Sixth Doctor Actor Colin Baker Believes Next Doctor Who Star Will “Not Be A White Middle-Aged Man”
English actor Colin Baker, perhaps best known for his short time as the Sixth Doctor on Doctor Who, believes that the next incarnation of the eponymous Doctor will be anything but “a white middle-aged man.”
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Baker shared his opinion on the future of the long-running sci-fi series during a recent interview with Digital Spy given in promotion of the recently released audio adventure Doctor Who: The Eleven, which sees the Sixth Doctor in pursuit of the Time Lord criminal known as The Eleven.
Though the conversation began with a discussion of Baker’s role in The Eleven, Digital Spy reporter Alex Moreland eventually turned the topic to the current state of Doctor Who, asking the actor if he had been following Whittaker’s performance as the Thirteenth Doctor. In response, the actor admitted, “I haven’t kept up as much as I would like to, actually.”
“I’ve watched the first four or five, and then for various reasons, I started recording them,” he continued. “I’ve got them all on my Sky doo-dah, whatever you call it – so I haven’t watched them all yet.”
Yet, despite having seen little of Whittaker’s tenure as the Doctor, Baker then declared, “But I’ve seen enough to know that I thoroughly approve.”
“I love something that she has brought, that I’ve never seen in a Doctor before, which is joy: the joy of being the Doctor,” he explained. “I suppose joy isn’t a particularly manly attribute. Usually, smugness is more what men go for, rather than joy!”
Continuing in his praise of Whittaker, Baker told Moreland, “Those initial episodes, where she was finding out who she was and making a sonic screwdriver? All those moments, I actually loved it.”
“I’m looking forward to having the chance to sit and watch all the other stories! I love the way it was going,” said Baker. “And I’m sure she will have a thumping good exit, I’m looking forward to seeing that as well.”
To that end, Moreland then asked Baker if he had any opinions on who should star as the next incarnation of the Doctor, to which the actor enthusiastically replied, “I suspect that the trend is going to take us down the BAME [Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic] route – and quite right, too!”
“There’s a whole sector of the acting community that’s been ill-served for decades,” Baker argued. “It’ll certainly, I suspect, not be a white middle-aged man; I would like to think it will be another female Doctor, because I enjoyed watching [Whittaker].”
Released in September, The Eleven is currently available to download via publisher Big Finish’s official website.
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