Page 1 of Doctor Who could have been a woman

Interesting article here about it, which if you can`t be bothered to read, basically when it was struggling in the 80s and going further downhill, after Colin Baker the producers wanted to change the sex of the Timelord, and actresses Frances de la Tour, Joanna Lumley and Dawn French were considered.

The rest of the article is about the further demise under McCoy (the worst doctor ever I think) and how all of this is in a documentary that will be on a DVD release of the McCoy adventure Time and the Rani.

I`m glad they didn`t go with a woman back then, not because I have a problem with Doctor Who being female, I just think it was a good thing the series died at that time.

Now they`ve brought it back, they should have Helen Mirren as the next doctor, I think she`d rock.


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Fascinating

David Tennant was on breakfast tv the other morning and according to him it was a rumour started by Jon Pertwee when he left. It was just a bit of mischief to stir things up at the time.

This was featured the other day as a pitch to the BBC by Sydney Newman (original concept) in his declining years about the time that Colin Baker was sacked, also as a joke by the outgoing Tom Baker at his press conference.




I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

Never has so little had to be explained by me to so many so often.

But the Doctor`s already been played by a woman - Joanna Lumley -  unless you don`t consider "Curse of the Fatal Death" canon. ;)

Actually that Telegraph article depressed me.  Typical ill-researched modern journalism, and a bunch of comments that are the usual mix of stereotypical anoraks and thread-farters.

J Mark Oates

The problem with Colin Baker was that he is on record of hating being doctor who and it showed in his episodes. To him it was just an acting job to further his career, and not specifically loved by him at all.

I have seen all the doctors (on B&W video from the 1st doctor and the 2nd doctor and then live on telly in colour from the 3rd doctor onwards) and Colin Baker was by far the worst believable actor as the doctor and did great discredit to the series, causing it to hit an all time low, even for fans like myself.

Wheras the next doctor, Silvester McCoy was just brilliant as the part, totally believable and like all the other doctors with the exception of Colin Baker loved being Doctor Who.

Once Ace (Sophia Aldrid) arrived as the companion the final Seasons 25 & 26 of the old doctor series finished on a real high, with superb acting, script and special effects.

I was so dissapointed after the last episode `Survival` with the cat people, finished, and Doctor Who was out in the wilderness for years, till the new doctor series started up.

Quote:
bandicoot says...
Wheras the next doctor, Silvester McCoy was just brilliant as the part, totally believable and like all the other doctors with the exception of Colin Baker loved being Doctor Who.



Once Ace (Sophia Aldrid) arrived as the companion the final Seasons 25 & 26 of the old doctor series finished on a real high, with superb acting, script and special effects.
See I think the complete opposite, the series went out on a total low, just getting sillier and stupider. Liqourice alsort monsters I ask you.

I think if McCoy was allowed to play the doctor more serious than he had done, perhaps he`d have been okay. I don`t mind him on the audio episodes at all, but him and Ace (not to mention Bonnie Langford) seemed so far removed from what I consider to be good DW fodder.

Possibly the only doctor worse than McCoy was McCann.

Tom Baker was and always will be the definitive Doctor to me, not just because he was in the roll when I was growing up, but because the stories were at times darker and more violent than in any other period, and as an actor he is quite out-there.

The Doctor is an alien after all, yet so many actors played him as human.

Pertwee played him as a serious angry human.
Colin Baker played him as a sarcastic angry human.
McCoy played him as a jokey human.
Hartnell an old knowledgeable human.
Davison as an upper crust human.

Three exceptions are Troughton, Baker and the latest guy, Smith, actually come across as being quirky enough to be an alien.


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I started watching Doctor Who during Patrick Troughton`s final year.  Although I was sad to see the character change at the time, "my" Doctor was Jon Pertwee.  Although he remains my favourite, Tom Baker was a close second, right up to his last year when John Nathan Turner took over as producer.  For me that was the point the show fell apart.  I certainly can`t count the "poorly Doctor" (Peter Davison) as a favourite, even though I think highly of Davison as an actor.  For me, the writing of the show had gone bad as much as anything.

I loathed Colin Baker as the "fat bastard" Doctor.  I can`t and won`t watch anything of his era (again).  For me, the writing of the show reached a nadir with Robert Holmes` (and I can barely believe he wrote it) The Two Doctors.  The less said about Trial Of A Time Lord the better.

Strangely, I enjoyed Sylvester McCoy`s time as the Doctor, although I wish he`d been given a proper opportunity to make something of the role before the real villains of the exercise, Michael Grade and BBC1 controller Jonathan Powell pulled the plug on the show in 1989.  If only the show could have had a single season not under JNT`s malign influence.

I actually enjoyed Paul McGann`s outing as the Doctor, and have revelled in the adventures of Ecclestone, Tennant and Smith and I look forward to the new season.

The thing is, I`ve stuck with the Doctor through thick and thicker.  Even at its most technobabblish, secondary-character-massacring worst it`s entertaining which is more than can be said for a lot of tv shows.

J Mark Oates

This item was edited on Thursday, 14th October 2010, 01:50

Quote:
The problem with Colin Baker was that he is on record of hating being doctor who and it showed in his episodes. To him it was just an acting job to further his career, and not specifically loved by him at all.

>:(

What the deuce? I`m sorry but that`s complete and total bollocks. In fact the only actor who played the role that I can even think approximates that attitude was Christopher Eccleston, and he was a great Doctor. Colin Baker is on record pretty much anywhere you care to look as saying the complete opposite - he`d been a fan of the show for a long time and was looking forward to seeing what he could do with the role. He did the best he could with what he was given and has never been anything less than a superb ambassador for the show for the past 25 years. When Big Finish started their range of audio adventures in 1999 he finally got the chance to show how great he could be as The Doctor and has gone from strength to strength ever since.

If you want someone to blame, the finger should be pointed squarely at the ego-centric producer at the time, John Nathan Turner. The man who never failed to make the decisions which suited him at the expense of the show. Pulling the main cast out of rehearsals and telling them to appear in the panto he was directing, basing important production decisions around where he fancied going for a holiday, buggering off to conventions on the other side of the world rather than keep his hand on the tiller while everything was going to hell. This is the man who came up with the frankly ridiculous ideas and decisions which Colin had absolutely no say in - such as the costume and `unlikeable Doctor` idea. I would direct you towards the `Trials And Tribulations` documentary on the Trial Of A Time Lord DVD to see just how bad things were and what everyone else had to deal with.

Quote:
I have seen all the doctors (on B&W video from the 1st doctor and the 2nd doctor and then live on telly in colour from the 3rd doctor onwards) and Colin Baker was by far the worst believable actor as the doctor and did great discredit to the series, causing it to hit an all time low, even for fans like myself.

Each to their own I know, but even aged 8 I could see from the very start how much of a mis-fire Sylvester McCoy was. By the time Andrew Cartmel began turning the show onto a much more interesting path (the Doctor as an arch-manipulator) and Sylvester started to find his way it was far too late and the show got axed.

Wot DM said.





I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

Never has so little had to be explained by me to so many so often.