Idle Doctor Who thought
Does anyone else think that the BBC is setting up its audience for a female Doctor?
- Rose wielded the power of the TARDIS back with the Ninth Doctor.
- Donna has been suffused with Time Lord power.
- A Time Lady has been introduced as a (one-off?) character.
- When the Doctor regenerated into his eleventh form, he thought for a moment that he was female, as if this was an unexpected but by no means impossible outcome.
Additionally, the New series has had a greater focus on regeneration, its side effects, and in particular unexpected aspects and options, such as Doctor 10.2, Human Ten, River Song, and regenerations which were curtailed and held back. It's made regeneration over into something plastic and pliable, instead of all-or-nothing affairs. I suspect that it's a safety net in case the idea of a female Doctor doesn't work out - the writers can just say the regeneration is "unstable" or "was affected by the technobabble of the week", and revert the Doctor to a male actor.
Finally, all this careful placing of pointers has been in the run-up to the Doctor's 13th incarnation, which is supposed to be a Big Thing for Time Lords. Traditionally, it's supposed to be their last - but at least one Time Lord has been given (allowed?) regenerations beyond that number, and the Time Lords themselves were erased from history at least once between then and now, so who knows what the new rules are?
Regardless, the end of the 13th incarnation is something which has been a major plot point seed in the making for decades. It's the perfect time to attempt to introduce a female Doctor, under any of the following excuses:
- Time Lords switch sex after their 13th incarnation;
- Time Lords effectively are completely reborn at this point, losing all their memories unless they're artificially preserved by Gallifreyan technology;
- After their 13th incarnation, the option of sex-switching is unlocked (meaning they can be either male or female in their subsequent regenerations);
- A 13th regeneration is dangerous, easily tampered with, prone to instability/insanity, and/or needs extreme Time Lord medical care to survive successfully; or
- insert technobabble here.
I can easily imagine an episode or arc leading up to or immediately after that crucial point, where the Doctor is flipping between forms (male and female) every ten minutes, or where the necessities of the plot mean that he has to run around in a psuedo-temporary female form while saving the day.
I'm not 100% sure that there would be sufficient fan/demographic/executive support for a permanently female Doctor Who, but the chance to shake things up a bit would be hugely fun. Imagine the volume of fanfic which would be spawned from a canon story which had the Doctor eventually medically TARDIS-displaced from his female cells and a new male body cloned/generated for him, and which closed with a mysterious female figure sneaking into a Gallifreyan repair shop or museum and stealing a Type 40?
- Rose wielded the power of the TARDIS back with the Ninth Doctor.
- Donna has been suffused with Time Lord power.
- A Time Lady has been introduced as a (one-off?) character.
- When the Doctor regenerated into his eleventh form, he thought for a moment that he was female, as if this was an unexpected but by no means impossible outcome.
Additionally, the New series has had a greater focus on regeneration, its side effects, and in particular unexpected aspects and options, such as Doctor 10.2, Human Ten, River Song, and regenerations which were curtailed and held back. It's made regeneration over into something plastic and pliable, instead of all-or-nothing affairs. I suspect that it's a safety net in case the idea of a female Doctor doesn't work out - the writers can just say the regeneration is "unstable" or "was affected by the technobabble of the week", and revert the Doctor to a male actor.
Finally, all this careful placing of pointers has been in the run-up to the Doctor's 13th incarnation, which is supposed to be a Big Thing for Time Lords. Traditionally, it's supposed to be their last - but at least one Time Lord has been given (allowed?) regenerations beyond that number, and the Time Lords themselves were erased from history at least once between then and now, so who knows what the new rules are?
Regardless, the end of the 13th incarnation is something which has been a major plot point seed in the making for decades. It's the perfect time to attempt to introduce a female Doctor, under any of the following excuses:
- Time Lords switch sex after their 13th incarnation;
- Time Lords effectively are completely reborn at this point, losing all their memories unless they're artificially preserved by Gallifreyan technology;
- After their 13th incarnation, the option of sex-switching is unlocked (meaning they can be either male or female in their subsequent regenerations);
- A 13th regeneration is dangerous, easily tampered with, prone to instability/insanity, and/or needs extreme Time Lord medical care to survive successfully; or
- insert technobabble here.
I can easily imagine an episode or arc leading up to or immediately after that crucial point, where the Doctor is flipping between forms (male and female) every ten minutes, or where the necessities of the plot mean that he has to run around in a psuedo-temporary female form while saving the day.
I'm not 100% sure that there would be sufficient fan/demographic/executive support for a permanently female Doctor Who, but the chance to shake things up a bit would be hugely fun. Imagine the volume of fanfic which would be spawned from a canon story which had the Doctor eventually medically TARDIS-displaced from his female cells and a new male body cloned/generated for him, and which closed with a mysterious female figure sneaking into a Gallifreyan repair shop or museum and stealing a Type 40?