Should The Next Doctor Be A Woman?

Viewers of Doctor Who have speculated who would replace Matt Smith since the very day he was picked to play the Doctor. Now that their wish has finally come true and he is really leaving, their imaginations are running wild. In its 50 years on air, Doctor Who has always been played by a man. While some boil the argument down to ‘It’s the Doctor, not the Doct-her”, several people, including Helen Mirren, and Tom Baker believe a female Doctor is what the public wants and is ready for. So what, if anything, is standing in the way of an actress being chosen for the role?


Those who want the Doctor to stay as a man seem to be a little confused. While he may look like a male human, the Doctor’s not exactly one, is he? He’s a Time Lord: a weird alien who does weird things like regenerate his body and regularly visit Cardiff. Regeneration is meant to be a completely crazy experience where anything could happen – the Doctor could swap species, have 3 heads, turn into John Barrowman - anything. It really defies belief that Doctor Who’s been stuck looking like a generic quasi-foppish Englishman. He must be so disappointed.

Change for change’s sake is wrong, though, and since the Doctor’s been a man all this time, there’s no reason for him to become a woman. The ‘no change’ argument was used when Christopher Eccleston became the Doctor, too. “Why would the Doctor suddenly become Northern?” people cried, outraged. This is peculiar logic for fans of a show where rhinos deal out space justice and felines care for the sick. They also seem to forget the Corsair, the Doctor’s old Time Lord buddy who swapped genders between regenerations. When you compare a female Corsair to a still-male Doctor (an eccentric with a magic box and a worrying habit of kidnapping young women) being a woman seems perfectly natural.

Showrunner Steven Moffat is in full support of a female Doctor. Unfortunately, he would also be in charge of writing for her. In an unintentional symmetry to Doctor Who, all of Moffat’s female characters are the same person – a shallow, feisty beauty with sassy one-liners. Fortunately their hair colour changes so you can tell them apart. A Moffat-Doctor is not what fans want. On the plus side, though, Moffat writing would ensure we get to see a female Doctor Who who indiscriminately kills people in slow motion. We’d also get the pleasure of sitting through hours of cringe-worthy scenes while the Doctor gets used to being a woman (“How do they walk in these?”). On second thought, it would be a total disaster.

In closing, it’s a perfectly good idea for the Doctor to regenerate as a woman. It’s in keeping with the science fiction premise of the show. If done right, a female Doctor would reassert the Doctor’s alien-ness and provide new story potential. We do have to wait for the change until Moffat’s left the show entirely, though. This may sounds harsh but believe me, if keeping with a male actor until Moffat leaves would stop the female Doctor’s first words from being “Oh, these are new” it’ll all be worth it.

Featured Image: BBC