Another thing about the Helen Mirren deal...that's kind of a b%~%~y move. She's essentially asking them to fire Matt Smith so that she can cross "Be Doctor Who" off of her to-do list.
Why? They've already had multiple Doctors in the same place at the same time, in one form or another. I could easily see her playing the Doctor in a one-off episode. She gets her dream, we get to see a female Dr., and (provided its well written), the world gets an exciting, new episode.
Me, I'm okay with that.
I'm okay with that even if Matt Smith was shown the door ... but that brings up another point. His contract is over after the next season, and there's no word he has re-signed beyond that.
On a personal note, I finally got to see Series 6 last week. :P
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Or they leave the series shortly after someone they enjoy working does or on John Pertwee's case, gets killed. (Pertwee left after his Masterful sparring partner, Roger Delgado was killed in a plane crash)
Elisabeth Sladden's bio has some interesting talk on Pertwee's leaving (and her own).
Edit: I don't have the book on hand, and don't want to misquote her from memory.
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The Wikipedia article on Matt Smith quotes the BBC: "Smith was a relatively unknown actor compared to the actors then speculated about possibly taking on the role, who included Paterson Joseph (Rodrick), David Morrissey (Jackson Lake, the Next Doctor), Sean Pertwee (son of Jon Pertwee), James Nesbitt (Murphy's Law), Russell Tovey (Midshipman Alonso Frame), Catherine Zeta Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor (the Operative in the Serenity movie), Robert Carlyle (Dr. Rush from Stargate Universe) and Billie Piper."
Comments on any of those?
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The Wikipedia article on Matt Smith quotes the BBC: "Smith was a relatively unknown actor compared to the actors then speculated about possibly taking on the role, who included Paterson Joseph (Rodrick), David Morrissey (Jackson Lake, the Next Doctor), Sean Pertwee (son of Jon Pertwee), James Nesbitt (Murphy's Law), Russell Tovey (Midshipman Alonso Frame), Catherine Zeta Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor (the Operative in the Serenity movie), Robert Carlyle (Dr. Rush from Stargate Universe) and Billie Piper."
Comments on any of those?
(Just to be clear here, the BBC was reporting on people that other media outlets had named speculatively... that might be missed by people reading quickly.)
I don't know enough about most of them... but I think Catherine Zeta Jones would be terrible, and though I adored Billie Piper as Rose, I would not want her to be the Doctor. Robert Carlyle has been *really* good in Once Upon a Time, and I think he'd be quite an excellent choice for the Doctor... *or* the Master.
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Vic, doing a little more research, some of those choices were pure speculation. But others were bounced around by either the actors or the producers. Sean Pertwee was actively pressing for the role.
Romana showed us that a Time Lord can take the form of an esteemed friend. But I think that putting someone like Russell Tovey or Paterson Joseph in the role, as the person the Doctor finds as a suitable incarnation, goes against Ten's gradual disengagement with the people around him.
And as for Billie Piper, it would certainly make the eventual multi-doctor show interesting.
It's funny you bring up the Master. Some friends were just commenting the other day that if the first three Doctors had the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master as their prime opponents, there hasn't seemed to be a real arch-menace for recent incarnations. (The Silence doesn't strike me as Eleven's nemesis, but that's the closest we've seen.)
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The Wikipedia article on Matt Smith quotes the BBC: "Smith was a relatively unknown actor compared to the actors then speculated about possibly taking on the role, who included Paterson Joseph (Rodrick), David Morrissey (Jackson Lake, the Next Doctor), Sean Pertwee (son of Jon Pertwee), James Nesbitt (Murphy's Law), Russell Tovey (Midshipman Alonso Frame), Catherine Zeta Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor (the Operative in the Serenity movie), Robert Carlyle (Dr. Rush from Stargate Universe) and Billie Piper."
Comments on any of those?
A few of those I doubt were ever in serious contention. Namely David Morrissey and Billie Piper. Marrissey becoming the Doctor after being another character that is mistaken for a future regeneration? Nope, can't see Moffat going there...too convoluted.
