| Start | Finish | Duration | |
| 1st Doctor | 1963 | 1966 | 3 |
| 2nd Doctor | 1966 | 1969 | 3 |
| 3rd Doctor | 1970 | 1974 | 4 |
| 4th Doctor | 1974 | 1981 | 7 |
| 5th Doctor | 1981 | 1984 | 3 |
| 6th Doctor | 1984 | 1986 | 2 |
| 7th Doctor | 1987 | 1989 | 2 |
| 8th Doctor | 1996 | 1996 | 1 |
| 9th Doctor | 2005 | 2005 | 1 |
| 10th Doctor | 2005 | 2010 | 5 |
| 11th Doctor | 2010 | 2013 | 3 |
| AVERAGE | 3.09 |
I even have the maths to prove it.
And of course, once the current Doctor announces he's leaving the rumor mill starts spinning faster than William Shakespeare in his grave after being told Michael Bay was rebooting Hamlet.
G.. O... F..U... C.. K... T..H..Y..S...E...L...F....
And what's interesting about that is, excepting specific names, we always end up having exactly the same discussion. Perhaps it's a testament to the lasting legacy of the The Mighty John Nathan Turner that, regular as clockwork, no sooner has a Doctors departure been announced than somebody somewhere will start a rumor that the next Doctor might be..... A WOMAN!!
Or even WORSE (depending on where exactly you fall on the hateful internet prick spectrum of bigotry) NOT EVEN WHITE!!
You know, like those dudes from the Power Of Kroll.
The thing is, there is actually some interesting point to think about with the issues that get raised when these sort of questions come up. Sadly they're not ones that you can easily get any intelligent discussion about because this is, after all, the internet. Still, we can always have a go, can't we?
There is a curious bit of serendipity to be had here as well, as this was a topic I was thinking about writing something on already, before any Doctor Who announcements were made thanks to the various Marvel films. As I'm sure you're aware there were certain.... issues had by particular strata of the fandom over various casting choices, most notably in the Thor movie. And no sooner had I actually finally managed to get around to catching up on the various Marvel DVDs than the whole thing kicked of again when casting news for the latest attempt at a Fantastic Four Film was announced. I believe the discussion went something like this:
After all, magical space vikings is one thing, but black magical space vikings is clearly just being silly. Or something. Then you watch the film and realize that the only reason you even noticed the character was being played by a black guy is because of all the fuss being made.
What perhaps gets lost in these internet shouting matches is any sense of nuance or meaning to the argument. There ARE actually valid reasons to be critical of such changes. Sometimes. The issues of ethnicity or gender as being fundamental aspects of ones character or identity are valid points. Making arbitrary changes to these very basic, core aspects can seem pretty wrong.
But only when the changes are in fact arbitrary.
See, the thing about a lot of popular culture stories is that they're written by straight white guys for straight white guys. And thusly they mainly feature straight white guys. Which isn't exactly a good thing. A bit of diversity can broaden the appeal and expand the fanbase. After all, the main problem with any demographic is that there will always be more people who aren't in it than are. And let's face it, past attempts at trying to produce a cast of characters that doesn't look an advertisement for aryan purity have tended to be ham handed at best, particularly in comics.
Can you spot the difference between a realistically diverse set of characters and a corporate checklist?
All to often you'll have a character introduced in the name of diversifying things whose sole defining characteristic is simply that they are black, or gay, or whatever. Or to be more precise they're a straight white guys interpretation of that, which may just be lacking in certain obvious regards. And of course since the only thing going for that character is that they're a clumsy attempt at that one thing they inevitably suck as characters and rapidly fail. This is why there's such a lack of decent black characters in comics that they NEED to change the ethnicity of a few in the movies. It's not a question of enforced political correctness, it's just a question of balancing things out.
What makes all the fuss doubly stupid of course is the fact that the characters ethnicity is hardly all that intrinsic to their depiction. Because what made them great characters in the first place was that they primarily written as cool and interesting PEOPLE. Not black people or gay people or female people, just focussing on the character stuff and not worrying about any of that because it wasn't an issue.
Seriously, Falcon could punch Dr Doom in the nuts and EAT THANOS and he'd STILL just be Captain Americas Black Friend™
A great example is in Nick Fury. The nearest thing the character ever had as an ethnicity was commonly being modelled on Clint Eastwood. Only with an eye patch. Other than that he's basically just kinda badass, and possibly fairly old depending on what version of continuity we're using. Now Samuel L Jackson doesn't really look a lot like Clint Eastwood, but then again neither do a hell of a lot of people.
For Example.
However you can't deny he's pretty much built his career around being kinda badass. So you say to me Samuel L Jackson playing Nick Fury and I think "yeah, that sounds about right". Right actor for the part, regardless of race. As long as the actor brings the correct qualities to the part it doesn't really matter about anything else. I mean, they're currently kicking off about casting a black guy as the Human Torch. But if you think about what the character is like you've really gotta wonder why nobody made him black before. I mean, the irreverent, cocksure, mouthy member of the team? Never seen a black dude playing a part like that before.
Anyone else suddenly nostalgic for the days before fatsuits?
Okay, so then. So we've hopefully established so far that arbitrary changes to character are bad, carefully considered casting outside of narrow expectations can be good and that whilst working towards a broadly inclusive range of characters and options is a good thing it works best when it's done quietly without making a huge deal about everything. So how does all this relate back to the question of Doctor Who?
