I'm seeing some sites saying that the 12th Doctor might degenerate in one of the two parters and we'll see Doctor 10 and 8. Might this be the way to bring Mcgann back for a full series or special later?
Tennant and RTD were apparently recently spotted in Cardiff and this set tongues to wagging. However, it seems to have been non-Who related stuff that brought them there. I don't know if this was the source of what you read or something entirely different. Might it still be a little early in Capaldi's tenure to do something like that?
There was serious consideration to bringing back Patrick Troughton in the 1980s. But, of course, they went with McCoy instead.
Much as I think that McGann, Eccleston, Tennant and Smith were all too short-lived in the role (while simultaneously rejoicing in the fact that each one was replaced by someone even better, IMHO) and would like to see them play the Doctor again, I do have to reluctantly agree that it makes little sense to recast a previous Doctor as a new incarnation. As
Starkers says, there are so many great actors out there who could make a great new Doctor. And it does kinda miss the point that the character is bigger than any individual actor. Once Hartnell could be replaced, and, possibly even more so, once Tom could, that cinched it.
The only way I could see them doing so would be if the show was doing poorly in the ratings. I could imagine an unimaginative executive insisting that the way to fix it would be to bring back David Tennant, who might be tempted back for a couple of seasons and a big paycheque.
Admittedly it would make just as much sense to cast a new big-name actor in the role and pay him the same big bucks, but some might well think that there'd be greater publicity and merit in casting an actor who was arguably the best-known face of modern DW, in the UK anyway (as I understand it, the show was bigger in the USA under Smith, but I'm subject to correction). They may also feel that the novelty factor would bring back viewers - the Doctor going 'Oh, this hasn't happened before, this is against the rules!' or the like. And DT is versatile enough to play the role entirely differently than Ten (though I suspect that he'd be brought back to reprise a winning formula).
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