The Signs Were There...

OCTOBER 1980

"I hope whoever gets the part will have as happy a time as I've had. I wish him - or her - luck." - Tom Baker

"When naming various actors, I suddenly thought 'Why not?' and named an actress. John Nathan-Turner said, 'Hang on a moment. You can't have a her - think of his name. He's called the Doctor!' It wasn't a wild gimmick, but that moment of blank silence when I realized he couldn't get his mind around the idea was a classic!" - Christopher H. Bidmead

"TIME'S UP, DOCTOR - And the new Who could be a woman!
A spokesman to the BBC said last night: 'The part has not been offered to anyone, but we've spoken to various people and some of them have been ladies.'"
- Paul Donovan The Daily Mail


JUNE 1983

"Just when I thought that those awful rumors of 1980 were the thing of the past, Patrick Troughton was agreeing with Sue Lawley about a female Doctor. What a horrendous idea! There are very few things that could completely turn me off the series, but a female Doctor is one of them. What if he/she were to meet Susan again? Or go back to Draconia as a woman? It's just unthinkable. I find the concept monstrous and would like to prepare a petition, just in case." - Nicholas Pegg


JULY 1983

'PETER TO QUIT - Now BBC hunt for Lady Doctor!
Doctor Who is set to make his most sensational transformation ever. Plans are afoot to turn him into a woman.' - The Daily Express

"Producer John Nathan-Turner launched his search for a new Time Lord, admitting: 'I'm not ruling out the choice of a Lady Doctor.'" - Nick Ferrari, The Sun

Doctor Who? 1984-2003 predictions

AUGUST 1983

"The prospect of a female Doctor might well turn out to be fun. Surely no bad thing? Certainly any attempt at a "sex change" would raise many awkward questions, but let's be honest and admit that there are many taboo areas in the Doctor Who mythology. It might be possible a female Doctor would damage the viewing figures but doesn't each regeneration run the risk of the public rejecting the new Doctor? After twenty years of major changes, the show is as strong as ever. Why not keep changing? If Doctor Who has been anything, it's been imaginative." - Stephen Ryan


DECEMBER 1983

"The choice of Colin Baker surprised me, but I'm glad it wasn't a woman!"
- Stephen Richards


AUGUST 1984

"Having established that the Doctors could change, that they could transmogrify into another aspect of this character, then there was no real limit to the number of Doctors, or the sex of the Doctors, or the race of the Doctors." - Patrick Troughton


JUNE 1986

'Perhaps suprisingly, none of the entries cast a woman in the role of the Doctor...'
- Doctor Who Film Casting Competition


OCTOBER 1986

"Dr. Who should be metamorphosed into a woman. I want to avoid a flashy, Hollywood ‘Wonder Woman’ because this kind of hero(ine) with no flaws is a bore. Given more time than I have now, I can create such a character." - Sydney Newman


MARCH 1987

'It's amazing what can happen to that seasoned time traveller Doctor Who. On his next excursion among the heavenly bodies he may actually turn into one... and become Dr Her. And Joanna Lumley is materializing as one of the stars who could take a journey into space. So far 25 actors - including two women, Victoria Wood and Jill Gascoinge - have staked a claim to replace deposed Colin Baker as the next Time Lord. "I think from what we know about Time Lords that it's perfectly feasible," said show's producer John Nathan-Turner.'
 - Anne Caborn

'Already the newspapers are rumouring that the next Doctor might be a woman - all because a group of London feminists thinking this would be a good non-sexist idea have written to suggest it to the BBC's Alasdair Milne.' - Gallifrey Guardian # 122

"Let me kill the idea of a woman Doctor once and for all. Presumably the Doctor was born male. What would the Master be called if he was female - the Mistress? Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? Presumably this would also mean that Romana would be able to become a seven-foot hunk. And Time Ladies with names like Thalia? More seriously, it would break the Law of Time. The Time Lord/Lady in question would be able to mate with itself, producing... well, think about it." - Rob Hawkins

"If the BBC must get rid of Colin Baker, then I hope they at least have the sense to cast a male in the lead." - Simon Harries


