Blogtor (Cameron K McEwan) was a guest on the BBC Radio Scotland show Call Kaye earlier today discussing the possibility of an actress playing The Doctor – listen to it in the player above. Also featured in the discussion are author Jenny Colgan (Dark Horizons), Dave Golder (SFX magazine) and Dave the “taxi driver” whilst it’s presented by Kaye Adams.
You can follow Cameron K McEwan on Twitter HERE.
12 Actresses For The 12th Doctor
i think a girl doctor would be great it does not matter anyway and we need anyong ginger hair color too dont care who or gender
who fan
NO NO NO NO NO that is all
It won't happen. It would be a disaster for the BBC. The show would be dead within two series, it's a change too far. Commercial suicide.
Yes, the ultimate in stunt casting and PC stupidity…let's bring in a "girl doctor" because Moffat is oh-so-clever. Dunno or care about anyone else but if they go this route, I'm done with NuWho. Thank God for Big Finish.
I seem to remember Big Finish have already used a female Doctor…
1966, "You can't have a another Doctor! William Hartnell is the Doctor!"
1970, "You can't have someone older than their predecessor cast as the Doctor! The Doctor gets younger each regeneration!"
1974, "You can't have a curly haired Doctor! The Doctor has never had curly hair!"
1981, "You can't have someone under 30 cast as Doctor! It's always been over 30!"
1984, "You can't someone who's been on the show before cast as Doctor! It's never happened before!"
1987, "You can't a Scottish Doctor! The Doctor is English!"
1996, "You can't have a Catholic cast as Doctor! The Doctor is Church of England!"
2005, "You can't bring back Doctor Who! It didn't work last time and it won't work this time!"
2005, "You can't have a new Doctor after one season! It's never happened before!"
2010, "You can't have an unknown, under 30 actor as the Doctor! It's to big a risk!"
2013, "You can't have a female/black/ginger Doctor! It's never happened before!"
I think any true fans of the show should just want the next Doctor to be played by a likeable and competent actor.
By the way I thought Mr. McEwan did a great job in that interview, as did the gentleman from SFX magazine.
-Casey
(USA fan)
Thanks Casey, very kind of you to say so.
Thought the radio interview was great. I strongly support the idea of casting of a female in the role,and agree the "NO" camp never put forth a valid reason for their distain. It's always the "once a man always a man" "been a bloke for 50yrs" "why change tradition"?
Those aren't valid well thought out reasons imo, the SFX guy is right too in taking the suck it see approach. A fan should at least have the decency to give a woman a fair chance at playing The Doctor.
I think it would be nice if we kept this hero a male. You may not think my reasons are valid, but I feel like there are less and less heroes for boys, as I've noticed more and more female heroes. I like female heroes, and I'm glad what was once so often misbalanced has been slowly changing in modern times. I personally like that we still have a male hero like The Doctor, someone boys can look up to. I don;'t care what race or color or shape the Doctor is, but I just prefer the Doctor to be male, and the companion role played by a more heroic female figure, over the archaic screaming girl.
Cameron, I'm extremely dissapointed in your portrayal of those who don't want a female Doctor asbeing shallow and unable to present arguments for it. It's utterly disingenuous, and as a poster on Gallifrey Base, where you also post, I am amazed you can make such an allegation.
I’ve been a long term viewer of Doctor Who.
I don’t want a female Doctor. The problem is that if you dare say that the usual tedious Islington-ites will come out and say you are sexist. I don’t feel I am. In fact, I much prefer women to men generally in life. Perhaps it is the red blood! But the Doctor has always been a male hero figure for me, ever since I was a young child and first started to watch the show at the tail end of Tom Baker’s years. The character was unquestionably and undoubtedly a male action hero. For those saying the character is just about his brain and sex doesn't matter, they ought to go back to the Pertwee years and have a look at all the kung fu kicks, gunshots and chase scenes – pure alpha male stuff.
Another boyhood hero of mine was Christopher Reeve’s Superman. They tried to copy the success of those films with a Supergirl effort, but it was a flop and for me, as a viewer, just didn’t hold the same interest. The character was basically Superman in a skirt, but as a young male I just couldn’t look to her as a role model in the same way, nor associate with her as much (although that probably wasn’t helped by the fact that at 8 years old I thought girls were an alien species!). For me it is the same with the Doctor. I has associated the character with his male gender identity and the dynamic it presented with those around him. The Doctor is the lead of the show and making him female is the same as making James Bond female. I know that amongst the pro-female gang the James Bond comparison is dismissed as nonsense, but the reason I associate with the character will be removed just as it would if Bond were cast as a woman. I associate with the Doctor as a man. End of.
I accept that in the context of the Doctor Who world the regeneration of a male Time Lord into female is possible. I accept that we live in a world where we need more female role models. But Doctor Who is not one of them. I have no problem with a male ethnic minority actor taking the role. as skin colour is just that, colour. The male gender traits would still be there. But, for me, becoming female is just one reinvention too far. If you’re going to do that then you might as well redesign the outside of the TARDIS to look like an iPad – you know, because that's possible within the context of the universe as well (just fix the chameleon circuit!).
