Except it was a robot. Which was good enough to fool The Silence and the time police (because their whole pursuit of River in LKH is because all the records say she killed him), as long as he keeps the fact he's alive a secret which nobody can ever know and he has to be a shadowy figure that nobody ever sees or knows about. Which last for about 5 minutes.

The Valeyard may well be the dark energy thing but his closest comparison is still The Watcher rather than the Dream Lord (who is just a hallucination caused by magic mushrooms or something). And, again I have to say it, there's nothing to get around in terms of numbering because it's all already been handwaved away in SJA.

"To bring in casual viewers" - then why even reference NuWho? I mean, aren't these the same casual viewers who have been leaving as Moffatt does his River Song timey wimey cunty wunty bollocks? If the series period is supposed to bring is casual viewers, why the whole Clara In Tiem fanwank? Casual viewers are what led JNT's stunt casting obsession, one which Rusty and Moffatt seem keen to continue. The anniversary stories have always been mired in history, that's kind of the whole point of them. If you want casual viewers then Doctor, daleks, celebrities BOSH.

I agree with that, there have been very few episodes in the last couple of series that would be at all appealing to casual viewers really.

I kind of hope that's something the next showrunner will remedy, whoever it may be.

Well, there's history and there's history. I didn't mean to suggest the 50th's need to pull in casual viewers means ignoring the classic era. After all, the Zygons are in it. But suddenly revealing the Valeyard or Omega with no foreshadowing is a bad dramatic move whether you know who they are or not.

Omega's been shadowed all through the past two series, which is where all the rumours came from.

Rusty pulled in Rassilon with no foreshadowing or telling who he was.

Foreshadowed by some Omega symbols, true, but that's not really enough for it to be set up properly. A red herring put in to tease fans, and why not.

Rassilon? True, but then you didn't necessarily need to know who Rassilon was, just that the Timelords were back.

When Omega first appeared he didn't have any foreshadowing! If he turns up and they re-estabish him as an effective villain then good - Whovians get the thrill of recognition, everyone else gets a cool new (to them) character. Only if Moffat relies on the viewer knowing who he is to imbue him with menace is there a problem really.

Personally I like Omega and hope he reappears. He has an excellent helmet.

Well, obviously bringing in new baddies without foreshadowing can be ok (although a slow reveal is always good in order to build mystery). But bringing back an old one like Omega as the big bad behind the Silence would be overstuffing the 50th/Xmas specials with villains, seeing as we've already got Daleks, Zygons, Cybermen and an ambiguous figure in Hurt.
Not against bringing Omega back, but would he necessarily have the helmet? Wouldn't he look like Peter Davidson?

TBH I would shit my pants if the opening credits had "Peter Davison as Omega" in them!

why have you guys all given Eric Saward and Ian Levine your login details?

Time for a new thread...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38805151

;_;

time for tilda swinton to shine

she'll have all those amazing chibnall scripts to work with

Well with Moffatt out as showrunner, I could see them trying to go with someone deliberately different as a change of pace.

swinton only likes to play whitewashed asians

Julian Fellowes Presents Timelord Abbey

voting ned

There's a thought.

Anyway as Tom D. desired.

Your Doctor Who No. 13 casting speculation thread

Finally it's time for Gerald Wright.

sentiment seems that (a) this is unexpected and (b) he was wasted, but he'll have had three full years in the role including some of the finest stories of nu-who imo (heaven sent, witch's familiar, girl who died/woman who lived, zygon inversion, flatline*, caretaker, husbands of river song*).

tbh with chibnall coming in i just assumed capaldi would depart along with moffat, otherwise chibnall would be building his show around someone else's monolith.

* possible challops

it's a small shame that he won't stick on to ease the transition, but you can imagine him not wanting to risk tainting his p. great legacy (two v v consistent series that both introduced a startling proportion of new voices, and 2/3 Xmas specials were ace). makes u wonder what he knows about the make-up of the supposed writers' room that's doing S11.

interestingly this is only the third time the production team has ever changed at the same time as the Doctor - 1974, 2009, and 2018.

it's a small shame that he won't stick on to ease the transition

one of the absolute joys of the eleventh hour is how fresh it was. if tennant had hung around, even for a few screen minutes, it would have snagged the new look & feel just a tiny bit.

also i love regenerations happening at christmas because it ramps up the anticipation of what that doctor will be.

i agree with you that capaldi's legacy is worth boxing off neatly, especially if chibnall drops the ball and the whole thing goes to shit.

runner up #1 - publisher, editors and editorial direction changing in 1997 but some of the writers staying on

runner up #2 - Cartmel coming in at McCoy's second story and creating the second-greatest disparity in quality between consecutive stories in the show's 53 years

runner-up #3 - Letts coming in for the first regular production of Pertwee's run, but still having a year of Sherwin-commissioned seven-parters and a likely cancellation before he and Dicks got a renewal and the chance to actually set up their own approach

one of the absolute joys of the eleventh hour is how fresh it was.

yah but we* were also hyped for Moffat anyway, as opposed to being fearful of the new production and wanting a Band-Aid/bridge of this very very good Doctor who could probably rescue a lot of shit scripts

