Benedict Cumberbatch is voicing Smaug and the Necromancer in The Hobbit, is playing a villain in the next Star Trek movie, and plays a modern-day Sherlock for the BBC in a series also helmed by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that those rumors about Moffat writing Cumberbatch into Doctor Who as The Master have returned. Back in the summer of 2010, Cumberbatch was coy about the rumor (video below), saying he wouldn’t be in an episode. He didn’t clarify if that meant he wanted to play the Doctor, a recurring character, or avoid the show altogether.
Those rumors are back, as an unnamed source tells The Express: “It’s fitting that the Doctor comes face to face with his ultimate enemy, The Master, for the 50th anniversary and it’s felt Benedict is the perfect choice if schedules can work. Fans will love the idea of the man who plays Sherlock Holmes taking on the Doctor”
On the other hand, this is coming from an “insider” quoted in a British tabloid, which is as reliable as the rumors my microwave tells me about my whore of an oven. (That’s literally hot goss.)
[Tip of the deerstalker to Bleeding Cool.]