Remember Ben Daniels, the actor who was the very first name seriously linked as Matt's replacement, long before his departure was even officially announced? http://www.digitalspy.ie/tv/s7/doct...r-who-and-the-search-for-the-12th-doctor.html So when Moffat said they never considered anyone other than Capaldi he wasn't exactly telling the whole truth. What a shocker!
Moffatt fibbed?! Surely not! Interesting and candid interview from Daniels. It's very rare that actors will admit to losing jobs or to being so keen to land one. It certainly looks like they had settled on the idea of an older Doctor one way or the other. Indeed, if they aren't against the idea of two consecutive older Doctors (they did go for 2 younger ones in 10 and 11, arguably 4, with McGann and Eccleston, come to think of it), then Daniels could still be a contender to replace Capaldi, depending on how long the latter remains in the job.
Well when Daniels talks about knowing there was another name on the list ahead of him they were very interested in it's clearly Capaldi, and it's clear Capaldi was always the first choice, but even so they had to have contingencies in place. What if Capaldi turned it down, what if scheduling meant it wasn't to be? What if Capaldi's agent wanted too much money, what if the BBC weren't prepared to pay more than peanuts? What if, heaven forbid, personal circumstances meant Capaldi couldn't take the job? Moffat and the BBC had a plan B (and potentially a plan C, D and E judging by what he says). This doesn't take away from the fact that Capaldi was always the first choice. It is nice to get confirmation that the rumours about Daniels weren't too far of the mark though.
Oh, I understand all that (and the same would be true for Eccleston, Tennant & Smith) but it's interesting that the rumour-mill was (almost) spot-on right from the beginning.
Yeah, I did wonder because his name did seem to come out of nowhere, and he isn't one of the usual suspects. I think he'd have made for an interesting choice, though I think Capaldi is the better choice.
Oh man, I think I would have preferred Daniels. Still, at least we don't have a female doctor or another teenager jumping around the tarids all the time.
Tennant is a year older than me so I'm quite happy for people to call him a teenager if that means I'm not middle-aged anymore.
Cool to know that the Ben Daniels rumor wasn't far from the mark. As I said at the time, I would love to see Ben Daniels as The Doctor, and while I'm very excited about Peter Capaldi and look forward to his Doctor, I do hope Ben Daniels will get the chance to play The Doctor after him.
Matt Smith. Bad news for you then is I wasn't talking about Tennant. Just Smith. Tennant is about a decade or so older than Smith anyway. Plus I like Tennant. In fact, Tennant was my doctor, but Smith was just the rebound doctor for me. Plus he can be annoying a lot of the time. My first reaction to when I heard Smith was leaving was "thank god for that, he was getting on my nerves a bit" although my second thought is what if they choose someone worse. I was only just beginning to remotely gel with Smith when it was announced he was leaving while I gelled with Tennant by the end of his first series. Shows how bad Smith is in comparison. For the first month or so I may miss Smith a bit before either liking or loathing Capaldi (I have a nice feeling I'll prefer Capaldi to Smith, although that's the same feeling I had with Smith before I saw him, so), but for Tennant I grieved over his leaving for years in some ways I still am.
I don't believe a word that comes out Moffat's mouth. He's a good writer, but part of the showbiz machine.
Matt Smith is just over a year older than I am and I turned thirty two weeks ago, he and by extension myself are no way near still being teenagers. Hell, we would have stopped being teenagers when you turned what? four? five?
ONLY in series 2! Besides, Smith is just a giggly buffoon who jumps around all the time, trying to make dull s shit stories with awful and inconclusive endings seem fascinating. To be fair though, Smith would probably be okay if he was in better stories.