APRIL 1987

"Now that Colin Baker is leaving the role of the Doctor and rumors are flying once again about a female taking over, let me give you my opinions on the subject. It is no more strange an idea than a space-time machine looking like a police box, it being bigger on the inside or a character being able to regenerate. My suggestion, with her 'Who-ish' smile, is Joanna Lumley. And if you still think a female Doctor is strange, then consider the humble oyster who changes sex several times a day!" - Matthew Priest

"This is the perfect time for a woman to take the lead, avoiding what has been described as 'possibly the most painful regeneration yet.' The seventh incarnation could be described as the Doctor's mid-life crisis - or perhaps all Gallifreyans develop traits of the opposite sex in the middle life." - Toby Baxter

"If they choose a woman to play the Time LORD then I for one am not going to watch the next series. A female Doctor would ruin the show, that is something I do not want to see."
- P. Tricker

"I hope that John Nathan-Turner will take heed of the fact that the Doctor is male - a grandFATHER and Time LORD. I'm not sexist, but a female Doctor is as ridiculous as a male Miss Marple." - Ian Mason



MAY 1987

'Will there ever be a woman Doctor? JN-T has said it isn't likely, and many fans vehemently oppose the idea of a sex change for their beloved hero. Pity. It's a shame to put unnecessary limitations upon a format that otherwise has almost-limitless potential in stories and characters. And the right actress in the role might be VERY interesting. If Time Lords receive a single set of sex chromosones at the beginning of life, the chance for a change of gender with regeneration should be nil. But should that be the case?"
- Forum: Could There Be A Lady Doctor


JUNE 1987

"1) The impression of fixed gender has always been evident. Susan always referred to the Doctor as 'Grandfather' and never as 'Grandmother' or 'Grandparent.'
2) If Gallifreyans possess the amazing ability to switch sex at will, why has it remained such a closely-guarded secret until now? Surely we would have heard of it.
3) If Gallifreyans were hermaphroditic beings, there would be no hes and shes in the first place.
4) If sudden sex changers occur, how do you explain the male appearance of the Valeyard?
5) If a female Gallifrey has to live for a few hundred years as a man before attaining womanhood how in the name of E-Space do they propagate their race?
6) Colin Baker looks nothing like an oyster
Apart from that, I think it's a wonderful idea." - David Muir


NOVEMBER 1987

"The Doctor could never become a lady, because he started out as a man. The general public would never accept a woman Doctor. I will never forgive John Nathan-Turner for starting this ridiculous issue." - Trevor Gensch


NOVEMBER 1989

The Incredible Hulk Presents... the Eighth Doctor

FEBRUARY 1991

'A total of 120 actors (and actresses) were nominated to play the Doctor in a future series or film...' - poll results


JULY 1991

"The Doctor Joanna Lumley would play would have a unique style: not so much contemptuous of mere humans' failure as amused at quite how much energy and effort we'd be putting into the wrong problem. After she decided it was important and it interested her after all, she'd identity the true problem and then settle it effortlessly and permanently. Her companion would be over-eager to start helpling before the real problems were identifi and also be fit/skilled enough to provide muscle when it was in fact actually required.

Glenda Jackson's ability to play both the impervious and the mad compellingly is well-established: her Doctor would suffer ignorance with impatience and fools not at all. Her companion needs to be an accomplished diplomat capable of translating the Doctor's terse and pithy comments into polite suggestions. She would be performing a sort of social ombudsman's role to those who've felt the impact of the Doctor's forceful personality.

Kate O'Mara's ability to blaze, to dominate without speaking a word would give us a commanding Doctor the like of which we'd never seen before. Her Doctor would have problems no other incarnation has had, problems not of energizing people into acting as she desires but of having to be everywhere at once BECAUSE of her ability to keep an eye on and intimidate people unconvinced of her plans. Whenever she leaves, the previously-enthusiastic will realize/remember that they DON'T agree with her and can't understand why they ever thought they did.

