Former
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies has revealed brief descriptions of possible future incarnations of the titular Doctor in a new novel. Davies is the man responsible for regenerating the iconic British science fiction series, back in 2005, from from a dormant franchise into an international success. Since Davies' departure from the show,
Doctor Who has evolved even further, recently announcing that actress Jodie Whittaker would be the first woman to play the renegade Time Lord.
The first episode of the newer generation of Doctor Who, appropriately titled “Rose”, was written by Davies himself and features a scene where Billie Piper’s character conducts some research into the mysterious man known as The Doctor, shortly after their first meeting. Rose meets with a conspiracy-theorist called Clive who shows her photos and drawings of Christopher Eccleston's Doctor throughout time, looking exactly the same age in a wide variety of historical periods, concluding that he must be a time traveler.
Free from Television constraints, Davies has now delivered an expanded version of this sequence in his new Doctor Who novel which re-imagines the original story of “Rose”. In the television episode, Clive shows Rose evidence focused around Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, but in Davies’ new novel Clive unveils multiple versions of the Time Lord. As well as delving into the classic Doctors, the novel contains mentions of both newer regenerations and future incarnations, even beyond the upcoming thirteenth. The passage reads:
Rose saw a photo of a man with a fantastic jaw, dressed in a tweed jacket and bow tie. Then Clive kept the sequence going; an older, angry man in a brown caretaker’s coat, holding a mop; a blonde woman in braces running away from a giant frog in front of Buckingham Palace; a tall, bald black woman wielding a flaming sword; a young girl or boy in a hi-tech wheelchair with what looked like a robot dog at their side.
The obvious references fall upon Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor (a man with a fantastic jaw, dressed in a tweed jacket and bow tie), Peter Capaldi's Twelth (angry man in a brown caretaker’s coat, holding a mop) and Jodie Whittaker's Thirteen (a blonde woman in braces running away from a giant frog in front of Buckingham Palace). However, there are some more obscure and unrecognisable references along with them.
Continuing the sequence, the Fourteenth Doctor in Davies’ mind would be a a tall, bald black woman wielding a flaming sword and, perhaps even more intriguingly, the Fifteenth Doctor takes the form of a young girl or boy in a hi-tech wheelchair with what looked like a robot dog at their side (an clear reference to, The Doctor's robotic dog, K-9).
Davies’ descriptions are purely of his own imagining, and not replacing the established canon set-up by the actual TV show, but; That being said, Davies’ vision of these two future Doctors certainly opens up some interesting possibilities, should new showrunner Chris Chibnall or his future successor be looking for ideas.
What do you think about these intriguing possibilities? Would you like to see either of these surmised incarnations take up the mantle within the actual show? Have you got your own interesting ideas for a future Doctor?