The Panopticon/Newsnight
Right, so a bit of a strange one: around the time Capaldi announced that he was leaving Doctor Who (yes, I'm a bit late to the party) an episode of Newsnight aired on the BBC at least partially discussing this news. What I want to bring to the discussion is the montage of the different Doctors at the end. The presenter Emily Maitlis says this before it starts:
And that's it for tonight, but before we go time for our fact of the day. As Peter Capaldi announces he's standing down as the Twelfth 'Doctor Who' in fact 14 actors have been credited onscreen as 'The Doctor' including the late John Hurt, but we mustn't count Peter Cushing because he played a completely different character calling himself quote 'Dr. Who' or the four Comic Relief actors or the evil Valeyard Doctor or number 15 whoever she may be. Anyway here they are, you decide if it's right. Good night.
Then the montage of all the Doctors begins (presumably with an X signifying that they weren't credited as 'The Doctor') in this order:
1 - First Doctor - William Hartnell
2 - Second Doctor - Patrick Troughton
3 - Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee
4 - Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
5 - Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
6 - First Doctor - Richard Hurndall (from The Five Doctors)
X - Ninth Doctor - Rowan Atkinson (from The Curse of Fatal Death)
X - Dr. Who - Peter Cushing
X - Tenth Doctor - Richard E. Grant (from The Curse of Fatal Death)
X - Twelfth Doctor - Hugh Grant (from The Curse of Fatal Death)
X - Thirteenth Doctor - Joanna Lumley (from The Curse of Fatal Death)
7 - Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
X - The Valeyard - Michael Jayston
8 - Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
9 - Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann
10 - War Doctor - John Hurt
11 - Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
12 - Tenth Doctor - David Tennant
13 - Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith
14 - Twelfth Doctor - Peter Capaldi
15? - The Doctor - Tom Ellis (I'll speak more about him later)
So this raises a lot of questions. Starting with: Are the Dalek Movies and The Curse of Fatal Death valid? They were included in an official list of sorts made by the BBC. If they were invalid why include them on a list specifically for actors credited as 'The Doctor'? Also labelling them as 'X' in a way puts them on the same level (in a way) as The Valeyard who we all know is a valid character.
Next is how they have chosen to number the list. It seems to be in chronological order of incarnation until you get up to Hurndall and the invalid Doctors. What about order of appearance in the show? This would again be contradicted by the invalid Doctors and the War Doctor. The actual list would contradict itself as well (the list being actors who have been credited as 'The Doctor') with Peter Davison being the first actor of the kind.
Lastly is the appearance of '15?' at the end of the montage. If we go by the numbering this would mean that this Doctor would be the one after Capaldi. But he is the only actor/incarnation/Doctor to have a question mark on the end. So it's up for debate whether he actually is the next Doctor or not (but that's not the point). The actor (by the way) is Tom Ellis, and the clip in the montage is a clip from the TV series Lucifer in which Ellis plays the titular character. Interestingly enough, Lucifer is a Fox show - not a BBC one. It would seem a lot of effort to get the necessary rights to include this clip. Also should we create a page for this clip, (that's set in the DWU) like Newsnight special even if Ellis isn't the next Doctor it was released by the BBC and should be invalid if this is the case. Again, this is up for dispute.
I don't know if this is even relevant or not but it seemed quite major so I brought it up for discussion anyway.
NOTE: I would also like to deeply apologize if I accidentally offended the Tardis:Spoiler policy whilst dicussing Capaldi's departure and the next Doctor.