That O'Mara has already played the role of the Rani is not a problem but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a "hook" for a story in which the Rani masquerades as the Kate O'Mara Doctor. We might never really be able to tell if it really was the Doctor or the Rani who'd triumphed!"
- Peter Pinto


OCTOBER 1991

"The suggestion of a female Doctor would surely destroy the show's credibility in the eyes of many. The Doctor cannot become female. The Doctor is male because that is how he has always appeared. If the Doctor is an epicene and can therefore appear as a woman, but where does that leave his granddaughter Susan? So can we drop this female Doctor nonsense?" - Huw Davies

"That Joanna Lumley should play the Doctor is frankly absurd. If Time Lords can change sex at will, then Susan's husband might be in for a nasty surprise." - Daniel Blythe


MARCH 1992

'Could the Doctor be played by a woman? We thought about the likes of Judy Dench, which would make a very interesting concept...'
- Nic Jangels on Darklight's bid for new Doctor Who series


SEPTEMBER 1992

"It's nonsense that the Doctor can't APPEAR female. It is also nonsense to suggest Joanna Lumley as the Doctor. The role needs an ACTOR, not a star name!" - James Guthrie


AUGUST 1995

Decalog 2: Lost Property is released. It replaced an anthology about the female twelfth Doctor trying to prevent the creation of the Valeyard.


OCTOBER 1995

The announcement of a new Doctor Who film has journalists claiming it will star either Joanna Lumley or Carolyn Seymor as the Doctor.

"I cannot think of a single reason why a woman should not be the Doctor. There is nothing intrinsically male about the character. The more I think about a woman playing the part of the Doctor, the more I am convinced that the structure of the programme would not have to be altered at all to accomodate such a change, as long as writers don't fall into the trap for writing for a conventional heroine, having villains fall for her and making an issue about her gender.

The female Doctor should be an unconventional woman, neither a damsel in distress or a muscled gun-toting warrior. She wouldn't be interest in love or sex or wearing make up or clothes that restricted movement. She is an aristocratic adventuress, extremely bright and eccentric to the point of mild lunacy, she would rarely be seen out of khaki and wear a leather flying cap with goggles pulled up on her forehead - a woman of some maturity, as tough as old boots, putting her enemies down a fierce wit and a fiercer right-hook.

Should she travel into the past and find herself confronted by an enormous amount of taken-for-granted sexism, she would quickly deal with this prejudice with a cutting remark and get on with saving the day. She would challenge assumptions with her actions, rather than trying to educate the narrow-minded men she met with long speeches.

Surely if a woman can play the Captain in Star Trek, a woman could play the Doctor?"
- Matthew Jones


DECEMBER 1995

"Obviously people are going to disagree with me, but I feel that a change or both formula and gender is necessary so that the show can break what was, in the last fours in particular, becoming a stereotypical mould." - Neil Blanks


JANUARY 1996

"Of course Americans will understand a thirty-year-old British adventure show, and intellectualize a once-great idea into a continuity-laden, angst-ridden melodrama. Let's make Doctor Who a nice sexy chick, someone like Teri Hatcher? What about a tunic, something figure-hugging, that would be needed to sell this sorry sucker..." - Dan Lovelace


JULY 1998

"We could cast a man or a woman. That's possible, although we haven't decided yet."
- Dave Thompson, BBC Films Producer

"kd Lang would be good. You mustn't have a sort of Wonder Woman, though."
- Christopher H Bidmead

'ITV's teletext phone in survey to elect the people's choice of Doctor was won by Honor Blackman, coming out top with 23%.' - BBC News Website

"Yes, I'd like to be the new Doctor, and if anyone out there has any influence in casting, put in a good word for me." - Claudia Christian

"No doubt the BBC thinks it would very politically correct and modern to change the Doctor into a woman, but why does it need to? When Doctor Who is capable of winning an award for best drama, it is easy to see that there is no need to interfere with Doctor Who's basic premise. Captain Janeway is an original character, whereas the Doctor already exists. A female Doctor would change the show beyond all recognition and it would be better if the title was changed also." - Richard Layton


AUGUST 1998

'Horror of horrors - THE NEXT DOCTOR MIGHT BE PLAYED BY A WOMAN!

In 1986, several Labor Euro MPs wrote to BBC Director General Alisdair Milne demanding Colin Baker's replacement be a woman. "It will encourage girls to think of making careers in science" was their rather-spurious claim.

What if Time Lords CAN swap sexes or somesuch when they regenerate? In The Hand of Fear, the Kastrian Eldrad's body is seen to regenerate itself, transmuting from an alien with secondary sexual characteristics broadly similar to a human female to one broadly male. Registering the fact that the Doctor appears to be surprised by this gender-bending, the new Eldrad laughs: "Come Doctor, as a Time Lord you should be well-acquainted with the process of regeneration!" Does s/he know something we don't?

