Deleted member 82792
What would the Doctor Who franchise be like if the Doctor was played by women?
Hmmm... are you thinking spruce? Sprucing up the show might be a good idea. Maple? The Canadian market's just not big enough. Pine? The viewers will just pine for the old version. Ash? Nah, that'd be a pain in the ash.
Oh. Typo. What's the fun in that?
Driftless
Donor
Who would have been the likely choices by era? The neat thing with Dr Who is that you could run one type of character for a time, and completely shift gears for the next...
Diana Rigg?
Margaret Rutherford?
early Judy Dench
Felicity Kendall
Penelope Keith
Patricia Routledge
Jennifer Saunders
Billie Piper
Alex Kingston
Helena Bonham Carter....
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Not a fan, but don't see why the Doctor can't be a woman/black/asian etc the character is a timetravelling alien after all.
The real question would be whether the Doctor would be known as a timelord or a timelady.
Also I suppose it depends what time period you go back to, but I can't see gender affecting things too much even in the 70s. Definitely not now.
I think we should keep in mind when and where the show was originally made. The show was produced for the BBC in the early 1960's. In the context of 1963, would they have contemplated making The Dr. female? If they did I doubt she would have been considered the lead of the series. Indeed, from what I know, The Dr. wasn't supposed to be the lead. I think this would mean making the other Timelord character "The Dr.'s grandson"-and I think it would be tempting to transition the show towards making him the lead or at have him the Dr.-especially when the woman playing The Dr. moves towards retirement.
If the show premiered now, this wouldn't be an issue. But this is 1963 we are talking about-it was a different time culturally speaking even when compared with a few years later.
In an older thread about what would have happened had no one thought of regeneration, one method for dealing with Hartnell's retirement was basically to promote Susan-the Dr.'s granddaughter-to the role that the Dr. had served until that time. This could involve early changes to the series. Susan was reportedly originally conceived as a much more active character than she ended up being. The fact that the character didn't end up that way may be evidence against the idea of The Dr. being female in that context. If Susan had been written as a more active character, and stayed on the series longer, there might have been a small possibility that character would be allowed to take over the Dr. role when Hartnell leaves. This would probably mean promoting the companions to a more prominent role in the series than they had had to that point. It could mean changing the name of the series unless some narrative reason for her taking over the Dr. title could be found. Of course, the actress playing the part is eventually going to want to leave, and having her take over means that no one has thought of regeneration, which makes replacing her a bit complicated. I suppose someone could think up the idea when she leaves, and have some handy explanation for why the original Dr. didn't regenerate.
However, once Susan becomes "The Dr." the role could remain female.
Having The Dr. regenerate into a female form could be an easier way of pulling this off, not sure when that could have happened.
If the show premiered now, this wouldn't be an issue. But this is 1963 we are talking about-it was a different time culturally speaking even when compared with a few years later.
In an older thread about what would have happened had no one thought of regeneration, one method for dealing with Hartnell's retirement was basically to promote Susan-the Dr.'s granddaughter-to the role that the Dr. had served until that time. This could involve early changes to the series. Susan was reportedly originally conceived as a much more active character than she ended up being. The fact that the character didn't end up that way may be evidence against the idea of The Dr. being female in that context. If Susan had been written as a more active character, and stayed on the series longer, there might have been a small possibility that character would be allowed to take over the Dr. role when Hartnell leaves. This would probably mean promoting the companions to a more prominent role in the series than they had had to that point. It could mean changing the name of the series unless some narrative reason for her taking over the Dr. title could be found. Of course, the actress playing the part is eventually going to want to leave, and having her take over means that no one has thought of regeneration, which makes replacing her a bit complicated. I suppose someone could think up the idea when she leaves, and have some handy explanation for why the original Dr. didn't regenerate.
However, once Susan becomes "The Dr." the role could remain female.
Having The Dr. regenerate into a female form could be an easier way of pulling this off, not sure when that could have happened.
Same as having an ethnic minority Doctor: it becomes significantly less plausible, in any pre-modern time period, that the Doctor can assert any kind of authority or be listened to. We saw some of the treatment Martha received for being black and female in the Shakespeare episode - now imagine that, in every single episode, the Doctor had to spend 15 minutes winning over the hearts and minds of much-loved historical characters who were, broadly speaking, misogynist and racist, as per the time period.
Then again, given how brutally ridiculous the show is today, they wouldn't necessarily bother with that element of reality anyway...
Then again, given how brutally ridiculous the show is today, they wouldn't necessarily bother with that element of reality anyway...
Constantinople
Banned
If they had The Doctor regenerate into a woman today... well they'd have to make sure she was pretty androgynous, that's for sure.
I'd be fine with the Doctor as a woman. Or black. Or Asian. Or Hindu. Or combinations thereof. It's the Doctor, it's all about style. Anything goes.
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Driftless
Donor
Yup, I realize that. I was thinking if you carried the premise through from the start. Of the folks I listed, only Margaret Rutherford, Judi Dench, & Patricia Routledge would have been old enough to have been the original Doctor. Diana Rigg would have been 25, Helen Mirren was 18 in 1963
*edit* To a parallel point, even Tom Baker (Doctor #4) was 29 when the series started, Peter Davidson (Doctor #5 was 12).
Give Emma Watson 5-6 years, she can be "The Doctor"
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I read this article a few months ago - the thread here reminded me of it.
http://www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/
Some interesting choices there - although it tries a bit too hard to find analogues to otl Doctors.
http://www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/
Some interesting choices there - although it tries a bit too hard to find analogues to otl Doctors.