So, the Doctor can become a woman...

[Alex]

At least according to Mr Gaiman's rather wonderful episode, The Doctor's Wife, where it was mentioned that another timelord had been both male and female during his past regenerations.

I know this has been a contentious issue within fandom over the years, and of course nothing is written in stone, but how do you feel? Would you like to see a future regeneration be female? And what actresses would you like to see take on the role?

[Larry]

not sure if it was a throw away remark to deliberatly stir things up but my answer remains the same if the Doctor regenerated into a woman then I will stop watching and I suspect I wouldn't be the only one.

[Alex]

not sure if it was a throw away remark to deliberatly stir things up but my answer remains the same if the Doctor regenerated into a woman then I will stop watching and I suspect I wouldn't be the only one.

Why? It might put a genuinely interesting new spin on the character?

[Andrew Curnow]

It would be quite a shock to the system, to start fancying the Doctor rather than the companion!!

[Alex]

It would be quite a shock to the system, to start fancying the Doctor rather than the companion!!

But I thought everyone fancied David Tennant? I know he caused me to feel confused quite a few times

[FlyingBeastie]

Speaking as a female viewer, I agree with Larry.

He's a Timelord.

Nuff said.

[chalkie]

joanna lumley...nuff said (not canon , i freely admit, however...)

[Paul Monk]

Romana is a Time Lord as well. Theres never been any mention of Time Ladies as far as I remember.

If you asked me in my twenties I would have thought it was an appaling idea but now I think its genuinely an interesting idea. I think the comment as a little cheeky remark though.

[Stuart Wallis]

But I thought everyone fancied David Tennant? I know he caused me to feel confused quite a few times

Matt does it for me.

Not sure about the Doctor being a woman. Strange because I had no problem with the black Time Lord in The End Of Time, but then it may be my being a natural Taurean; can't stick change for no obvious reason.

[SiHart]

Perhaps he can in one of his 753 regenerations...

[Perry Vale]

If you asked me in my twenties I would have thought it was an appaling idea but now I think its genuinely an interesting idea. I think the comment as a little cheeky remark though.

My thoughts exactly.

[J.R. Southall]

I don't think it would work, frankly; although Doctor Who is a show with an "infinite" format, nevertheless there are boundaries to what is practical in terms of how you present the show to an audience. It's just not a female-lead format.

Having said that, I wouldn't mind seeing an "experimental" series (perhaps taking place during another year of Specials, should they do one) akin to Big Finish's Unbound series, with a different Doctor in each of say four or five episodes. (You could explain away the regenerations simply by saying they each take place "within the first 15 hours", and so "don't count".) You could then go on to have one episode with a much older actor as the Doctor (someone who probably wouldn't have the legs to do an energetic nine or ten month shoot), perhaps one with a "child" Doctor, one with an actor so famous they could never really do the part permanently but might be enough of a fan to take it for 60 minutes (Hugh Grant, anyone?), one with a previous Doctor (a "regressive regeneration"?) and of course, one with a female Doctor. You'd keep the same companion across all the episodes for the sake of viewer identification and continuity, and the episodes would pretty much write themselves. You could even write in a sub-plot whereby the most successful of these experiments then goes on to actually become the next "proper" Doctor ... maybe.

Wishful thinking, and sure to get the majority of fans' backs up - but by God, it would get people talking and those viewing figures ...

[Si Hunt]

Maybe it's got nothing to do with regeneration. After all, there are humans who have been both a man and a woman. So why is it such a stretch that a Time Lord could be?

Si.

[Captain Tancredi]

While I wouldn't have a problem with it per se, we're looking at top-down reformatting of the series because the basic dynamics would change radically. If you have a female Doctor, is she going to be the eye candy or do you cast the companion to play that part- and if you do, what is their relationship going to be? Or do you throw a male companion into the mix too? How do you structure stories set in the past when a female authority figure would just be ignored? It has the potential to change Who more than meets the eye at first.

[Si Hunt]

It has implications if the Doctor is going to start having sexual relationships, which they seem hell-bent on doing since 2005, as obviously if a Time Lord has a non-Time Lord partner then they're going to get quite a shock if he suddenly changes sex.

So they can't really have it both ways - sexual beings that change sex would have lots of problems.

It's odd how Doctor Who managed to avoid all these issues quite happily for the first whole 26 years of existing.

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

What I love is the fact that just a fun gag thought up between Tom & JN-T in the back of a cab, has become something that is regularly trotted out for consideration!

[Rob McCow]

So they can't really have it both ways - sexual beings that change sex would have lots of problems.

Only from our blinkered, 21st Century Humanistic viewpoint! If people can get over the Doctor being an alien, I'm sure they could get over him being a her.

However, precedent suggests that this is a bad idea. The Big Finish Unbound Doctor story with Arrabella Weir was simply dreadful.

It'd be difficult to have a female Doctor without it feeling gimmicky, so it probably wouldn't work. But with decent writing and a brilliant actress, it could be really good.

[Si Hunt]

I guess it would be known in Gallifreyan society that this could happen, so they would be aware and prepared. They wouldn't be able to reproduce in the same way as we do, as obviously someone looking for a son and heir would divorce his wife if she suddenly got run over and turned into a He. Perhaps the biggest problem is that all this makes us consider that sort of thing anyway.

But as I mentioned before, they've ruined it in a way by having the Doctor covort with females who we know can't know he can regenerate.

So here's a question - if the Doctor's own kind mate with people who can turn into both men and women, why does he never snog blokes? (Jack aside). Why didn't we get a "Girl In The Fireplace" where he fell in love with a young man? If the Doctor can be a woman, then it makes sense he should be able to have relationships with either sex.

Si.

[Awesome Wells]

Maybe he's waiting for the right guy to come along. After all, he's spent a thousand years or so before snogging any girls; maybe it'll be a few more centuries before he plucks up the courage to get involved with boys. Or maybe there's no such thing as a gay Time Lord; maybe they can be men or women but only ever fancy the opposite sex to the body in which they find themselves.

Either way, Just in case the series is still going in a decade or so, I'll copyright the episode title,"The Doctor's Boyfriend"...

[Rob McCow]

On the other hand, we've never seen the Doctor's particulars. If Gallifreyans don't suckle their young, there would be no need for them to grow breasts. The deeper, male voice might be a side-effect of the TARDIS translation.

So despite apparently obviously being a man, there's no reason why, biologically, he couldn't be a woman.

[Awesome Wells]

I can't wait for the press to get hold of this.

"DOCTOR WHO HAS A VAG" EXPLAINS MOFFAT

[Rob McCow]

Sorry about bringing that up. I predict that at this rate the thread will need to be closed within the next half-dozen posts!

[Paul Monk]

The Big Finish Unbound Doctor story with Arrabella Weir was simply dreadful.

Thats because the story was dreadful not Arrabella Weir, who was I thought rather good. It would absolutely work with teh Doctor being female because the Doctor is the Doctor. So the Doctor wouldn't be a timid, frail girly woman, she'd be a assertive, slightly bossy and confident woman.

[Awesome Wells]

the Doctor wouldn't be a timid, frail girly woman, she'd be a assertive, slightly bossy and confident woman.

Are you, to paraphrase Pond, "wishing really hard"?

[Stuart Wallis]

"Now then Pond, may I introduce Susan, he's my granddaughter..."