In Logopolis, the Watcher is a "future projection" of the Doctor, ethereal, fuzzy and entirely androgynous - adding further weight to the idea that Gallifreyan gender is fluid at best.

There's no real reason why the Doctor shouldn't be a man, a woman, a father, a mother, straight, gay, bi, asexual, bigamous, polygamous, light-skinned, dark-skinned, blue-skinned - whatever. If clever, witty trustworthy people decide that a future Doctor does not have to be seen in the form a white Anglo-Saxon male, then good luck to them!'
- Sex and the Single Gallifreyan

'Who would have played the Doctor if she'd been a woman from the first?

DWM rounds up the likely ladies...

1963-66 Hermione Baddely
1966-69 Vivian Pickles
1970-74 Liz Fraser
1974-81 Frances de la Tour
1982-84 Jan Francis
1984-86 Lynda Bellingham
1987-89 Pauline Melville
1996 Miranda Richardson'
- Who's that Girl?


MARCH 1999

'...a very spirited and likeable female Jane Asher-esque Seventh Doctor is a high-point...'
- review of The Wrath of Eukor, Why Don't You...?

The Curse of Fatal Death screens with the Thirteenth Doctor being revealed as a blonde woman played by Joanna Lumley.

"It's sacrilege to say it, I know, but Joanna Lumley was a terrifically pompous, in-control potential Doctor. What a great audition piece!" - Andrew McAleer

"Didn't you find your reservations about a female Doctor crumbling as Joanna Lumley stood up?" - Clayton Hitckman


JUNE 1999

"Cast a woman by all means. Why not? But make sure you err on the side of Stephanie Cole rather than Joanna Lumley." - Mark Gatiss


JULY 1999

David A McIntee's Autum Mist ends with Sam Jones asking the Eighth Doctor "So. . . does that mean you could even change sex? Regenerate into a woman? I mean, how would that work?" His reply? "I'll explain later."


SEPTEMBER 1999

"How dare all these incarnations - save for Lumley - be so instantly acceptable when it's a recognized given that a new Doctor can't even begin to be liked until they've completed a season?" - Vanessa Bishop


JULY 2000

Mike Tucker's Prime Time has the Seventh Doctor muse, "I could be a girl one day."


MAY 2001

"The trouble with Doctor Who is that they've never had a woman play the Doctor. My greatest ambition is to play Dr. Who! I think it would be rather fun. Why has there never been a woman, I ask myself?" - Eleanor Bron


OCTOBER 2001

"I'd like to see the Doctor come back as a woman. I want to play Dr. Who! Isn't it about time we had a female Doctor? I think it would make rather a nice change if HE came back as a SHE. It would be a dream come true! Such a treat! Half the women in this country want to play the Doctor!" - Rula Lenska

"I could could become Doctor Who! I could, couldn't I? Ooh, Yes! Everyone wants to play Dr Who, don't they?" - Jasmine Breaks

"A female Doctor?! Oh Lordy. He's back... and it's about bikini zones, window shopping and PMT."  - Benjamin Cook



MARCH 2003

"I'd like to do a modern version of Dr Who starring someone like Judi Dench."
 - Jane Tranter, BBC Head of Drama


SEPTEMBER 2003

"I think it's high time that Doctor Who was a woman. There is nothing in the stories to say the Doctor can't be female. I'd like to see somebody really scary, Amazonian, highly-intelligent and gorgeous: someone who could be a complete handful. Rachel Stirling could do it because she's got great charisma. Dame Maggie Smith would be brilliant. I'd like the Doctor as dive rather than being played by some dippy, wide-eyed girl. For too long the Doctor has been played as a very heavy melancholic man with Victorian gravitas. The producers of the ninth series should cast their net slightly wider than the usual white male."
- Paul McGann (on whether he thinks Richard E Grant should be his replacement)


Arabella Weir stars as the female Unbound Third Doctor in Nicholas Briggs' Exile.

