Friday 3 June 2011

The Next Doctor?

Note: I first wrote this on 8th December 2008. I had just seen the clip for The Next Doctor on YouTube (I was in the States at the time of Children in Need) plus in the debut issue of The Terrible Zodin the editor Leslie (So formal! But hey we didn't start dating until between issues 2 and 3!) asked all contributors to the issue to supply two names: Who their fantasy Doctor is and who they really thought would be cast as the Eleventh Doctor. This musing came out of that and is long before anyone had heard of Matt Smith! I probably was not very imaginative in my speculation but hey see what you think. Names not on my original list and which I thought about long after the fact are Eammon Walker and Robert Pugh

With rumours abound that Steve Moffat has already cast the next Doctor, I imagine the news will be announced around the time of the Christmas special so here's my last chance to throw in my two pennies worth of suggestions as for who it could be.

Ok so my list below is a combination of people I think would be good for the role, those suggested in the brand new TTZ and in the tabloids, the infamous 'bookies favourites'. Let it be clear from the start however that I never hold any stock with the old 'maybe next time the Doctor will regenerate into a woman' schtick that the tabloids fall for every time so you won't see Judi Dench or Catherine Tate on this list.

Please note any use of photos is simply to illustrate who they are for people not in the no and no copyright infringement is intended.

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Julian Barratt

I suppose the prerequisite for casting the role of the Doctor is somebody who seems quirky or eccentric already which is why the tabloids tend to go for quite obvious names when they're filling pages. I don't really like The Mighty Boosh but he was pretty good in Nathan Barley. He's not my favourite choice but yeah I think he could bring something to the role.

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Bill Bailey

Again with the obvious choice, the man once described by Ian Hislop as looking like a Klingon. I think he's a funny guy from all his appearances on shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You and QI but I've not really seen him *act* in anything, other than Spaced (Oh and I suppose Hot Fuzz) so I've not really got any big yardstick to measure with.

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Peter Capaldi

Well he's already been in the show (He was Caecillius in The Fires of Pompeii) and is playing a character in the next season of Torchwood which makes him an unlikely choice but as we know from Colin Baker, having been in the show isn't necessarily an impediment to playing the Doctor. I think he's fantastic in The Thick of It and he was Professor 'Netball' in Peep Show, I think he'd bring a mixture of steely commanding presence and offbeat humour to the role, definitely one of my favourite choices for the role.

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Robert Carlyle

He's very keen on the role allegedly but says he's not been approached so unless it's a double bluff he's unlikely to be the next Doctor. It'd be an interesting choice, it's not obvious much like Christopher Eccleston wasn't obvious and with a large and varied body of work behind him, yeah I'd be pretty interested to see the show with him in the role.

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Richard Coyle

He played Jeff in Coupling which was created and produced by Steve Moffat, hence his name coming up. The trick with casting each new Doctor is that you want them different enough from the previous one and yet at the same time match the character so you can believe this person is the same man as the previous 10 and whilst I think he has that eccentricity I suspect he might be slightly too much like David Tennant with the whole rapid speech and squirmy energy. Coyle's Coupling co-star Jack Davenport is also a name that crops up, again I think not only acting wise but physically he might be too similar to Tennant to be in with a shot.

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Alan Davies

Even before the show came back Alan Davies was a name being associated with its return. Like Bill Bailey and Eddie Izzard its kind of the obvious eccentric choice. I think it'd be too much like "Jonathan Creek in Space" but he recently had a recurring role as the Head Chef in Hotel Babylon and surprised me as he went against the type of roles he's played before. But again, I really know him more from turning up on panel shows than acting.

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Stephen Fry

Fry was supposed to write an episode for Season 2 but had to drop out due to other commitments. It's still hoped he might be involved with the show for he is invariably brilliant in everything he does. I could definitely see him in the lead role but I'm not sure whether he would take it, I get the impression that committing to a few seasons is not something he's looking for at the moment. Someone else I could see in the role is his regular comedic sparring partner Hugh Laurie but I think he's quite busy being another sort of doctor at the moment.

