Casting Debate What's your take?

This is probably being blown out of proportion just a bit, probably not helped by Colin Baker being a bit blunt in his response. What is encouraging is that despite being a sceptic on the idea Davison seems willing to see how it pans out, with his comment about the need to open it up and him being old-fashioned.

Mmm. The first serious consideration of a woman in the role was with the casting of the 9th Doctor.

But perhaps at the expense of long term ratings & viewers.

its good to see how passionate people are but I still maintain that most of the pro's don't have doctor who on sky+, series link, etc or watch regular.

upset the old guard, nothing for the new blood (cause what 8-14 is going to want to watch their mum) and you are left with a weaker audience and a show that might just have jumped the shark for headlines & politics.

for me, and this is just me.
i feel that this has diminished the show, not the casting (I think I can live with that) but all the stuff and nonsense that has gone with it.
I cannot bring myself to listen to BF, I have not checked the website for days, my lastest issue of DWM remains unread & it all feels tainted.
its all become about gender politics, I am labelled sexist to shut down discussion even on here the bastion of rational thinking the same thing has been used, in fact I feel a bit embarrassed to be a doctor who fan now, actually I don't feel like I am one anymore.

i don't think....I have given up the show entirely but we will see, but almost a week on and I feel less interest each day with each new way to make me feel bad, redundant doctors having their say for a few more minutes of notoriety & the worst side of fandom being paraded for the media to sneer at once again I just despair.

I did send my 31 doctor who t-shirts to the charity shop yesterday as I just could not wear them anymore and my tardis has dematerialised from the windowsill to the wardrobe.

its been a funny week who would have thought it! But by far the worst thing to happen was losing Trevor Baxter!

I think the 14th Doctor should be a kitten. A cute, fuzzy wuzzy cuddly kitten. Who could possibly have anything against The Doctor being portrayed by an adorable kitten? Only a raging speciesist, that's who. ;-)

Sorry, that probably sounds like I'm making fun of people who wanted a female Doctor - I'm actually attempting to make fun of the idea that the only reasons that someone would be against a female Doctor are sexism or fear of females. Maybe some people just prefer the Doctor to not be a kitten, and it's ok to be that way. :-)

I'd still prefer The Doctor to be a guy, but it's not all about what I prefer. This seems to mean a lot to some people (more than I'd realized) and that being the case, I'm very happy for them to get a turn at having their preference.

That's got to be a really nice friendship.

Hmmm.

My love of Who has not diminished. Nor has my love of BF. I'm embracing this casting change with open arms. I formerly had an intellectually thought out opinion on why the Doctor should be male, but that argument had a giant hole in it, mainly the first 13 Doctors are still there, and with BF's help, and some reconstruction animations released every now and then, not going away any time soon.

So bring it on Jodie! Be the best Doctor you can be and I'll follow you.

A week in and I still don't get the kneejerk reactions to the casting. I really don't and apologies to some but the idea of walking away from Doctor Who and/or Big Finish because of the casting of a woman as The Doctor just strikes as supremely silly. Anyway, as to the topic at hand, I think it is less a clash than a disagreement that has been inflated by the media to generate clicks.

This is not aimed at you, your comment just happens to springboard into this:

RANT INCOMING:
Am I the only one who is sick and tired, not just in Who fandom but in geekdom period, of fans treating shows and their creators like social workers or surrogate parents? Having a passion is one thing, but if you are actually building a piece of media into an integral part of your life, and when you constantly seek approval or vindication from a show for something you say, do or believe in... clearly you've got priorities badly out of whack. Using a piece of media as an excuse not to deal with your own problems or even just 'think', a type of discount counselling if you will, is not healthy. If it takes a female Doctor to force individuals out there to start getting themselves in order and not rely on senpai Moffat or Chibnall's notices, then at least it's already done something we can all, hopefully, agree is beneficial.

Well, science fiction at it's best is intended to spark ideas, not quash them. That's largely what the genre is about, ever since Shelley made us question whether it was Frankenstein or his monster, Adam, we were supposed to empathise with. Oddly, it also flies in the face of the show's main ethos. The old man and his granddaughter are strangers from another time, another world. It could have ended there, but the series demonstrated we're all strangers to history. The strange Other isn't something to be feared, but questioned. When all is said and done, it's supposed to be fun, but who makes it fun?

Think about it. It's us, isn't it? We are the ones who invest in the programme and personally, I am not going to let anyone bully me into not enjoying a series I have adored since childhood. Not the extremists who cannot tolerate another viewpoint, not the media who are taking what scraps they can and blowing them out of proportion. No one has that fundamental power over me unless I wish it. That is what I choose.

To those who feel confused by this development, it's okay to be confused. But don't throw away something that can bring joy to your life just because you don't understand how you feel yet, one way or the other.