Women in science group want a female Doctor Who

The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology is calling for the next Doctor Who to be a woman, in order to inspire girls to take up careers in science (and time-lording).

A spokeswoman from the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC) said: "There is a distinct lack of role models of female scientists in the media and recent research shows that this contributes to the under-representation of women in the field.
"The UKRC believes that making a high profile sci-fi character with a following like Doctor Who female would help to raise the profile of women in science and bring the issue of the important contribution women can and should make to science in the public domain."
The UKRC have set up a group on social networking site Facebook in a bid to get the BBC and members of the public behind their cause before the future Time Lord, or Lady, is chosen in time for the next full series set to air in 2010.

'Doctor Who should be a woman' say female scientists (via IO9)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Takuan

sort of a Lara Croft that wears clothing?
meadhbh

fwiw… i got interested in science because of Spock. Growing up in a mildly chaotic late 60′s / early 70′s household, Spock’s coolness and emotional detachment was pretty darn’d appealing to me. Had it not been for Spock, i probably would have kept on just playing with barbies and helping mom set the dinner table. As it was… my science career ended with the demise of the super-conducting supercollider, but then i realized that Spock was also a very good computer programmer…

so… for boys and girls of a particular age, i think media representations of scientists (and computer scientists and engineers) are very powerful.

so for that reason alone, i think we should have a female doctor.

besides… think about the slash-fic opportunities a female doctor would engender.
pyster

I forgot to mention the off beat and quirky character Sydney Bloom, from VR5.

Also what about all the female investigators on the forensic shows that are currently all the rage? (Most of this is scifi…)
kyderdog

What about his Daughter…. Shes floating around out there somewhere
Bugs

@ Cpt. Tim (#26)

Alan Rickman and Joannah Lumley? Hell yes.

I don’t care what your current job (or indeed, continent) is, but you need to start working for the BBC’s casting department right now.
- Antinous
  
  Jennifer Saunders? Joanna Lumley? No. Dawn French!
Sekino

#19

@Sekino: Pixar has no prominent, capable female characters?

I myself did not hold that view: The person with whom I was having the discussion was. I disagreed.

#23

@Sekino: And Dory of course was initially intended to be a male character, before they decided that Degeneres’s voice fit the character perfectly.

Interesting! That could explain why the character wasn’t safe and contrived. She has characteristics that could apply to both a male or female- albeit wacky ;)

#26

Women are traditionally associated with empathy. The show is heading towards an empathetic Time Lord already (Rose? What the hell?). I fear that a female Doctor would be used to steer the show more towards an even more empathetic Doctor… and thus more towards a generic Science Fiction.

I see your point. It’d be nice if they came up with a character a bit like Number One, the female character in the original Star Trek pilot episode who had the coolly unemotional and logical qualities instead given to Spock because it was feared the audience wouldn’t accept her.

And if all of that ultimately fails: Alan Rickman!! Yeah!!
Not a Doktor

Wait, granddaughter or clone daughter?
noetma

@ HARRKEV

Tennant did announce a month or so ago he’ll be stepping down from the role. Also, for a show like Doctor Who, changing the canon of the regeneration limit is probably not that hardest thing for the writers, IF the show is still making enough money to warrant past a 13th doctor.

However, we aren’t going to get a new doctor until 2010, as Tennant will stay on for the mini series throughout 2009.
mgfarrelly

Interesting to note, the current favorite to replace the out-going David Tennant is Patterson Joseph, who is black.

So you have a black candidate and a female candidate for a prized and hallowed position…
mrong

Riker would be an awesome Doctor.

The “Riker stink eye” can stop an evil in the universe.
Jablko

Both his “daughter” and (briefly) Donna Noble have been female Time Lords. I get the point about wanting a lasting, high profile character and I’m sure the writers could have a lot of fun with it, but I also don’t think writers should be swayed by petitions.

As a side note, I think the Sarah Jane Smith character is a much more effective role model than a female Doctor because she is human and therefore being smart like her is attainable. I suppose that devolves into the old Batman v. Superman debate though.
JoeS

Since the Doctor’s duaghter is now travelling independently, I hope the BBC will start a second series detailing her adventures through time. It’s a great opportunity to expand both the BBC’s profits and reputation as a repository of superior writing and talent.
Keeper of the Lantern

Hey, I’m sorry but if 7-of-Nine did not rock your world then you are not a geek. (And no, not because of the breasts so much as those nice samba hips.)

