Doctor who?
Sadly, the Eddie Izzard rumor appears to have been just that. —Ah, well. The list of more plebeian possibilities for the 2005 revival is respectable enough: Withnail, I, and the Third Doctor’s son are all up for the role. —Myself, I was always partial to Peter Davison (who is, of course, the Doctor of choice for Yanks desperate not to appear provincial in these circles by leaping straight for the obvious). The Spouse doesn’t seem to mind the whole stuck-on-planet-Earth-with-bad-hair thing, and so has an especial fondness for John Pertwee. Still, the enormous appeal of snarkily pedantic Victorian gentlemen-scientists with a certain sartorial flamboyance aside, there’s something to Paul McGann’s plea for a different different sort of Doctor: “I’d like to see somebody really scary, Amazonian, highly intelligent and gorgeous in the role: someone who could be a complete handful. Rachel Stirling could do it because she’s got great charisma. Dame Maggie Smith would be brilliant.” While I wouldn’t disagree, still: fanboys will be fanboys. Best ease them into the whole idea of the Doctor as Other. (A snarkily pedantic Victorian gentleman-scientist with a certain sartorial flamboyance is an Other to most fanboys, yes; just not as much of an Other. And whether the idea of Izzard aids that easing or lurches off in strange new directions depends on how simple one likes one’s gender spectra.) —So, as Russell T. Davies plots the adventures of the long-awaited ninth Doctor, we might ask him (and the Beeb) to consider: instead of the respectable same old same old, or the scary Amazonian daughter of Emma Peel, or the stately and dignified Nigerian doctor, perhaps a bit of transoceanic cross-over appeal? Someone whose voice can handle the verbal pyrotechnics of reversing the polarities of neutron flows, but in a different, shall we say, idiom? —Bonus: he’s already played a doctor.
(Aw, don’t mind me. I thought Ed Chigliak: Secret Agent would have made a great spinoff.)
Commenting is closed for this article.
Peter Davison (who is, of course, the Doctor of choice for Yanks desperate not to appear provincial in these circles by leaping straight for the obvious).
Obvious Shmobvious. Baker is THE Doctor for me.
Incidentally, after watching the Izzard-eque film Mystery Men this evening, I got into a discussion where I mentioned you and this blog to someone in the context of comics, and it turns out he'd never heard the term "blog". And this was someone that runs his own YaBB board and hooked up a wireless hub so he could play with his XBox online without running extra wires.
Rob Morrow. That's....not predictable is the best way I can frame the proposal. So points for that. Maybe a few for originality. However, I find Rob Morrow to be as watchable as a sandpaper fisting.
I never really took to Peter Davison. Tom Baker's my thing. If you wanted to throw the fanboys a bone, how about Peter David?
Just kidding. Oh, and I agree with Jenn on John Pertwee. Emphasis on twee.
And if you really want to shake things up, how about Jennifer Saunders?
I did, of course, mean Tom Baker. I'd forgotten there was another Baker.
Dr. Emma Thompson, anyone? (Or, hmm... Rowan Atkinson?)
I've always been a fan of Tom Baker. I caught the Eddie Izzard stand up one night and I thought he was one of the funniest comics I've seen in quite sometime. But being that I live across the pond in the great Windy city I guess it'll be quite sometime before we see any of the new Dr. Its a shame that someone like Eddie won't do the role. He would be perfect for the role.