Post by aztec on Jul 12, 2016 14:46:14 GMT
I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it, Gomez quickly became one of my favourite Masters gender swapping regeneration's have been completely canon since The Doctor's Wife and it doesn't strike me as a far fetched concept at all considering how random this process is supposed to be and the basic premise of the TV series, but whilst it's something that I'm not massively opposed to from an in-universe point of view (it would refresh the companion-doctor relationship, bring new elements to the Doctor's personality in a way that a male Doctor couldn't and get the fanbase talking/arguing in whole new ways etc) it's a very divisive idea amongst the fanbase (though I'm not so sure it's as divisive amongst the broader public) and I'm not entirely convinced it would mesh with the Doctor's existing personality and history.
I have a couple of main issues with the concept A) The Doctor has always (i.m.o) clearly been written as a male character, with a male outlook and viewpoint, so whilst you could argue a female incarnation would allow for a very fresh and vigorous exploration of what makes the Doctor the Doctor (after all, until we see a female incarnation could we truly argue the Doctor is a male character?)...he's been male 13 times before and it's worked fine, I'd be worried that the writing for a female incarnation would focus too much on what makes her different (i.e trying too hard to prove a female incarnation works, rather than letting the character speak for herself and showing why she's still the same person at heart, it could only ending up alienating elements of the fanbase) rather than establishing why she's still the same person at heart(s), which leads into my next point.
B) Casting an actress as the Doctor could mean the character/actress is put on a pedestal i.e I've come across arguments by some of those calling for a female Doctor wanting her to be written as tougher, cleverer, more exciting than ever before etc... i.m.o this would only point out how different the new incarnation is and how she ISN'T the same character as before, rather than reassuring viewers it was still fundamentally the same show just with a slightly different viewpoint, I suppose it's a loose loose situation looking at it from that point of view-if you don't make a female Doctor that different some might complain that it was a gimmick and not a necessary change, if you write things differently some could consider it a change too far.
C)Doctor Who is about travel in time and space. For the larger part of recorded history women have often taken a back seat to men in political office, warfare etc. So, although there aren't a huge amount of Historical episodes in New Who, when you remember the problems Martha had as a black woman in the Victorian era, you'd have to take those and magnify them as a more frequent occurrence. The Doctor is an authority figure, he shows up and 9 times out of 10 takes charge or schemes around pulling strings when no one notices, often he has trouble getting people to believe him, now imagine he's a woman in the 17-1800's instead of a man, in most cases what the Doctor has to say would lose a lot of its value to the people in that time period, intentionally or not the show would have to address gender issues on a more regular occurrence, which isn't necessarily a bad or likely thing, depending on how far the show veers from its family friendly template, but some could view it as intrusive or
somewhat disingenuous if the issue wasn't addressed.
All that said, there's a number of actresses who would probably make brilliant Doctors (Olivia Colman springs to mind)
(I really thought writing out my thoughts in detail would make my feelings on the concept clearer, but nope I'm still just as unsure...)
So in short, I'm mostly fine with the concept (there's probably as many reasons to do it, as there are to not do it), depending on which actress would be hypothetically cast in the role, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's a change that would be accepted by the broader public, and I'd have my concerns about the reasons for it happening...though it would certainly be interesting to see how it changes the series...
(Feel free to add you own thoughts)
Please keep things civil, this is just meant to be a fun conversation (or argument) about something that may or may not happen eventually, we are all friends here, and I'm well aware of how divisive this is...(apologies if my ramblings may have offended anyone, certainly not my intention, like I said it's complicated issue and my thoughts are very mixed and confused)
I have a couple of main issues with the concept A) The Doctor has always (i.m.o) clearly been written as a male character, with a male outlook and viewpoint, so whilst you could argue a female incarnation would allow for a very fresh and vigorous exploration of what makes the Doctor the Doctor (after all, until we see a female incarnation could we truly argue the Doctor is a male character?)...he's been male 13 times before and it's worked fine, I'd be worried that the writing for a female incarnation would focus too much on what makes her different (i.e trying too hard to prove a female incarnation works, rather than letting the character speak for herself and showing why she's still the same person at heart, it could only ending up alienating elements of the fanbase) rather than establishing why she's still the same person at heart(s), which leads into my next point.
B) Casting an actress as the Doctor could mean the character/actress is put on a pedestal i.e I've come across arguments by some of those calling for a female Doctor wanting her to be written as tougher, cleverer, more exciting than ever before etc... i.m.o this would only point out how different the new incarnation is and how she ISN'T the same character as before, rather than reassuring viewers it was still fundamentally the same show just with a slightly different viewpoint, I suppose it's a loose loose situation looking at it from that point of view-if you don't make a female Doctor that different some might complain that it was a gimmick and not a necessary change, if you write things differently some could consider it a change too far.
C)Doctor Who is about travel in time and space. For the larger part of recorded history women have often taken a back seat to men in political office, warfare etc. So, although there aren't a huge amount of Historical episodes in New Who, when you remember the problems Martha had as a black woman in the Victorian era, you'd have to take those and magnify them as a more frequent occurrence. The Doctor is an authority figure, he shows up and 9 times out of 10 takes charge or schemes around pulling strings when no one notices, often he has trouble getting people to believe him, now imagine he's a woman in the 17-1800's instead of a man, in most cases what the Doctor has to say would lose a lot of its value to the people in that time period, intentionally or not the show would have to address gender issues on a more regular occurrence, which isn't necessarily a bad or likely thing, depending on how far the show veers from its family friendly template, but some could view it as intrusive or
somewhat disingenuous if the issue wasn't addressed.
All that said, there's a number of actresses who would probably make brilliant Doctors (Olivia Colman springs to mind)
(I really thought writing out my thoughts in detail would make my feelings on the concept clearer, but nope I'm still just as unsure...)
So in short, I'm mostly fine with the concept (there's probably as many reasons to do it, as there are to not do it), depending on which actress would be hypothetically cast in the role, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's a change that would be accepted by the broader public, and I'd have my concerns about the reasons for it happening...though it would certainly be interesting to see how it changes the series...
(Feel free to add you own thoughts)
Please keep things civil, this is just meant to be a fun conversation (or argument) about something that may or may not happen eventually, we are all friends here, and I'm well aware of how divisive this is...(apologies if my ramblings may have offended anyone, certainly not my intention, like I said it's complicated issue and my thoughts are very mixed and confused)