# Question for Dr Who fans **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 9, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215 "2012-10-09T14:42:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/21 "2012-10-09T18:27:41Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > You have seen some of the people that have played the Doctor in the past, right? > > IIRC Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor, was the first one not to be 40+ FWIW, Christopher Eccleston was 41 when he played the doctor. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/22 "2012-10-09T18:37:40Z")
I’d love to see a female Doctor, and it would be a great way to reverse the trend of the Doctor being cast younger and younger. A woman in her 40’s or 50’s would be great, someone who’s got some gravitas and wouldn’t be instantly perceived as an overt sex symbol. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/23 "2012-10-09T18:40:23Z")
Tilda Swinton? ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/24 "2012-10-09T18:50:35Z")
She’d be great. And in a pinch, she could be male! Also, Helen Mirren. She could rock _anything_. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/25 "2012-10-09T18:56:34Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > She’d be great. And in a pinch, she could be male! Also, Helen Mirren. She could rock _anything_. I might be ok with Helen Mirren. I have a girl crush on her. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/26 "2012-10-09T19:50:28Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > It would have to be a British actor. The only non-Brit that could do it is David Hyde Pierce, and he’s far too expensive for a BBC budget. There’s [Cameron Daddo](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0196592/), an Australian bloke with experience as an off-beat lead character in a weekly TV series. ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/27 "2012-10-09T19:56:27Z")
I wanted them to make [Colin Salmon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Salmon) James Bond while we were waiting to hear who would succeed Pierce Brosnan. I do like Daniel Craig and the elegant Mr Salmon had already been in James Bond, as one of M’s sidekick, so I suppose it was highly unlikely But I think he would make a fine Dr Who. He’d make a fiiiiiiiiiiiine anything, if I’m being perfectly honest. Oops. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/28 "2012-10-09T20:36:32Z")
A google search for “jon pertwee black” gives me nothing. Can you guys tell me what you’re talking about? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/29 "2012-10-09T22:19:14Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I see your Idris Elba and raise you[Chiwetel Ejiofor.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSH-TAX_9Ts) I would seriously love to see him as the Doctor. > [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#): > > Of course, there’s already been one black doctor. Jon Pertwee. > [@Frylock](#): > > A google search for “jon pertwee black” gives me nothing. Can you guys tell me what you’re talking about? I was just wondering this myself. I could see a female Doctor, as long as it wasn’t a giggly little girlie. Someone with gravitas as suggested above. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/30 "2012-10-09T22:31:47Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Or why don’t they spin off Jenny, the Doctor’s Daughter? I don’t want to see the Doctor regenerate into a female, that doesn’t work for me, but I’d happily watch the adventures of a female space-and-time traveller in the Doctor Who universe, though not River Song (I like her as a character, but she’d be a bit much to take full-time). Jenny the Doctor’s Daughter would fit the bill for me. Plus Steven Moffat apparently specifically requested of Russell T Davies that Jenny not be killed off. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/31 "2012-10-09T22:40:54Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#): > > Of course, there’s already been one black doctor. Jon Pertwee. And there can’t be a female Doctor, because they’d have to rename the show _Lady Doctor Who_, which is silly. Nothing in this entire piece of text makes even the slightest sense. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/32 "2012-10-09T23:07:15Z")
I want a fat Doctor! Think Nero Wolf in a Tardis. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/33 "2012-10-09T23:10:21Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > Nothing in this entire piece of text makes even the slightest sense. A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies instantly but the son is taken to the nearest hospital. The doctor comes in and exclaims, “I can’t operate on this boy, he’s my son.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/34 "2012-10-09T23:18:36Z")
I could be the next Doctor. Granted I am not British and can’t do accents. And I am not even an actor. But all these cons are easily overcome by my one pro: I am ginger. You just \*\*know \*\*the character wants to be ginger in the worst way. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/35 "2012-10-09T23:29:48Z")
I’m surprised people don’t like River Song. I don’t care for how they’ve used the character lately, but I think Alex Kingston does an outstanding job, and I would have had no problem if they’d cast her as the Doctor instead. And I love the concept behind the character, even though as I said, she’s mostly been used in some pretty sloppy plots. I honestly thought we’d have a black Doctor by now, and I’m surprised that we haven’t. I’d rather see a SE Asian Doctor (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.) just because it would be so unexpected. (Native American would also be unexpected, but there are even fewer of them in the UK, and I think it pretty much has to be a Brit. Or at least non-American.) ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/36 "2012-10-09T23:30:59Z")
> [@Rollo\_Tomasi](#): > > Idris Elba would be great as the next James Bond. I like the way you think! ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/37 "2012-10-10T01:53:59Z")
I’d like to see both an older Doctor and a female - specifically, Dame Judi Dench. She would be so good in that role… ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/38 "2012-10-10T03:13:53Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > I’d like to see both an older Doctor and a female - specifically, Dame Judi Dench. She would be so good in that role… eeek. Scary Dame Doctor Dench. I’d never come out from behind the couch! I would seriously get behind some Doctor’s Daughter spin-off action. That would be awesome. On the other hand, it sort of weirds me out that she is a real Doctor’s daughter (Peter Davison) and she ended up marrying Tennant in real life (their kids are gonna be so smoking hot… ). That’s just a bit odd to me. Life is funny. I was seriously rooting for Paterson Joseph to win out over Mat Smith. I really was. I don’t mind Smith now that he’s going, but I really really really wanted the next doctor to be a hot nerdy black dude with an English accent. Man that would be so hot, and so perfect a change. For some reason, having a younger female Doctor weirds me out, but having an older one (or a fierce androgynous one like Swinton - rowr) is totally ok, and kindof an attractive thought. I think Dame Dench rather than Dame Smith is a better idea, and Helen Mirren (has she been Damed yet?) is just a touch on the too old side for me. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/39 "2012-10-10T05:01:12Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > I’m surprised people don’t like River Song. I don’t care for how they’ve used the character lately, but I think Alex Kingston does an outstanding job, and I would have had no problem if they’d cast her as the Doctor instead. And I love the concept behind the character, even though as I said, she’s mostly been used in some pretty sloppy plots. Oh, yes. I actually happen to like River - though she was a bit to over-the-top in “Let’s Kill Hitler” - and that’s due in large part to Alex Kingston’s acting. I rewatched “Silence In The Library/Forest of the Dead” a few days ago, and was struck by her ability to go from arch to sexy to deadly serious so easily and so naturally. She would make an excellent Doctor, were she not now so closely identified with River Song. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215/40 "2012-10-10T05:10:50Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > I want a fat Doctor! Think Nero Wolf in a Tardis. This could actually be interesting. That is the first good idea in the thread so far. It’s something people would not expect. A Girl Doctor or Black Doctor seem like such predictable surprise it would only be a groaner. But a Fat Doctor, now that gives him a new perspective. Not so much running I expect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-dr-who-fans/637215.md?page=3)