A
female Doctor? Could it be done? Throughout the history of
Doctor Who, it had been taken as a given that the Doctor was fundamentally a male character and that he would remain so throughout all of his lives. Such had it always been, all the way back to the day William Hartnell first emerged from the shadows of a misty junkyard on Totters' Lane, all those storied years ago in 1963. In the five decades since, each of the eleven subsequent actors who had taken on the role, to varying degrees of success, had been male; for most of the programme's history, the alternative had simply not been seriously considered. The usual jokes – that
Doctor Who would have to become
Nurse Who if it ever happened – had predictably made the round over the years, impressing few and amusing fewer, and increasingly so with the passage of time.
When the series was rebooted and accepted by a new, larger and more diverse audience than ever before, attitudes began to change. For the most part it was essentially result of sheer historical inertia; Britain had had two female prime ministers and America one female president since the 1963 and the concept no longer seemed so unthinkable. Even so, it may have surprised many less eagle-eyed viewers to realise that the concept of a male Time Lord regenerating into a female form was been acknowledged as a possibility as early as 1971 in a Malcolm Hulke serial "The Ambassadors of Death" featuring Peter Wyngarde's Third Doctor.
Set during the days of the Doctor's confinement to Gallifrey as a trouble-shooter for the High Council of the Time Lords, the serial was among the most successful representations of Hulke's characteristic subversive political attitudes and is remembered today as one of the programme's all-time classics. However, buried amidst its intrigue and suspense was the Doctor's blink-and-you'll-miss-it off-hand reference (delivered with Peter Wyngarde's charismatic eye-winking charm) to an unseen Time Lord colleague, of whom he playfully remarked, "He was such the most dreadful stick-in-the-mud as an old man, you know, but she's been much more, hmm,
interesting as a young woman." Unfortunately, this line was later singled out by Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners Association during that organisation's homophobic campaign against Wyngarde which resulted in his untimely departure from the series. The topic was not generally broached after that.
This changed in 2009, during Russell Davies and Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunners during their sprawling Time War story arc. In the season 10 finale ("The Fall of Arcadia"), a male Time Lord is shot and fatally wounded by a Dalek and unexpectedly regenerates into a new female incarnation. Within minutes, the Internet was in an uproar, with passionate discussions of that one scene dominating virtually all consideration of the episode itself; for the first time in many years, the prospect of a female Doctor looked like it could be a very real prospect.
For a minority within the fandom, the idea provoked disgust, and from that section Davies and Moffat were subject to intense opprobrium for bringing "their radical feminist agenda" into
Doctor Who. Others were more considered in their criticism and pointed out that the Doctor, as a rare hero who traditionally solved problems with his mind and not his fists (admittedly hampered by the manner in which the programme had had to adapt to the vicissitudes of American primetime genre drama), functioned as a good role model for young boys. However, the majority of fans were intrigued and responded positively: to some it would be an important step for representation in media while to others it offered interesting new storytelling directions, and to others still it was simply a prospect that seemed too novel
not to at least try.
The announcement that casting David Harewood – the first black actor to play the lead role in the series – had been cast as the Eleventh Doctor had been widely praised, and while Noah Wyle had also been given a warm reception, there was nonetheless some disappointment in quarters of the
Doctor Who fandom that the producers had not been a little bit gutsier, a little bit bolder, and taken a chance by casting a female actor. When the Twelfth Doctor run turned out to be a relative disappointment, leading to the resignations of not only lead actor Noah Wyle, but of showrunner Dan Slott and executive producer Jane Espenson as well, Philip Segal (in his capacity as a director of Gallifrey Pictures, the production company he had founded with Verity Lambert 20 years earlier) decided to step in. It had been an entire decade since Segal had last been involved with
Doctor Who on a full-time basis, but he was still held in very high esteem for his role in helping the series to make its comeback on the Sci-Fi Channel all those years ago and setting it on the road to the unprecedented heights of success it now enjoyed on the CW.
Segal convened several meetings of a "Who Summit" comprising several members the company's board, members of the programme's writers' room and representatives from both of Gallifrey Picture's partner organisations, the CW and the BBC, in attendance. The reinvigoration of
Doctor Who was the sole item on their agenda. It was promptly agreed that Noah Wyle's turn as the Twelfth Doctor had not been the problem during his run on the series; indeed, market research appeared to indicate that the he had been popular with audiences and that many fans had hoped he could be persuaded to stay on after "that hack Slott" (as one particularly unkind online commenter elegantly put it) left the show. Rather, the group concluded that the problem had been the combination of a producer who was neither familiar with nor especially interested in the material (Jane Espenson) and a showrunner who had been too involved with the series for too long (Dan Slott). As far as the latter was concerned, the group felt that he had either become too complacent with the "aura of invincibility" surrounding
Doctor Who,
or too eager to roll its progress back to an earlier position in which he was more comfortable working.
After several weeks of careful thought, Segal and his allies reached several conclusions. It was immediately clear that a significant shake-up and an injection of new blood was sorely needed behind the scenes of the programme. It was decided that Gallifrey Pictures would be responsible for production of the series directly rather a through an appointed single producer, which was uncommon practice in Hollywood and a tradition maintained at
Doctor Who largely as a result of inertia (a holdover not just from the days when the series was being produced by Verity Lambert, Philip Segal and no one else, but all the way back to its history with the BBC). A team of executive producers was instituted to manage the series behind the scenes; feelers were put out and the top levels of the production team re-staffed (in something of a coup) with an impressive team of veterans including Amanda Tapping, Zak Penn, Damon Lindelof and Simon Barry.