But the appeal of 7-of-nine was not so much sexual, but how that appeal mixed with her intelligence, capability, and relative cluelessness about human relations.
UK Resource Centre for Women in Science

The next Doctor Who has been announced and after much speculation the newly appointed Doctor â€¦ is not a woman!

It was, after all, a long shot! As die hard fans below have mentioned, the intricacies of the plot mean it would have been almost impossible to change Doctor Who from male to female (although some would say anything is possible for a Time Lord!) Disappointing as this is, the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC) campaign to make the next Doctor Who a woman has clearly sparked debate with over 530 members joining the Facebook group, discussions on other blogging and social networking sites and widespread online, print and broadcast media coverage including a news story in the Daily Telegraph and mentions on BBC Radio 1â€™s Chris Moyles show and BBC Radio 2â€™s Sarah Kennedy show.

The next Doctor Who may not be a woman but perhaps, as a result of this campaign, it is something that will be more probable in future and that other directors will consider when casting leading sci-fi characters.
sammich

Crackity Jones @ 61 – Doctor Who has had quite a few male companions, although I can’t recall whether he ever had a male companion without also having a female one.
But this is the first I’ve heard that Paterson Joseph might be up for it – he’d be brilliant as the Doctor!
hicks

The problem with requests like these is that they’re usually for consciousness-raising and not to be taken absolutely literally. Just think: If they did indeed cast a female Doctor, would they announce at the press conference, “Yeah, well, the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology suggested we have a female doctor, and we had a lovely lunch meeting and thought, ‘Hey, that’s a great idea!’ so there you go.” To ask generally for more strong female leads in sci-fi is much more what they should be doing.

To start out suggesting that the Doctor, next time ’round, should be a woman (and they’re probably very close to casting the next one already, or at least have a short list) at this stage, instead of a year or so ago, before there’s a vacany in the job, just kind of sounds like a press release for a press release’s sake.

I hadn’t heard the Paterson Joseph rumo(u)rs, but I don’t know if he’d be great in the role. He was enjoyable in Hyperdrive, but his talent seems more on the comedic end and not so much on the dramatic (cf. his grandstanding in Bad Wolf and Parting of the Ways), so if Tennant’s a little too yuk-yuk portrayal is good for you, I suppose that would make sense.

I’ve enjoyed Tennant quite a bit, but I really also liked the dark, brooding, pissed-off aspect that Eccleston brought to it too, and when Tennant tries to be heavy and dramatic, it comes off exactly like he’s trying to be heavy and dramatic. With Moffat taking over as EP, I’m hoping for a little less of the silly camp that RTD indulged in and more on the great storytelling that I expect from Moffat.
Hanglyman

Wouldn’t it be careers in pseudo-science and technobabble?

A female Doctor would be pretty neat, though. I’d been thinking the same thing for years, and he’s running out of regenerations to do it in…
El_Cid

So, is the argument that Doctor Who inspired many male viewers to careers in science?
darkbhudda

When they remake the Elizabeth movie and replace Queen Elizabeth with a male I’ll back this idea 100%. There hasn’t been a King of England for so long, male royalty really need a role model. I’m sure that’s the only reason the UK doesn’t have a king right now.
absimiliard

I’m sceptical.

We’ve seen plenty of Time Lords regenerate. It’s pretty clear that many physical features are malleable during the process, but I don’t recall ever seeing a regeneration change sex outside of the Christmas spoof where the Doctor regenerates as Joanna Lumley.

So it might not be impossible, but I fear they would have a lot of trouble with my suspension of disbelief given that the only instance of cross-sex regeneration is a spoof.

-abs thinks the idea has potential, but is a fairly strong purist when acting as a fan and so suspects the change would bother him, much like the elves at Helm’s Deep were a complete abomination and having Faramir fall to the Ring’s blandishments made him totally hate an otherwise excellent film
Daemon

It’s been done. There’s a Rowan Atkinson/Doctor Who comedy special called “Doctor Who and the Curse of the Fatal Death”. Hillarious actually.

