Matt Smith may leave Doctor Who.

[Stark]

Why not? Is there a good reason coming, or just more of this made up shit to cover the 'wah I don't like it' traditionalism?

I know, real themes and message have no place in the smoking anal fissure that is modern Doctor Who. But so what? Its not going to stop being a pile of infectious human waste without ideas.

[jwl]

I don't mind them doing it episode-by-episode.
Basing the entire doctor's character around it, I dunno, it just feels wrong.
As for "traditionalism": if you're going to take a show and change everything about it, what's the point of continuing with it? Why not just cancel it and make a new show called Corsair Who?

[The Romulan Republic]

The Eleventh Doctor is already too dark. He is extremely ruthless sometimes (like in Day of the Moon). Also, he hates himself and is often depressed (though he has reasons to be depressed).

Hrm? How do you come by that? Nine was a miserable, cynical asshole about everything (which is partially why to this day Christopher Eccleston is still my favourite), and Ten was a neurotic wreck by the time he 'died'.

Maybe. But neither of them seems as ruthless as the Eleventh Doctor sometimes is (except for the Tenth Doctor in Family of Blood maybe).

[jwl]

The difference between 11's ruthlessness and 9/10 is 9/10 are sorry, or at least serious. 11 smiles and laughs as he does it.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

The Doctor becoming a woman would just be one part of one episode in an actual event. Or do you think "being a woman" would dominate the Doctor's character for every episode, or even a whole episode? Just like Stark said, considering the Doctor's character, it would probably be as long as a single scene of an episode dealing with it.

[Surlethe]

Casting a non-male doctor (outside spoofs, and I'm saying non-male rather than female because, well, this is doctor who) would be a terrible idea. Being male is a major character trait for the doctor throughout the show's history, just like wearing the same clothes every episode is. Also, it usually works best when there's a new doctor to just continue as if nothing hapened, and not all the time drawing attention to the fact he's regenerated. This will be extremely difficult to do with a female doctor.

What? No, you're on crack. "Being male" is not a "major character trait" for the Doctor, and even if it were, the whole point of regeneration is that the Doctor's character traits change. It's also not hard to not draw attention to the fact she's regenerated: don't write scripts centered around her regeneration. You're just rationalizing a traditionalist view.

Edit because I didn't realize there was a second page:

As for "traditionalism": if you're going to take a show and change everything about it, what's the point of continuing with it?

Dude. The Doctor being a woman doesn't "change everything" about the show. You're really fixated on the Doctor having a penis (or whatever Time Lords have between their legs) if you think that changing the Doctor's gender means changing everything about the show.

[jwl]

What? No, you're on crack. "Being male" is not a "major character trait" for the Doctor, and even if it were, the whole point of regeneration is that the Doctor's character traits change.

Which is exactly why remaining male is important. It's the one of the only character traits that has remained constant throughout the years, apart from wearing the same set of clothes the whole time, so changing that is going to be pretty major.

It's also not hard to not draw attention to the fact she's regenerated: don't write scripts centered around her regeneration. You're just rationalizing a traditionalist view.

It's hard because she's going to stick out like a sore thumb next to all the other 11 male doctors, so you'd have to be very careful to draw away from that. Plus, even if it was a good idea generally, doing it now would turn out awfully. Have you seen the way women act in nu-who, especially under moffat? Do you want the doctor to act like river somme, flirt with everything that moves like amy, be like the queen of sheba, or be full of innuendo like clara at some points? I guess if she was written a bit like the TARDIS it might not be as grating, but with most of moffat's female creations it really wouldn't work. And before you say it's because they are companions, rory and his dad aren't like that. If you increased their confidence and tweaked their charcter a bit, either could work as a convincing doctor. Same with Vincent van gogh. I'd also like to ask why a female doctor would be a good idea, seeing as there will be plenty of fans just as annoyed as me about it. And if it is such a good idea, why didn't they do it back during the first 4 incarnations where it wouldn't have actually stuck out as much?

[The Romulan Republic]

Why the fuck did you claim the Doctor only wears one set of clothes?