"It's a big honor playing the first bona fide lady Doctor, is 'wicked, man!' I think the next regeneration should be Catherine Zeta Jones - she's a genius. Or Beyonce Knowles - it'd be nice to see a black woman. Or Britney Spears - yeah, she'd make a damn good Doctor. If I were to regenerate into a man, I'd shag lots of women. Isn't that what all blokes want to do all day long? I'd just shag all the time. You can put that in your magazine, can't you? And not listen to anyone - I'd do that! I'd not listen to anybody, shag lots of women and get pissed. And not care what anybody thought about me." - Arabella Weir


OCTOBER 2003

"I'd like Dawn French to play the Doctor. I doubt anyone is entirely male or female. I'm certainly in touch with my feminine side." - Colin Baker


APRIL 2005

"Miriam Margolyes, she'd be wonderful. That's who I think should be the Doctor. It's about time we had a woman, isn't it?" - Simon Callow


MAY 2005

'DAVIES RULES OUT FEMALE DR WHO
Russell T Davies says he wouldn't let a woman become the next Time Lord after Christopher Eccleston - never in a million years! Asked if he would allow a female actor to become the next Doctor, Davies said: "Nah! Imagine having to explain that one to your kids - that Dr Who has lost his willy!"' - Marc Baker, Wales on Sunday


MARCH 2008

The Dark Husband starring Sylvester McCoy has a scene where he notes his next regeneration could be a woman.


NOVEMBER 2008

David Tennant quits Doctor Who and suggests Billie Piper could take over the role: "Why not?"


JANUARY 2009

"Please don't let the next Doctor be a woman! That's the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard, even more ridiculous than the priest that could turn into a giant wasp." - Rebecca Yallop

"In my opinion, the Eleventh Doctor should be played by a woman for a change. I'd love to see American actress Winona Ryder in the role, provided she loses her American accent to make her own Doctor sound very British." - Graham Keenan

"I found myself laughing in agreement when Ben Cook argued that the casting of a woman in the role of the Doctor would be 'rubbish' and 'like casting a female James Bond.' I hope my reaction doesn't reveal any latent sexism on my part, I just believe that many of those qualities of the Doctor to which we apply the label 'Doctorish' are male qualities. If you lose those qualities, what sort of Doctor have you got? Miriam Margolyes dressed up in Amelia Earhart-style flying gear and carrying a carpet bag? It's an interesting idea, but I thought we had moved beyond such gimmickry..." - Malcolm Stewart


APRIL 2009

The Two Irises by Simon Gurrier has Katy Manning's Iris Wildthyme regenerate into a male incarnation played by David Benson.


DECEMBER 2009

"New TARDIS interior could be a woman!" - the Space/Time Telegraph


JANUARY 2010

The first scene of the Eleventh Doctor and Steven Moffat as showrunner has the Time Lord wonder if he's regenerated female.

"As you've just seen, the Eleventh Doctor checks his hair and wonders if he's a girl. Given that the science of regeneration is nonsense, I don't think there's a SCIENTIFIC reason he couldn't do it. But it's a problem of narrative. Would you actually think it was still him/her? Would you actually think 'that's still William Hartnell'?

A woman Doctor could happen one day, and it's an exciting possibility. I would worry that you could no longer believe it was the same person, cos that's a BIG one. If a man changes his shape and appearance, I could believe it's still him. I wonder if making him female might push it? May not. Maybe someone will come along who's much more up-to-date and modern than me and it could work - but I would worry you might not believe...

The Doctor is quite blokey in certain respects, there are certain aspects of him that are quite male - his inability to settle down, his restlessness, his desire to avoid emotion and tinker with his engine - which all feel to me to be quite male. But someone else may one day come along and say 'That's a rule, let's break it!'

That's great when people do that." - Steven Moffat


JANUARY 2011

DI Patricia Menzies (Anna Hope) convinces people she is a regenerated Doctor in Jonathan Morris' The Crimes of Thomas Brewster.


MARCH 2011

Gallifrey 4: Annihilation sees Romana, Leela and Narvin travel to a Gallifrey where Borusa is a woman (Katy Manning).


JUNE 2013

"An audience that lacks the imagination to welcome a female Dr. Who is hardly equipped to enjoy anything at all about the show in general." - Christopher H Bidmead

The Harvest of Time by Alistair Reynolds shows a female incarnation of the Master.