And Billie Piper? From what I've read, Moffat agrees with me (and a large number of other Who fans) that Piper already returned several times too many. Her shadow loomed large over the third series (mostly because the Doctor never seemed to miss an oportunity to try to make Martha feel inferior to Rose), and the fourth series (where she had appearences throughout, so that she could show up in the final episodes to spectacularly fail to do anything that was worth a damn). I know there are some Rose fans still out there, but there's a lot of people who were absolutely sick of the character, and I think slapping a Rose mask on the Doctor might have caused many of those to just stop watching altogether.
The Silence has been the main architect for two series of overhanging arcs menacing the Doctor. None of his other nemesis came even close, so I'd say they definitely qualify. Even more so than the Daleks and the Cybermen as while the two are definitely foes of the Doctor, he's just an incidental enemy to them. The Silence on the other hand have the destruction of the Doctor as their prime reason for existence, and they've already taken down the universe at last once!
It's funny you bring up the Master. Some friends were just commenting the other day that if the first three Doctors had the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master as their prime opponents, there hasn't seemed to be a real arch-menace for recent incarnations. (The Silence doesn't strike me as Eleven's nemesis, but that's the closest we've seen.)
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The 11 Doctor's notoriety has been his primary nemesis for his first 2 series. If the third series is Smiths last I hope they bring the Master back because if anyone deserves to force the Doctor to regenerate it should be the Master. I also hope that they can get Robert Carlyle to play the Master if they bring him back.
The Master stories tend to be more cerebral than the monster ones.
I asked my children their favourite stories, top 5 were
1) Weeping Angel Stories
2) The Queen and the Werewolf
3) All Dalek stories
4) All Cybermen
5) Vampires of Venice
So as a children's program, I'm kind of hoping any regeneration is caused by the monsters over the master.
But as an aside
Rather than an enforced change, what if the Doctor simply chooses to change - they could do a "on rare occassions, a timelord chooses his time" regeneration, doing some sort of beautiful tear jerker handover.
I'd quite like to see a move away from the "oh yes, jolly jolly geronimo" doctors of the last few regens to a more sinister dark manipulative doctor - bring the scare back, kids love being scared - mine do at least looking at their choices.
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I'd quite like to see a move away from the "oh yes, jolly jolly geronimo" doctors of the last few regens to a more sinister dark manipulative doctor - bring the scare back, kids love being scared - mine do at least looking at their choices.
Agreed, even Tom Baker had a few dark turns in his run. And I happen to like McCoy's take on the Doctor.
I wish Eccleston would have done another season or two.
And Carlyle as the Master? Yes please more. I loved his Dr. Rush on SGU.
Benedict Cumberbatch as the Master would be awesome.
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BTW, shouldn't we be moving onto a Doctor Who Series 7 thread now?I'm not sure if they're going to call it a season or another run of specials.
The schedule I last saw was:
2012
Easter Special
Fall - Season 7 Part 1
Christmas Special
2013
Winter - Season 7 Part 2
But I don't know where to go to actually confirm that info.
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He COULD have... he chose not to. I think he had problems with how Russell Davies was running things. He generally shys away from mentioning his Whovi past,although I think he did make a recent appearance for charity.
I wish Eccleston would have done another season or two.
Thus my use of 'Would' :-) At the same time, pity we'll never see how dark and brooding Nine would have delt with River. :-)
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Point taken. There was just something, I guess I can't really quantify about Nine. There's a rawness that seemed to be lacking in Ten and Eleven. They seem more at peace maybe with the past? When Matt Smith delivers that line "Fear me, I've killed them all." It's not a boast, or a confession, it's stated like "It's raining."
Plus we only get to see once the Doctor meeting River when he doesn't know she's due to die. While everyone the Doctor loves goes away/dies in the end, part of me wanted to see how the raw pain of Nine would handle not only the potential for healing (with Rose, and Jack) but knowing that he gets better.
Aside, I like the fan theory that Eight ended the Time War and that whatever he did regenerated him into Nine. It also adds another layer if Eight thought he'd be locked in as well, but somehow escaped.
