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And now one has broken the ice the others will be less reticent in following.
I think we might get away with it for the first post DC Bond actor (assuming he does B25. Although given the speed at which they are working we are at least half a decade away from casting B26 and by this stage the diversity elephant in the room may have grown too large for them to ignore) but certainly by Bond actor number 8 the pressure for them to do it will be intolerable.
And with Babs setting herself up as diversity champion of the British film industry there's only one way this is going to end for Bond.
The Doctor has traveled since 1963 and the formula got sometimes a bit tired, a female Doctor might just be the medicine for the franchise. I do hope we get d decent guest part form the eight Doctor in the upcoming series he deserves some more time as well.
Looking forward to the next Doctor Who series.
What really bothers me is what message this sends to white men, who seem to be disqualified from equality considerations more and more. The BBC-engineered phrase "male and pale"* is a disgusting expression - the sentiment and intent behind it would never be tolerated for any other race or gender group.
* "male and pale" came into popular parlance when then BBC director-general Greg Dyke used it in a speech to promote greater diversity in the corporation.
That is what I expect. They could only go the Tennant/Smith direction again which would endanger the series as much. This is a whole new possibility with some great chances, it will most certainly not be a stale choice.
The 007 choice will never be female as like the character Shaft it is quite clearly a male thing.
The Doctor with the regeneration has always left the options open in what the Doctor could change, there was always a possibility of change.
James Bond is a man. A human man. He's been played by a number of actors but it's still just different interpretations of the same guy. His creator wrote him as a man.
The doctor is an alien and his species have a very fluid concept of gender and race. The only reason he's been a man for this long is because he just happened to not have turned into a woman yet. And really, as someone pointed out a couple of pages back, it's a bit silly that he's regenerated so many times and has always been a white male since he can apparently be anything. I found an article the other week, posted here somewhere, about how one of the creators of the show suggested getting a woman to play the part years ago. He's always said for as long as I've been watching that it's a lottery and he could turn into anyone and we've even seen other time lords change gender. His arch enemy has been a woman for the last few years.
You could have a go at their reasons for casting a woman (personally I think it was more to do with boosting ratings than box ticking) but we won't be able to judge that until we actually see her in the part. It could just be that the new showrunner had a certain vision in mind (Moffat said he was deliberately seeking an older actor last time and noone accused him of pandering).
It definitely won't kill the show imo. The BBC probably wanted a radical change to bring more publicity and boost ratings, and at the moment it seems to be working: even on here there are members who don't watch the show and have never paricipated in this thread commenting on the decision, and I think the fans who are passionate enough to hate the decision are big enough fans that they'll tune in anyway.
I'm just glad they did something different. I was very worried that the lower ratings under Capaldi would scare them into playing it safe and going for a Tennant/Smith clone but instead it seems to have done the opposite: they're going all out with an even bigger risk to try and breath some life back into things. Can't fault them really. Looking forward to seeing how it works out. And if she is a flop, oh well, she can regenerate again next Christmas (although personally I really can't see her or any chosen actor being that unpopular that they're sacked within a year).
The Time Lords are alive and kicking, why are their not female Time Lords? Why mess around with all this? The females regenerate into another female and the males into another male.
Does this mean now Bill Potts will fall in love with the new Dr and that their are gonna be a lot of awkward conversations for parents and younger children going forward? Their really is nothing respected anymore.
I don't know whether I will bother after the next special with this show? A bit like when I didn't bother with Top Gear when all that changed. I am sorry but you can mess with a formula too much. They say with Capaldi that they have lost a lot of the younger viewers they had when Tennant was the Dr? Well they have really chucked the baby out with the bath water on this one for me. I think they may well lose a lot of the older fan base with this choice.
Sorry peeps if this reads offensive as it isn't meant too. But sometimes you have to stand by your gut beliefs on whatever you believe in. I am not racist or sexist but this really has become a P/C farce!
So we have no investment in this but the decision I think is a good one and all the PC BS from some is just nauseating, The Doctor unlike Bond is an alien and nothing suggests that an incarnation of the Time Lord couldn't be female.
It's like some think it's OK now to decry this as it's gone to far and PC has taken over, no it's not PC it's progress at some point the Doctor would become female and Jodie Whittaker is a fine actress, might just tune in to see how she does.
The Doctor the character is not defined unlike Bond as a man, this is an alien who changes identity surely you must realise this would happen, PC has nothing to do with it.
Also if you say you aren't something usually means you have doubts you are.
"I'm not a sexist I know some women some of them are actually friends of mine"
Not sure if I'm going to watch the series past the Christmas special.
Well, no. I'm not sure where you got that from because for as long as I've been watching they've always said they could regenerate into anything. And from what I can tell it isn't a recent development either. One of the creators of the show wanted a woman
https://www.themarysue.com/doctor-who-creator-female-doctor/
So in the context of the show it's fine. Yeah maybe it wasn't explicitly stated that they could gender swap in the old series but was it ever explicitly stated that they couldn't? Because if not I don't see an issue. After all by that logic the whole idea of regeneration is a retcon because it wasn't mentioned until they needed a new actor.
I understand some of the complaints but it's not like they're contradicting the show itself.
Yeah I don't get this part of your post at all @RogueAgent? It'd be no different to when Rose fell in love with the doctor. And even if a same sex relationship was for some reason "awkward" to explain (it isn't), there have been a few gay characrers and gay romances on the show at this point. Bill had one last series. But yeah I'm pretty certain she's gone anyway.
He isn't really a male character though. Time lords are gender fluid. In the context of the show, it's purely coincidence that he's been a man every time.
Exactly. I understand some of the comments. @NicNac for example has been very fair about why he doesn't like the idea. But I don't understand the fans who are saying that the doctor is a male character and that they're messing with the show itself. The only reason he's been a male character for so long is because he's only regenerated into males. There's no reason he couldn't regenerate into a woman.
