Female Doctor

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I think Stephanie Cole might make an ideal Doctor.

Chick? No. In a universe with as much background and as few limits as the Whoverse, I dread fanservice- I think it would be an absolutely sure way to get the quality of the stories to nosedive to Torchwood levels. We don't need another eye- candy angsty/sexy youth series, there are enough of them out there already, surely?

What I want is solid storytelling, an an actor/actress/really well done animatronic in the part chosen for acting ability above all else, who can actually act at above the fairytale/ TVtropes level.

Of course, the ultimate insult to the fans would be to get the Doctor to regenerate as a dalek.

[hongi]

They need to lay off the Daleks in general. Dalek was awesome because it was the first time in the new series we saw one, and it was suitably bad-ass on its lonesome. We've had way too many appearances since then, they've lost their impact. *angry face at RTD*

[FaxModem1]

I'm just glad that with the current season, we have Rory, who shouldn't be making googly eyes at the Doctor. Well, unless they have majorly changed him for this season.

[Patrick Degan]

A female Doctor? A black/Chinese/Arab Doctor? Sure, why not? As long as you write the character as the Doctor, it shouldn't make a bit of difference. I don't even mind a hint of romance, if the two actors happen to gel just right on screen (and that demonstrated over time). But a hint, mind you —not this teen angst bullshit romantic angle slathered over every episode as thick as the makeup on a used car salesman's menopausal wife. The primary focus of the show is supposed to be about the Doctor and companion coming in and solving a problem and not them having ongoing emotional issues which are briefly interrupted by whatever problem they run into.

[TOSDOC]

Sex sells, and TV's changed a lot since the 60's and 70's. Back when The Doctor was a cantankerous codger or at least old enough to be your dad, the episodes were only 20-30 minutes long. Not a lot of time to waste on romantic subplotting when you had to get your story across enough to keep the audience hanging so they would be sure to tune in a WEEK later for the next serial.

The episodes nowadays are more compartmentalized, with most single adventures done within just 1 week's episode. It's the smaller subplots stretched out over time that are what people keep tuning in for as well as the next adventure. That unfortunately translates to love stories to appeal to the masses. I wonder if it would still be the same if weekly shows were still only 20-30 minutes long.

My wife and I are halfway into Season 5. She thought Tennant was the cutest, and can't stand how Matt emulates DT a little too much. But after watching Vampires in Venice I was grateful for the story premise, one I couldn't recall seeing before--the Doctor is diverting Amy's attention away from him and back where it belongs, and done in a very clever way too, in the form of a wedding present! I thought that idea was excellent.

They need to lay off the Daleks in general. Dalek was awesome because it was the first time in the new series we saw one, and it was suitably bad-ass on its lonesome. We've had way too many appearances since then, they've lost their impact. *angry face at RTD*

I remember RTD once saying he never wanted a sad ending, the Doctor should always save the day. This is difficult to do in just 45 minutes with killing machines as evil as the Daleks without having a few deus ex machina. Daleks are my favorite Who villian, but I'm hard pressed to find a single episode where they're really badass without getting their posteriors kicked in the end. Dalek came the closest.

I grew up with the Doctor, and have a hard time imagining the character as a female. I suppose if it were a really great actress with the physical as well as mental energy to bring it off, I could go with it. All I can think of is Judi Dench in track shoes, and even then I'm hard-pressed.

[Marcus Aurelius]

What if we had a female actress play a male Doctor? You know, someone that can convincingly appear and act androgynous, in universe is considered male, but have the characters and plots largely gloss over/ignore the Doctor's gender altogether?.

Great idea, but only if you can get Tilda Swinton. With some other actress I don't know.

[Jawawithagun]

Great idea, but only if you can get Tilda Swinton. With some other actress I don't know.

Let me guess, you watched Orlando?

[Revy]

I saw her play Gabriel in Constantine and she was pretty damn good in that. Also one of the very few movies I thought Keanu Reeves did well.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Great idea, but only if you can get Tilda Swinton. With some other actress I don't know.

Let me guess, you watched Orlando?

Yep, first time in a movie theater in 1993 or 1994. She's a terrific actress in general.

[Rossum]

Maybe have a surviving female Time Lord show up for an episode like the Rani or Romana and temporarily team up with the Doctor to show off their Time Lord talents in saving the universe or whatever. Though if a seperate Time Lord showed up and she was female then there might be some UST regarding them repopulating the Tme Lord race (which frankly would give a decent in-universe reason for such a thing).

