The vacuum, the void, the hole.

TV As predicted, the vacuum, the void, the hole in information about who will be playing the Doctor after this Christmas means the internet (which lets face it is the media now) is in full speculation mode.

The May Sue's all over Wil Wheaton's blog post about knowing who's already been cast in the role, utilising the prompt for his comment to crown Chiwetel Ejiofor as Doctor number whatever its going to be depending on who John Hurt's playing.

Perhaps Wil Wheaton does know. He is Wil Wheaton. If he does know, it's annoying because it's another example of there being a kind of network of people who're privy to this information, the rest of us maroons outside of the circle, ie, the general public, left to wait for the official announcement.

I like Wil Wheaton, but why's Wil Wheaton in the know?

This information should either be internally at the BBC until they're ready or in the wider public.  The interstitial area which includes licensees and the like being included in the larger side of that venn diagram.

Of course, Wil Wheaton might not know the truth.  Or he might think he knows the truth and he knows the fake truth which has been put about in lieu of the actual truth.

Either way, we're still in, as predicted, the vacuum, the void, the hole in information about who will be playing the Doctor.

The pro-female lobby of which, as you know, I'm a member, is more vocal this time.  There have been pieces in The Guardian and The Slate and all kinds of places.

I don't know if it'll happen.  I'd like to think that Steven, casting Andy and everyone else went into the casting gender blind, but after fifty years that would have to be a conscious decision.

My understanding is when they spent the three weeks in a hotel working their way through all the people who wouldn't be the Eleventh Doctor because Matt Smith had already presented himself none of those people were female.

The chances are it'll be another white male.

Except the emergence of Zawe Ashton on voting lists is interesting, simply because it's so left of field, and pretty compelling.

Like David and Matt before her, she's the sort of actor whose known and liked amongst people who've seen them in the things they've seen them in in a way that most of the actors in these kinds of lists simply aren't.    Here's a typical example at IGN.  Here's another at The Guardian which she actually won (which is a switch from 2009 when The Guardian's readers voted against a gender change) (but that was after The Stolen Earth went out when Tennant fever was at its height) (plus when they last published a list Matt Smith wasn't anywhere near it).

Nevertheless, I like it.  It seems to fit.  Fresh Meat could be the new Party Animals or Casanova.

Plus Zawe is on Moffat & co's radar having played the original Sally Donovan in unbroadcast pilot version of Sherlock, the same casting call which put Matt Smith on their radar when he turned up to audition for Watson.  Wheels within wheels.

Is she very Doctorish?  Judging by what I've seen of her she can be.  There's an intensity of performance in Dreams of a Life which is remarkable.  Plus she can do the goofy thing.  See Fresh Meat.

Plus if you're going to do the traditional thing of casting someone who's a polar opposite of what's gone before, Zawe's perfect.

But the vacuum, the void, the hole in information continues.  Mostly it'll come down to whether the actor wants to spend eight or nine months filming in Cardiff, which isn't the back of beyond but is a huge commitment, which is why everyone especially the Doctor Who team itself were surprised Catherine Tate, who was already a household name thanks to her sketch show, did and would.

Would Chiwetel? Don't think he would.  Would Zawe?  Maybe.

Would Romola Garai?  Maybe too.  She committed a fair chunk of her year to The Hour, and would have again before it was cancelled.  Will that cancellation turn out to be fortuitous for us Who fans?