On Paterson Joseph and Doctor Who

[dreamer_easy]

Many fans are very disappointed that Paterson Joseph was not cast as the new Doctor, and have gone as far as speculating that he was cast, then dumped in favour of someone younger, prettier, and paler.

However: as far as I've been able to find out, it was fandom which started the Paterson Joseph rumour in the first place. The British media then picked it up - along with other names fans had bandied about - and many fans took it as a done deal that Joseph would be the new Doctor.

As far as I've managed to find, Joseph was first mentioned in connection with the role on 13 October, in the rumour-and-gossip blog Lying in the Gutters, which categorised the story as "a little dodgy". In response to Lying in the Gutters' posting, Sci Fi Wire contacted Joseph, who told them: "The news on Who was news to me as of last Wednesday, when my agent said they'd had lots of journos asking if the rumors were true. That's all I know, and I'm very pleased to even be thought of in this way. It's a blast!" Similarly, Paterson's agent told Den of Geek this was the first they'd heard of it.

This was weeks before David Tennant announced his departure (29 October), and more than two months before one of Joseph's Survivors co-stars said he was in the running (20 November) - which means said co-star had two months to pick up the rumour from the media, and might not have had inside information at all.

Exec producer Piers Wenger told the Telegraph (5 January): "We saw a dozen or so people, some of them black. There was never any resistance to the idea of a black Doctor and it would have got us all sorts of headlines and brownie points, but we set out to cast the best actor for the role irrespective of ethnicity or age, and that was Matt."

(Addenda: Lying in the Gutters stated outright on 24 November that Joseph had been cast during the previous week. This could possibly have sparked the "he was hired then fired" rumour. Neil Gaiman's 22 December comment about the rumours is also worth a look.)

(Further addenda: Lying In The Gutters ate crow on 5 January. On 20 November Paterson Joseph told the BBC he couldn't comment. Russell Tovey's 31 October interview is also worth a look.)

Comments

[tide-and-time.livejournal.com]

That might explain a lot.

I have to admit I am disappointed it wasn't him at the end of the day because I had challenged my own assumptions so much these last few months and actually tried to psyche myself up to the fact that it would be an awesome change and he really is a fine actor.

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

i have to say that personally, i was excited about the possibility of paterson joseph being cast not specifically because he's black, but because he's a brilliant actor. which probably means i'm failing at life by refusing to acknowledge my own white privilege/ability to ignore race barriers if i want to or something, but seriously, if i were him, i think i'd find all the fanwank a little insulting. he wouldn't have been brilliant in the role specifically because he's black, he'd have been brilliant because he IS brilliant.

and, as i've said elsewhere - yeah, i'm disappointed it's not him, but i think wee matty smith will rock my socks as the doctor. and there's always the chance he could still get cast for 12 or 13.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It's painful to know that, had Joseph or indeed any non-White actor been cast, fandom would be ringing with cries of "THEY ONLY CAST HIM BECAUSE HE'S BLACK, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, PUBLICITY STUNT, I JUST CAN'T SEE IT, blah blah blah." Basically, a much uglier version of the idiot prejudice against Mr Smith.

That said, I get the impression that both the general viewers and fandom seem ready to accept a Doctor of Colour; the possibility generated much more excitement and anticipation than controversy.

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

i have to say that personally, i was excited about the possibility of paterson joseph being cast not specifically because he's black, but because he's a brilliant actor.

Word. After seeing him as the Marquis in "Neverwhere," in particular, I could *definitely* imagine him as the Doctor (and he looks good in a long swishy coat, too!). I'd heard the rumors, but didn't take them as gospel (though I thought it boded well for the quality of actors being debated for the part!). Also, FWIW, given the franchise's fondness for hiring people who have previously appeared in bit parts for larger roles later, there was a possible added hint of believability.

This is actually the first I'd heard of a "hired and fired" rumor(I've been avoiding the wankier stuff) -- now that *is* insulting, and unfair all around.

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's exactly the kind of thing I was wondering about. But I don't have the attention span (or the connections) to do the digging.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I am such a Google addict. Over the break I went slightly mad when I couldn't instantly look things up.

[omphalos.livejournal.com]

Many of the previously very reliable spoiler providers on OG were absolutely adamant that PJ had been cast because that's what they were told by their BBC sources. Many people believed them and spread the 'fact', including myself at one point, because they'd been so reliable in the past with their spoilers.

However, according to Eddie at Outpost Skaro, this was all part of a deliberate disinformation campaign by Upper Boat that followed on from a sting campaign to find and plug the leaks. There is no way to prove this statement; however, it *is* true that all those previously reliable spoiler sources are now wrong about pretty much everything.

This is all just in case you're interested as you seem to have done some admirable research here. :)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Oh, if that really is the explanation, it's equal parts funny and painful. At least, as Neil Gaiman says, it's meant a huge amount of publicity for Mr Joseph!

[narm00.livejournal.com]

It's also worth noting that this 'hire and fire' rumour has only popped up /after/ Matt Smith was announced. The spoiler providers don't seem to have heard anything of the sort /before/ Saturday's announcement - but if they'd heard PJ had been /cast/, why not that he'd been /fired/? That suggests to me that Eddie was right, and it /was/ disinformation.