#30 – You know, the thing about River Song is that she apparently knew him entirely in his current regeneration. Considering Tennant’s not going to be around for much longer, that’s going to have to make it a whirlwind romance.
tinyhonkshus

Is this lack of women role models in science the reason I want to be Dana Scully when I grow up?
Bugs

I’ll agree that something needs to be done about the perception of scientists. I have a few teacher friends who’ve asked primary (elementary) school children to draw what they think a scientist looks like. The results are overwhelmingly pictures of middle-aged white men with Einstein-style hair. Most disturbingly, the pictures are still of white guys in overwhelmigly non-white communities. The only exceptions are when a child has a non-white-male scientist in their life as an example. I’ve never thought to aske whether any of them drew Dr. Who.

FWIW, the (biological/medical) science institution I work in is split roughly 75:25 female:male. Some sub-divisions like breast cancer research are more like 95:05. This is fairly common in Biology but it does vary a lot according to field: at the other end of the spectrum I know two physics PhD students who are the only women in their respective departments.

I’ve no idea whether a female Doctor would help to change this. I suspect not, as the Doctor is never presented as a lab-based scientist. In the new series I think they’ve already done fairly well at presenting non-white-male scientists, bosses, soldiers, etc – (Dr) Martha Jones, the Prime Minister, Donna’s strong character, etc.

Mind you, as an educated white male myself, I’m probably not qualified to give much of an opinion on subtle prejudical cues…
nanuq

There have been female Time Lords galore. My personal favourite has always been Romana played by Lalla Ward (now married to Richard Dawkins). Is she available to replay her role?
Keeper of the Lantern

Ugh. That would suck. Why Glom on to some old, tired character? Why not create some entirely new Sci-Fi-oriented female character? And one that hasn’t been developed by the PC police?

And let’s have her be kinda hot.

Hey…the good thing about us geeks is that we actually LIKE smart women, particularly in combination with sex appeal.
Stephen

Romana being alive is not at all unreasonable since the destruction of the CVE isolated eSpace (where she was at the time) from our universe. And now the show has introduced travel between “parallel universes”.
FourFiveFire

You know, I’m all for having a female doctor and all, but COME ON, please let me live out my dream of seeing Matt Berry in the role!

“I’M DOCTOR SANCHE–uh, wait, just The Doctor.”
sammich

new doctor who = Matt Smith
Anonymous

Bring back Romana some how and you can have your female timelord.

Or the Doctor’s granddaughter (books aren’t cannon so I say timelords arent cloned for genloomed or whatever)
Ceronomus

Romana has appeared in a whole slew of BBC licensed Doctor Who audios from Big Finish.

Simply put though, I loathe the idea. I think another character like Martha Jones would do far more than mucking about with the Doctor.
ill lich

Sure, why not . . . we’ve already had at least one gay Doctor.
gretagretchen

I think the Master wen past 13 regeneration by taking over someone else’s body. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate sacrifice for a companion? Oh wait but I guess we’re totally stuck with Rose as the Doctor’s soulmate.

I always liked the first Romana better.

I’d like to see the Rani make a comeback.
hicks

@ Ill Lich:

I think you’re being very unfair to Sylvester McCoy.
elliptic curve

I’m a girl engineer, so I’m not insensible to the cries of “moar role models nao!”, but… honestly, NO.

From a canon point of view, we’ve seen Time Ladies as well as Time Lords regenerate, and they don’t change gender: of the Doctor’s nine regenerations, the Master’s… um… hard to count, really, but at least four, Borusa’s three, and Romana’s one, ZERO have flipped gender.

As a fan, I think that it’s far far better for the universe to grow its own strong women scientist/heroes–which it has done! Of its three TV spinoffs to date, two have featured a female lead (Sarah Jane in both cases: K9 & Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures). In the expanded universe (books and audios), the most successful spinoff has a female lead: Bernice Summerfield, star of dozens of books and 9 seasons of audios. Making the Doctor female by fiat, for it’s-good-for-you reasons, takes away from the popularity the universe’s (many) strong heroines have achieved in their own rights.

And as a girl engineer, I think that role models, while helpful, aren’t the be-all and end-all–or else none of us with few or no role models would ever have gotten into the sciences in the first place.
Anonymous

If that’s what it takes to get Catherine Tate back on the show, I’m all for it.
ill lich

@Hicks:

To be fair, I didn’t name names, and figured everyone could just assume it was whichever incarnation they didn’t like.
Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little

ill lich: Sure, why not . . . we’ve already had at least one gay Doctor.

hicks: I think you’re being very unfair to Sylvester McCoy.

ill lich: To be fair, I didn’t name names, and figured everyone could just assume it was whichever incarnation they didn’t like.

