The Twelfth Doctor....Who?

 

So, in Doctor Who's fiftieth year, we will be getting a new Doctor! Of course, despite many false starts and rumours, the announcement of Doctor #12 has yet to be made.

There have, as usual, been numerous rumours in the press about who the new Doctor may be, but the newspapers and journalist usually take ounces of truth and spread it thick, adding their own opinions into the mix until it spirals into, essentially, blatant lies. What we do know, 100%, is that we are getting a new Doctor on Christmas Day. And that is it.

The last time Steven Moffat had to choose a Doctor, he had very clear expectations as to who he wanted. Not in terms of a specific actor, more a type of actor. He wanted somebody older, mid-40's, or roundabouts. He ended up casting the youngest Doctor ever in Matt Smith! Will Moffat have similar thoughts this time around? Will he, this time, try and find that older Doctor he wanted back in 2009, before Matt Smith ruined everything by being so brilliant? Or does he like the idea of somebody young and wild controlling the TARDIS?

Will the Doctor even be male? The idea of Time Lords changing their sex is now officially canon, and a great many actors and actresses have discussed the idea of the new Doctor being female, even more than before. But should 'he' be female? I find it hard to believe that the production team would decide automatically to make the next Doctor a woman, but less hard to believe that if a lady auditioned for the role, and bettered her male counterparts, then she would be cast. A lady Doctor would certainly make things interesting, but the idea, the novelty of him now being a her would have to be dealt with swiftly, otherwise, ten episodes in and the Doctor still going, “I'm a woman now, women are cool!” would be awfully tiresome.

So, who would I like to play the Doctor? I would certainly prefer an older actor this time around, and perhaps somebody I have never heard of. Somebody who can fully embrace the character of the Doctor, in the same way that Matt Smith did. There is a lot of controversy about certain actors at the moment, in particular, Daniel Rigby, of the BT ads. But I have given up saying who I want, or what I want. Because the last time I did that, we got somebody who totally confounded my expectations, and he was excellent. So if the next Doctor is another youth, I will have to put my trust in Moffat to find the right youth. He did it in 2009.

Whatever happens, 50 years after Doctor Who's conception, we are getting a brand new Doctor. And that is still the most exciting thing ever, whoever he or she may be.