to hope that the next Doctor Who is female and not understand why this would be so terrible?

[findingme]

My first AIBU - I have used advanced search and can't see an existing post on this so apologies if there is. I don't want to link to DM so please just google "Female Doctor Who" to look at the recent articles about this in the DM and newspapers.

It seems that it is a possibility and I can't understand why anyone would think this is a bad idea. AIBU?

If the character is supposed to be an alien, then I'd say all bets are off when it comes down to the details of their genitals.

They should just cast whoever they think will be best, and be blind to gender and race. The feckers age keeps going back and forth, who's gonna get bent out of shape about any other stuff?

Dh & I have been hoping for a woman in the last 2 regenerations (not that I didn't love them both once they were in place) - less overtly a feminist thing, more a feeling that the characters/relationships are feeling a bit same-y and something needs shaking up a bit - a markedly different character trait/look, or a difference in sexuality would do it for me too (I rather like the idea of a transgender Doctor...)

I don't see the arguments about the doctor having to be male like x,y,z character is really work - the whole thing about the doctor, surely, is that he a regenerating alien. He therefore doesn't have to conform to the human constraints that James Bond has - as long as the script writers can make it credible, I think they can do what they fancy...

Exactly, he's a flippin' alien, he can be whatever the hell the writers he decides.

I would prefer to see a more androgynous doctor. He's far to interested in teenage/young skirt. I'd prefer a doctor that morphed across everything because he's an alien. He's not supposed to be human. He just presently looks it.

I don't care male or female. If actually like Tilda Swinton.

Doctor who needs a sonic screwdriver to make them the doctor. Not a penis. I am all for a female doctor.

The Doctor is male just as Miss Marple is female. And for the person who said why not to a female James Bond, it's because he is a man. M could change because it was a code name for a person not an individual.

It is a working formula with a huge fan base. Why not a series based on a female time lord. There could even be cross over episodes.

there have been a few decent female sci-fi characters of late- Lyra in the Pullman books, River in Firefly, the lead in the hunger games etc.
although there is a tendency to think that to be a female lead you have to fight like the boys.

whereas DW is all about the mind. so it would be nice to have an intelligent female lead instead of a kick ass one.

and TV is an important place to fight the fight. it is where our cultural ideas come from and it is not good to grow up always seeing women as the pretty disposable side kick who hangs on the male characters every word until he gets a new one.

and at I can assure you we're not. Not least because we don't do much housework motherinferior

I am pretty indifferent to whether DW is male or female but would like to see a series with a decent female lead and also more women with serious jobs in preschool tv too.

by the time they are teenagers the battle is often already lost.

how about grayson perry...

The Doctor regenerates, he doesn't transform - so in my opinion, he couldn't change into a different species or gender. I think it would change the role radically too, and wouldn't be The Doctor any more. Frankly, I doubt if I would watch it.

One problem with a female doctor is that the current writers don't write women very well though - witness the identikit companions - so overall the quality of the series might suffer. Guess what? There's not a single female writer among the writing team. I really don't believe there isn't the female talent out there though.

I want David back. I loves him so much it makes my tummy hurt.

he is in the November special

Tad confused by the comment about people who make feminist issues part of everyday life have no life . I'll just pop in my TARDIS and let Emiline Pankhurst know that. I'm sure she cared deeply about whether she had a life or not (in no way am comparing a tv to the right to vote by the way, but things in popular culture do have to be questioned)

It also took me a long time to grasp why everyone was talking out of context about their dear wives (DW) on this thread.

can the Doctor reginirate back into who he was before dont see why not

Oh mrsjay, I'm disappointed in you fancying David Tenant!

Oh mrsjay, I'm disappointed in you fancying David Tenant!

just as the Doctor sigh he actually really annoys me on anything else am I forgiven

I suppose so, but only if you promise me you don't drool over him in those stupid Virgin ads.

I wouldn't have a problem with it - canon establishes shed ages ago that Time Lords can be transgender, although we've never seen it on screen. But I don't believe for one second that they've seriously considered it.

But yes, we could do with some good female DW writers, definitely.

I agree that the answer is a new programme with strong female leads, not shoehorning a female into an established male role

@ 'I want him to regenerate into an older man who can act. This gettin younger thing is starting to annoy me.'

Amazed that the simple question about who the next Doctor might be can uncover such aggression against feminism. Some people are very defensive. How dare those pesky ladies have Opinions or Ideas or suggest anything changes... even when it's changing already. And the shock, horror, at the idea that one of the BBC's biggest brands might have any impact on the role of women in the world is just bizarre.

I don't mind whether the new doc is male or female or black or white - but I would like Moffat to write some more decent parts for women and get writers in who can do that.

No, that would be weird and creepy. dr Who is a grandfather, probably a great grandfather by now, he can't suddenly turn in a grandmother.

Would you say the females in Torchwood were strong characters?

How about Victoria Wood?