…Because of course “gay” means “whatever we don’t like”, right? Jeez, ill lich, that’s so gay of you.

[/sarcasm off]

[Insert "heartfelt lecture against reinforcing popular anti-homosexual sentiment by using the word 'gay' as a generic insult" here]
Crackity Jones

Dr Who always has a female sidekick…
But the fact is that Dr Who is a male character – it may be bad in relating the term Dr with a male stereotype – but its not being sexist at all, the doctor is just a male.

Female harry potter?
sojourner strange

Also, as much as I love Doctor Who, is it not an extremely unscientific show? Liek, it’s fantasy with scifi props. This seems to be counterproductive…
Anonymous

The next doctor shall be no other than Bill Bailey.

http://www.petitiononline.com/BBDOCTOR/petition.html
Geoff Sebesta

That’s a great idea. Awesome.
Sekino

And let’s have her be kinda hot.

I’d hope for a female lead who is not ‘classically’ attractive (yeah, I know no one downright ugly will sell the show; but be creative a bit). I’m longing for a female character who is an oddball, a bit weird, likeable but with flaws and quirks.

I identify better with the stereotypical socially inept scientist genius geek wearing tweed than those highly professional, perfectly hairdo-ed women who have the answer to everything, are always dead serious and never look awkward (like the CSI women for example). It’s like the strong female leads of today have to make up for the lack of representation so they make them too darn perfect in every way. Perfect is boring.

(Scully was pretty cool: She was attractive but atypical, not downright ‘sexy’ and she messed up almost as much as Mulder.)

It’s like this long debate I was having with another animation student who lamented that Pixar had no prominent, capable female characters. I was vouching for Dori from Finding Nemo but he wouldn’t consider her of worth (“She’s freaking mentally ill!”). I thought she was way more interesting for it and nearly stole the whole show, IMO. Anyways, I digress *cough*…

So, yeah: Make her weird dammit :)
airship

Rose Tyler. Because she demonstrates that it’s not enough to be smart, funny, resourceful, and caring. You have to be hot, too.

Hey, they should learn about the real world early so they won’t be disappointed later.
Anonymous

Perhaps not a sci-fi, but Abby in NCIS seems like a great role model to me. She’s portrayed as brilliant scientist, and permitted to be a free thinker as well. Better still, Pauley Perrette who plays the role, even has a Master’s Degree in Criminology.
- Antinous
  
  So, this was a failure?
Harrkev

Other that the oft-mentioned Romana, there was once talk of a female Dr. Who. As I recall (going from memory, and too busy to Google), when Tom Baker was on his way out, the guys making Dr. Who announced a press conference, and mentioned something about the new Doctor, whoever “he or she may be.” This caused quite a bit of a stir, as I recall, but eventually Colin Baker was announced. It was really a joke.

The new show “Sanctuary” on Sci-Fi features a couple of female leads, including the head “scientist.” As well as the female leads that have appeared in the various Stargate and Star Trek shows.

I am all for having more females in Sci-Fi shows, and am in favor of having them be the lead “smart” person, but please leave Dr. Who alone. Bring back Romana instead. Ooops, all other time lords are dead. Naaa. This is sci-fi. Death is never really permanent.
Anonymous

Would it no be easier to just get Freema Agyeman to present some science / documentary TV show?
Diamond Jim

She’d never agree to spend six months a year in Wales, but there’s one woman who was positively born to play the Doctor, once you think about it.

Tilda Swinton.
Anonymous

Tilda Swinton would make a great Doctor, but why assume she would need a male companion? I think Gabrielle Anwar would make a great companion for Tilda, and would definitely get me watching more. A new Louise Jameson would make a great companion for a new female Doctor.
Takuan

not a Varlean Gaia?
pyster

Did I miss something or was Captain Janeway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Janeway) not one of the strongest characters we’ve ever seen in a science fiction series? Smart, savvy, determined, confident, not bad looking, and captain of a freaken starship!

I found Trillian, in the books and radio plays, to be another strong science fiction character.

Jill from Hardware was another strong character. The hardware hacking girl; and these kinds of girls do exist, and in some cases are just as hot.

The last thing we need is a female doctor who. The male doctor who is bad enough. I find the character to be a freaken batty arrogant asshat.