Recognising his experience as creator and head writer of the popular Canadian time travel series
Continuum (which had just recently completed its five-season 62 episode run in 2016), Segal and his group installed Barry as the
nominal head of the series writers' room and, correspondingly, the effective showrunner. Born in England but raised in Canada, Barry was an experienced and creative screenwriter, director and producer, and also had crucial experience running his own production company in Vancouver, still the primary shooting site for much of the North American production of the programme. Tasked with finding a new sense of direction and setting out a clear vision for
Doctor Who as the series revival's twentieth year loomed, Barry took the job with the understanding that a more collegial approach between the production and creative halves of the behind the scenes team would be encouraged, which he hoped would afford him time to continue work on his own projects.
Finally, the most crucial component came into focus: the cast. Willa Holland and Franz Drameh, by now fan favourites in their own right, were committed to remaining with the series for the foreseeable future; at least one major "name" star had already entered a top-secret agreement to play the Master; British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, already famous in America for playing Sherlock Holmes in the 21st century updated adaptation
Elementary; Emmy Award-winning actress Juliana Margulies had likewise agreed to appear in a heretofore undisclosed role. However, choosing the next Doctor was, to say the least, an altogether trickier proposition. Determined to take a completely new approach with the casting, the producers had already resolved that the Thirteenth Doctor was going to be played by a woman. The only question was, who would it be?
The most thoroughgoing search since that which resulted in the casting of Anthony Stewart Head at the outset of the revival 17 years earlier was launched: an early prospect was actually Amanda Tapping herself, but she declined, noting that she had played a very similar character in her own series
Sanctuary several years before and citing a desire to focus on her new role as a producer and director; Simon Barry reached out to American actor Rachel Nichols, who had appeared as lead character Kiera Cameron in every episode of
Continuum, but she too declined, having just completed a full run of a science-fiction series centred around time travel. It was clear that a wider net would have to be cast.
As they had when Tony Head was cast as the Eighth Doctor, Gallifrey Pictures was looking for someone who was already known to their target audience; a creditable "name" star capable of carrying the show while concurrently reassuring more conservative-minded members of the audience sceptical about the idea of a woman taking over a role which had traditionally been played by men. They had no particular preference between British and North American actors (as their initial informal approaches to Tapping and Nichols demonstrated) but it was generally agreed that a British lead was preferred, citing both the importance of the change and the informal arrangement (not precisely observed, but nonetheless acknowledged) that the series should at least
try to alternate between British and American stars. On a significantly more cynical note, a memo was infamously (though judiciously not made publically known at the time) circulated amongst the producers and casting directors recommending that someone "appropriately pretty" should be chosen as the first female Doctor. While unfortunate in its connotations, Amanda Tapping in particular was prepared to acknowledge the reasoning which informed the message, and explained that as distasteful as making it an implicit part of the casting criteria was to her personally, choosing a conventionally attractive woman as the first female Doctor was expected to be a practical strategy to mollify some of the "dreadful" sections of the fandom who were instinctively unreceptive of a female Doctor.
The first name struck off the list was perhaps the biggest, as Gillian Anderson categorically declined to be considered. Anderson had been based primarily in Britain for many years and, since she had not particularly enjoyed her experiences on the set of the indifferently-received miniseries revival of
The X-Files, did not wish to commit to another potentially long-term role, particularly one which would demand a great deal of time spent living and working in America. The producers were rumoured to have had Jennifer Morrison as their second choice in the event that Anderson turned them down, but she too was unwilling to commit to another extended run on a genre show, having just completed
Once Upon a Time after seven seasons.
Several other reasonable prospects were likewise discounted or declined the offer. Emilia Clarke and Lena Headey were both still committed to 2018's final season of
Game of Thrones, after which they each had several movie roles on the table which they hoped to keep open. Gwendoline Christie was keen, but did not expect that she would be able to fit a full-time lead role on television around filming for the final instalment in the
Star Wars sequel trilogy. Hayley Atwell was another particularly highly-sought after candidate, but was locked in to her contract with Marvel Studios to play Agent Peggy Carter in a fourth and fifth season of the series of the same name, and had to decline regretfully.
Still, the TARDIS cannot go without a pilot forever, and after a difficult, often frustrating process, a decision was reached, an offer was made and accepted and the new Doctor – the first female Doctor in the history of the series – was at long last in place. She was to be played by a British actor acclaimed on stage and well-known for her screen roles in a diverse range of television series and films, including
The Tudors,
Elementary,
The Hunger Games and
Game of Thrones among many others. And now, she was the Thirteenth Doctor. The announcement of her casting was well-received.
THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR
Natalie Dormer
(2018 - ????)
As it enters its 55th year,
Doctor Who is in good hands and fans are united in their keen anticipation of what the future will hold for their favourite series. The series can look back over a long and rich history, in which time it has broken and set many records, as twelve men and now one woman carried it through a host of ups and downs, enjoying adulation and facing adversity, experiencing towering successes and muddling through largely well-intentioned disappointments, making brave attempts to break new ground when it counted and knowing when to play it safe and follow the pack.
Today, with a "classic" run that spanned 1963 through 1991 and a "revival" which has endured since 2000,
Doctor Who has occupied a consistent place on British television screens for a combined total of 47 years. In America, it has run for 18 consecutive seasons, and stands poised to overtake
Law & Order and
Gunsmoke to become the longest-running scripted drama in the history of American television. It could not have lasted as long as it has without its capacity for adaptation:
Doctor Who can be a science-fiction adventure, a pulp action romp, a murder mystery, a political polemic, a crime drama, a romance, a Hammer Horror pastiche, a cyberpunk thriller and much more, and it is this capacity for adaptation, that supreme zest for adventure, that is the ultimate secret of its longevity and success.
The question is, just what
will they think of next?