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Hugh Grant

Well actually he's already played the Doctor in the Steve Moffat penned spoof Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death for Comic Relief a few years ago (Alongside Rowen Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent and Joanna Lumley as other incarnations) and he has said he'd like to be in the show, though preferably as a villain. I think he's one of those obvious names that pops up but is unlikely to be cast. Then again I doubted the Kylie rumour at first.

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Richard Griffiths

Griffiths is one of those names that floated around as a replacement for Sylvester McCoy had the original series not been cancelled in 1989, though how concrete that was is very unlikely, McCoy wanted to stay on for at least one more season. Moffat has said that he likes the idea of an older Doctor but I think he was thinking more along the Eccleston/Tom Baker lines rather than Hartnell/Pertwee. I think a cranky old Doctor would be good though!

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Anthony Stewart Head

He's another actor who's already been in the show (He was Mr Finch in School Reunion). He's one of those names that always crops up when casting sci-fi/fantasy shows what with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more recently Merlin. I don't think it will be him but I think he'd be quite good at the role.

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Mark Heap

He played Brian in Spaced and I think he'd be great in the role, I think he'd bring a darker edge to it, he's got that sort of shifty thing going on like Patrick Troughton where he could convince you he's a fool but deep in his eyes you can see he's several chess steps ahead of you already.

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Eddie Izzard

I love his standup comedy but unless you count his cameo as Mr Kite in Across the Universe I don't think I've seen him act inanything. He is already, like Tom Baker, a real life eccentric so I think that's why his name always pops up. It's be an interesting choice but I'm not sure it'd be the right choice.

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Paterson Joseph

The current "bookies favourite", with several sources saying he's already been cast. His name seems to be linked as he was in Moffat's recent adaptation of Jekyll which to be honest I didn't think he was very good in. I have liked him in other things, most notably as Johnson in Peep Show but I'm unsure how he'd portray the Doctor. We'll wait and see, the BBC interviewed him about the rumours which was strange as they didn't interview anyone else as far as I know but it could be an elaborate double bluff I suppose. If he is cast, he'll be the second actor after Colin Baker to have previously been in the show in a guest role (He was Rodrick in Bad Wolf)

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Harry Lloyd

A while back I think I read somewhere an interview with Moffat before he became Executive Producer, when asked to name hypothetically who he'd cast as the Doctor if he took over the show, he didn't give a definitive answer but said someone like Harry Lloyd but slightly older. Lloyd has been in the show as the creepy Son-of-Mine in The Family of Blood and yeah I can see what Moffat is aiming for there, he may not be the next Doctor but I think he's an actor to watch out for in anything upcoming.

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David Morrissey

I tend to avoid spoilers as a rule so other than the trailer above I know nothing about the forthcoming Christmas special. It's certainly intriguing and as far as I can see there are two possibilities. Either Morrissey IS the next Doctor and has been right under our noses all the time, or he's some sort of impostor, maybe a rouge time agent cashing in on the Doctors reputation (A similar plot to the novel Head Games or the audio play The One Doctor). If he is the future Doctor it will certainly be a very interesting way to introduce him to the series.

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Jimmy Nesbitt

I think his name mainly cropped up because of his lead role in Jekyll. He's stated he's not interested, Moffat's stated it won't be him, personally I don't rate him much as an actor so I really hope they're both telling the truth!

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Bill Nighy

The Daily Mail famously got Eccleston's casting spectacularly wrong, and announced that Bill Nighy had been cast in the role. It's a name that's been following the show before its come back and again when Eccleston left so perhaps its another one of these actors who people just want to cast in everything. Like I said above I like the idea of a return to an older Doctor and I think he'd be pretty good.

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Ben Roberts

This was the name I put forward to TTZ as my fantasy Doctor. He is perhaps most well known for playing Chief Insp. Derek Conway on The Bill for several years but he was also a storm trooper in the original series of Doctor Who in Resurrection of the Daleks! This is a complete shot in the dark and I imagine I'm the only person who's ever suggested his name but I think he'd do a pretty good job, a sort of Hartnell-esque grumpiness with a Eccleston surliness but still with a touch of eccentricity and adventure. Physically he also has heterochromia so he has one brown eye and one blue eye which makes for an interesting look.