What we need in general is to start bashing entertainment mediums that continue to portray smart people as socially inept unattractive people who will in the end be responsible for the demise of all mankind. I’ve found that writers clearly have never hung out with people in the fields of science and technology. They write from the stereo type of the the stuffy never gets laid meek little twerp who will show them all! How about a little realism kids?
akbar56

@Sekino: Pixar has no prominent, capable female characters? How about Elasti-Girl from the Incredibles?

@Harrkev: Well, if the Master survived the Timelord genocide who is to say that Romana didn’t as well? Or maybe some other Time Lady.

I however would love to see more of the Doctors Daughter we met last season.
bazzargh

What a coincidence… the UK Resource Centre for Sontarans in Science, Engineering and World Domination is calling for the next Doctor Who to be short, bald, and stick their tongue out a lot, to combat the under-representation of the invasion force on earth television.

They have set up a Facebook group for hatchlings who are willing to fight to the death for the role.

SONTAR HA!
Anonymous

No.

If you have ever watched the show, you understand that of the Doctors companions, the women have always been the most capable, brave and forthright. Rose Tyler became a smart and brave woman on the show. You could see her emerge from her store clerk shell and become exceedingly clever because she had to interact with the Doctor. She was not intimidated by him (maybe a bit at first) but challenged him as he challenged her. How can you discount that display of growth in the face of a male demigod-like figure? Watching that growth, that evolution is much more important than a female Doctor.

And while he has his dramatic moments, the Doctor does spend a great deal of time acting silly. Would we lose that so that young women would net see their new female Doctor acting ridiculous?

Besides, Martha Jones is a medical doctor. What else to you want?
absimiliard

*laughs near Bazzargh*

(And I would’ve laughed at your joke if only my aim didn’t suck)

-abs would just like to add “Sontar Ha!”
Anonymous

They have an easy out for the established limit on regenerations, based on the revival. (Those not wishing to be spoiled for the first two seasons of the revival should stop reading now.)

The Doctor got zapped with the energy from the heart of the TARDIS, causing him to regenerate. Just say that energy restarted the cycle of regenerations. So the 10th Doctor is actually the first of a new cycle of regenerations.

Tie that in with past continuity where the corrupt High Council of the Time Lords offered the Master a new cycle of regenerations (an offer they apparently followed through on, judging by his comments and how he returned and his regeneration), and you’re golden.

It’s taken 45 years to get through the first 10, 12 more should hold them for a while to come.

-Marty Busse (I’d create a login, but I’ve got too many passwords to remember nowadays, and I don’t feel like commenting here very often)
Cpt. Tim

My dream doctor is alan rickman. but if it has to be a woman:

Jennifer fucking Saunders. It would be awesome.
Anonymous

I think it’s unlikely, since in obviously alienates a portion of the audience. But as people have pointed out, there are certainly women capable of the role.

I do think the series has, since the 60s been better than most are far as women and especially women in science and engineering.

I got hooked as a kid based on Sarah Jane on PBS, but I think my all time favorite was Zoe. I wish the BBC hadn’t torched so many of her eps.
Anonymous

As the audio stories aren`t considered canon I`m presuming that a valid explanation for Romana surviving the time war would be that she was still in e-space, seems like the perfect means to bring her back in to the show.
Maaaud

@Sekino: And Dory of course was initially intended to be a male character, before they decided that Degeneres’s voice fit the character perfectly.
Nelson.C

Has Boingboing been reading my mind again? I was thinking just the same thing last week, though more as a shakeup to the format than about feminine representatives of science.

My thoughts were drifting towards Kathy Burke, who can carry off comedy and drama equally well, and I’m confident can summon the required whimsy when necessary. Joanna Lumley would be another strong choice, even as a reprise of spoof role. Alex Kingston I thought would be another good choice, though that would do weird things to the continuity, considering the Library planet episodes. Still nothing that couldn’t be coped with, I’m sure.
stratosfyr

@18 Pystar:
The male doctor who is bad enough. I find the character to be a freaken batty arrogant asshat.

Isn’t that half the fun? I love it when he’s wrong.

Anyway, much as part of me would be curious to see a female Doctor, I can’t help but think that it would be pretty gimmicky. (I feel the same about casting a Black Doctor, although I’ve never seen Patterson Joseph in anything so maybe he’s perfect for the part. I have no idea.) I can kind of almost buy genetic reshuffling through regeneration producing different appearances, but that just pushes my suspension of disbelief too far.

