Following Alex Kingston’s comments on the Doctor possibly regenerating into a woman, we asked our followers whether they’d accept a woman in the lead Doctor Who role, here’s what happened.
With 254 votes cast, those not in favour win it by 58% of the vote to 42% in favour.
Some of the comments we received included:
River Song actress Alex Kingston placed herself in the no camp earlier this week, saying:
“I can’t imagine the Doctor being a different gender. Too many men have played that role, I would imagine, if anything, the Doctor might be of different race than gender. Essentially, if one goes back historically, it’s really been a little boys’ show and girls have been brought onto it… Certainly, when I was a child, I loved it as well but, and I hope women don’t hate me for this, I do think the Doctor has to be a guy actually. It’d be very interesting for River if it was a woman.”
She was joined in her rejection of the idea by Missy actress Michelle Gomez who suggested the change would be too much for now back in June:
“I just can’t see past Peter Capaldi’s Doctor right now. I guess maybe one day they could try that but it feels like switching gender with The Master is change enough for now. We Whovians are a loyal bunch and don’t like too much change. I feel like I’ve rocked the boat enough for now, let’s not sink the whole bloody ship.”
Steven Moffat meanwhile said in March that he doesn’t feel that the show would lose a role model if the character’s gender was changed:
“There’s an aspect to it where you could say that if you made the Doctor female you’d lose a fairly unique rare role model, I’m not sure if I’m completely persuaded by that argument purely because I don’t think the Doctor is the role model of Doctor Who. He isn’t. Because you can’t really base yourself on the Doctor. He’s off the spectrum, barking mad, from space and has lots of mysterious abilities that we do not. How do you base yourself on that? The role model is actually the other character, his best friend, the person who deals with this out of control, overgrown schoolboy racing around the universe being rather too imperious and too interfering for his own good.”
And in August, the Grand Moff stated that the time hasn’t been right in the past, yet believes he’s made it possible:
“I think it would have been a disaster if we’d cast a female Doctor when David [Tennant] left. I believe. Disaster. Possible, this time. I think I should get a little more credit for being the only person who’s made it possible. [Laughs.] It wasn’t part of the fiction of the show until I wrote it. And I keep establishing it. But I think when that day comes — whatever showrunner that is — then the BBC will say, “Tell me how this is definitely going to work.” Because, I tell you, there are two venomous packs here. A lot of people in the middle, sensible enough to say, “If it’s good, I’ll like it; if it’s not good, I won’t like it.”
Steven finally summed everything up, pointing out the complexity of the argument and the fact there’s no vacancy to fill:
“It’s a long and complicated argument and there’s no vacancy in Doctor Who and given the way Peter is talking about it I don’t think there will be for a very long while.”
It is a debate that look’s set to run and run, but for now let’s all continue enjoying the sublime performances of Peter Capaldi, both this Christmas and hopefully for many years and series’ to come.
