This was a post I was hoping not to have to write for a good many years…..it just seems like yesterday since Matt Smith was cast as the 11th Doctor. But as he has announced his departure in the role and it is likely that the 12th Doctor has either already been cast or will be cast very soon, we haven’t got much time to make our picks for the new 12th Doctor. Here are mine.

1. Stephen Mangan

Many feel the star of the BBC’s tv adaptation of the Dirk Gently novels by Douglas Adams probably took himself out of the running by having taken a Doctor-like role in the past couple of years. They say he’s too obvious a choice. But barely anyone (comparative to Doctor Who) has even seen the Dirk Gently series (broadcast on BBC4 and ran for just 4 episodes), particularly in North America, a market very much in mind for the people making Doctor Who these days. What his performance as Dirk Gently proved is that he is suited to the role. He’s gotten a lot of press recently having tweeted a pic himself with a Tom Baker scarf the day before Smith’s departure was announced with a cryptic Doctor Who comment in the tweet. But I should point out that I’m not jumping on any bandwagon - when we did our picks for the 11th Doctor five years ago, he was one of my top choices then as well - in fact, if you search back to November 4th 2008, he was actually the first person I suggested in our “Who I’d Like to Be Who”  series of posts. I haven’t changed my mind since then.

2. Peter Serafinowicz

Why? Because if he became the Doctor, we could get rid of the psychic paper and cut down on the sonic screwdriver usage as the 12th Doctor would be the first incarnation to defeat the enemy or gain entry to some place by doing Paul McCartney impressions. Or Ringo Starr impressions. Or Michael Caine impressions. Or just about any kind of impression.

3. Ben Wishaw

Probably a better choice for Doctor #13. The new Q from James Bond looks younger than Matt Smith but is a year or so older. However, I think they should go about 10 years older at least. If not, Ben could be the man

4. John Bradley-West

There’s been much talk that the next Doctor should be black, or that the next Doctor should be a woman, or that the next Doctor should be a blind, crippled, Guatemalan Lesbian, all because we have never had one in the role before therefore we delilberately need to have one now. In the spirit of affirmative action in fiction, I think the next Doctor should be a short, bearded, pudgy guy with a high pitched voice, because we’ve never had one of those in the role before either. And what better actor than John Bradley-West, who plays Sam in HBO’s Game of Thrones?

For what it is worth, it is the opinion of this blog writer that the next Doctor “should” not be anything other than the best actor for the role.

More choices to come - while there’s still time.