A quirky, smart female lead in a different show? That I can totally get behind. Bones, for example.
noen

Tilda Swinton would be a great Doctor though who would play her little boy side kick? But I agree with Slicklines, hire some damn writers first.

“the appeal of 7-of-nine was not so much sexual, but how that appeal mixed with her intelligence, capability, and relative cluelessness about human relations.”

Ah…. in other words the perfect geek. ;)
Tenn

No no no no NO.

I like women roles in science fiction. I -am- a woman. But the Doctor is not a man. He is a Time Lord. Part of the quirk of him being a Time Lord is he’s supposed to not be capable of the empathy humans have; he can make decisions humans can’t, or which humans would feel guilty for unless they were monsters.

Women are traditionally associated with empathy. The show is heading towards an empathetic Time Lord already (Rose? What the hell?). I fear that a female Doctor would be used to steer the show more towards an even more empathetic Doctor… and thus more towards a generic Science Fiction.

I’m going to miss Tennant. Cpt Tim, Alan Rickman would be AMAZING in the role.
Harrkev

Is there something that I am missing here? Is Tennant planning to leave soon? We are already at Doctor #10. If he leaves, we are then on #11. They only have twelve lives. I think that this series is too much of a cash cow for the BBC to let go. At this rate, the Doctor will be dead-dead-dead in another four years or so.

Tom Baker lasted seven years. Those were the days.
noen

If the last episode I saw is representative of Dr. Who the show is nearly unwatchable. How about some, you know, actual science instead of “let me pull this goofy theory out of my ass” instead? Or, since Dr. Who is a children’s show and not really meant for adults how about doing something like teaching a few general scientific concepts once in a while. It would be nice, I would think, if the children watching the show could come away having learned something.

I hate shows for kids that talk down to them. The old Dr. Who didn’t do that and it was one of the strengths of the show.
Andrew Katz

Sandi Toskvig has publicly stated on Radio 4 that she wants the job. And frankly, she’d be brilliant at it. I mean look at the picture here, and she’s not even trying to look like Dr Who: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandi_Toksvig

And if you’re sick of Dr. Who being a tall English hetero male, you’re getting a lot more diversity by having a short Danish gay female.
Ari B.

@Andrew Katz

Lots of planets have a Denmark?
sojourner strange

Canon > social agenda.

However, I do wish that they would give the Doctor a companion who is his intellectual equal – that is, the closest that a human can get. For real, and not just in name. Someone who expresses great interest in learning from the Doctor, and not just the emotional/social side of things, srsly.

And if that companion is a woman, I will be very happy.
mindysan33

Harrkev, you said @19: when Tom Baker was on his way out, the guys making Dr. Who announced a press conference, and mentioned something about the new Doctor, whoever “he or she may be.” This caused quite a bit of a stir, as I recall, but eventually Colin Baker was announced. It was really a joke.

Surely you mean Peter Davison, who was the 5th Doctor… Colin Baker was the 6th Doctor.

I would be all about Lalla Ward making a reappearance. But I don’t think I can buy the Doctor changing gender. I’m sort of keen on Paterson Joseph, though, for whatever that is worth. And when the hell is Neil Gaiman going to write a Who episode, or has he and I just haven’t gotten to it yet (we are up to the end of the second series… I know, we’re slow- should be getting the 3rd series soon).
lapsus_linguae

@#50/52 ill lich
“Sure, why not . . . we’ve already had at least one gay Doctor…figured everyone could just assume it was whichever incarnation they didn’t like.”

Dude, WTF? How is this OK? “Gay” does not get to be your moronic high-school descriptor for all things bad. More with the thinking, less with the offensive crap, please.

As for Dr Who….

I’m curious as to why this group has singled out the Dr Who character in particular. Seems to me if you’re angling to change a well established franchise you’re secretly worried that the idea won’t take. Like you know the idea is likely to be perceived as trite so you want to be backed up by a solid fan-base in advance.

If you’re pushing an agenda I find it’s far better to write something original and risk its’ being a total flop than to screw up something people already hold dear to make your point.
mindysan33

Yes, Absimiliard, you are correct. He was great in Neverwhere… I’m sort of pulling for him, I think. And even more reason for Neil G to write a Who story (if he hasn’t)… I wonder if Obama’s election will have any bearing on the decision?

