Dr. Who a woman

[tallthinkev]

I would love to see a woman get the part.

tallthinkev, you're very insistent about this poll at a convention. Riddle me this: how many people attend Dr Who conventions? How does that compare with the number of people watching the series in total?
Most people aren't that into Whovian lore, so even if canon were all against it (which is not the case, as the Neil Gaiman quotes up-thread show) you could get away with it. So you might piss off some die-hard fans, so what? I point you towards Tardis Eruditorum a blog exploring the show in depth, which shows quite clearly that a minority of the fans hate every change to the show.

Given the variation in the character of the Doctor portrayed by each of the 11 to date, being a white male is the only consistency we've had in "who is the Doctor." It's about time that changed, really - isn't that the point of a character whose face, voice and personality can change utterly?

Thanks for the link to the blog, and I do do mean it, I stopped reading after 3 lines. He skiped 4 books?? Anyway the new fans, who don't know any better or have not been told, the show has a history. Some want to see change not, because it needs changing, but they think should be even more PC. 'We have to have a woman, because it's not right to have a man all the time.' The Doctor is a male, a Time Lord, not a Time Lady. Would anyone like Romana to come back as a man?
The Doctor was a grandfather figure and then became a favourite uncle, both are men.

The first adventure I remember is The Three Doctors. I have seen just about all the stories. I've got, and read, all the Virgin and BBC N/A and M/A. So this is something I do know about.

 

[Incognitia]

Thanks for the link to the blog, and I do do mean it, I stopped reading after 3 lines. He skiped 4 books?? Anyway the new fans, who don't know any better or have not been told, the show has a history. Some want to see change not, because it needs changing, but they think should be even more PC. 'We have to have a woman, because it's not right to have a man all the time.' The Doctor is a male, a Time Lord, not a Time Lady. Would anyone like Romana to come back as a man?
The Doctor was a grandfather figure and then became a favourite uncle, both are men.

The first adventure I remember is The Three Doctors. I have seen just about all the stories. I've got, and read, all the Virgin and BBC N/A and M/A. So this is something I do know about.

Bear in mind that his main focus is the TV series - skipping the odd book is hardly unreasonable.
He's written several million words on the old series, including cultural context and the commentaries of others (like Miles and Wood).
Then again, I suppose if you're prepared to judge an extensive blog whose archives I'm barely over halfway through after several months by three lines of text, I shouldn't be surprised that you'd throw out the idea of a female Doctor on the grounds of one fan poll at an unspecified convention.

It's not that you don't know Dr Who (possibly inside out for all I know). The point is that the show can change. If it wants to survive long-term, it has to change - not many people would have watched ten series of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, even if he'd been willing to make that many. David Tennant was not the same as Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor; William Hartnell and Matt Smith are very, very different portrayals of what is putatively the same character. Having a woman take the role is just one more step on much the same path.

 

[Orville_third]

On Romanadvoratrelundar:
There were two actual incarnations on TV. The first was played by the late Mary Tamm (sniff), who did an excellent job of character development (over her one season). The second was Lalla Ward, who is more loved by the community as a whole. (It helped that she and the Doctor were flirting.)
There was a third incarnation in the novels- who turned out to be evil and modeled after a 1920's film vamp.
Romana II had two spinoffs- one unofficial, and one official (The "Gallifrey" audio series). She showed up in a number of novels. (Romana I has only showed up in two). At least in one novel, it hints at a future incarnation of Romana (this one is black).

AS for Lungbarrow, you can read it for free here:
http://marblebun.com/Books/Doctor7-New/60 - Lungbarrow/60 - Lungbarrow.pdf
(It was free on the BBC website for a time. I'm not surewhy it was removed.)

 

[neopeius]

I don't understand why it would be unlikely. Dr. Who fans are willing to accept an extraordinary amount of changes to the doctor's character with, frankly, a weak explanation. I don't get why gender would be a big deal.

This. I mean, people accepted the concept of regeneration in the first place. It took exactly ten minutes for Patrick Troughton to win me over.

This 90% who say they'd stop watching are like the 90% of Republicans who said they'd vote Libertarian over Romney...

 

[Heavy]

Check this out. It's pretty interesting.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

If they went with a female actress, which unfortunatly might be more for the novelty of it then anything, they might not change the personnality too much to ease viewers into the new incarnation. *Strictly* talking about her characterisation, Clara Oswin Oswald would make a good female doctor in my opinion.

 

[Dustin]

If they want a female doctor they should either introdice one alongside the next Doctor, or do a spin-off series. The timelords have genders, so it would be really weird to have a woman doctor... for me at least.