This is, as you say, a brave bit of casting. Not in the history of the show, but to take a Saturday primetime programme with a recent history of young 'pretty boy' leads, and choose a lead who'll physically appeal to a different demographic takes guts, and encouragingly shows the BBC has faith in the show itself (its brand *shudder*).

If people stop watching because the Doctor isn't 'hawt' then it hasn't lost fans, it's just lost d*ckheads.

huge fans of a particular actor and character are the last person who should be considered as they will always have difficulty embracing the successor
its not a modern phenomenon or a female one
I will personally admit that part of me never took to tom baker and liz sladen because they weren't jon pertwee and katy manning and imagining what twitter would have been like if it had existed the day linda thorson was announced as Diana riggs replacement on the avengers is actually frightening
the producers need to take into account the general audience as well as fans of the show but absolutely not worry about people who could only be satisfied by not replacing an actor who is leaving

Hahahaha
You know, Moffat may not be perfect (and I'm a big Moffat fan), but tonight I admire him. Everywhere you look on TV these days it's stuffed full of super models trying to act. Just look at what has been in the past an unmissable show: EastEnders. It's now virtually unwatchable thanks to the over stuffing of actors hired to look pretty. But hey, that's not for here. Anyone want to discuss that I'll see you over in the soaps section. EE is, urm, very heavily discussed there.

And you know what... I actually think, from an entirely straight perspective, that Peter Calpadi actually looked quite good tonight, especially for his age! I think he carried himself very well! Obviously, because he's not a 20 odd year old super model the tweenies will get their knickers in a twist. Personally, I can't help thinking thank God. Doctor Who has never sold itself on the attractive nature of its lead actor, and it's not starting now, even though the last few obviously have been and Calpadi is not exactly ugly to say he's 55. Here, at least, this awful mentality polluting the TV industry has been stopped. For now.

Sod the fans who think the Doctor's got to be fanciable...

...where were they when we were watching Colin and Sylv?

You don't get on the bus half way through it's journey and start claiming it's taking the wrong route.

Silence!

Ah, C'mon - Sophie Aldred was HAWT, Ya know it's true!!!

If there is one downside to NuWho it's that it obviously attracts some very shallow people. Ugly? Peter Capaldi isn't nearly as ugly as those clowns' personalities. Pah, next there will be people saying Caopaldi is too old and that he must be some kind of paedophile for hanging out with 25-year old women...

If the Doctor is, in effect, the same person housed within a different outer shell, then it's interesting that we get personality changes on each regeneration...

Anyhow, Peter Capaldi = quality choice! I'm with HappyTrucker on how good it felt to have older mentor-types rather than 'siblings'!

Finally, are these idiots going to move on and realise they're not actually fans of Doctor Who? They're just chick flick fans who wandered into the show at a time when it dabbled in it.

The Doctor has never been good looking, Tennant was close, but wouldn't say perfect.

People do want a charming, good-looker as the Doctor but lets be honest, it's a show for geeks and so a geeky Doctor is one the audience is able to relate with.

Might surprise some, but I had a look on twitter and one of the tweets you quote is from a male. Shallowness is not the prerogative of one gender.

And I must admit myself I like an attractive female companion.

Very true, It appears teen fans (and this is coming froma 15 year old boy!) in general are very shallow. However, although there is the odd guy saying it too, It would seem that most of the Capaldi hate is coming from females rather than males.

As for an attractive female companion. It's a nice touch, but it's nowhere near a must.

Nowt wrong with fancying someone on the show - Jenna's the latest in a long line of blooming gorgeous companions. It's when it becomes the reason for watching that it all gets screwed up.

That's not a dig at you Dave. Just a general point.

I admire Steven Moffat and the Doctor Who team for their decision to cast Peter. It's great to see that they won't cave into this Twilight-crazed culture we live in and that they're keeping the integrity of Doctor Who firmly intact.

If you want defined cheekbones, chiseled jawlines, ripped abs and wavy hair, go and watch something with, well, those things I just mentioned...