Rani: Okay Doctor, I managed to survive the Time War by staying the hell out of it and you survived by blowing up both the Daleks and the rest of our civilization... twice.

Doctor: I had a good reason, both times!

Rani: Yeah, whatever. Listen, since you are literally the last male Time Lord in the entire universe (past, present, future, and all curently accesible alternate dimensions) I'm going to ask if you want to go out with me.

Doctor: What? Um... I dunno I'm a bit busy saving the universe right now. *gets all awkward around his female companions and River Song and stuff*

Rani: Yeah, whatever. I'm going to go conquer a planet somewhere and set up a big cloning machine to make duplicates of myself a few million times over and start a breeding program and stuff in a desperate attempt to prevent my species from going completley extinct. You can stop by if your feel like not threatening reality for an afternoon. *leaves in her Tardis*


It wouldn't be a female doctor but it could be nice to show a genuine female Time Lord doing stuff. I mean the Doctor can mess up whole civilizations and monsters when he does things and the Master took over the Earth twice in the new series. Seeing a Time Lady in action could be fun.

[FaxModem1]

How many stories was Rani in anyway? And unlike the Master, I can actually see her running to Time Lord aid against the Daleks.

[Drooling Iguana]

There's been too much precedent for Time Lords sticking to one sex for me to accept the Doctor becoming female as a result of a normal regeneration. However, if due to some act of plot a regeneration goes wonky then anything goes, really.

As for whether or not I'd like to see a female Doctor, it'd be an interesting change although it gives ample opportunity for the writers to screw things up horribly.

I actually think we might need something like that fairly soon. When Tom Baker left the role, the producers knew that he'd left such a huge mark on the role that they'd have to take some drastic measures if the next Doctor was ever going to get out of Baker's shadow. They responded by breaking one of the established rules of Doctor Who up to that point: The Doctor must always be old (or at least middle-aged.) I suspect that, if Matt Smith stays in the role for an extended period of time (say, five years or more) we might find ourselves in a similar situation and the producers might respond by breaking another rule.

[Stark]

Why do you think any of the rules from the old series still hold for the new one?

Having a female Doctor would actually get me to watch DW again, because it would be hilariously awful.

[Artemas]

As opposed to how it is now?

[madd0ct0r]

A time lord can only regenerate 13 times. maybe after the 13th time, he's a time lady?

[mr friendly guy]

How many stories was Rani in anyway? And unlike the Master, I can actually see her running to Time Lord aid against the Daleks.

Two in the classic series. The Colin Baker story Mark of the Rani was her first appearance. She also appeared in Sylvester McCoy's first story "Time and the Rani." IMO her stories weren't exactly memorable.


Back to the OP, if you want a female Doctor figure, why don't you just create a spin off? Didn't Highlander spin off (or should that be spun off ) a series called Highlander : The Raven by showcasing a female immortal who appeared in the series. Why don't you do another spin off show. It will keep the old traditional bounded fan boys happy, and I dare say it will get them on side for this new show. Plus, you can sell more toys.

[Srelex]

Back to the OP, if you want a female Doctor figure, why don't you just create a spin off? Didn't Highlander spin off (or should that be spun off ) a series called Highlander : The Raven by showcasing a female immortal who appeared in the series. Why don't you do another spin off show. It will keep the old traditional bounded fan boys happy, and I dare say it will get them on side for this new show. Plus, you can sell more toys.

That Sarah Jane show?

[mr friendly guy]

Back to the OP, if you want a female Doctor figure, why don't you just create a spin off? Didn't Highlander spin off (or should that be spun off ) a series called Highlander : The Raven by showcasing a female immortal who appeared in the series. Why don't you do another spin off show. It will keep the old traditional bounded fan boys happy, and I dare say it will get them on side for this new show. Plus, you can sell more toys.

That Sarah Jane show?

Isn't it aimed at a younger audience? Presumably a female Doctor would be aimed at the same type of audience as Doctor Who (both young kids and adults, ie family orientated). This audience demographic could be covered by my proposed spin off show.

[AMT]

Could they make the Doctor Female? Yes.

Should they? I don't think so. It seems to smack of a ratings ploy to try and do something like that, as the Doctor seems to generally stick with "White, Male, Human" settings throughout his regenerative process. If it could be done well sure, otherwise it'd just be cheesy, in a bad way.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Two in the classic series. The Colin Baker story Mark of the Rani was her first appearance. She also appeared in Sylvester McCoy's first story "Time and the Rani." IMO her stories weren't exactly memorable.