*maybe not you

also i love regenerations happening at christmas because it ramps up the anticipation of what that doctor will be

nah because the BBC will have been ramming the new Doctor into our faces for months to detract from the final season of the old one, probably

endless guff pieces about what their new personality might or might not be like, ban Ed Russell imo

yah but we* were also hyped for Moffat anyway

i was hugely hyped for moffat, then he lost me, then he partly won be back again

nah because the BBC will have been ramming the new Doctor into our faces for months to detract from the final season of the old one, probably

oh i mean speculation about how his personality will play out and how the show will adapt, not so much reprinting his face ad nauseam and forever replaying his initial 12 seconds of eccentric jerking about the tardis

hmmm. greatest discrepancy in quality between stories. my picks:

the tenth planet/power of the daleks
the dominators/the mind robber
planet of evil/pyramids of mars
horror of fang rock/the invisible enemy
city of death/creature from the pit
caves of androzani/the twin dilemma (i'm assuming that was your #1, sic)
gridlock/daleks in manhattan
robot of sherwood/listen

gridlock/daleks in manhattan

fuck yes

poll

my personal picks would by city of death->creature from the pit (exceptionally sharp and witty douglas adams script followed by four weeks of tom baker fondling a penis) and the dominators->the mind robber (vile anti-hippie tripe followed by surrealistic mindfuck)

i'll probably be evicted from ilx for saying this but mysterious planet->mindwarp

not at all, but i have no idea whatsoever which direction you've got the quality gradient moving. presumably down? unless you somehow think "mysterious planet" is worse than "terror of the vervoids"?

yeah down. the creepy way they handled peri was a distasteful kink in a dull story. mysterious planet had the benefit of holmes writing dialogue and doctor/peri almost defiantly getting along in that forest scene.

i overall agree, though i don't feel that mysterious planet necessarily showed holmes at his best. for me the biggest quality difference in the "trial" season is between eps 13 and 14. i know that they're not technically two different stories, but man, they might as well be.

otm, that part 2 (14) is a mess. knowing why it's a mess makes it even worse imo.

mysterious planet was definitely average for holmes, but it had humour and optimism which at least made it easy to watch. mindwarop is distinct in my mind for making brian blessed dull.

i know that they're not technically two different stories, but man, they might as well be.

sure they are!

caves of androzani/the twin dilemma (i'm assuming that was your #1, sic)

absolutely

the tenth planet/power of the daleks

tenth planet is okay! it'd make a good three-parter, especially as Hartnell being out of ep 3 means there's no build-up to his death/transformation. I like the weird mesh of ~srs sci-fi worldbuilding~ clashing with big stupid mirror planet. modified opening titles are exciting. unremarked multiracial faaar-future 1986 space engineer team is cool.

the dominators/the mind robber

not seen dominators in full

planet of evil/pyramids of mars
city of death/creature from the pit

don't remember much about Planet of Evil or Creature but Pyramids is kind of terrible despite being huge fun

horror of fang rock/the invisible enemy

this is probably true but Invisible Enemy introduces K-9 and has Leela in so my childhood memory says it's great

gridlock/daleks in manhattan

this is an excellent example, prob RTD's third-best story

robot of sherwood/listen

aw I liked Robot of Sherwood riiiight up until the fuel tanks suddenly being full enough to take off despite previous data, and then the arrow blowing it up. I did watch it before the cuts when it still made sense though

"don't remember much about Planet of Evil or Creature but Pyramids is kind of terrible despite being huge fun"

oh, pyramids is pulpy as all hell, but like you say, it's just tremendously fun. "planet of evil" is so much worse because it is both kind of terrible and _dull_.

I'd probably go 42->Human Nature for that season. I might need to rewatch Gridlock.

2009, and 2018

This should probably be 2010 (or 2017?) - either way wow it's striking just how much other interests have stolen Moffat's attention.

Disappointing, as on-form Moffatt is as good as Who gets

S5 was made by a new team in 2009 after years of prep by Moffat, S11 will probably be still being made in 18 after a year of prep by Chinballs

but to your point, if we call it eight years

either way wow it's striking just how much other interests have stolen Moffat's attention.

he made six full series of this, a 3D feature film, eight Christmas specials that were often close to feature-length, exec produced hours and hours of anniversary specials, wrote and produced up to an hour a year of bonus mini-episodes and guest appearances, recruited and developed more new writers than any head writer in series history (beating Cartmel in raw numbers and coming close proportionally), oversaw the series becoming a massive international merchandising juggernaut...

...dropped out of a multi-film multi-million dollar contract in Hollywood to take this show on as WFH

...had to take two half-year breaks for exhaustion and burnout and still came back to do an extra year when asked, after leaving, so that there wouldn't be a lull between him and the new guy

...and every single month, whether the show was in production or not, even during his hiatuses from burnout, turned in his DWM column for zero quid.

How many other interests have even had time to steal his attention? He wrote a few episodes of another show* because he needed an occasional break from thinking about Dr Who 27 hours a day - I don't know what else he's been apparently wasting time on.

*since his Who run started, three solo credits, two half-credits and one third-.

I have no doubt that you're right, but isn't he also the main show-runner for Sherlock as well?

Thanks for the offhand mention, sic, I just spent a fun hour reading those DWM columns (they're all transcribed on Reddit). Moffat is good value in avuncular leg-pulling mode.

AF - his duties are shared with Gatiss, and the Vertues are the main producers (Beryl as EP) afaik (but idk much)

thank YOU Chuck for letting me know I might be able to find them myself!