Besides, who are they to say that Peter isn't attractive? They say it with such (annoying) authority as if it's absolute fact. I'm sure there are many fans who do find him attractive, much like they did Matt despite people constantly putting him down for the way he looks when he was first announced back in 2009.

BRILLIANT. A little bit of tea just came out of my nose. It almost ruined my favourite jumper on its exit, and I care not.

The perceived attractiveness of the actor playing the Doctor shouldn't even be a consideration. Capaldi is a criminally underrated talent and will most likely be the best thing to happen to the show since they brought it back. The fact that I, a 28 year old woman with an otherwise thriving social life, have no compunction about cancelling all social engagements on a Saturday night to gawp at his angular gorgeousness is neither here nor there.

If a man like Tom Baker can become the most iconic Doctor of all time, it's clearly not about physical attractiveness.

I didn't realise that Doctor Who had moved to ITV2 ......

^^^This^^^

Sod 'em!

As someone who disliked Ten/Rose and refused to believe that this centuries old alien genius would find his soul-mate to be someone who hadn't done anything/didn't know anything/hadn't been anywhere, I find this ironic. Bearing in mind that everything about Rose came from knowing/travelling the Doctor, their relationship (imo) was not romantic, just grooming. Though obviously he had no idea of her father issues, which can make teens vulnerable to 'dazzling' older men. Oh wait, they were actually written into the show. Still, it meant that a certain type of audience member would understand just how 'multifaceted' their relationship was and how he could be everything to them. I mean her. Ew.

I've already pointed out that if Rose had a similar relationship with Hartnell's doctor, I think that these people would have screamed much the same thing as you've stated in your post, despite the fact that One was half the age of Ten. It'll be interesting to see how they'll react when we see Capaldi with Clara. Ten was written as a very human, romantic hero (as opposed to an enigmatic brilliant alien) so the 'romance' was lapped up by many and Rose was considered lucky for having such a relationship. As opposed to the fact that she had the chance of traveling through time and space. Let's face it, Eleven's not conventionally attractive (though I much prefer his character) but he is young and that, I'm afraid, is the point.

That said, Johnny Depp is fifty, Brad Pitt in his forties - do you think this type of person would reject them for their appearance? No, that would be different. Young and/or attractive is what's wanted. Ironic, as these fans are probably not in the same league as Clara/Amy or even Rose. However they want to imagine themselves being 'taken away from all this' with brilliant men who are totally enamoured of them. What's in it for the brilliant men isn't explained. RTD has all but admitted that that was the point of Rose in his case. Obviously, not all anti Capaldi types/Tennant lovers are like this, but some certainly are. It worked for Twilight.

The way the whole Doctor/Rose relationship panned out was so creepy to me. It made the Doctor look like he was grooming Rose, especially as he regenerated into a person designed to appeal to her even more. RTD has often written awkward and uncomfortable relationships into his work, Bob And Rose featuring perhaps his most silly. I preferred it when RTD didn't have any romantic relationships in his Doctor Who stories as I just found them clumsy. Something like Midnight excelled because he gave us a great story without a poor romance at the heart of it.

I don't know why some of fandom is obsessed with what fangirls think.
Also why they think having young, female fans of the show is somehow a bad thing?
Would you prefer it was entirely a spotty, socially backward borderline autistic obsession as the lazy media would like to portray all sci-fi fandom?

Give me more fangirls than a room full of Sheldon Cooper's who think they're superior to them because they can quote episodes from 1967 any day.

Also the romance angle. There's no point being a hundreds of years old time travelling being without falling in love every couple of centuries or so.
But again I think this is fandom projecting themselves onto the Doctor.
Pity the Doctor for having a better sex life than them. IT MUST BE STOPPED!

Nothing wrong with a romance, as long as it's written well and is believable. If the Doctor didn't fancy Romana, why would he bat an eyelid at Rose?

If you watch "City Of Death" there's some indication that the Doctor may have fancied Romana.

Absolutely brilliant post. Spot on.

That Romana is more attractive than Rose may be your perception, but need not necessarily be the Doctor's.