So, Doctor Who’s next Doctor could be a woman
BBC’s sci-fi series Doctor Who has been known for making surprising changes through the course of its 50-plus year run. Now, with the twelfth Doctor in the TARDIS, there is another potential change that could be on the way. Until now, every incarnation (read: version) of the Lord of Time has been a man. But, according to BBC One’s Charlotte Moore, the next Doctor may be a woman. She recently sat down with RadioTimes and discussed the future of Doctor Who’s main character.
“Peter Capaldi is a fantastic Doctor, and he’s broken the mould,” she explained. “But, I’d never put a bar on [a female Doctor]. The great thing about Doctor Who is that anything is possible.”
The current showrunner, Steven Moffat, is known for taking Doctor Who and spinning it in unexpected directions. Like Charlotte Moore, he has left the door wide open for a woman as The Doctor. In an interview earlier this year, Moffat said although a woman Doctor is not necessarily inevitable, it is surely possible. Right now, the current Doctor (Peter Capaldi) is only in his second season as The Doctor, so it could will probably be a while before Mr. Moffat offers up any more information about the eventual thirteenth Doctor.
The possibility of The Doctor regenerating into a woman has been a hotly debated topic among fans of the show. Some fans are all for it and have even suggested actress Hayley Atwell (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), who is totally up for the task, as an ideal choice for the first Time Lady. After all, The Doctor’s arch-nemesis, The Master, returned to the show last season as a Time Lady named Missy and is now a very popular character.
The pro-woman Doctor crowd also argues that gender norms could be different for people from Gallifrey, which is The Doctor’s home planet, so gender may already be fluid for them anyway. Other fans are content with The Doctor remaining a man because they believe there are already enough changes on a show. Then again, it seems, every time a woman replaces a cult male character in film or TV, the haters come out. (See the backlash to the new Ghostbusters reboot as proof.)
That doesn’t mean we should shy away from change, in fact, it’s only more reason to challenge the status quo. And if anyone is up for the task, it’s the Doctor.
Related:
We have some Doctor Who news that may be hard to hear
Everything we know about the new Doctor Who season
(Image via BBC)
