Sixcess said:
I think a female Doctor would be problematic on multiple levels. Who isn't the most terribly subtle show when it comes to social commentary, and I suspect we'd be in for endless 'lessons' on sexism and gender equality - especially in stories in a historical setting. They can (mostly) sidestep this stuff with companions or other supporting characters, but not with the lead.
Sorry to the OP for the triple post, but I feel the need to call this out one more time. The show has had female companions throughout pretty much its entire run, and that remains true for the New Who. While the Classic Who may have done more with this, the New Who has simply ignored gender politics from the start. Whether they're in ancient Pompeii, or 1945, or Victorian London, or 1930s New York, or 17th Century Venice, or a pirate ship, or the house of Vincent Van Gogh, or a Soviet Submarine in 1983, the social standing of the female companions
maybe gets mentioned, but more often than not they just carry on. There are countless episodes when the gender or color of the female companions could have been questioned, but wasn't. Or if it was, then the comments were made and not made a big deal of. I can't think of a single episode in the New Who in which the
central theme of an episode was proving the female companion was equal to men, regardless of the time period they were in, or planet they were on. It may have been a little side-lesson or minor plot point, but in no episode was the primary action and character arcs dedicated to somebody learning a lesson in gender politics.
That being the show's proven and long-unquestioned method of dealing with that exact problem, what makes you think that'll change with a new Doctor? Perhaps they will use it as an opportunity to dedicate an episode to gender politics, but otherwise dedicating every episode to the Doctor becoming acclimated to a planet's people would be nothing less than a total change in the show's format. Given the Doctor also travels to other planets in which being a white male human makes
him the odd race out, you could say we've also already dealt with the race angle. They've never stopped and spend an entire episode dedicated to the Doctor introducing himself to an alien culture and dealing with what should be glaringly obvious racial barriers. They just ignore all that and get straight to the adventure.
Let's be honest with ourselves, here. With the format of the show and its history of dealing with race and gender, the only issues that can possibly arise have
nothing to do with its canon, and everything to do with projecting our own insecurities onto the show.