Christopher Eccleston wants more female influence on Doctor Who

Christopher Eccleston is known as the man who helped resurrect Doctor Who back in 2005. As the Ninth Doctor, he had a full season of adventures with companion Rose Tyler, and though he’s been away from the franchise for close to two decades, he has some thoughts about how the show needs to change in the future.

Digital Spy reports that Eccleston talked about his vision for the show in a recent interview with Doctor Who Magazine. “You know, it’s great that we now have a female Doctor,” he said, “and I think we should take that further in the way we look at history. Look at it through a female lens.”

Eccleston thinks it would be great to have the Doctor meet with influential women across the ages, like Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison, but he also believes that the show is too much of a “boys’ club” and would love to see some changes.

Christopher Eccleston says Doctor Who is a “boys’ club”

Though Jodie Whittaker is playing the Doctor on the show now, Eccleston believes that there needs to be more than just a female Doctor. “Russell T. Davies writes the Doctor as one Doctor; Steven Moffat writes him as another; Rob Shearman writes him, he’s another,” he said. “Bit of a boys’ club, though, We need to address that.”

Eccleston thinks the show needs to have writers who represent the female perspective. “It needs to be addressed, particularly as the Doctor has such a pronounced, for want of a better phrase, feminine side, and such an enthusiastic engagement with the female.”

He also believes that the Doctor should face some Cyberwomen. (The Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood featured a Cyberwoman, but the concept never made it to the main show) “The Doctor with a Cyberwoman…that dynamic, feminine element of himself, which he uses so well, his flirtatious nature, his admiration for Gaia and the female would be great with a Cyberwoman.”

Whittaker has had a divisive reception among fans, and has at least one more season to go before she passes on the torch. Eccleston’s comment seem to be advocating not only for a female Doctor but also a male Doctor with a thoroughly explored feminine side, which might not be a bad thing. Having a female Doctor is wonderful, but at the same time there was a reason so many people enjoyed having David Tennant and Matt Smith in the role and there’s something to be said for that, too.

The solution seems to be somewhere in the middle, perhaps with an alternating male/female Doctor with stories written by male and female writers who, as Eccleston suggests, explore the Doctor’s feminine side. There is no one solution to improving the franchise, rather it’s a series of tweaks that will help it to continue indefinitely.

For now, fans are eager to see Eccleston return to the role of the Ninth Doctor in the Big Finish audio series Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures, coming in May.

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