With Peter Capaldi leaving Doctor Who, it’s finally time for a female Doctor

2 thoughts on “With Peter Capaldi leaving Doctor Who, it’s finally time for a female Doctor”

1. I hate the idea of a female doctor it would ruin the dynamic very much. Why am I fundamentally wrong?

   LikeLike

   Reply

   1. Hi Joseph!

      You’re approaching this from the wrong angle, you see. A female doctor wouldn’t ruin the dynamic of the show, or the dynamic between companions – it’d change it. And that’s your fundamental error.

      I mean, Peter Capaldi plays the Doctor in a very different way to how Matt Smith did, and both Capaldi and Smith are different to Tennant, who’s different to Eccleston… and so on and so forth. Right? This is typically accepted as a good thing – people might not like individual portrayals of the Doctor, sure, but I don’t think there’s anyone who argues specifically that having multiple Doctors is in any way a flaw of the show. It’s probably Doctor Who’s greatest asset – the malleability of the format, and the potential brought by the change of leads, is what’s allowed the show to continue for as long as it has.

      When the time came for Matt Smith to regenerate, a lot of people were calling for an older Doctor, to differentiate the Twelfth Doctor from the Eleventh and Tenth, who’d both been younger. Right? Moffat himself had this to say:

      It was time to change. Certain things we were doing a little reflexively. One of the hardest things to notice is when your new idea has become your old idea and it’s time to get rid of it.

      And he’s right! Peter Capaldi has brought a lot to the role, and his performance feels very distinct from Matt Smith’s.

      But I do think that it should be pushed further. Because at this stage, a male Doctor is the old idea – bringing in a female Doctor would change the dynamic, and open up a whole new field of storytelling potential.

      If I may be so self indulgent as to quote myself…

      I was reading a Doctor Who book once – I forget what it was, probably a guidebook of some sort – and it was talking about the younger Doctors, Davison and Smith, and how they experienced something of a culture shock after their regeneration; because they appeared much younger outwardly, people wouldn’t initially give them much respect, and it’d be harder for them to command authority initially. Obviously by the end of the episode, when they’ve saved everyone’s lives, it’s a little different, but I liked the idea that the Doctor has to adjust to the fact that people’s perceptions of them are different, so they perhaps can’t get they want quite as easily anymore.

      That is an idea. Only the one, mind, and it’s not even anything resembling a full characterisation. But it’s an interesting idea to examine, potentially, alongside plenty of other ideas you could examine.

      A female Doctor is going to have different interactions with the supporting cast. A female Doctor is going to have different interactions with their companions, be they male or female. A female Doctor is going to have different interactions with the setting, be it a historical setting, a futuristic setting, or an alien planet.

      The one of the many reasons why there’s a call for a female Doctor is essentially for the same reason why people eventually begin to call for a new Doctor, or a new showrunner: change offers potential, and this particular change is one that offers a huge amount of potential that Doctor Who has never tapped before.

      And that’s a really exciting prospect.

      LikeLike

      Reply