Peter Is The Man Of The Moment!

I figured I will throw in my 2 cents about the 13th Doctor’s impending announcement because opinions and all that. 

I think the announcement is a terrible idea. 

Firstly, there’s the obvious reason of how disrespectful it is to Peter. I’ve seen a lot written about that on here, so I’m not going to go on about it. He deserves better. 

The second reason is, there’s no way for this to be a positive thing for the show. We’ve all seen the fandom make judgements about new Doctors and companions before we’ve even seen them in character. Sometimes they’re positive, sometimes they’re negative. But the problem is they’re opinions based, not on how good the actor is as the Doctor (or a companion etc), but they’re based on how the actors look: age, skin colour, gender, etc. Sure, maybe some people will have an opinion based on the actor’s previous work, but there are going to be a lot of judgements flying around based simply on what we see on the surface. (I saw a lot of people calling Bill the “best companion ever” before we even got a trailer which seemed very premature to me - funnily enough, I think she’s actually become my favourite “main” companion in new Who). People are going to be judging 13 before we’ve even seen them in character. We’ve then got 5 months until we even see the actual regeneration scene and then several more months before the next series. How many fans are going to leave during that time? How many wars in the fandom are there going to be over whether the actor playing 13 is “problematic”? How many people will be spreading hate about the show because the new Doctor isn’t the “right” gender (ie, what they wanted)? Honestly, I think the fandom is just going to be a nightmare. Can we not reserve judgement (negative or positive) until we actually see 13 on the show? 

Following on from that point, one of two things is going to happen: 

1. The Doctor is male. This will be followed by a large number of fans boycotting the show and trashing it online because they’ve demanded a female Doctor. 

2. The Doctor is female. Then we’ll get the “the Doctor should only be played by a man” gang taking off and complaining about the show being “ruined”. 

Either way, a significant number of “fans” (I’m using the term loosely here) are going to leave. That’s not going to benefit the show in any way. It’s just going to hurt the fandom and the show. There is literally no way for Doctor Who to come out stronger after the announcement this week. We’re going to have a fractured fandom. It’s a lose/lose situation. Whoever they announce, no matter how great they are, is going to be universally popular in the fandom. People are going to be disappointed no matter who it is. 

And then the boycotts start because the next Doctor isn’t their idea of “right”. And you can bet that will be starting from the Christmas ep. They will be starting the boycott now which I think, again, is doing a huge disservice to Peter. He deserves to have an amazing send-off, not one that’s boycotted because people are unhappy about the next Doctor.

Here’s what I think they should do: 

- Keep 13 a secret

- Film a scene (proper scene, not a quick “I’ve got new kidneys” type scene) with 13. Something that gives us an idea of what 13 is like. 

- Either put it in the Christmas ep or as a trailer at the end 

- Most importantly, give Peter the respect and appreciation he deserves. Anyone can see that man has given Doctor Who his all. Regardless of your opinion of him/his Doctor/the writing etc, he has given so much to Doctor Who, and he gets nowhere near enough gratitude. 

I’ll see who the 13th Doctor is, because it’s going to be impossible to avoid that spoiler, but I’m going to say publicly here right now , I’m not making judgements about them, I’m not liking or disliking them or getting involved in any discourse about whether they’re right or not and I’m encouraging you all to do the same. They’re going out of my mind until after Christmas.  

It’s still 12′s time and that’s what I’ll be focusing on. 

Peter is the man of the moment!