WHO Watch 2013: Is The World Ready For A Female Doctor?
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Could it? Should it? Can it?! With a new Doctor having to replace Matt Smith at the end of the year, one has to ask: Can there be a female Doctor? Well why not?! It is the 21st century, and we're all for breaking barriers and what not, but we're talking about a British institution here that spans 50 years. Imagine the outcry if James Bond was changed to Jane Bond?
One has to speculate as to whether or not a gender switch is even canon to the original series. The problem is, everyone argues as to what is canon. If you go by the "Loomb" theory, one has to wonder as to whether this genetic makeup locks exactly whom the Time Lord is prior to regeneration. If you perhaps tend to stick with The Doctor being born to a human mother with a Time Lord father (which I dispute because we would've learned that by now), then who knows honestly. One thing that can be said for certain is that, in the entire television history of Doctor Who, there has not been a cross gender regeneration of any sort by a time lord... although cross species can supposedly happen.
What's certain is that The Doctor cannot choose his regeneration characteristics, which is contradictory to other Time Lords in the series history. The Master was able to regenerate to make himself "younger like The Doctor", and Romana (from the classic Who) was able to shuffle between options of bodies between regenerations. So if The Doctor did become female, it would be completely random and not his choice.
This brings up the can of worms of whether the Doctor's feelings would carry on from his entire life as a male --awkward encounters with former companions (and clones) -- and a whole event that itself would become the entire focus of the season. Every episode that would bring back a character would be their reaction to the switch and yada yada, which I feel would drag down the events of the show. Once you powered past it though there would be no issue and I could see it being business as usual going about in the Tardis. Would it be neat if it happened? Do I think it would happen?
I really don't see them taking it that direction, under any circumstance. If the Doctor can regenerate into hundreds of different types of species, variations, and become totally unrecognizable then why has he spawned as a middle aged male for 11 incarnations? It's safe, it's simple, and it's been done before. With the series at the height of its popularity world wide, I am more apt to see a change in ethnicity than gender. If only because you're playing with fire on a tried and true formula. Am I alone in thinking this is an impossibility?
Keep up with GeekTyrant throughout WHO Watch 2013 for all the latest discussions, news, and speculation about the new Doctor. Also feel free to email us your thoughts!