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Colin Salmon

Another hot favourite of the tabloids, some of which quote the infamous "BBC Insider" who say he has been in talks with the producers. He was in the show recently as Dr. Moon in Silence in the Library (And he got to have sex with Billie Piper in The Secret Diary of a Call Girl!). I think that would be a pretty cool choice.

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Andy Serkis

My Dad pointed out that when each of the most recent Doctors were announced, they had just appeared in quite prominent roles on shows at the time (Eccleston in The Second Coming, Tennant in Casanova, though that might have something to do with them both being written by Russell T. Davies!) so if we put that theory to the test and turn our eye toward Little Dorrit.... Interestingly enough according to IMDb he's playing Captain Haddock in the forthcoming Tintin movie. Hmm I wonder who's writing that...?

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Michael Sheen

A while back the tabloids ran with his name on the basis that they saw Julie Gardner speaking with him backstage during his run of Frost/Nixon but it turned out they're old school friends. He played Tony Blair in both The Deal and The Queen and seems to be doing more stage and film than TV but yeah I think he'd be a good choice in the role.

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John Simm

Inexplicably his name keeps cropping up. Now I know I said that having been in the show before shouldn't be a draw back to playing the Doctor but that goes for guest roles, Simm however played The Master. Unless they went with some weird plot development like in Xena: Warrior Princess when Hudson Leick temporarily took the title role because Callisto and Xena did some sort of freaky Friday body swap (My understanding was Lucy Lawless had injured herself during filming or something) I really don't know how they'd explain it away. I'd be happy to see Simm return as the Master (and he's certainly happy to as well) but I just couldn't suspend my belief to have him play the Doctor.

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Timothy Spall

Stalwart of British film and TV he has a fondness for playing these oddball grotesque characters, Sweeney Todd and Harry Potter the most recent examples. Yeah I think he's a good actor and I think he'd bring a lot to the role, but I don't know whether he'd be able to clear that sex appeal hurdle to keep the girls watching.

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Jason Statham

Sometimes I wonder if those tabloid hacks actually watch the show! Now I like Snatch as much as the next man... Bygones. Ahem, anyway, he's good at that hard man cockney gangster hardnut role and fair play to him. But the last time I checked the Doctor was none of those things and no, frankly Statham would be even more of a worse choice than Jimmy Nesbitt.

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David Thewlis

It was somebody on TTZ who suggested him and I sat up and thought "Ohh yes, he'd be perfect!" He's also got that sort of oddball with a dark core quality about him, but hey if he can get Thandie Newton to play the companion that's all I need to know!

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Russell Tovey

On his way out RTD nonetheless offered his own two pence worth as to the next Doctor and suggested Russell Tovey, who was in last years Christmas special as Midshipman Frame. I think he's an actor worth looking out for and I remember thinking that years ago in one of his earliest TV roles in The Bill when he played a teen carjacker turned police informant, but I think he looks too young for the role (He's only a few days younger than me but he looks like he's 15!)

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Mark Williams

"You ain't seen me, right?". One time part of The Fast Show but more recently well known as Arthur Weasely in the Harry Potter movies, he has that weird physicality and eccentric nature to carry off the role, I think he sort of looks like a younger William Hartnell and has that wide eyed exploring the universe quality to him. And if we're to take any stock in the current Doctor's disappointment that he was "Rude and not ginger" perhaps we will finally see a carrot topped Doctor.

So there we go, now time will tell and see if I was on the mark with any of these. My personal top five choices would be Ben Roberts, Peter Capaldi, Mark Williams, Mark Heap or Michael Sheen

2 comments:

  1. Names suggested on Twitter last night included Sean Biggerstaff, Callum Blue, Hugh Bonnerville, Benedict Cumberbatch, Johnny Depp, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, Martin Freeman, Lenny Henry, Jason Isaacs, Ian McShane, Sean Pertwee, Andrew Lee Potts, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Alan Rickman, Julian Sands and Benedict Wong

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  2. Other names which have cropped up in discussion include Steve Coogan, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy

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