Moffat interview, DWM 417

[kateorman]

Teh Moff feels gingerly around the Doctor's gender the way you might wiggle around a loose tooth you can't quite get to fall out:"... dozens of other actors [besides Matt Smith] were seen - of many different ages and backgrounds... not all of the actors who went for the role were white... What does Steven make of those who opposed the idea of the

Comments

[qthewetsprocket]

Someday I'll bite the bullet and get a subscription to that damn magazine, so I can actually get the issues somewhat on time...the Portland Border's let me down catastrophically last month by not having the issue I wanted the very most in the whole world (416) and I had to scramble to find even a single copy anywhere else. Bless you, Rich's Cigar Shop, and your extensive magazine selection. :)

Anyway, on the subject of the Doctor changing race and/or gender, I surprised myself recently by my own reaction: do not want. I think one of the vital elements of the Doctor's character is that he's a renegade, and the very most subversive type of renegade is one who's actually a vital member of the group that they're rebelling against. The Doctor is the last son of Gallifrey: he's Moses and St Francis and Siddhartha/Buddha and every other prince who's ever turned his back on his priveleged upbringing because he suddenly realized that helping other people was more important.

Bluntly put, the Doctor is a member of the ruling class who decided to slum it with the rest of us. And in our culture, sadly, the ruling class still = a white man. So while a big part of me thinks that having him regenerate into a woman or a POC (or both) would make for a fantastic one-off story, an even bigger part of me thinks that it would fundamentally change the nature of the show and the character too much to have it last for a whole series.