Carefully.
Now, to be up front my own personal preference is that whoever plays the next Doctor should be older than they've cast in the new series so far. That's really my main wish. On the question of race and gender I freely admit that my first reaction is "Probably white, probably male". But then I had to ask myself why exactly that was. And I'm not honestly sure it's anything more beyond the fact that he's always been white and male. Now, there's no reason we know of in the canon why the Doctor shouldn't be able to change race when he regenerates. We've not only seen the odd black Time Lord kicking about, we've actually SEEN IT HAPPEN. Kinda.
Yes, I mean the blue one. OBVIOUSLY.
And as for changing gender... Well, that would be slightly more debateable were not explicitly referenced in The Doctor's Wife. Also, the show is not actually real and thing only count until they don't anymore. So really we've got no defence against our own prejudices there.
In terms of the Doctors character it's also kinda hard to pin down. I think most people would agree that he's quintessentially English in nature, but sadly for the BNP English isn't actually a skin tone. So all I can really say here is probably not an American actor unless they can do a consistent British accent that isn't horrible.
Beyond that he needs to be somewhat eccentric, funny, serious, light, dark, basically good and extremely clever. That will narrow down your pool of suitable actors quite a bit but doesn't really speak to issues of race or gender either.
I think one of the problems I'd have with any significant change in these respects is the amount of fuss that will be made over them. As I said earlier, this sort of thing is best achieved with a degree of subtlety. And there is quite simply nothing subtle about a casting announcement for a new Doctor. That such a move would foster some degree of debate over the issues is possible, but I honestly wonder if everyone would be able to stop shouting at each other long enough to actually find out if it was a good idea or not.
Could the Doctor be played by a non white actor or a lady? Sure, if you can find the right actor. I mean, of the various options of the various lists I've seen so far the only mention that's really caught my eye was Idris Elba. Who was the poor hapless thespian at the centre of the Thor business. Of course that might just be because he was one of the few names I recognized, but I guess that's par for the course. Compile all the lists you want, whoever it is will be someone most people have never heard off. I mean, before the 10th Doctor ran up the curtain to join the choir invisible how many people even knew what a Matt Smith even was?
However the question of SHOULD the Doctor be played by such a person is a little different. As I said, I have my knee jerk reservations. Honestly on the question of race I think I've worked through it. But on the question of gender I'm a little more divided.
See, one of the main appeals of the Doctor as hero is that he's about as far from the stereotypical action hero as you can get. He solves problems with brains, not brawn. He abhors violence. He is, to put it simply, a role model for all of us guys who are kinda nerdy, socially awkward and generally unmanly in the traditional sense. And I think that's kinda important. There's not many heroes who are skinny pacifists, it's far too often all muscles and guns.
This isn't to say that all the kinda nerdy, socially awkward girls don't deserve a hero to look up to as well. God knows they probably deserve a hero not plastered with bullshit body image issues more than me or anyone else like me ever will. But in all honesty making the Doctor female in that respect seems a little too obvious in a way.
I also confess I worry about how the part would be cast and played. It's a sad fact that the shelf life of a female actress is woefully truncated. And I'm not entirely convinced they'd be able to push through the slightly older actress that the part would really need. I shudder at thought of a young and sexy female Doctor in this day and age. I mean, Romana worked great in both incarnations, but then she never wore a miniskirt or flirted with everyone.
Having said all that, my major concerns do seem to be more that the part would suffer from being unable to adequately defy traditional conventions of what a female part can be in a story rather than any problem with the female part itself. I mean, if they were able to do it well then it could totally work. One of the obvious things that would be quite radically changed of course would be the companion relationship. Most likely with a female Doctor you'd want a male companion of some sort. Which could be utterly horrible if they insist on this ongoing vague sexual tension thing that hasn't actually been working since 2005. I mean, it's been pretty naff with the male Doctor and Female companion, but it just seems to me with a male companion and lady Doctor it could get twice as awkward. But if you could avoid all that. Have a slightly older lady Doctor with barest minimum of sexualisation possible, and then cast the male companion role in the nice but perhaps slightly dim vein of Harry or Rory?
That's MISTER Imbecile to you.
That I think could work. At least some potential there. But you say Female Doctor and I start having nightmares about some Hollywood style abomination with a twenty something Doctor in a miniskirt and low cut, with her muscular, attractive companion and all the terrible slash fiction that would inevitably follow. I'm just not entirely convinced it could be made to work without fucking everything up HORRIBLY.
But then I guess you could say that about most regenerations.
Still, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that the chances of actually getting a lady Doctor are slim to none. It's fun for grabbing headline but I can't honestly see it happening for real.
With the obvious caveat about Big Finish having already done everything first.
There's probably more articulate reasons than my various vague notions as well, but basically I think the show has evolved such a strong dynamic with the Doctor & Companion relationship it's become fairly intrinsic. If it ain't broke don't fix it and all that.
I think I'd rate the chances of a non white Doctor higher though. Not necessarily higher than 50/50, but possible. I'll put it this way. I was thinking about making a joke about the butler from the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, seeing as how he had the whole eccentric englishman thing going on. But then I actually found a picture of what he looks like now.
And you could kinda see it, you know? He's got that grandfatherly thing going on at least.
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