From Behind The Sofa

Apart from the occasional close-up scenes of surgery, which I may watch through my fingers or turn away from completely, I haven't been forced to take refuge behind the sofa while watching television since the early 1960's. The shows that had me cowering behind the furniture back then, were Fireball XL5 and Dr Who, although while the former only rarely had me doing so - I seem to recall some skeletal robot from one episode that scared me, although I may be confusing it with the show's resident robot, Robert - Dr Who frequently had me torn between watching the show  and finding sanctuary from it. The Daleks and the Cybermen, two of science fiction's most iconic monsters - equalled only by the Borg in Star Trek for my money - were the creatures that terrified me the most, although the Yeti ran them close.

I grew out of Gerry Anderson's creations with Thunderbirds, although I did watch a few episodes of UFO, but I cannot now recall when I stopped watching Dr Who, although I do know that it was long before the BBC stopped making the show in the 1990's. When it was revived in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston taking the part as the ninth Doctor, I gave it a spin, but frankly, it did not pique my interest sufficiently to carry on watching it. There are, however, plenty of people who are fanatical about the programme, and as with many shows, they will drill down into the minutiae, picking up on any errors in continuity or plot, speculating about the actions - past, and future - of the characters, in short treating it almost as seriously as real life. Now, I am not decrying them for their enthusiasm and devotion, far from it, as I have been the same with other programmes over the years, and one part of Dr Who that always has fans and the media agog, is the speculation over who will be the new Doctor.

Christopher Eccleston was the ninth Doctor when the show rebooted in 2005.

The regeneration of the Doctor is a useful device enabling the producers to make a virtue of replacing the lead actor rather than risking the sorts of disappointments that have arisen in other series when a new actor has taken over an established role. I'm particularly thinking of  Alias Smith and Jones, where Roger Davis replaced Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes after Duel's untimely death and the show never recovered.

Alias Smith and Jones never recovered after the death of Pete Duel (left).

Inevitably, each new Doctor has their fans and their detractors, but never before has there been the sort of outcry we have seen in the last few days since the BBC announced that the new Doctor would be Jodie Whittaker, principally it seems because she is, err, a woman. I'm not especially familiar with her work (the only thing I can think of that I have seen her in was Attack The Block), but she appeared in the highly acclaimed Broadchurch, and no doubt she is an accomplished actor, however it is the mere fact that she is a woman playing a role that had previously only been played by men that has exercised many people. Whether you see the move as bravely challenging gender stereotypes and encouraging more women and girls to watch the show, while creating a role model for female fans, or an attempt by the arch- liberal BBC to pander to the PC brigade, depends on your preconceptions and how dedicated you are to the show, I suppose. Or perhaps, given the gender pay gap that has become apparent following the announcement of BBC stars' salaries this week, this is an economy measure.

Jodie Whittaker is the new Doctor. Photo: Colin Hutton/BBC

The controversy over Jodie Whittaker's casting illustrates the difference between how fans and writers feel about a show. While the writers may want to innovate, to try new styles and approaches to reinvigorate a familiar favourite, fans want - if not exactly more of the same - evolution, not revolution. Fans of shows like Dr Who - or Star Trek to name but one other - can be quite possessive and proprietorial, and become somewhat distraught when a significant change is made to the style or content of the show,  just as when bands radically alter their musical style (think Genesis or Yes, who became increasingly poppy in the 1980's, much to the dismay of their hardcore fans). What these aficionados crave are variations on the theme that first attracted them, not radical departures from the tried and tested.

Some people were in favour of a female Doctor...

...some were not...

...and some just wanted to point out the obvious.

Film franchises are different. With each new reboot comes a new actor in the starring role, and it is easier to accept a new face in films where either a single film or a few sequels have come before than it is with a long running TV series that is considered to be continuous. That isn't to say we don't have our favourites for a film role, however. My view is that Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy represents the best version of the franchise, and Christian Bale is the best Batman. Other people will have different views.  Sometimes, however, it is simply the first actor you see in a role that becomes the ideal representation of the character; Sean Connery will forever be James Bond as far as I am concerned, however other people will claim Roger Moore, or Pierce Brosnan as their quintessential Bond. 

There was a rumour, and it generated a lot of debate at the time, that Idris Elba could be the next Bond - once Daniel Craig turns in his Walther PPK - which may have dismayed those who could not see past Bond being a white Scotsman as described by Ian Fleming. But just as Dr Who regenerates, a radical change in Bond's appearance could be explained with the simple strategy of making the character a cypher, by making James Bond a nom de guerre. Personally, I could quite see Idris Elba as Bond, although I could not see Bond ever being portrayed by a woman, since unlike Dr Who, Bond is not supposed to be an alien from some distant world where our notions of gender may be irrelevant. But it is conceivable that Bond could be played as a gay man, because in the real world, where homosexuality once automatically prohibited employment with MI5 and MI6, the intelligence services now welcome people from the LGBT community, and so much so that in 2016, MI5 headed Stonewall’s[1] top 100 employers’ list.

Idris Elba. Photo: Independent

If you are a dyed in the wool devotee of Dr Who or James Bond, you may consider my views a tad flippant, probably because I am not an enthusiast of either, but I maintain that the idea that James Bond is a nom de guerre would work well. Once Jodie Whittaker's tenure as the Doctor comes to an end, and whether it is marked a success or a failure, speculation over who should be the next Time Lord will erupt again, and I'm getting in early with my choice for the 14th Doctor[2], and that would be Professor Stephen Hawking.

The Fourteenth Doctor?

And the more you think about that, the more you will think I'm right, after all, who better to play a Time Lord than the man who wrote A Brief History of Time?

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[1] Stonewall campaigns for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people across Britain. See www.stonewall.org.uk

[2] Or will it be 15th, since the BBC's numbering seems to have ignored John Hurt's portrayal? There again, other actors who have played the Doctor in other productions made by the corporation have also been excluded from the sequence.