Doctor Who - the 13th Doctor

[GoStanford]

Please note that I am not a regular watcher of Doctor Who, but I know several of you are, and I don't want to give anything away, but once the fanfare settles down, I would really like to know what you all think and what the implications are for upcoming adventures.

[Hanaper]

Still not ginger...

[luvdabags]

I approve.

[BWeaves]

Still not ginger...

Hahahaha! That was my first thought, too.

I approve of the casting.

I'm waiting for the Broadchurch / Doctor Who crossover where Olivia Coleman is the evil big baddie.

[PaulT00]

I'm ... reserving judgement for the moment. Clearly the next Doctor falls within the scope of canon as far as how regeneration falls out is concerned, but... it's a big change. And it's going to need - in my humble opinion - really excellent writing, of the sort we haven't seen consistently for some time, to pull it off. The fact that Chris Chibnall is taking over as show runner is (I think) a good thing - Steven Moffat has been showing signs of losing the plot for some time, which is never a good sign, and it was clearly time for a change of tack. The show has never descended to the depths to which it plummeted during the later part of the Sylvester McCoy * era - just before it was cancelled - but there have been some rather thin storylines over the last few years.

(* FYI I actually quite liked Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, some of the stories were pretty good (Remembrance of the Daleks is one of my favourite ones and far better than some of the earlier stuff around the Peter Davison era) but it was played for comedy too often, and suffered because of that. "My" Doctors began with late era Jon Pertwee and continued through all those since; the Tom Baker years were some of the best, because the writing was solid and it managed a real sense of menace - think hiding behind the sofa - interspersed with lighter moments... while not dodging the hard issues or dumbing down. Think Tom Baker agonising over whether or not to intervene in Genesis of the Daleks, the virtual reality sequences in The Deadly Assassin, or the social issues addressed by the frankly creepy Robots of Death, for example.)

The other thing which does annoy me a bit is the entanglement with the number 13. For the record, in canon, Peter Capaldi is actually the 13th incarnation of the Doctor, because of the retrospective insertion of John Hurt as the "War Doctor" between Paul McGann (8th) and Christopher Eccleston ("9th"). In his brief time in the role, John Hurt managed to act Tennant and Smith clear off the screen. The new one will be the 14th Doctor, i.e. the 13th (known) regeneration **...

(** actually the 14th known regeneration too, since Tennant regenerated into Tennant at the end of the episode The Stolen Earth, having been shot by a Dalek; the original theoretical limit of 12 regenerations has been well and truly bypassed...)

(yes, I'm a fan. Could you tell? )

[Cristina]

I am not too familiar with the new Doctor but one thing I hope for is that the show doesn't lose its sense of humour under Chris Chibnall. Broadchurch was very well done if you like that sort of thing but I will absolutely stop watching if DW becomes gritty. So I guess my concern is less over the casting than the tone overall.


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