Little Old Lady Who

[kateorman]

I overheard part of a conversation at the con - forgive me, whoever was participating, as I've entirely forgotten! - affirming that although the Doctor could obviously be played by a Black actor, he could never be played by an actress, as this would make no scientific sense. The more I think about this simple remark, the deeper it gets

Comments

[kateorman]

Ooh ta muchly!

[browneyedgirl65]

Surviving death doesn't seem quite a natural thing either without medical assistance either ;-).

However, that does bring me to ask...when a Time Lord changes his body (on dying?), how is this happening? Do all Time Lords "die" and "come back" in an entirely different body as part of their own natural biological process, or is this something set up because of being with a Tardis (or are all Time Lords so equipped, but still equipped, eg some kind of medical procedure? Or have the Beeb kept this completely unanswered all this time?

If that's medically augmented, then there's absolutely no reason a Time Lord couldn't come back as anything else human, which includes women (to the shock of some, I know :-/ )

[kateorman]

As far as the TV show goes, unless I'm very much mistaken, we really haven't the foggiest how regeneration happens. (That doesn't stop us from making educated guesses, of course, but they could be Jossed at any moment.)

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing ever said about regeneration is the Ninth Doctor's remark to Rose at the end of Parting of the Ways: "I might have two heads. Or no head!" Whatever one's theory, that's a tough line to work into it. :)

[jvowles]

...which is, no doubt, precisely why it's there. Naughty boy, Russell. :)

Whatever happens is clearly biological, though reasonably likely given a boost by Super Science.

[pbristow]

"Whatever happens is clearly biological, though reasonably likely given a boost by Super Science."

[NODS] Pat Troughton's line after the first one was: "Part of me... part of the TARDIS... Without it I couldn't survive." It's not clarified what the "it" refers to: It could refer to the TARDIS, but I prefer to think it refers to the whole phenomenon of regeneration.

I like to think it's basically a biological phenomenon, but one that generally goes a lot more smoothly and reliably with the aid of something the TARDIS provides (and which is presumably provided by standalone equipment when on Gallifrey, e.g. the kind of equipment equipment used by Mawdryn and co., which ISTR was stolen from the Time Lords.)

[kelliem]

I think it would be great to see a cross-gender regeneration.

(Also-- I want a link to something about that family in the Dominican Republic!)

[kateorman]

Haven't had as much luck Googling as I'd like, but check out this 1999 Annual Review of Sex Research article: Intersexuality and gender identity differentiation. I didn't realise the same syndrome had been found all over the world! The relevant Wikipedia article also has some details.

[dameruth]

*applause* :D

[the_ladylark]

Interesting idea, and it's got my mind meandering back to lectures on sexual selection and evolutionary theory so I hope you don't mind if I waffle a bit, to take the brain cells out for a walk

[dameruth]

Ooh. What might be interesting (though not gonna happen on TV) is if the Doctor regenerated into a being that looked like our human ideas of a female, while still being biologically speaking male. Or, alternatively, that we find out 'he' has been female all along. After all, we aint seen said plumbing!

I would *love* to watch the fandom explosion preciptated by either situation. Truly a popcorn-worthy event. XD

[kateorman]

I forgot to mention above the mind-blowing point that prof_pangea made, I think during the sex panel - that the blue suited Doctor, the one who goes off with Rose, is genderqueer. That is, he is part human, part Donna, and therefore part female. Cue lols at Rose discovering it's the part below the waist, hee tee; but that's not sci fi craziness, there are plenty of people like that in the real world: PC Handy's body would be roughly analogous to that of a transman who hasn't had phalloplasty. I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before - what an opportunity for fic!

[dameruth]

LOL! I've seen some pretty interesting 10.5 fics around -- including one where he turned out pysically male but *completely* gay, thanks to Donna's mental influence, thus adding some serious complications to his and Rose's supposed "happily-ever-after" relationship. Heck, *I* wrote some crack!fic where 10.5 and Donna end up fighting over Captain Jack, since now they *both* think he's teh hawt.

However, it's true that I *havent* seen anyone address a possible physical-gender crossover; most stories work with mental gender-identity switcheroos. (Which isn't to say that physical gender-switch fanfic doesn't exist, I just haven't seen it.) I think most folks base that on the way that Donna *doesn't* go into hysterics after getting an eyeful of naked!Doc in TSE . . . which implies that he looked pretty normal, externally. 'Course you could also argue that Donna didn't look that *closely* . . . ;)