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.

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

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.

@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!!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 1’s Chris Moyles show and BBC Radio 2’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.

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.

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…

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

#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.

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…

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.

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

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