Bradley Walsh is more famous than Jodie

[Steve Roby]

Imagine a better world where Bowie didn't die and was in both Doctor Who and the new Twin Peaks series. I wish I lived there.

As for Walsh v Whittaker: as an anglophile Canadian, I saw Walsh's whole run on Coronation Street and several of his Law & Order: UK episodes, and I saw Jodie Whittaker in Attack the Block and Broadchurch well before she was announced as the new Doctor. Corrie, L&O, and Broadchurch were hardly low profile. Eccleston was hardly an unknown when he was cast, either, having had a prominent part in several UK TV series like Cracker (popular enough to spawn a series of novelizations and an American remake).

TrekBBS is an Internet site. If you got here, you have some idea of how to use the Internet. If you don't know who either Whittaker or Walsh might be, you can use this same Internet to look them on IMDB to see what they've been in, then go to Amazon to buy some DVDs, or check your local streaming and on demand options, or whatever, and get yourself up to speed.

And seriously, anyone who's interested in Doctor Who but hasn't taken the time to see the first season of Broadchurch, where you can see the Tenth Doctor, Rory, and the Thirteenth Doctor in a show written and produced by the new showrunner, or Attack the Block, a fun and suspenseful science fiction movie set in London and starring our new Doctor along with one of the stars of the new Star Wars movies, isn't Doctor Who fanning as well as they could. To say nothing of missing out on a great TV series and a great movie. (The second and third seasons of Broadchurch are considerably less essential, but have their moments. Tennant and Whittaker are still there, and season 2 has Gwen from Torchwood and season 3 has, well, a better story than season 2.)

 

[The Nth Doctor]

And seriously, anyone who's interested in Doctor Who but hasn't taken the time to see the first season of Broadchurch, where you can see the Tenth Doctor, Rory, and the Thirteenth Doctor in a show written and produced by the new showrunner, or Attack the Block, a fun and suspenseful science fiction movie set in London and starring our new Doctor along with one of the stars of the new Star Wars movies, isn't Doctor Who fanning as well as they could. To say nothing of missing out on a great TV series and a great movie.

Don't forget the recasting of The First Doctor in the first season, too.

 

[Christopher]

And seriously, anyone who's interested in Doctor Who but hasn't taken the time to see the first season of Broadchurch, where you can see the Tenth Doctor, Rory, and the Thirteenth Doctor in a show written and produced by the new showrunner, or Attack the Block, a fun and suspenseful science fiction movie set in London and starring our new Doctor along with one of the stars of the new Star Wars movies, isn't Doctor Who fanning as well as they could. To say nothing of missing out on a great TV series and a great movie. (The second and third seasons of Broadchurch are considerably less essential, but have their moments. Tennant and Whittaker are still there, and season 2 has Gwen from Torchwood and season 3 has, well, a better story than season 2.)

Don't forget the recasting of The First Doctor in the first season, too.

In addition to three Doctors, a companion, and a Torchwood member, Broadchurch also has Meera Syal, the scientist from Doctor Who's "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood," as a judge in season 2. It also has Hot Fuzz's Olivia Colman as its female lead, Agent Carter's James D'Arcy and Blindspot's Marianne Jean-Baptiste as regulars in season 2, Georgina Campbell of the upcoming Krypton series as a police constable in season 3 (I was wondering where I'd seen her name before), plus Sarah Parish and Peter de Jersey of the 2014 Atlantis TV series in recurring roles (if anyone cares about that).

As for Attack the Block, it's not only a good movie, but it feels like it could easily take place in the Doctor Who universe, albeit the darker side of it like we see in Torchwood and Class. (And did I mention that Legends of Tomorrow's Franz Drameh is in it too?)

 

[Refuge]

TrekBBS is an Internet site. If you got here, you have some idea of how to use the Internet. If you don't know who either Whittaker or Walsh might be, you can use this same Internet to look them on IMDB to see what they've been in, then go to Amazon to buy some DVDs, or check your local streaming and on demand options, or whatever, and get yourself up to speed.

And seriously, anyone who's interested in Doctor Who but hasn't taken the time to see the first season of Broadchurch, where you can see the Tenth Doctor, Rory, and the Thirteenth Doctor in a show written and produced by the new showrunner, or Attack the Block, a fun and suspenseful science fiction movie set in London and starring our new Doctor along with one of the stars of the new Star Wars movies, isn't Doctor Who fanning as well as they could. To say nothing of missing out on a great TV series and a great movie. (The second and third seasons of Broadchurch are considerably less essential, but have their moments. Tennant and Whittaker are still there, and season 2 has Gwen from Torchwood and season 3 has, well, a better story than season 2.)

That's not how fame works, you shouldn't have to research it and make it happen. It's also not a competition as such but just a curious choice. The producers chose to go with Bradley knowing what he would bring to the table and like all of them I hope he enjoys the opportunity... however given it is Jodie's 'big' moment it is a possibility that they were also stacking the deck, having someone who is a known quantity in my opinion suggests he won't be a background character.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

My memories of Bradley Walsh are limited to L&O:UK (which I enjoyed), but I think he would make a pretty good Doctor...

