some thoughts on the casting of the twelfth doctor

[grassangel]

Firstly, Peter Capaldi, yes v. gud actor, can do great depth and darkness as well as jovial light heartedness. Kind of doubtful how well his major part in Children of Earth will be hand waved, no matter how much I pretend that series never happened, but I'll be interested in how Moffat handles that. (If he does at all. His run seems to be mostly ignoring any references to past seasons and spin-offs unless it's offhand mentions or UNIT.)

Secondly, I'm half waiting for the other shoe to drop, because it's such a safe choice. He's appeared in Doctor Who before, he's got great acting chops that he's won stuff for, you can probably trace his ancestors back to the court of Henry VIII. I can't remember if Tennant was as safe a choice as Capaldi is, but the sheer amount of speculation about a PoC or female actor being cast made me disappointed.

Third, so it would be nice if there was a narrative twist. One of my rebukes against the 'but the Doctor is always male!' was that yes the Doctor thinks of himself as male, or at least the closest Gallifreyan equivalent to human male, but that doesn't mean that he can't be played by a female actor. Or, conversely, the new regeneration's personality identifies as female, but still presents as male. (If I had that graph which has a variety of circles labelled 'biological sex/assigned sex', 'gender identity', 'gender presentation', etc. with none of them overlapping with each other, I'd put that here.) But it's Moffat and I'm not sure if he could handle that concept with grace and delicacy.
[As a note, I will be referring to the Doctor as 'he' throughout this, even when talking about being cast as a woman. The Doctor's been played as presenting as something resembling a human male and I will assume that it a preferred presentation.]

Fourth, I seriously hope that Capaldi and JLC will swing around the rather infatuated relationship dynamic Clara and 11 had to something that will be a lot more healthy and a lot less creepy. If Moffat does persist with it, that would be a point I'd consider completely dropping Doctor Who.

Fifth, because Capaldi is good at dark, I suspect the 'twist' for the Doctor will swing between more extreme episodes of 'Time Lord Victorious' and the doting, caring, benevolent alien who adores humanity. Which of course could've been managed with any actor, female, of colour or any other point of intersectionality you so choose. 
Though since they are using Capaldi, I really want the Doctor to take another sabbatical and use this absence as a way to explain the events of the 456 and show how much pain the Doctor is capable of causing. Show how spiteful the Doctor can be and how much he doesn't get human notions of compassion.

Sixth, if they are going to make the Doctor more unstable, take it all the way. Make it so the only person who can talk the Doctor down is the Master. And for heavens sake cast Idris Elba for it, or at least some other black actor who has the presence to pull off the Master, so that some of us can be happy.
Contrast between what the Time Lords wanted the Doctor to be, his original reaction to that directive and what he's now become would be lovely. Plus the Master is the/would be a perfect foil to point out the Doctor's hypocrisy.

Seventh, the issue I take with Neil Gaiman's response of 'not yet' is that he's written the Furies/Kindly Ones/the Fates, Lyta Hall, Eostre, Una and other female characters who are vengeful. Some of them are mothers and use their children as weapons, some are mothers and seek revenge for their children, some weaponise their sexuality and I'll happily interpret the Kindly ones as a feminist metaphor pushing back against patriarchy. If they weren't in their narratives already, some of them wouldn't be out of place as the Doctor.
Generally, if you argue that only men can be parental and dark at the same time, I'll point you in the direction of the Mama Bear trope and it's less reactionary-to-a-threat cousin Knight Templar Parent as well as a few of the above characters.

Eight. The only reason I'd even hesitate about casting a female Doctor now would be if point five and six were already planned out. Playing with gender, particularly the Doctor's, would be so much fun but making the Doctor swing from 'Time Lord Victorius' and 'the Doctor as a parent without a child' too hard while the actor was female wouldn't exactly have good implications, i.e. females are too emotional and are dangerous.
Otherwise I'd be really happy to see the Doctor make endless prods at misogyny via sandwich related jokes and to regain some of that lost closeness with his companions. Especially since I read Amy and Clara as being somewhat distant because they've had a bad experience with him before and general rape culture 'readiness' respectively. (Even though Clara now knows what's up and may change her attitude, Amy and Clara haven't 'warmed up' to the Doctor nearly as much as previous companions have. Another woman, whether older or around the same age, reads as a lot 'safer' and, as a bonus, provides awesome female friendship that is built on running from aliens and exploding things rather than boyfriends. (Well, female-presenting-as-male or male-presenting-as-female or whatever. Those variations alone would be interesting to explore.))

Nine, while I'm obviously not as enthusiastic about what narrative options casting a PoC would offer someone at least mixed would've been nice. Maybe Indian or Pakistani or Middle Eastern, since the UK has a lot of history and racial tension with those groups. 

Ten, and you can probably see how many points I'm trying to reach, skinny and extremely young if there was a black Briton cast. Make your British viewers squirm when they see an actor they have prejudice against save the world and the UK against an alien threat. Again, I'm not sure if this would be a wise choice if points five and six were planned out for the Doctor because of unfortunate implications, which leads me to...

Eleven, if Twelve does go where I think he will and regenerates in the thick of it, THAT'S THE TIME TO CAST A WOMAN OR POC. Keep the Doctor at that point between rage and serenity with the new regeneration and then make him heal. The Doctor's been made emotionally darker with a 'safe' actor whose race and gender won't be tied to their escalation of violence. Make it clear that it's the fundamental personality of the Doctor that's gotten to that point and not the regeneration. That it's his actions that lead him to his lowest point and highlight that the violence he committed in his previous regeneration is just as bad as the violence caused by this new one.
If Twelve turns out to be instead where Ten and Eleven have started to heal, the advice is the same – regenerate into something completely new. It's time for the Doctor to turn over a new leaf and a completely new face might just be what he needs.

Twelve. If Twelve is going to go in the direction I think he is, there are heaps of unfortunate implications with casting a woman or a POC for him and I could understand a reluctance to cast as such. If Twelve doesn't, then that makes Capaldi's casting even more boring and a waste of potential. It's just more of the same and the fun with imagining the Doctor as another gender or race is the comparison and contrast with his past experiences.
That's what new Doctor Who is, or should be, about. Contrast and new experiences.