ECCLESTON
I think it was a mistake for Eccleston to put his name forward for the role. And I think he quickly realised his mistake.
Now we are stuck with an opening series that has a guy in it who can't do the lighter stuff, choosing instead to grin like a t**t.
He clearly now hates RTD and all the people who were around him seem to hate him. The Northern accent I feel was also a mistake. One cute line about it doesn't make up for the daftness of this jarring voice imo.
A lot of people say about how he had to be the way he was, having emerged from a Time War, but Tennant could have played a wounded survivor as well - or even better - than Eccleston did. A wasted regeneration imo.
I think RTD allowed the idea of casting someone of the caliber of Eccleston over-ride what was needed re: the character of the Doctor. Better they had skipped straight to Tennant, I feel.
TENNANT
Tennant gave a good performance in the role, but I never felt that his character was informed with any natural eccentricity. It was, to me, like watching a master craftsman doing a very good job. And a master craftsman at least can be relied on. So I would say he was not miscast.
SMITH
When I first saw Matt Smith being interviewed I was pretty aghast to be honest. Who was this kid they had cast?
He proved me wrong. He actually possessed that natural eccentricity that was so the Doctor. And it really did feel like there was a very old person inside there.
CAPALDI
Capaldi... This is the most painful one of all. I feel he was far and away the best actor to be cast in the role of the modern era. Then he was treated like Colin Baker, but - unlike Colin imo - was in no way to blame for what happened.... Curtailed seasons, terrible scripts. He was given a Doctor with abrupt social skills to start with and seemed to be relegated out of the way of the stories half the time.
Then, despite the scripts he started to flower and his farewell utterance of "Doctor, I let you go!" was a sad tribute to an actor who I don't think was ever allowed to get proper traction with either the show or his Doctor.
(There were moments, yes - although I am not sure about that Hell Bent episode. I will have to give it another watch.)
So yes, the most perfect casting of the modern era imo. And the worst treated.
WHITTAKER
And so I come, with trepidation, to Whittaker.
I have to come absolutely clean and say that I think that the casting of a woman in the role of the Doctor - who is now strangely gender-fluid after an incredible 12 regenerations - has not been done for the right reasons - or, indeed, done with any brilliance, cleverness or wit. Hammering us over the head in the last few years with unsubtle references and smart-alec lines has been tiresome to endure.
In terms of the narrative, I feel that if the Doctor really were gender fluid, he/she should really have been flip-flopping genders all the way through the run from 1963. Instead we had a completely male regeneration cycle and now, suddenly this has happened. I get a distinctly overwhelming smell of ultimately silly ret-con!!
And, in terms of the actress cast, I also am not seeing the brilliant new interpretation of the Time Lord that I am being told about in umpteen reviews. I see someone doing an impersonation of sometimes Tennant/sometimes Smith. Again, no natural eccentricity underlies her performance that I can (yet) see. And, unlike Tennant, I do not feel she is a master-craftsman, so there is nothing to make up for that lack of natural eccentricity.
To my mind so far, she is just one of a multitude of actresses that could do a credible impersonation of someone who has previously played the Doctor. But I don't see her Doctor there. At least not yet.
The fact that Jodie has not bothered to look back at the Classic Era Doctors at all upon gaining the role rankles with me somewhat. And her recent statement in a recent magazine interview that "Doctor Who always celebrated the white male viewpoint!" (when she has apparently not even looked at the show in any great depth: she saw it now and again when her thespian mates were in it.) has not helped matters for me.
I cannot shake the feeling that Chibnall's priority was to cast someone he knew was thick skinned and staunchly feminist enough to weather any and all flak. I am not sure, however, that enough thought was given to casting an actress who was actually right for the role.
The accent, once again, I feel is a profound mistake. Can one imagine Romana talking like this? All Gallifreyan qualities evaporate every time Jodie opens her mouth. Do any of us truly think that she sounds like an ancient alien in any way, shape or form? I think this stems from her not approaching the role with any great observation of - or even respect for - the character's mythos. Jodie saying that changing her accent would have been tough and adding that she so admires Tennant's ability to do so also calls into question for me her credentials as an actress. It's part of an actor's tool-kit, love!
If one is going to cast a female Doctor, I would be thinking more along the lines of Helena Bonham Carter or the lady who played the Tardis in the DOCTOR'S WIFE episode. An ethereal, ditzy, otherworldly quality that is underlying the performance. Not an acted eccentricity which is what I feel we are getting now.
Which brings me to another thing that has come to bother me. The sheer unpleasantness of the fanbase these days.
This whole gender changing business has seen a definite division in the fanbase and I have seen and learned new phrases along the way. How many times have we all recently seen the following.....
"RIP DOCTOR WHO 1963-2017".
"SJW's have killed DOCTOR WHO!"
or the flip side....
"Don't let the Tardis door bang your arse on the way out."
"Good riddance, you won't be missed."
It's all come a long way from when I just enjoyed the show - or the novelisations - all those years ago. And now seems to be a battleground. Which brings me to another point.
Each time the Doctor is cast from now on it will surely be a battleground for pressure groups. Each feeling passed over, no matter who is cast, whether it is a man or woman, or white, black or Asian.
The Doctor, I feel, is turning into a symbol of equality, rather than what he (or okay, she) used to be: a brilliant fictional character.
Maybe the only answer is to call it a day?
Either as programme makers - or, at the very least for me personally - as a fan.
