No new Doctor Who episodes until 2018? Dang… this will leave me with nothing but playing at the www.vegaspalms.ca on the evenings traditionally spent in front of the telly. But there might be something good coming out of the hiatus the BBC series takes. The last time the Doctor took a long pause it returned to the screen more glorious than ever. Let’s hope it can repeat this performance, and regenerate into the exciting and bold series it was in the last 10 years.
But who should be the next Doctor?
I remember how people reacted to Matt Smith taking over the Police Box for the first time. He was criticized for being too young to have such an iconic role – but he nailed it. He has become one of the most memorable Doctors ever, successfully combining childishness and an absent mind with moments when his thousand years of age showed perfectly. Although I preferred David Tennant as the Doctor, I appreciated Smith’s screen antics and humor, too. Peter Capaldi was great for a much more serious and grim Doctor Who, but his excellent performance was overshadowed by the poor stories the last two seasons had.
The introduction of Missy (The Master regenerated into a female form) into the series has confirmed countless fan theories and earlier references stating that Time Lords can regenerate into bodies of the opposite sex. This means that The Doctor’s traditional looks – caucasian male, never ginger – was a question of choice all along. This means that, after successfully resetting the number of regenerations for the Eleventh Doctor (technically the Twelfth, but Moffatt turned the number eleven canon), we could witness him turning up ginger, or even… her in the future.
But what actress could take on such an iconic – and traditionally male – role? Because even BBC is said to consider a female lead for the series. Remember what Moffatt said last September: “It’s not an impossibility to have a lady Doctor. It is not a lock either. There is no guarantee.” Of course, this has triggered a wave of speculation about a possible Time Lady and the actress who could portray him… I mean her.
Maisie Williams – you know her, Arya from the Game of Thrones – has been a recurring character in the latest Doctor Who series, and she told the press that she would be excited to become a Time Lady sometime in the future. But she’s “locked in” with other projects at the moment. A list of other notable candidates for the role include Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter in the Marvel universe), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma!) or even Helena Bonham Carter. But who knows, maybe Dame Helen Mirren will be right, and we’ll see a “gay, black female Doctor Who” sometime in the future. Maybe Lupita Nyong’o?
But at this point, I find it more likely for us to see Rupert Grint or Martin Freeman take on the role. Both of them are ginger…
