Female Doctor
A female Doctor is not a recent idea. After reading and writing about the history of the show, I find one part that says that John Nathan-Turner thought about it. So, this is not something which arises during our time.(1) The idea of a female Doctor does cause some Whovians to be angry. There are those who say that the Doctor has always been a man. There isn’t any give on their part. They are not open to any change in gender whatever.
For me to read and see that a female Doctor is to entertain in the 1980s comes as a surprise. I say this because that is a different time and people have different views of women. Then women are less prominent in such roles. Of course, there are still some people who have the same views. It may cause problems now, but I can’t imagine what it will do in the 80s.
In the early 80s, I am a child and haven’t even began to watch the show. I am not exposed to the kind of news we are today either. Being a 9 or 10 year old child I will not really care so much about the gender of the Doctor, but that does not mean there isn’t some who will. I wrote about an uproar this time, but if this takes place in the 80s the uproar will be greater.
I can see both sides of the story. There will be an uproar if the gender is changed. There are also some hardcore Whovians who will stop watching the program if there is a female Doctor. With the possibility of losing ratings, the idea will still get consideration. There also the chance that there is an increase in ratings and viewers. But Chris Chibnall says, “He does not want a gimmick.” I can see where a female Doctor may be a gimmick. Doctor Who is iconic and does not need gimmicks to get viewers.
Doctor Who is over fifty years old, and there isn’t anything that surprises me when it comes to the show. I am glad though that the gender remains a male in the 80’s. The show may never remain if they do it then. I figure the BBC did not want to cancel the show and this really could have kept the show on the air, but things were a little different than now. I don’t know what kind of reaction they would have received by changing gender in the 80’s.