[cassiphone.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I was surprised because the Patterson Joseph rumour had been reported on blogs as if it was a done deal, and I never heard any of the debunking part, so the first I heard that it might not be him was in the day or two leading up to the reveal of Matt Smith.

But this reminded me of the lovely Bill Nighy rumour which did the rounds for weeks before David Tennant's casting was officially revealed - I think one of the English papers reported that as fact? Then, hilariously, weeks after it was known officially to be David Tennant, my local paper the Hobart Mercury was reporting Bill Nighy's casting as fact. I fully expect them to be running an article on 'The Eleventh Doctor... is Black" any day now!

I am very amused by the rumour that Patterson Joseph was deliberately leaked as the new Doctor to promote his own series though - I think that would be brilliant if true. "Hey, do you want to be the fake new Doctor? Keeps the heat off us until we get the real one, and it will do wonders for your exposure..." Of course David Morrissey got a lot of that too. I want my The UnDoctors TV Special!!!

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask in my own journal where the Paterson Joseph rumour came from, because it sure as hell sounded to me like fandom whipped it up from more or less nowhere and turned it into fact, as it is so often wont to do every time the Doctor's recast, and now they're crying Bad Wolf when nobody with any authoritative involvement in the auditioning process said a bloody word.

I hate it when I'm right :P

[theta-g.livejournal.com]

"I sort of based his performance a lot on what I would have liked to have in a Doctor Who." -- Neil Gaiman speaking over the introduction of the Marquis de Carabas in the DVD commentary (US release date 2003.09.09, UK release date 2007.04.23)

[mondyboy.livejournal.com]

This really shits me. These bullshit rumours that are completely unfounded.

I'd heard rumours about PJ well before October, in fact Series 4 was still going when the name was mentioned to me. I also heard that Eijofor would have been the top selection - no interviews required - if he'd been willing to do it. But he wasn't. So it never came to pass.

But even this stuff that I heard could all have been rubbish. I have no proof, other than pointing to a couple of people and saying - 'well they told me.' And it's why I usually keep these rumours to myself. A number of them, over the years, have been spot on. But so what? Unless there's evidence it's all just words.

And the fact, Kate, that you went and researched it only makes me angrier. Not at you. But at the fact that people aren't willing to do it themselves. The fact that I read that LJ post and see people willing to give up Who because of a rumour they heard from someone who doesn't even use their real name.

Over the last 5 years fandom has totally ruined the act of enjoying Doctor Who. I'm not talking about knocking the quality of the episodes. Because I do that myself (I mean the Doctor's Daughter is rubbish). And anyway, poking fun and ripping an episode apart with mates is part of the fun. No, I'm talking about the fucking treatises that have been written by fools and morons who need to find a fucking conspiracy in either the behind the scenes bullshit or their own twisted perceptions of the show.

The fact is, the blame is mine. I should get off LJ and the internet etc etc...

Sorry for the rant... :(

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Mate, I feel your pain.

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Hey, if those people don't want to be part of the fandom anymore, I'll be the first one there to hold the door for them as they leave. Not like I really believe any fandom can ever be made up of more rational people than irrational ones... but I'd be glad to see them go anyways.

[nyssa1968.livejournal.com]

"...fools and morons who need to find a fucking conspiracy in either the behind the scenes bullshit or their own twisted perceptions of the show..."

Kate, I'll add my thanks to you for digging that stuff up.

Conspiracy theories. Oh, yes. Complete with even more bonkers ones to explain why the original ones were mad. And, frankly, with the small amount of the crazy stuff I've seen/heard, I'm actually p*ss%ed off that people don't accept what Steven Moffat, et al, said on CONFIDENTIAL and various other places as being what happened. They are making a TV show. They don't have the time for making up this stuff.

I personally like the warm words Paul Cornell put in his blog.

(I'm not very good with LJ... so apologies if I've stuffed the protocol with the quote... and large apologies to the person who posted it for not naming them... with whom I mostly agree, except about the Doctor's Daughter. Oh, I agree the story was sheer nonsense, but it had Georgia Moffett in it :-) )

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It took less than ten minutes' Googling to dig that lot up. Srsly.

[hexacontium.livejournal.com]

One thing that amazes me most is the power Fandom seems to have. I occasionally read the spoiler discussion on OG just to see if some of the rumors started there end up in the tabloids again. Aww, I wish I could come up with something that would end up in the papers :)

[ostentatious.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling that rumor was a load of rubbish, but this certainly helps with tracking down the timelines of the statements and all. Thank so much for putting it together and shining some sort of light on the mess.

[almostwitty]

The trouble is that these days, fandom and "officialdom" are interminably linked, at least at the lower echelons of production.

I happen to work for the BBC (nowhere near Doctor Who, I'll readily add), and I've noticed in the past that a couple of idle wild speculations that I've uttered with my fandom hat on are then worked up to a frenzy to a point when they're reported as fact by "a friend of mine who works for the BBC". Which is, to say the least, annoying.

And as we all know, journalists often resort to making up stories about the next Doctor Who/James Bond/James Bond plotline simply because it's an undeniable story, and one that nobody has a particular interest in shooting down.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

In order to maintain the rage, fandom has had to whittle the story down to the point where it can no longer be disproved. :P