And Terry Pratchett needs to write a Who story too…

Other names bandied about include Dave Morrissey and Sean Pertwee (yes, son of Doctor #3!). If they gave it to a woman, I’d pull for Lumley (is that spelled right) or French or Saunders… any of them would more than do. But, yeah, I can’t suspend my disbelief on gender bending, I don’t think…
Elvis Gump

I think the Doctor should remain a man, but as others have pointed out, bringing back Romana or a Romana like character as a companion would be great.

I thought they had set up with River Song as a future companion, abet as a possible future wife he hadn’t met yet in “Silence in the Library/Forrest of the Dead” as a wonderful female companion. I hope Alex Kingston reprises the role, but they may cast a younger actress to play her if and when they use the character again.

I longed for someone like the lady that assists the Doctor in “Age of Steel” I think it was, the Cyberman reboot they did a while back, an older lady in her 50s or 60s who was still pretty and plucky to me, but they killed her off in the episode.

I’m in the minority of Doctor Who fans who liked Donna Noble played by Cathrine Tate and would love for them to technobabble a rationale for her to return with some portion of her Time Lord abilities intact.

But something of a more than mere eye-candy Rose Tyler like companion for the Doctor would be a nice change. The companions always function as an in for the audience where the companion getting explained plot points is really the Doctor talking to us, answering questions we would have. It worked just as well to have Romana upstage the Doctor being often smarter than him and letting their arguments serve as dramatic expositions.

Plus I really want Lalla Ward back in the TARDIS. I would love it if they could get her real life husband Richard Dawkins to play along and do a cameo where he found out his ‘wife’ was really an alien, Romana pretending to be a human. That would be rich! Isn’t Lalla’s real name like Sarah and I think she actually has a title of some sort in real life like Duchess or something, so they could use that as her ‘real’ name. That would be funny and get Dawkins in as the family member she left behind to rejoin the Doctor for say a one season stint. I hereby transfer this idea to the production team for free! (Though if you want to pay me, I’ll accept a fee)
Gainclone

Janeway to Voyager. Lock phasers on that phone booth and fire.

(additionally, what of Crusher, Tasha, Troi, Pulaski?)
Pipenta

Oh, I’ve wanted this for years, wanted a woman to replace Tom Baker. Would have cast Penelope Keith. She would have been a kick.
ravenword

No one has mentioned the canonical strong female character from sf — Ellen Ripley! Okay, maybe she’s not such a realistic role model, but homegirl is a total badass.
Slicklines

Before you bother making the good Doc female, why not go ahead and get really extreme and hire some writers first? The show has slid of a cliff the last few years. And I’m not really certain hiring Miss February to play the Doc (OMG! Lost on Bikinitopia again!)is really a good idea either.

Sadly, the last time my wife (with a masters in Physics and 20 years experience in the industry) walked into a professional conference she was told by some suit to, “grab us some coffee if you would.” I don’t think a female Who is gonna help a lot…
absimiliard

Wasn’t Paterson Joseph the actor who played the Marquis de Carabas in Neverwhere?

I’d totally love him as The Doctor. I always thought the Marquis was very like The Doctor anyway. They’re both agressively mouthy, both get in wayyyy over their heads where trouble is concerned, both pull off miracles you don’t expect, and they’re both sort of odd-balls but charming ones.

-abs is still uncertain his disbelief could suspend through a gender change for The Doctor . . . but Moffat’s a damn good writer, so maybe abs is wrong.
JD Iles

I would love to see a female Doctor!

J.D. Iles
- Antinous
  
  JD Iles,
  
  Your URL can go on your profile page. And no rows of things, please.
Anonymous

So let me get this straight…you’ll totally buy that instead of dying, the Doctor generates an entirely new body, but not that that body could be female? I don’t understand how that could possibly be bothersome to anyone.

This is what annoys me about fans (and I are one). We often refuse to acknowledge that it’s all in the writing, and so you get “The Doctor could never regenerate into a girl” and “Jean-Luc Picard is such a great leader” and so on–never acknowledging that things happen in TV because a writer (and/or producer) says so.

As to the idea of a female Doctor generating interest in science for girls…huh? That’s kind of like saying that Lucy Lawless as Xena inspired girls to take up classical studies. What does the one have to do with the other?