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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

452 replies

findingme · 04/06/2013 10:05

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?

OP posts:
KirjavaTheCat · 04/06/2013 15:45

Female timeladies are female timeladies. The Doctor is male!

Plus it wouldn't work. Just because. So there.

SoupDragon · 04/06/2013 15:46

I'm surprised the Doctor's daughter hasn't appeared again actually.

PsammeadPaintedTheLion · 04/06/2013 15:56

I see no reason why a woman wouldn't fill the role of the doctor, along with all his quirks, but she can't be this doctor, because he is the male of the species!

garlicgrump · 04/06/2013 15:58

I'd really, really like a black, lesbian, female Doctor! Bear with me ...! Somebody like Martha Jones (Freema Ageyman) could credibly be holding a secret candle for River Song and is well capable of waging the solitary war for universal justice - she walked alone across the world to spread news of the Doctor, and has been seen marshalling fierce armies.

The more I think about it, the more I like it Grin

garlicgrump · 04/06/2013 15:59

But the Doctor's daughter is River Song, Soup!

Tee2072 · 04/06/2013 16:02

No, Amy and Rory's daughter is River Song.

She's the Doctor's wife, though.

SoupDragon · 04/06/2013 16:02

I was going to say that - River is Amy & Rory's daughter :)

garlicgrump · 04/06/2013 16:03

Oh, I am a ninny. Yes, I remember. Sun's gorn to me ead. Thanks!

SoupDragon · 04/06/2013 16:03

Understandable - we are so unused to that bright, warm, shiny thing.

garlicgrump · 04/06/2013 16:04

The more I think about it, the more I want it to be Freema.

Good point about the missing daughter, though. I wasn't too impressed by her, but who am I to know?! I've got sunbeams for brains today Wink

garlicgrump · 04/06/2013 16:04

YY Soup Grin

RustyBear · 04/06/2013 16:06

LadyBeagleEyes - there have certainly been female Cyber'men' - the Torchwood One boss, Yvonne Hartmann, the 'other' Jackie Tyler in the alternate universe, and the one the Doctor and Mrs Moore come acroos in the tunnels in Age of Steel.

Tee2072 · 04/06/2013 16:08

Ianto's girlfriend was a female Cyberman...

FairPhyllis · 04/06/2013 16:33

There is precisely zero chance of a female Doctor because it would be too risky to mess around with the dynamic of the show. Yes, the show is structurally sexist by virtue of always having a male know-it-all Doctor plus female adoring companion. But unfortunately it does work dramatically, and it would be too much of a risk to the BBC's property to change that dynamic. And changing the Doctor's sex would change the dynamic, because while we have gender, a female Doctor would be read differently even when doing the same things with the same character. Like what LRD said about Matt Smith's zaniness reading differently if he were a woman.

Sci fi tolerates a lot of misogynist people and opinions, and there could be enough backlash from fans and opinion makers to sink the show. It ratings have been gradually going down anyway.

It's much more important imo to get some female writers on the show (there aren't any!) than to have a female Doctor. I have no confidence that the current production team would be able to handle writing a female Doctor well. Steven Moffat has no interest in writing for female characters who don't fit his identikit 'feisty woman whose life revolves entirely around the Doctor' mould - what are the odds that he wouldn't know what to do with a female Doctor and would write all kinds of excruciating stuff for her? Mystical Pregnancies ahoy!

Extreme nerdiness alert - it's not really clear to me whether Timelords actually are differentiated for sex anyway because they reproduce asexually (they are woven on Looms).

RealityQuake · 04/06/2013 16:45

Chiwetel Ejiofor apparently has 7/1 odds, and he's already been on the BBC (as Matt Smith was), I would quite like that - though I don't really expect it. I remember a fan theory of the Tardis protecting him by having him regenerate into the safest thing for his most common environment (which on Earth, England would be a white guy).

However, the multiple comments about Sherlock has made me laugh. Sherlock has been a woman, an animal, a vegetable (Watson has been a robot), so claiming we need to stick to tradition there is a bit of a laugh, particularly when Doyle hated it so much and couldn't stick to his own canon (couldn't even keep Watson's name straight).

squoosh · 04/06/2013 16:49

Chiwetel Ejiofor is FAR, FAR, FAR too talented to waste his time on Dr Who.

Elquota · 04/06/2013 16:55

I don't think the "lord" part of Timelord precludes a woman taking the role. If a woman can be in the "House of Lords" I'm sure a woman can be a "Timelord" too Wink

Elquota · 04/06/2013 16:58

if the next Doctor is to be female, it should only be because the best 'candidate' is a woman, and not just have a female Doctor for the sake of having a woman in the role.

So all the doctors so far have been the "best candidate" in competition with all the female actors who could have done the job equally well? They didn't just have a male Doctor for the sake of keeping up tradition? Surely if it was just down to the "best candidate" you'd expect a mixture of men and women over the years.

WallyBantersYoniBox · 04/06/2013 17:04

ImAlpharius Tue 04-Jun-13 11:58:17
M is a job, not who you are, I would rather see a female 007 than Doctor.

Since when is a Doctor just a man's job then? Confused

As other people have mentioned the "Doctor" was not a book driven character. M was written as a man as was James Bond (unless we know any women called James that I am unaware of). It's Sci-fi so anything can happen. If you can't bend the rules of imagination in relation to Sci-fi then it's simply not Sci-fi is it?

WallyBantersYoniBox · 04/06/2013 17:12

And I would like to put Keeley Hawes up for the position if I could.....

SoupDragon · 04/06/2013 17:27

Since when is a Doctor just a man's job then?

It isn't. But then again, The Doctor isn't a job.

Elquota · 04/06/2013 17:28

I think the worst excuse for many things in the world is "but it has always been like that".

Not that the doctor is "in the world" but all the same... Grin

FreyaSnow · 04/06/2013 17:32

I would love there to be a female doctor. Everyone in my household is in the big fandoms, including Doctor Who, and there is just so little around in terms of female characters. There's only so many times DD can watch Buffy.

As gender swap is one of the main staples of fanfiction, it would make absolute sense in terms of the interests of fans to swap the gender of a main character in the source material. Gender swap is just such an interesting and popular idea in scifi and fantasy.

That said, somebody did say Lost Girl was good and that has a female lead, but I haven't seen it yet and it may be too adult in content for DD.

At least some of the companions have been great, particularly Martha and Amy.

LittleAbruzzenBear · 04/06/2013 17:35

I love Keeley Hawes!

LittleAbruzzenBear · 04/06/2013 17:37

Chiwetel Ejiofor is beautiful. He did do Serenity so you never know.