 

[Iamnotspock]

Wil Wheaton was arguably more famous than Patrick Stewart in 1987. Just saying

 

[Starkers]

It also has Hot Fuzz's Olivia Colman as its female lead,

Or as she's also known one of Prisoner Zero's avatars in Eleventh Hour! (and she's in The Fiveish Doctors)

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Wil Wheaton was arguably more famous than Patrick Stewart in 1987. Just saying

LeVar Burton, too.

 

[Christopher]

That's not how fame works, you shouldn't have to research it and make it happen.

"Have to?" Why would anyone "have to" know or care how "famous" someone is? What matters is how good they are playing a role in the show.

The producers chose to go with Bradley knowing what he would bring to the table and like all of them I hope he enjoys the opportunity... however given it is Jodie's 'big' moment it is a possibility that they were also stacking the deck, having someone who is a known quantity in my opinion suggests he won't be a background character.

Obviously he's not a "background character" -- he's one of three regular companions. But he's still a companion, and he'll have to share that role with two other people. Whittaker is the actual Doctor. That's one hell of an advantage. While there have certainly been plenty of modern companions who've been central to the show, none of them have ever supplanted the Doctor as the face of the series.

 

[Steve Roby]

That's not how fame works, you shouldn't have to research it and make it happen. It's also not a competition as such but just a curious choice.

Fame is not equally distributed. I couldn't name the most famous rugby player in the world. I don't know who the most popular romance novelist currently is. Doesn't mean they're not famous. If you don't pay attention to mainstream drama and cop shows from the UK that are popular enough to be shown on TV around the world and get remade in other countries (as Gracepoint in the USA, Malaterra in France), well, so be it. But Jodie Whittaker was, in fact, not obscure or unknown when she was cast as the Doctor.

Put more concisely, the fact that you hadn't heard of her doesn't mean she wasn't famous.

The producers chose to go with Bradley knowing what he would bring to the table and like all of them I hope he enjoys the opportunity... however given it is Jodie's 'big' moment it is a possibility that they were also stacking the deck, having someone who is a known quantity in my opinion suggests he won't be a background character.

She's a known quantity too, to the production team and a fair portion of the audience, not least because she was one of the regulars on a series Chibnall did for three years.

 

[Pindar]

I am unsure what the problem is here. Do you think they have cast a secret male lead to the heavy lifting in case Jody can't manage the role?

I was a horified they cast Bradley Walsh because he's rubbish. To me he's the guy off the terrible quiz my old mum likes on day time TV.

On the other hand I have seen almost everything Jody as been in and think she is amazing.

 

[Refuge]

... not least because she was one of the regulars on a series Chibnall did for three years.

I guess it comes down to programming. It still strikes me as deliberate that the producers chose him.

 

[Christopher]

It still strikes me as deliberate that the producers chose him.

Actually, just the opposite. "Deliberate" means done by careful consideration. As already discussed above, Whittaker was chosen through an audition process -- a process of careful consideration -- while Walsh was Chibnall's pre-emptive choice for the role.

Just in general, how in the world is it bad for a choice to be deliberate? Would you rather they threw a dart at a wall of photos?

 

[Refuge]

I wasn't there so I don't know their thought processes or procedures but can only speculate and find it a curiosity that instead of having unknowns as support and colleagues of the Doctor a well known identity has been chosen as a (one of) companion for the new Doctor. When that happens as it did with Kylie for example, the focus can shift or be shared with that person. That's to be expected.

 

[Christopher]

I wasn't there so I don't know their thought processes or procedures but can only speculate and find it a curiosity that instead of having unknowns as support and colleagues of the Doctor a well known identity has been chosen as a (one of) companion for the new Doctor. When that happens as it did with Kylie for example, the focus can shift or be shared with that person. That's to be expected.

I just don't see why you insist on seeing that as a problem. Lots of actors are well-known. Jodie Whittaker is well-known too, a fact that you seem bizarrely determined to ignore. The UK isn't that big a country -- the same actors show up in a lot of different things. Look at the talk above about how many cast members Broadchurch and Doctor Who have in common.

And once again, the series Walsh is best-known for was produced by Chris Chibnall, exactly like Broadchurch was. It seems obvious to me that Chibnall chose Walsh for the exact same reason he chose Whittaker -- because his past experience working with the actor let him know that the actor would be a good choice to work with again and a good fit for the particular role he was casting for. Countless producers like to reuse actors they've worked with before -- like Russell T. Davies and Christopher Eccleston. It's a perfectly routine and entirely understandable practice.

 

[Refuge]

Meh 'problem' is your word. It was just an observation. He has fame and that has consequence.

 

[Christopher]

Meh 'problem' is your word. It was just an observation. He has fame and that has consequence.

You've spent three pages complaining about that fame, insisting that it means there's some sinister secret plan to overshadow Whittaker and make Walsh the star, and ignoring every argument everyone else here has made about how unfounded that fear is. You obviously do think this is a problem, and you're the only one here who does.

 

[Refuge]

People make observations and speculate.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Meh 'problem' is your word. It was just an observation. He has fame and that has consequence.

Catherine Tate was also probably better known than Tennant, at least in the UK, and she worked out just fine despite my misgivings about her casting. I also have misgivings about Walsh but I'll reserve judgement until I see how he performs. The stunt casting of Hale and Pace, however, was a jarring inclusion during the McCoy era but at least they weren't onscreen for very long.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^^You can blame "DA MANAGEMENT" for that one.