Predictions for the Chibnall Era

I believe Chris Chibnall's era will introduce the first female Doctor. The question is: would Pearl Mackie stay on as Bill or would they replace her with a male companion who isn't Nardole?

Also, seems as good a place to restate what started the thread, especially given all the new context we've gotten since.

''He'll be the first showrunner not affiliated with the Wilderness years' output in any way, as well as the first to not have much in the way of family friendly TV experience outside of Who unlike his predecessors.

The only things close to guesses I could hazard are:
- Chibnall says he wants a writer's room, ala US TV Drama, so the uniformity and consistency of episodes will be up, for better or worse, as the staff will have more active discussions with each other.
- Chibnall's background in crime drama could mean that when Capaldi vacates, 13 could be a more investigative, almost detective/reporter-esque Doctor, which would be an interesting contrast to the war horses and chique geeks the other New Doctors have been.
- Chibnall will inherit a show with possibly its biggest ever audience globally, yet be stuck with an ever tighter budget so that may have a bearing on the direction he'll take the show creatively.
- Chibnall will be a major source of memes as now people will make fun of him being the most blatantly nerdy kid on that 80s BBC talk show who criticized Ultimate Foe, and he's basically going to be in JNT's shoes.

Agree, disagree or add more?''

Given we've only known Capaldi will need a successor for a day I'd recommend taking that with a pinch of salt.

Alright, for the sake of argument, let's say they go female this time. Regardless if I do or don't agree, let's get to some brass tacks here as to what could be expected:

1) Given a big to-do over Capaldi was age and not moving toys, we're likely skewing for a younger actress in Tenant's age range. If you were hoping for Olivia or Helen or Imelda, it likely won't be that this time.

2) Decently built from a physical standpoint. Won't be someone petit like Jenna, or more robust like Ingrid. It'll probably be someone more like Martha: not a model, but someone you'd buy in an action scene.

3) Probably a white actress. Naturally, if they go female, all bets are off, but I have a gut feeling if the Beeb go female, they'll at least keep the same race as the past Doctors for some kind of safety, for lack of a better term.

Fair enough

My only hope is that they do something with it. It was the right time to move forward from that illustrious backdrop of a battle-scarred Doctor, but please can we have another myth arc to take its place? There's so much that can be done with a revived Gallifrey, particularly in the context of a crippled, post-War Time Lord society. I doubt everything is the same as it was, I doubt everything is the same as it was.

The reconstruction would be an excellent place to draw new stories from like Gallifreyan war fleets illegally cauterising and colonising time zones, exterior, opportunistic forces attempting to usurp their hold over time, teething problems with a new Web of Time that has accidentally overrode the main timeline with an alternate one and made that the default, the Daleks' attitude towards a returned Gallifrey and their plans there, etc.

There's been not much worldbuilding in the Moffat era (and some pretty questionable worldbuilding when it has happened), it'd be nice to get back to exploring the universe as a connected tapestry again.

You must hate the 8th Doctor stories then