JULY 2013

"It will happen. Having been poisoned by space dust, the Doctor will stagger into the TARDIS, mortally done for. He'll tip back his head, blazing with light, his features will blur... then in his place will be Vick McClure, Gina McKee or Lesley Sharp and in that moment, we the gawping audience, will feel how the kids felt watching The Power of the Daleks did after Bill Hartnell died - disbelieving, disturbed and a little bit scared. And a whole fortnight later, because McClure/McKee/Sharp are great actors, we'll have forgotten anyone else played the Doctor at all." - Alan Barnes

"The entranced conservatism of certain Who fans always annoyed me, but the anti-female Doctor stuff is horrible. The Who casting at the same time as the gay marriage debate means I'm hearing the same crap points from two direction. Is there any reasonable and non-horrible argument that the Doctor should be played by a man? No." - Paul Cornell

"Isn't it time the Doctor became a woman? Most responses to that question are from female fans (many calling themselves feminists) who don't want the Doctor played by a woman, and that a big part of Doctor Who's appeal for them comes from the way its male hero is portrayed." - Tom Spilsbury

"As feminists we are always asking men to change, to become less aggresive and to value equality. The idea of feminists arguing that we should take away the only male role model that appears to use his brain rather than weapons or fists seems rather alien to me." 
 - Claire Budd, The Independent

"If people think a female Dr Who is the answer to inequality then they need to grow up. It's telly. He's a bloke." - Sarah Pinborough


AUGUST 2013

'As has now become traditional in these times, the possibility of the next Doctor being a woman has been speculated upon - bookmakers' favorites include Billie Piper, Jennifer Saunders, Sue Perkins, Olivia Colman, Helen Mirren and Miranda Hart...' - Gallifrey Guardian

"Really? Who, me? Are you serious? That's hilarious!" - Miranda Hart

'Whenever a Doctor is leaving there's speculation about whether the next Doctor might be female with one side arguing vociferously that it's about time, what difference it would make and why not with the other side responding to the "why not" by pointing out it would raise lots of Awkward Questions, that's bloody why not!

If the world is not ready for the Doctor to be played by a woman, it is certainly not ready for the Doctor to be played by a man (Paul O'Grady) pretending to be a woman (Lilly Savage).

If Time Lords DO change sex during their twelfth regeneration, it might explain why the Valeyard was keen to defer it.

Now, Catherine Tate as the Doctor Donna - THAT'S how you play a female Doctor!'
 - Jonathan Morris, The 67 Doctors...



SEPTEMBER 2013

"Will they cast a woman as the Doctor? Appartently, it's the question on everyone's lips. More likely, it's on the lips of a small percentage of fans and a few journalist. The Doctor is a man, so he's played by one. The producers could cast a woman if they wanted, but then they could regenerate him into a talking dog - but there comes a point the programme stops being Doctor Who." - Michael J Billinghurts

"Nobody is calling for the Master a woman, so why should the Doctor suddenly become a Time Lady? The Doctor has only regenerated into a woman in spoofs and with good reason."
- Terry Leese

"If the Doctor was to become a gender-bender, the show would die quicker than a Gary Glitter comeback concert. A female Doctor is a gimmick, and a poor one at that. I would certainly never watch the show again. It would become a joke." - Roger Shore

"The Twelfth Doctor might be a woman? It's a real turn-off for the next series! There is no record in Doctor Who history of there being a sex change in regeneration!"
- Steve Backnell

"She's just given an amazing audition - the humor, the madness, the charm, brilliant chemistry with the companion, the centre of every scene, standing up to the monsters while falling over her own feet. The quality that each actor has brought: being completely new but unmistakably the Doctor. But this actor doesn't get the role because 'it's telly, the Doctor's a bloke and we'd rather have a man being a positive role model than a woman'? How is that not horrible?" - Vin Marsden Hendrick

"My suggestion is the Fourteenth Doctor should be a woman as whatever solution is thought of give the Doctor more than the allotted thirteen lives could also result in him changing sex." - Tim Bishop


OCTOBER 2013

"Some say why not have a clever, funny, strong, positive, peacemaking, thinking, non-conformist female role model for boys? But would boys really truly see themselves in that character? Would their fathers encourage them to rush around the living room pretending to be a woman? I think they'd be worried their boy was impersonating a feminine character. A female Doctor may well be the future, but the rest of us need to catch up a bit first." - Claire Budd, The Doctor Shouldn't Be A Woman

