Oh; it
has been confirmed. With an hour long special in front of a live studio audience titled "The Next Doctor: Live!" on BBC, and non-stop news reports on all channels, TV, Radio and the papers. It's
very confirmed. XD
Looking forward to seeing what Peter brings to the table. Been laughing at the "backlash" from the fangirls about how he shouldn't be the doctor because he's not young and attractive.
I was just saying to the wife, there has been a running joke in Who for as long as I can remember that every time he regenerates, he gets younger. XD
To a certain extent, that's because anyone who is going to be as full of energy and life as the Doctor needs to be reasonably youthful, and the part definitely wears actors out. There was also mention that our idea of what a doctor is has become more youthful. Anyone calling them self a doctor in the 1960s (when it was first aired) who was under 50 would have simply been laughed at.
I believe the only time a new doctor has been older when he starts, than the actor leaving the role, as far as I recall, was when Sylv took over from Colin Baker. And I'm not even 100% sure about that. Of course, Colin didn't stay on screen for long, but longer that poor Paul McGann. (a fantastic Doctor, on screen and on Radio, and one of my personal favourites)
tl;dr WOT alert!
I've enjoyed Mats' time, but he has always been a little bit too slapstick for me to consider him a "great" Doctor. Good, but not great.
Speaking of Sci-Fi maturing recently, compared to Star-Trek or Star Wars... Doctor Who is a much older show than either of those. XD It was originally based on a premise derived from the TV Show
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and H.G. Wells
"
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" with the intention of grabbing the attention of young viewers and getting them to engage in History in a way that is difficult from dusty tomes filled with the dates of coronations and battles studied in school, but also to teach Science to the whole family, and to explore with them, the possibilities for future innovation.
The key "features" which they expected to continue throughout the series was that it should follow the Doctor, and at least one other adult escorting a child on these adventures. This would allow the adults to be placed in perilous situations, while the child (originally the Doctors grand-daughter Suzan Foreman) would never need be in fear of being stranded, alone in any of the strange times and places visited. Of course, Suzan was played by Carol Anne Ford, who was already in her mid to late teens when the series started, but she was supposed to be playing a girl much younger. The Doctor, departed contemporary earth when two of her teachers arranged an unannounced "home visit" because they where concerned about some of Suzans' strange ideas. ^_^ So his first companions where his own grand-daughter, her maths and geography teacher Barbara Wright, and her Science teacher Ian Chesterton, whose name the Doctor seemed to delight in getting wrong. (Micky the idiot anyone?)
Actually, that may have been one of the first of a common mistake which became affectionately known on set as "Billy fluffs". When William Heartnel had to leave the role due to ill health, he had already replaced all his "companions" and was accompanied by two young people (Ben and Poly, or "Duchess" as Ben liked to call her) who where clearly not "children", but was now the only "adult".
It is posthumously believed that Heartnel was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which didn't really have a name at the time he died of it, but was often referred to unkindly as "senile dementia". In fact, sufferers are not "demented", but their brain is being degraded by this progressive and incurable disease which affects many in the later years of life.
That's all off the top of my head, and without reference. XD (yea, I'm a whovian... and fish fingers and custard to you too
)
Doctor Who was always supposed to be a family show, and from what Peter said on stage, I think he will certainly aim to bring it back to that. It definitely was under Eccleston and Tenant. Adult interest has wained with mad-cap Mat Smith at the helm, but it has done so before with the ultra-high action style of John Pertwee, and the slightly wacky antics of Colin Baker. Every so often, people forget that Who isn't a kids show, it's a family show.
Certain Doctors seem to promote this in script writers, and I don't know why. On Radio, Colins' Doctor was much more... "human"? He always said he wanted to get across the Doctors' "alien" nature, but it became very hard to connect with him on screen. In audio only, he was given the opportunity to explain where his pragmatism came from. He is the Doctor, and the crushing of a single prehistoric flower can send crushing ripples through the space time vortex which he will feel far more acutely than any mere human. One more or less person on the planet can be relatively unimportant, unless they choose to be someone who actually makes something of their life. ^_^
These are some of the beauties in Doctor Who, and unlike American attempts to educate and entertain at the same time, these moral questions are not thrust in your face with the answer already decided for you. They pass by the viewer, with positives and negatives laid bare, but no clear answer in sight. We are left to make up our own mind if the Doctor is being heartless, or if he is actually seeing a bigger picture.