At the end of the day I haven't been watching for as long as a lot of you. And of course I understand how it feels when something special to you is altered in such a big way, I'd likely feel the same if a female Bond was cast. But it's silly trying to justify not wanting a female actor in the context of the show itself.
Not a fan of the idea of a male role model being turned into a woman when there's plenty of good roles for women on TV already, or not a fan because you're worried it'll just be a box ticking exercise and undermine the character by being "the female doctor" instead of just the doctor? Fair enough. Not a fan of the idea because "the doctor is male"? Doesn't make sense.
I agree with a lot of this. At the end of the day the only reason the show has been around as long as it has is its ability to change. Since it came back the lead character has changed from a mancunian war veteran to a dashing romantic yet nerdy hero to a more foppish nerdy hero to a pragmatic, grumpy aging rockstar. Doctor Who thrives on change and for me this change is a welcome one, I'm excited to see how it plays out.
Well said. The character is an alien.
I doubt that Bond will ever be anything other than male. That's the character.
Well, taking the BBC's most successful dramas of the last few years - Sherlock, The Night Manager, Poldark, Happy Valley, War & Peace... you'll find them pretty healthily populated with white, heterosexual males. Usually as the protagonist or antagonist, in many cases both. There are certainly people who would rather have anything but, but they're usually urchins who hang around on social media, much the same as those that think everyone is out to get the endangered straight, white, male.
1. Definition of Broflake
2. Newsthump: Fictional time travellers don’t...
Well, doesn't that just take the biscuit.
Afraid the show has made a rod for its own back, and regardless of viewing figures they will have to cover all ethnic minorities and all sexes until the BBC notice no one is watching anymore and they pull the plug.
Turning Dr Who (not forgetting they'd already pulled this same PR stunt with the Master to Missy regeneration) into a transgender time traveler is surly one of the most idiotic decisions the Beeb has come up with in recent years, and smacks of virtue-signaling of the utmost extreme. Sure, it'll get publicity, but so what! After the initial buzz-feed has died down, all they're going to be left with is a series that's lost its own mythology and, for want of a better word, direction. To call someone that doesn't like something a "Daily Mail reader" is both puerile and uncouth. You neither hold the moral high-ground nor the intellectual superiority card in your hand when you make such a bold and infantile claim. And if you believe the often-recited: "he's an alien, so he can regenerate into anything" schtick, then why has he waited up until yesterday, after 12 male regenerations, to turn himself into a hausfrau? Because some trendy, latte-drinking hipster has decreed it, that's why.
I do find it odd when people use this as an argument:
"WHAT? A female Doctor!? What's next, a [FICTIONAL CHARACTER THAT HAS NEVER HAD THE ABILITY TO REGENERATE INTO A DIFFERENT SEX/RACE]"
I don't understand how any person who proclaims to be a fan of Doctor Who can't see the character ever being anything but male. This regeneration has been decades in the making! We have been told the Doctor can turn into a woman for years.
Imagine if for 50+ years we'd only seen the TARDIS travel to the past, despite being told repeatedly it could also travel to the future. This feels like the announcement of the first ever 'future episode.'
Although I am a fan of Capaldi's Doctor I was initially a little disappointed when he was announced as it seemed a bit 'same-old, same-old.' This feels like a proper change.
My worry is that the writers may have a transgender agenda behind it - if they do then this is PC tosh - much like the nonsense I saw in the news about how TFL staff on the London Underground now can't say 'Ladies and Gentlemen'. Why? Because it might offend someone who isn't male or female? It might offend a time travelling alien with two hearts who isn't human and can be either male or female?
Although the Doctor is a 'time lord'. Can ladies be lords?
My reading of transgender people is that they become the gender/person they always felt they were inside, so although the female Doctor will likely be a trans icon I'm not sure it's a perfect fit (who says they have to be, though?) as they will still 'feel' they are the Doctor.
In the series there are both Time Lords and Time Ladies. Dunno what the new doctor will call themselves. TBH I would be perfectly happy if the new Doctor pays the same level of interest in their appearance as they always do: a quick comment about their hair colour, ear size and then moving on - with no mention of their sex as it matters so little to them!
This said, I have nothing against changing the race or the sex of a character as long as there is a logical reason behind it. Idris Elba as Heimdahl ? Well, Heimdahl is a god, and who are we to question a god's choice of skin tone ? Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger ? A wizard did it. Naomie Harris as Moneypenny ? Reboot. The Doctor as a woman ? He/She's an alien, and nothing contradicts it (in fact, there are quite a few things that corroborates it in the series proper). Bond becoming black or asian ? No, thank you !
As Colin Baker said : She is the Doctor, whether you like it or not. And that will be my only word on that subject. For the others, you have more than fifty years of material in the series you can go back to, with a male Doctor. That should last you quite a while (Myself, I'm only halfway in Tom Baker's run, having finished "Image of the Fendahl").
Whether it will happen or not, I don't know. We are in new territory here. Episode 1 next year will have the best viewing figures for years, but if the writing is poor then there is nothing Jodie W can do about it, people will lose interest fast.
If they had made the War Doctor female then this change would have been a little easier to take on board. As it is they are throwing the dice once more ( Capaldi was appreciated by hard core fans but not by the general public). Kris Marshall would have been 'safe'. This is another gamble.
He can regenerate into anything though. That's something that's been established for at least the last few years and it's not even like it's the new writers messing with the show: the creator of the show wanted a woman to take over at one point. If you don't like the idea fair enough but it isn't going against the mythology of the show. There is no in show reason for him being a man for so long, it's purely coincidence. At the end of the day he's only been male for this long because they've only cast male actors, not because he can't regenerate into a woman.