"The Doctor has already been a woman, she was just played by a male actor, Jon Pertwee. The Doctor isn't a bloke at all, but in fact a fictional alien character and only a bloke because blokes have been cast as the Doctor by blokes. Real people in real-life change their gender and if real-life can manage it, why not fantasy? A female Doctor would be an amazing role model for boys because they would see that intelligence, courage and resisting bullies without resorting to violence don't depend on gender."
- Una McCormack, The Doctor Should Be A Woman

"In recent years we've have a female Starbuck and a Joan Watson and those are characters who CAN'T change their physical form. Oh and for those who worry about canon and established facts, in The Doctor's Wife the Doctor mentions the Corsair - both a 'strapping big bloke' and 'a bad girl'. So there we have it: canonical precedence." - Dan Tessier

"If HE regenerates into a SHE, part of why I love the show will be gone." - Jay Deadman

"At the risk of being called 'horrible' by Paul Cornell, there are good reasons why the Doctor should not be female. Viewers will be unable to suspend their disbelief if a woman is cast, especially American viewers and overseas markets who are closed-minded about the sex change of a title character." - Tom Harris, MP for Glasgow


NOVEMBER 2013

The overall poll result showed 66 per cent of fans, both male and female, were against the idea of a female Doctor - so of the 2700 voters, the anti-lady Doctor crowd were 1800.

In The Night of the Doctor, the Sisterhood of Karn offer to tailor-make the Doctor's ninth regeneration - including age, personality and gender.

"Everyone forgets we already have a female Doctor - his daughter, Jenny! Spin-off series, anyone?"  - Matt Brown



JULY 2014

The War Doctor novel Engines of War by George Mann shows Borusa regenerating into a woman. 


AUGUST 2014

"I think they need to re-examine his surname - 'Who' is very oriental. It's about time they had an Asian actor as The Doctor. And a female one." - BRIAN BLESSED!!!

Flatline features Clara taking up the mantle of the Doctor when the original is trapped.

"I quite like that, way back when the Twelfth Doctor was being cast, people were asking if there will ever be a female Doctor. We have a chance to do that. There's a lot of joy in seeing a character ask 'Who are you?' and Clara saying 'I'm the Doctor!' She's a better Doctor than the Doctor himself..." - Jamie Mathieson

"Jenna Coleman totally owns it when she declares 'I'm the Doctor,' and gives the sonic screwdriver a characteristic flick." - Graham Kibble-White


OCTOBER 2014

Michelle Gomez's character Missy, Gatekeeper to the Nethersphere, is revealed to the Master regenerated into female form and the Doctor concedes he too might regenerate into a woman one day. Clara also bluffs the Cybermen she is a regenerated Doctor.

"For all we know, the Master might have spent much longer as a woman than as a man in his various pre-Delgado incarnations..." - Fraser Welsh

"Now that the Master has become a woman, does this mean the BBC is preparing the public for the Doctor played by a woman?" - Nabil Shaban

"This fanboy had no problem with the gender reassignment visited on the character, no problem with the fictional logic nor real-life reasoning. Not everyone was happy but it's interesting to note that no one really batted an eyelid when she claimed the Doctor was her boyfriend - something that once, not so long ago, was also 'unthinkable...'" 
- Graham Kibble White


DECEMBER 2014

"It's about time Doctor Who tore up and rulebook and shook things about with a female Master! Change is key to the show and people should embrace it." - Nicholas Brent

"Now that we've seen how brilliantly the Master can be played by a woman, I really hope that when the sad day comes for the Twelfth Doctor to depart, his successor will take female form. Miranda Hart, anyone?"  - Tomasina Philips

"If Peter Capaldi is succeeded by a woman I will be done watching a show that formed me as a person. My boyhood hero is simply not a woman. I could not accept a future Doctor as a woman. Doctor Who was a role model for me as a boy and that's how I view the character today." - Paul Western


JANUARY 2015

"I strongly hope the next Doctor IS female. Why can't a woman be a hero? Doctor Who needs to have a strong character who saves the day, not necessarily a male character as Clara has demonstrated." - Florence Austin

"My problem with a female Master and female Doctor is that the show is beginning to feel more like a reboot as up until now Moffat and Davies did a good job of making it feel like a continuation of the original run." - Terry Leese