She was also in the amazing crossover with Eastenders, which certainly was memorable.

[Patrick Degan]

Two in the classic series. The Colin Baker story Mark of the Rani was her first appearance. She also appeared in Sylvester McCoy's first story "Time and the Rani." IMO her stories weren't exactly memorable.

She was also in the amazing crossover with Eastenders, which certainly was memorable.

Oh yes.... "Dementia In Time".

[Bedlam]

Two in the classic series. The Colin Baker story Mark of the Rani was her first appearance. She also appeared in Sylvester McCoy's first story "Time and the Rani." IMO her stories weren't exactly memorable.

She was also in the amazing crossover with Eastenders, which certainly was memorable.

Oh yes.... "Dementia In Time".

Hisss... Do not speak its name, even in jest for it may summon the dark one.

[jollyreaper]

Anyone think that the next Doctor should be a woman? I'll be honest with you, I'm getting a tad tired of the female companions + (adorable) Doctor shenanigans. I'd like to see a female doctor, preferably a bit older. The last two have been a bit on the young side and frenetic, I want to see a return to crazy old codgers. It'd be just such an interesting dynamic. Someone like Olivia Williams or Emma Thompson would be outstanding.

Then she'd no longer be the Doctor, she'd be the Doctress. (he -er, she, is terribly old-fashioned.)

[hongi]

Isn't it aimed at a younger audience? Presumably a female Doctor would be aimed at the same type of audience as Doctor Who (both young kids and adults, ie family orientated). This audience demographic could be covered by my proposed spin off show.

Hm...but I don't want it to steal DW's demographic. The two shows would overlap too much in the subject matter.

[jollyreaper]

Thought a bit about this today. A female doctor would work great if they ever decided to do an american version of the series. (yes, I know americanized versions of brit shows are the kiss of death. Just run with this for a minute.)

Ok, so we've got the Doctress. She'll be like the Doctor but different. First, she's the parallel universe version of him, things are a little different. So whereas he's kind of goofy but always gets it right in the end, she'll be a little more serious but usually causes more damage getting the job done. As an example of this, her TARDIS would be an orange American police box.

companion: I don't think we ever had police boxes, orange or otherwise.

doctress: You used to.

companion: What happened.

doctress: A little of this, a little of that. Fried the chameleon circuit, accidentally created a time loop that undid a few decades of history.

companion: What? What do you mean, undid? You destroyed history?!

doctress: Hold on, hold on! It's not like I killed anyone. It's just that history got a bit of a mulligan, everyone got a chance at a do-over. And this time around nobody decided they needed police boxes and the color of something that never existed really isn't of that much importance.

companion: If it never even existed then how can we see an example of it now?

doctress: Oh, it existed while I was there. I've become a bit... unstuck in time, you see. Causality and me, not seeing as much of each other as we used to.

companion: How can you just be so casual about that kind of wanton destruction?

doctress: Do you know of a Dr. Maxwell Winton? Brilliant researcher. Cured cancer in the mid-21st century.

companion: Oh my god! You effaced him from history, too?

doctress: No, I just made him up. But you can't possibly miss someone you never new existed. Why, you don't even know who Sarah Gordon is.

companion: Did she cure another disease? Prevent a war? Save the world?

doctress: No, nothing so grand. She would have been your wife. You'd have met her the day after you left with me in the TARDIS.

companion: What??!?

doctress: Oh, yes. Long marriage, three lovely children. You grew old together and had many grandchildren. But you don't meet her now and you can't possibly miss someone you never met.

companion: *sobbing* Of course I can!

doctress: You can? Oh bother, I'm always getting that mixed up. Forget I said anything.


Figure the premise would be she was a bit of a rebellious prodigy and stole a TARDIS, much like the Doctor. The difference here, she caused a lot more trouble. She's unstuck in time so her entire history is subject to change. She'll meet people from a past and future no longer her own and she's always a step behind trying to piece together just what the hell's going on. What would be funny with this is that she can still put on an air of utter seriousness and dire Time Lady gravitas. But events keep undercutting her. The best bit of all this is that she looks like a young woman in her late 20's but she's actually a Time Lady in her first life, only 27. And because she's unstuck in time, she'll be meeting her future selves long before she dies. You could do a Five Doctresses episode in the first season and not even have to worry about keeping the actresses consistent because, hey, her past and future are completely mutable.

I figure she's been assigned a punishment detail of trying to fix up the kind of damage caused to history by unlicensed time travelers such as herself. It'd be a lot of fun.