Former Doctor Who showrunner shares his pick for the next Doctor

Former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies reveals who he’d like to see take on the role of the Doctor next: pop star and actor Olly Alexander.

Russell T. Davies is the man who kicked off the Doctor Who revival in 2005, so even though he hasn’t been with the show for a while, his word still carries a lot of weight. And he has some interesting thoughts about who should take on the iconic role of the Doctor after Jodie Whittaker ends her run, which it’s rumored will happen after the upcoming 13th season.

Davies revealed his pick to SFX Magazine, under slight duress. “Oh stop it! This’ll just be all the headlines,” he said, very accurately. “You just want SFX headlines everywhere. Yes, Olly [Alexander] would make a marvelous Doctor Who. You tart! You enormous tart! The trouble this causes! They’ll be banging his door, his agent will be saying, ‘What have you done now…’ On your own head be it.”

Okay, so Davies seemed more concerned with thrashing against the question than answering it, but he did answer it, so who is Olly Alexander? He’s an actor and pop star who worked with Davies on It’s a Sin, a miniseries about the AIDS crisis in London in the early ’80s.

Interestingly enough, at one point It’s A Sin features  imaginary Doctor Who serial that stars Alexander’s character, Ritchie. The in-show episode is called “Regression of the Daleks,” a reference to “Resurrection of the Daleks”, a two-episode arc from 1984 starring the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison.

According to Doctor Who Magazine, the “parallel universe” episode was filmed in Manchester’s Granada Studios in 2019 and will air during It’s A Sin’s fourth episode set to air on February 12 on Channel 4 in the UK. The series will air in late 2021 on HBO Max in the United States. Speaking to the BBC, Davies detailed how the show reflects his personal experiences as a gay man in the ’80s while attending college at Oxford.

Given how much this series means to Davies, it comes as no surprise that he feels strongly about Alexander becoming the next face of Doctor Who. He may see himself in the actor, and with all the years he’s worked on Doctor Who, Davies may be exactly the person to truly understand who should come after Jodie Whittaker. Furthermore, Alexander’s casting could be yet another historic first, as he would be the first Doctor to be an open member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Rumors have been circulating regarding Whittaker’s exit, so it’s not a bad time to start thinking about who will be the next Doctor. And based on this, it looks like Davies is doing just that…when he’s forced to.

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h/t Games Radar