"OK, now we have a female Master and there's mounting pressure for a female Doctor when Capaldi leaves, I want to have his granddaughter played by Idris Elba - at least this highlights how silly all this talk is about the Doctor being a woman. It was a jokey comment by Tom Baker ages ago. He's a bloke! END OF! LET'S MOVE ON!" - David McArthur

"Anybody who says that they'll stop watching Doctor Who if the Doctors gender or ethnicity (as percieved by us pudding brains) changes can save themselves some time and just stop now, as they've apparently been missing the whole point of the show so far."
- Neil Stewart Nichols


APRIL 2015

"The Doctor was also one of my niece's role models when she was younger and nobody seemed to have a problem with that. Maybe she could have identified better with a Doctor of her own gender, I don't know. If so, the solution certainly ISN'T to create a new Time Lady character who will always be seen as a second-rate Doctor - because if she's shown as more awesome than the Doctor, the fanboys will doubtless complain about that as well." 
- David Kennedy

"Part of me loves the idea of the next Doctor being a woman while another is wary of such a drastic change to the show. Until the Twelfth Doctor hangs up his magician's cloak, let's just enjoy the current and frankly astounding genius of Mr. Capaldi." - Cory Eadson

"I've been attacked for being so socially-progressive that I NEED to change the Doctor's gender AND for being so right-wing that I REFUSE to change the Doctor! I'm the only writer or producer who has confirmed that the Doctor CAN change gender! As to whether Missy makes it more or less likely, there's only one way to cast the Doctor and that is the person who brings the part alive. It can't be for any other reason, it can't be in order to reform the world. I want the most conservative, reactionary, traditionalist Doctor Who fan to come with it - because if we lost the audience, the show would go off the air! There's still a sizeable number of people who are EXTREMELY skeptical of the idea, not as many as there used to be, but still a lot of people who say they don't like that idea. Get it wrong and it is finished."
- Steven Moffat


NOVEMBER 2015

The Black Hole by Simon Gurrier sees male Time Lord Constable Pavo (Anthony Keetch) regenerate into a woman (Janet Dibley)

'Bound together with the Doctor's companion, Missy easily steps up to take the lead, creating a kind of "through the glass darkly" take on the man himself. The scene where she bodily protects her new charge helps sell the assertion - and there can surely be no dissenters here - that it's only charisma and not a specified gender which is required to embody this children's own hero.' - Graham Kibble-White


DECEMBER 2015

The Doctor kills the General (Ken Bones) causing his regeneration back into a woman (T'Nia Miller).

"Seeing another Time Lord regenerate was something I've always wanted to do. The Doctor will regenerate into a woman one day. Fans have been talking about it for years, but the general audience has not. By the end of this series, the general audience will be saying 'Why is he always a man?' That question will probably have been raised because it's now been done prominently with nobody making a fuss about it. No one makes a fuss about the General changing gender. Last year, the Doctor barely reacted at all to the fact that the Master is now a woman. He doesn't seem to regard it as of any consequence. Hoorah!" 
- Steven Moffat



JUNE 2016

The Trouble With Drax by John Dorney has a female incarnation of Drax (Miranda Raison).


JULY 2016

A Life of Crime by Matt Fitton has Mel and Ace encounter a woman claiming to be the regenerated Doctor (Ginny Holder).

"A girl has a chance to be the Doctor. I think a Lady Doctor could be close to happening. And would be fun. So practise, practise, practise. And talk really fast. And think really fast. And be really brave. And mad. And silly. And good luck maybe it will be you!" - Matt Smith



NOVEMBER 2016

Gallifrey: Enemy Lines by David Llewellyn sees a female Chancellery guard (Hannah Genesius) regenerate into a man.


APRIL 2017

"I would welcome a female Doctor - Maxine Peake would be fantastic." - Anthony Green


MAY 2017

"Still not ginger, still not a girl. With news of a new Doctor on the horizon, why doesn't the Doctor regenerate into a Silurian like Madame Vastra? That would really shake things up! He could still be a girl, he could still be ginger but with green lizard skin that would be totally cool - plus the added bonus of a really long tongue!" - Lida Scholefield


JUNE 2017

"I would absolutely cast a woman as the Doctor. I think it's exactly what the show needs." - Mark Gatiss


JULY 2017

35-year-old actress Jodie Whittaker is cast as the new Doctor.

No one sees it coming.