If the Doctor becomes female thEn this long term fan will switch off because the show will become too different – and feeling that way does not a sexist make. In the Superman universe there is no reason whatsoever to take away his iconic uniform and put him in an all white leotard, but how many people will still like Superman if he wore the latter? It is only because this is an issue of sex that you can't have a reasonable debate without certain elements of the righteous pro-female group portraying you as some sort of old fashioned Tory misogynist.
I hope Cameron post this comment, despite his opinion in the interviews.
Why not have the Doctor disappear for a series or two and let River Song have the TARDIS for a while? She could eventually find the newly regenerated Doctor and the show could continue from there.
It's not that we view it as impossible or it will never happen, some of us just don't want it to happen. I for one if they cast a girl, will stop watching.
I am a girl. I don't want a female Doctor.
I strongly believe, and the evidence seems to support this, that the Doctor IDENTIFIES as male. As a woman, I understand and know that my identity as a woman goes beyond my body, my vagina.
I was lucky enough to be born into a female body and identify as a female. Have you ever known someone who is trangender? Who has been born into a body that doesn't correspond with their gender identity? It is painful and it isn't something to just toss around. What they go through in order to change genders physically isn't easy and isn't something to be treated flippantly.
So, what you want to do here is you want to throw a character who has long identified as male into a female body. As a woman, I have problems with that because IT'S STILL A MAN. Mad Man with a Box. Mr. John Smith. Susan's grandfather. River's husband.
He identifies as a man. You can't just stick a man into a woman's body and scream gender equality. That's NOT how it works. Stop this absolute crazy madness.
The Doctor is a madman in a blue box. I don't care what color/ethnicity/age he is, but the face that he is a "he" should never change.
I've commented elsewhere on this blog in support of casting a woman as the Doctor, so I won't repeat myself here, but I'd like to say that 'The Eighth Doctor' and the 'Anonymous' who made the comments about gender-identity have written very thoughtful, rational comments stating their cases against having a female Doctor, and it's refreshing to see. I still disagree, but I respect your opinions, thank you both for not just throwing a tantrum about it, as many others are.
Your objections still largely come back to the 'he's always been a man' position, though, although with the nuance that he sees HIMSELF as a man. But I guess it comes down to how we each individually interpret the character – is he fully someone new each time he regenerates, or does he have an essential, unchangeable sense of himself running through all his lives? A case could probably be made for both. If he can live with the contradictions, surely we can too, and so a gender change wouldn't really be problematic for the character. While she's a woman, she'd see herself as a woman, it wouldn't be at all like a transgender transition (although it might be nice for trans-folk to have a pop culture icon they can relate to as well).
Handled sensitively, with a focus on the STORY rather than the hero's gender, this could be great. I think it's very cynical to suggest that such a move would be 'stunt-casting" and "PC stupidity", and I think it says a lot about men's sense of entitlement that we shouldn't be put in a position where we have to try and identify with a female hero or see the world through a woman's eyes, like we couldn't handle it (men can be just as sexist toward ourselves as we can be toward women). Women have been in that position – of having to identify with male heroes – for years, given the weak and feeble damsels in distress that make up the majority of female fictional characters. I think the role reversal would do men AND women good 😉
Cameron, I just wanted to thank you for your calm, thoughtful responses in that interview. It is lovely to have you as one of the voices of our fandom.
"2013, "You can't have a female/black/ginger Doctor! It's never happened before!""
…neither has a gay Doctor, if I'm correct.
If by 'gay Doctor' you mean the actor playing him I'd give it about a month!
A female Doctor would be a tough sell, see my opinion here:
http://giovannivalentino.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-we-cant-have-women-as-doctor-doctor.html
My pleasure Jenn!
I don't think a female Doctor would appeal to young boys. I know Doctor Who has a broader appeal than that demographic alone but they are an important part of the fan base. They wouldn't buy the toys that's for sure. They definitely would not connect on the same level as they do with a male Doctor. A female Doctor could hurt the show commercially and have a negative impact on the fan base in the long run. Proceed with caution BBC.
I really, really want to see a female Doctor. I hope, if it happens, that the BBC avoids a "sexy" female Doctor. It needs to be someone with presence.
My vote: Nikki Amuka Bird.
Bye WHO for me if the Doctor turns female. It flatly aint gonna work or survive
Let me ask you this; would you change gender? I'm talking to you, the person reading this comment. Would you be happy to change your physicality, even though it wouldn't match your gender identity?
People know who and what they are on the inside. The vast majority of the time it matches whats on the outside. Sometimes it doesn't, and these people are usually deeply unhappy until they do something about it. There has never been anything in the show to suggest the Doctor's gender identity is anything other than male, so why on Earth would HE want to change?