I know that this post will make you all fume - it did me - buy everyone is entitled to an opinion even if it is soooooo very wrong!
David has mentioned that he had seen that comment about looking like a weasel - that's what stopped him from looking at what fans thought. Time and David's performance have proved both that fan and George so very wrong - perhaps it should have been pointed out to Mr. Kerevan that David was a respected theatre actor and had been for years and was certainly better know for his theatre work and for Blackpool and Casanova that DODG, which had only started to be broadcast in June of '05! Also as a newspaperman he should know that no one ever calls themselves a heart throb - the press does that!
Oh and one more thing - not only were the Daleks impressed so was the rest of the UK and many,.many fans in the US, Canada, Australia and the rest of the world. David is the most beloved Doctor since Tom Baker. Just ask anyone - oh except George Kerevan!
Taken from an article in The Scotman - Saturday, August 6, 2005
Author: GEORGE KEREVAN
Hate: The new Doctor: David Who? It's an alien insurrection
"So it is with the cruel announcement that Scottish actor David Tennant - misguidedly referred to as a "heart throb" - is replacing that genuine alien, Christopher Eccleston, as the Doctor.
But the return of the Doctor proved a super nova (including Piper's acting). The plots were up to their historic best, the Daleks more frightening than ever. And Eccleston emerged as a candidate for the best-ever Doctor if only he could hang on a couple of seasons to own the part.
Then disaster struck just as if the Master had interfered yet again with time itself. Eccleston had quit because he did not want to be typecast - too late, Christopher - and BBC Cardiff had found a replacement.
And who did we get to play the greatest alien in the universe? The being we need to save Earth? The son of a former Moderator of the Church of Scotland better known for playing Andy Crawford, the wimpish sidekick of Dixon of Dock Green in the radio revival of the cosy 1950s police series. Yawn.
OK, I know lots of interesting folk come from Paisley and I did see bits of Tennant when he starred in the television version of Casanova. He's a passable actor and clearly more in love with playing the Doctor than was Eccleston. But as another disgruntled fan put it: "Somebody who looks like a weasel could never play the Doctor. It's over!"
Just to prove the nightmare is official, the BBC has announced what it calls a "striking" new outfit for Tennant 's Doctor. This turns out to be a striped suit and trainers. Golly gosh! How spiffingly trendy. The Daleks will be impressed."
* George Kerevan is associate editor of The Scotsman.
PS - George is actually a big Who fan - this was taken from an article he wrote on March 19, 2005:
"When
Doctor Who
popped out of his TARDIS - I saw the first episode back in 1963 - we knew a proper hero had returned to us from Gallifrey.
He was not the military wing of some vast Galactic empire but a lone individual lost in time and space, armed only with his
own code of honour and justice. He was not an artificial Superman, leaping tall buildings, but someone we knew we could be
if only we tried hard enough - after all, he liked jelly babies and wore a long scarf.
Like the ancient Greek heroes,
Doctor Who
was always at the mercy of the Gods and a wayward navigation device in the TARDIS. That's the whole point of heroes
- they show you how to deal with an indifferent, even perverse, universe with wit, courage and a stiff upper lip.
There was indeed a definite alien quality about the Doctor: he was still archetypally British in an era when being British
was an embarrassment. Pretending to be from Gallifrey and having two hearts was an elegant ruse. Audiences could indulge in
following a great British hero without feeling the cringe factor.
The fascinating thing about British heroes is that they are quintessentially anti-establishment, like
Doctor Who
. They draw their courage from their own individuality. Nelson gleefully put the telescope to his blind eye. In similar
circumstances Captain Kirk might defy Star Fleet Command, but he'd have a moral fit doing so."