BBC Exec Wants a Woman to Play Lead in Doctor Who

[Tanis]

As long as it isn't forced, I don't care.

But as long as Moffat is there, we all KNOW how it's going to go down.

It's going to be like 'O, I'm The Doctor...and I'll be making every other comment about my new genitals...'

Because, well, Moffat can't write females characters with a damn.

 

[1337mokro]

The same guy who cancelled 5 of my favourite BBC shows so they could focus on a fresh new line up and instead they shoved out boring shows and more Dr. Who?

Sounds like a great idea pall! Just make sure you have nothing to do with it. You burner of bridges and good television.

Next on the agenda a Pakistan doctor who is also a 7 year old militant Islamic girl. Political correctness AHOY!

 

[Jeroenr]

And what about the companions?

I don't think that a female doctor and male companion relationship would work that well.
And only using a female companion will probably mean losing a lot of male viewers.
The best solution would be a companion duo, a bit like Amy and Rory.


Also the Doctor is a bit of a big kid with ADHD (David and Matt any way), i don't see that working with a female doctor.
All Doctors have a distinct personalities but have a lot of common ground with the previous versions.

And finely.
Some of my reservations about a female doctor may comes from the recent trend of shoehorning diversity in everything.
I'm all for a diverse world in Doctor Who(or any serie).
If done well, it will enrich the world and make it feel more real, but it mustn't feel forced.
If you clearly have token female, black, gay, ect.. they often stick to stereotypes.
This is a sigh of bad writing at least.

Just like with the female Thor, i don't think that will last either (remember, Thor didn't become female, Mjolnir got a new owner)

 

[OZAuCkn7J28sHLCv]

Yeah, let's go ahead and do this within the next couple regens. Only can flip a coin so many times before it comes up heads.

Tell that to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Does this headline really amount to anything more than "Person with no creative input in Doctor Who offers creative input for Doctor Who". Because I can do that too, don't you know?

 

[RicoADF]

Funny this obsession with making the Dr a woman yet my friend who's a massive fan has said she'd hate to see that happen, to her the doctor is a guy and it'd be too big of a change. Eh I don't watch the show so it doesn't bother me, from my experience with Battlestar Galactica the remake switched Starbuck into a woman and pulled it off quite well but I'd say it's not an easy thing to pull off without coming across as just pandering.

 

[Reaper195]

While I don't care much about who plays the Doctor as long as their good, I wish they had gone both a blakc doctor and a female doctor a while ago simply so I could have seen them. After the last season, I lost interest in the series. I don't think it's badly written, or boring...I just moved on to other things and even though I did try and get back into it, it didn't seem to have that 'spark' that always grabbed my attention.

 

[AstaresPanda]

Like other people have pointed out, it reeks of political correctness and "smacking of a token gesture to diversity" Its true. Its annoying and really half assed way of ticking the boxes. Make somthing NEW instead of fucking with shit to suit others. A spin off with a new female doc, yes, his female kid, yes. But aint it goin to come of a abit stupid that all these decades he's been a man. Now all of a sudden he's a women coz of reasons.

 

[Azahul]

And what about the companions?

I don't think that a female doctor and male companion relationship would work that well.
And only using a female companion will probably mean losing a lot of male viewers.
The best solution would be a companion duo, a bit like Amy and Rory.


Also the Doctor is a bit of a big kid with ADHD (David and Matt any way), i don't see that working with a female doctor.
All Doctors have a distinct personalities but have a lot of common ground with the previous versions.

And finely.
Some of my reservations about a female doctor may comes from the recent trend of shoehorning diversity in everything.
I'm all for a diverse world in Doctor Who(or any serie).
If done well, it will enrich the world and make it feel more real, but it mustn't feel forced.
If you clearly have token female, black, gay, ect.. they often stick to stereotypes.
This is a sigh of bad writing at least.

Just like with the female Thor, i don't think that will last either (remember, Thor didn't become female, Mjolnir got a new owner)

Ok, so, I agree with your premise (that the Doctor really shouldn't be a woman), but I vehemently disagree with nearly every single one of your arguments, barring the whole "shouldn't feel like shoehorning" thing. There's no reason a woman can't act like an excited child out to explore the universe. There's no reason a female doctor and male companion relationship couldn't work, so long as it was well-written. And I can't see why having both characters be female would turn off male viewers. We're talking a difference of genitals, and good writing should hopefully have far more of an impact on the quality of the show than what sits between the legs of the main characters.

