Question of the Day, October 12, 2010

The Escapist Staff

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Question of the Day, October 12, 2010



Producers of Doctor Who may have briefly considered changing the doctor's gender [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104262-Doctor-Who-Nearly-Became-a-Time-Mistress]. While the show was experiencing some bumps in the 1980s, creator Sydney Newman suggested that a gender change might reinvigorate the show. What do you think? If the current Doctor Who canon wasn't an issue, how would you feel about a Time Mistress?

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Katherine Kerensky

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Mar 27, 2009
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Such an occurrence is unprecedented...
I think the Doctor is good enough as a Time Lord.
Besides, gives me something interesting to look at.
I hope I'll see more of Rory in the next season...
*Sigh~*
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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I certainly wouldnt mind seeing a female doctor - it could be veeeery intresting XD
 

Spazman

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the doctor is more about the attitude than the appearance as the actor can pull off the right attitude it doesn't matter whether they are male or female
 

Capt. Crankypants

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I've seen hardly any Doctor Who, and aren't a fan...but whyyyyyy? He's perfectly fine as a male. If this is a 'female empowerment' thing, then no. If this is a 'running out of ideas' thing, then "Oh dear". They have all the possibilities of space, AND all the possibilities of time... and they're running out of ideas. Oh dear.
 

Doctor Panda

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I think that you'd run into a lot of problems, so i'm voting no. The biggest problem? Like 75% of the show's current audience are nerdy girls who want to bed the various incarnations of the doctor.
 

GothmogII

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Apr 6, 2008
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Wait...what's the 'good reason' the Doctor is always male? I'd love if someone could explain that one to me. ;)
 

Amnestic

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GothmogII said:
Wait...what's the 'good reason' the Doctor is always male? I'd love if someone could explain that one to me. ;)
Tradition. To me, it'd be like having the next Bond be female. Jane Bond or something.

It's just...no.
 

dogenzakaminion

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Amnestic said:
GothmogII said:
Wait...what's the 'good reason' the Doctor is always male? I'd love if someone could explain that one to me. ;)
Tradition. To me, it'd be like having the next Bond be female. Jane Bond or something.

It's just...no.
This.

Also, each new iteration of the character is just him regenerating as a new form (new actor), but I dont believe it says he can change gender in his power description.
 

Alon Shechter

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It'd be very lazy and uncreative to just change the gender, and Doctor Who is known to be original and surprising.
But maybe it is just me thinking that.
 

joshuaayt

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Nov 15, 2009
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Is there a "I don't really think the protagonist's gender can add or subtract from the quality of the show; go ahead if you particularly want to" option? I pick that one.
 

chstens

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Well... I'd rather see the Doctor regenerate as a ginger, when it comes to gender, I'm not sure.
 

Azuaron

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A couple of things:

First, Time Lady. Lord -> Lady, Master -> Mistress.

Second:

Georgie_Leech said:
My Option isn't up there: "I don't care one way or the other but still watch the show."
My reasoning's less about not caring than about trusting the writers. If the writers are good (which, they are), then a gender change could be pulled off. If the writers are bad, a gender change can't be pulled off, but I won't want to watch anymore even with a male Doctor.

Now, if he regenerated as a ginger woman, that would certainly be something to get excited about.
 

Jedamethis

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Well, it might be interesting as a quick "Holy shit, what happened here?!" if they made it part of the story, but not a permanent change. Well, not permanent, but you know what I mean.
 

bojac6

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tommyopera said:
I think re-boots tend to encourage lazy writing. Like the Star Trek Re-boot....... It is too early in the morning for me to go into specifics.

If Dr. Who was a Man then Create a woman in a whole new manner with her own plot devices without changing the canon. I don't watch Dr. who btw.
It wouldn't be a reboot. The show is structured so that the Doctor "regenerates" when he has an otherwise fatal injury to explain the change in actors.

dogenzakaminion said:
Amnestic said:
GothmogII said:
Wait...what's the 'good reason' the Doctor is always male? I'd love if someone could explain that one to me. ;)
Tradition. To me, it'd be like having the next Bond be female. Jane Bond or something.

It's just...no.
This.

Also, each new iteration of the character is just him regenerating as a new form (new actor), but I dont believe it says he can change gender in his power description.
I think it's definitely with his powers. Everytime he regenerates (or at least the last two times) and he starts to check himself, he always says "Male this time...not a Ginger...rather big nose" etc. Why would he check if he's male if that were a certainty.


This question is irrelevant anyways, because the Doctor already was a woman in the first episode Stephen Moffat wrote. This was before Davies brought the show back. The episode was called "The Curse of the Fatal Death."

It may not exactly be canon, but it's Moffat at his best.
 

Saioon

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Azuaron said:
My reasoning's less about not caring than about trusting the writers. If the writers are good (which, they are), then a gender change could be pulled off. If the writers are bad, a gender change can't be pulled off, but I won't want to watch anymore even with a male Doctor.

Now, if he regenerated as a ginger woman, that would certainly be something to get excited about.
I agree with this (except the ginger woman), I don't trust writers either.

Making a female doctor could fall into the same trap as trying to make the female James Bond (ie Jinx in Die Another Day), you end up with a poorly conceived character trying to hard to be the equivalent to the established male rather than having a feminine perspective. Although placing women in the same roles has worked well and should be encouraged (eg Katherine Janeway) I think this is easier than making the same character into a woman. This would not be like making Startbuck a woman, but actually making an established male character into a woman. I think they would try to hard to show she was just as good and just as wacky without her bringing any female characteristics.

It would however be interesting to see if done well.
 

'Aredor

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No, that would be stupid, unless they reveal that that's his true gender identity, but then why didn't he change before, like, the first time he had to regenerate.

Azuaron said:
Time Lady. Lord -> Lady, Master -> Mistress.
Indeed.