Each Doctor has had new clothes, and the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors have more than one outfit each (the Tenth Doctor had a blue suit and later his long coat, and the Eleventh Doctor has had quite a few different costumes).

[jwl]

Each incarnation wears a different outfit, but the point is each incarnation hardly ever changes their clothes, or at least their clothes theme. And no, I don't like how they've started messing up the clothes thing either, but at least it isn't fully busted yet. And if you are to change something permanently that's how you do it-gradually. The thing is, you can't change someone's gender gradually.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Eleventh Doctor has had so many different costumes. I recall at least three even if I don't count every time he changed his hat.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

It's hard because she's going to stick out like a sore thumb next to all the other 11 male doctors, so you'd have to be very careful to draw away from that. Plus, even if it was a good idea generally, doing it now would turn out awfully.

If you look at a line up, a bunch of the Doctors already stand out; the ninth for example looks vastly different from the rest. If, for some reason, minimising this difference is important, it'd still be pretty easy to cast and wardrobe a female actor such that the 12th would look closer to 10 and 11 than 9 does. And I honestly don't think it'd be that important to keep the look; what's more important for the Doctor, appearance or personality?

As for the writing quality for female characters, that might be a valid point, but the best solution to "writers can't write women" is to force them to improve (as casting one as the protagonist should help), not to ensure they don't write for very many of them.

[jwl]

The Eleventh Doctor has had so many different costumes. I recall at least three even if I don't count every time he changed his hat.

He's got one main theme (bow tie, braces, button-up shirt, jacket); plus the occasional change of costume for special occasions, like in rise of the cybermen or a christmas carol. They may end up having slightly different colour schemes but the baisc idea is still there.
BTW, mentioning that bit of rise of the cybermen, I remember hating that bit of the otherwise good episode. I never liked the idea of them messing around with the costume like that, but it's too late now.

[The Romulan Republic]

It's hard because she's going to stick out like a sore thumb next to all the other 11 male doctors, so you'd have to be very careful to draw away from that. Plus, even if it was a good idea generally, doing it now would turn out awfully.

If you look at a line up, a bunch of the Doctors already stand out; the ninth for example looks vastly different from the rest. If, for some reason, minimising this difference is important, it'd still be pretty easy to cast and wardrobe a female actor such that the 12th would look closer to 10 and 11 than 9 does. And I honestly don't think it'd be that important to keep the look; what's more important for the Doctor, appearance or personality?

As for the writing quality for female characters, that might be a valid point, but the best solution to "writers can't write women" is to force them to improve (as casting one as the protagonist should help), not to ensure they don't write for very many of them.

What the writers would do is an issue. I have terrible visions of the Doctor being reduced to a source of jokes or objectified.

[jwl]

If you look at a line up, a bunch of the Doctors already stand out; the ninth for example looks vastly different from the rest. If, for some reason, minimising this difference is important, it'd still be pretty easy to cast and wardrobe a female actor such that the 12th would look closer to 10 and 11 than 9 does. And I honestly don't think it'd be that important to keep the look; what's more important for the Doctor, appearance or personality?

More different than the rest? You could argue that, although I might argue #7 stands out more. Vastly different? What makes you think that?
I highly doubt they could cast a female actor that wouldn't stick out majorly compared to the others. Can you think of any?

As for the writing quality for female characters, that might be a valid point, but the best solution to "writers can't write women" is to force them to improve (as casting one as the protagonist should help), not to ensure they don't write for very many of them.

It's more that the women they write would be really, really unsuitable for the doctor, but anyway, is it really worth ruining the doctor like that to put pressure on improvement?

[Stark]

If the Doctor was a zany and self-effacing hobo ... and a woman, would that be 'a huge difference'? What if the Doctor was a frock-coat wearing judo-chopping... woman? Wait - what about an angry and selfish... woman?

Gender in fiction is sometimes so irrelevant characters can have their genders changed with very little impact... and since the Doctor isn't even human and nerds hate it when the drama is driven by his romantic feelings, how is the character's gender significant?

I mean was the fifth Doctor really any more silly or outlandish than some gothloli woman with a chip on her shoulder? Why?