Frankly, the reason I feel making the Doctor female is a bad idea is, well, it just feels desperate. It's not that I don't think Helen Mirren wouldn't make a fantastic Doctor, I'm pretty sure she'd be able to blow any one of her predecessors out of the water. It's more that it feels like giving up. That in our desire to get greater and better representation for women in popular media, we have officially given up hope that a female-led show could ever rise to the heights of popularity. Instead we have to wait for the good ol' white males to get something running, and then slide a woman in there and hope the branding holds. I mean seriously, what kind of message is that?

On a narrative level I have no problem with the concept. I could name a dozen female actors who I think would blitz the role. It's meant to be possible in-universe. There's nothing inherently male about the Doctor. With good writing, they can literally pull off anything in that series. I just don't think a female Doctor would be a win for feminism, and I know that the sight of other feminists celebrating such a choice would just make me depressed.

 

[xaszatm]

They could just bring back Jenny. Not that I'm against a female Doctor but I'm still kind of ticked on how they gave the doctor more transformations.

Still, I would like to see what would happen if Moffoat had to write a female doctor, even if I end up screaming at my tv screen.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Uuuhg but she'll be such a Minerva. Props if there are any Community fans out there

 

[PG]

Well it's already been established that Time Lords can change gender in a regeneration, so really it is just pot luck. No reason they can't besides insecure losers who feel a sense of entitlement to something they have no hand in creating.

 

[rgrekejin]

Here is the sum total of my reaction to this:

Umm... okay?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

As long as it isn't forced, I don't care.

But as long as Moffat is there, we all KNOW how it's going to go down.

It's going to be like 'O, I'm The Doctor...and I'll be making every other comment about my new genitals...'

Because, well, Moffat can't write females characters with a damn.

We already had a female Doctor; River Song. And that was just awesome.

NB; In case anyone missed it, the italicized "awesome" was meant to reflect heavy sarcasm.

 

[Something Amyss]

Well, seeing as a lot of people have wanted this for a long time, I hope it happens.
But it won't if Moffat is still doing the writing.

That may be for the best, though. I'm not sure I want Moffat writing any women, let alone as a primary character.

Nah, I just can't see this, sorry. I don't think I could buy into the Doctor we know as being a female.

Okay, I'm really seeing what a sex change would altar that was significantly more different than the personalities of the Time Lord in previous forms, so I have to ask: what, specifically, don't you buy?

Make somthing NEW instead of fucking with shit to suit others.

Oh, honey, if they did that, we wouldn't have Doctor Who around for you to complain about political correctness over.

I mean, unless you actually think the show should have William Hartnell, in which case I apologise. I just really doubt that's the case. Doctor Who has been routinely reformulated to "tick boxes." Weird that such "political correctness" led to some of the most beloved versions of the character.

 

[Something Amyss]

We already had a female Doctor; River Song. And that was just awesome.

NB; In case anyone missed it, the italicized "awesome" was meant to reflect heavy sarcasm.

really? I thought she was going to turn out to be some bizarre clone of The Master.

 

[Vault101]

I don't think that a female doctor and male companion relationship would work that well.

because to have a female as the lead and a guy as a platonic "sidekick" is just too weird?

because its a dymanic we aren't used to seeing...and thats kind of the point....we don't think about thease things and why some things seem "odd" to us when in fact theres no reason they should be

Dr Who aside there is absolutly no reason you couldn't have a show with a majority female cast and a token guy...yet it seems odd to us because we've accepted the oposite as the norm

[quote/]And only using a female companion will probably mean losing a lot of male viewers.[/quote]
I doubt this....also if those male veiwers are that fickle then screw'em...Doctor who seems to have a strong female following anyway, I think because it actually feels inclusive

[quote/]Also the Doctor is a bit of a big kid with ADHD (David and Matt any way), i don't see that working with a female doctor.
[/quote]
because you've seen women shoe horned into a narrow set of roles....

...now me I'd go Dawn French...and even then that brings up the implication that conventually atractive women can't have personaliyts (but thats a whole other topic)


[quote/]Some of my reservations about a female doctor may comes from the recent trend of shoehorning diversity in everything.[/quote]
this really isn't a trend...or at least not enough to be notciable (unfortuantly)


[quote/]I'm all for a diverse world in Doctor Who(or any serie).
If done well, it will enrich the world and make it feel more real, but it mustn't feel forced.
If you clearly have token female, black, gay, ect.. they often stick to stereotypes.
This is a sigh of bad writing at least. [/quote]
so we shouldn't have them at all....thanks for protecting my interests!

seriously sometimes it helps to have "more than one" so one charachter doesn't have to bear their entire gender

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Definitely something long overdue, but the western world was less progressive years back so now it actually has a real chance of happening.

I just hope they choose the next one based on character alone rather than trying to shoehorn in diversity. The Doctor is a character with huge expectations, the actor has to suit the role and the role has to suit the actor. Anyway, we can be hopeful.