Doctor Who: The Time for a Female Doctor is Approaching
By David Hill
The topic of the Doctor’s gender has come up quite a bit lately among Whovians. The idea of a female Doctor has been a matter of almost continual debate, especially after the triumphant return of the Master, regenerated as the female Missy. With this regeneration, the idea of gender has seemingly become irrelevant to the Time Lords.
Steven Moffat has already stated that a female will eventually take on the role of the Doctor, which should seemingly shut down a great deal of argument. Yet, there are still those that will point to tradition, claiming that since the Doctor has never been female before, that should remain the case going forward.
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Fortunately, Moffat has an answer for that, and it is one that includes the way humanity happens to be in terms of gender. According to Moffat, just as humans are not 100% male or female, but rather some percentage in between, so are Time Lords. As such, while the Doctor may lean more towards the male side, given his previous regenerations, that does not mean that will always be the case.
"“In my head, rationally, it seems to me — you know how human beings are never completely male or female; you’re mostly a woman, I’m mostly a man? — that maybe a male Time Lord is someone most of whose regenerations are male,” Moffat continued. “Maybe he’ll have a couple of female ones. The science-fiction of that would make sense to me. Otherwise I think life might be a little bit complicated on Gallifrey — or would it? I don’t think they’d care.”"
This sentiment certainly makes sense. The Time Lords have been busy perfecting things like time travel and the ability to regenerate; such gender standards or expectations are likely beneath them, lost in the time before Gallifrey became the planet that it was. A female Time Lord obviously would not seem like such a big deal.
Nor would it likely seem that way to the Doctor. After all, when last we saw the Seventh Doctor before Doctor Who went off the air, it seemed as though he was about to enroll Ace into the Time Lord Academy. Roman and the Rani were Time Ladies. Obviously, this has not been an issue.
The idea of a female Doctor should not be a problem either. It is likely just the natural progression of the character, given that even Time Lords are not entirely one specific gender. If the fact that any character can change is a part of what makes Doctor Who such a great show, why would gender be static?
The arguments for a female Doctor make sense. It is just a matter of time before this happens on Doctor Who.