Doctor Who Series 10

[Wilf]

Bungle, if you'd come out and said you don't like it because you were used to it being a bloke, you'd have liked it to stay how it was, you'd have taken some stick but I would personally have respected that. It's this pretence that the doc is inherently male and that regenerations only make superficial changes that is pure bullshit. You haven't managed to marshal (pun intended) a single argument as to why the doc is inherently male. Why not cut your losses and admit that?

 

[Beats & Pieces]

Is this of any real importance - except for those concerned with the slippery issue of 'representation'? No. But it does serve to provide a distraction from issues of far more importance. It is a bloody TV show.

 

[Wilf]

Is this of any real importance - except for those concerned with the slippery issue of 'representation'? No. But it does serve to provide a distraction from issues of far more importance. It is a bloody TV show.

I don't think it's particularly important, having a woman play a regenerating alien shouldn't be that noteworthy in 2017. It's the reaction to it, on this thread and beyond, that says something about the world.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

I don't think it's particularly important, having a woman play a regenerating alien shouldn't be that noteworthy in 2017. It's the reaction to it, on this thread and beyond, that says something about the world.

I absolutely agree, and the reaction (here and elsewhere) will undoubtedly provide enough for consideration by future historians.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I am another poster who's first memory of Dr Who is Patrick Troughton, and I have no problems with a female doctor, I'll judge her on her acting, not her gender.

So I'm a "prick" am I because I don't want a character that I grew up with, and that was a huge part of my childhood, to be fucked about with? Fuck off

Have you time travelled back to the 70s?

 

[kabbes]

Aside from the various times already mentioned on the show that it has been unambiguously stated that regenerations can change a timelord's sex, I think it's hard to argue that it is not now definitively canon that the Doctor's regeneration can change his sex.

That's the thing with fiction. Nothing about it is written until it is written, and then it IS written. When is it established the Doctor can be female? Er, now. Even if nothing else so far has convinced you, then now it is most definitely established that the Doctor can be female.

 

[albionism]

It's been interesting watching the way
Bro-Flakes and Shitlords have reacted
to this news,

 

[BigTom]

I just wanted to say, those of you who've not seen Jodie Whittaker in anything, watch Attack The Block, it's a absolutely brilliant sci fi /monster movie.

As for the doctor being a woman, it's basically irrelevant to me - good to see more women in high profile roles, enjoy the apoplexy it causes in idiots but all that really matters is how she plays the doctor and whether she gets some decent scripts. Exactly the same as any other actor.

 

[not a trot]

Why can't the doctor have a partner and have kids then we all know who the next doctor is in future.

 

[Chz]

Seriously, guys? Nine pages since yesterday afternoon?

 

[A380]

It's a made up story.

 

[danny la rouge]

It's a made up story.

I beg your pardon? It's a documentary. (Except for the period of inaccurate docu-drama in the 80s, in which basically all but the appearance of the Doctor's regenerations misremembered, being second hand accounts based on badly garbled testimony).

 

[danny la rouge]

I just wanted to say, those of you who've not seen Jodie Whittaker in anything, watch Attack The Block, it's a absolutely brilliant sci fi /monster movie.

My daughter mentioned that yesterday. I'll have to check it out.

 

[Gromit]

It's a made up story.

The bible is just a story and that doesn't even have its own Saturday night prime time slot.

 

[billy_bob]

Regeneration brings a new face, and a new personalty, but underneath the person is still fundamentally the same.

I think we'd all agree that a person's physical appearance isn't fundamentally who they are* but I'm interested in this suggestion that a person's personality is similarly superficial. What is it that you're saying is underneath facial appearance and personality that constitutes what we really are?

(*although in terms of our neurological functioning face recognition is quite significant to how we know a person - suggesting that we've all got over an in-built prejudice long before now if we accept that the Doctor is the same person despite all of the regenerations so far)

 

[Sprocket.]

The gender of the Doctor is not the problem it's the quality of the writing that will be the biggest challenge to the continuation of the programme.
I personally welcome the change to a female doctor, I hope it is successful.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

If people want high profile roles for woman they should go and create some, instead of insisting on a great male hero having a sex change.

A great male hero?

It's a fucking kids' tv show!

 

[danny la rouge]

It's a fucking kids' tv show!

No. It. Is. Not.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

oops. Sorry.

 

[The Octagon]

View attachment 111460

Would it have been that hard for them to have used "ExterMENate"? Standards are slipping, etc....

Never heard of the actor until yesterday tbh (even though I've seen Attack The Block, she was fairly forgettable compared to some of the other characters), and still think Hayley Atwell would have been a far better choice, but the more important role is that of the showrunner / writers, so if the material is better than it has been for years she may stand a chance.

I saw a comment earlier that seemed to sum it up:

This change will be roundly applauded or derided by thousands of people who have no intention of watching either way.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

The outrage on Facebook is quite amusing.

 

[Gromit]

The gender of the Doctor is not the problem it's the quality of the writing that will be the biggest challenge to the continuation of the programme.
I personally welcome the change to a female doctor, I hope it is successful.

I agree with the first part. I reserve judgement on the second part. It's kind of dependant on the first part.

 

[skyscraper101]

Not really into Dr. Who but I find it depressing that still in this day we have to have a omgz 'a woman' conversation, like it should be anything other than a good thing for a female to take up major established 'male' roles (or person of colour, or gay, or disabled or whatever for that matter).

I mean it's embarrassing to even see some people on these boards people can't handle it. Remember when Craig was announced as the new James Bond some people people were such cry babies saying 'nooo he's blonde haired so can't be Bond'. Just GTF you miserable dinosaurs.

 

[Gromit]

If people want high profile roles for woman they should go and create some, instead of insisting on a great male hero having a sex change.

That's probably the first point of yours I agree with.

Ghostbusters. Yay you made an all female lead comedy movie. You had to do it off the back of something men had already made popular.

Female Watson: Yay well done being second fiddle to an already established male role. Watson is irrelevant and could be a crime fighting cat and people would still watch it.

Bones. Now that should be celebrated... even if she has ripped off Quincy.

 

[heinous seamus]

Billy no-mates, raging on the internet in his pants in his mum's basement just needs to grow up is all.

Hey, there's no need to bring me into this.

 

[Gromit]

Not really into Dr. Who but I find it depressing that still in this day we have to have a omgz 'a woman' conversation, like it should be anything other than a good thing for a female to take up major established 'male' roles (or person of colour, or gay, or disabled or whatever for that matter).

I mean it's embarrassing to even see some people on these boards people can't handle it. Remember when Craig was announced as the new James Bond some people people were such cry babies saying 'nooo he's blonde haired so can't be Bond'. Just GTF you miserable dinosaurs.

That's human nature. They hate change for a large part.

A black James Bond would be a small change of pigment. People would moan slightly.
A black James Bond who talks and acts like someone from The Wire instead of a posh English Eton boy!!! They'd moan even more.

A black woman Bond who now talks about feelings and babies n shit. The change is so extreme from the language and behaviour of before that it's not really Bond any more is it. It's female Bond. Which is something else.

 

[Dom Traynor]

I don't believe it! Another job denied to white middle class men

 

[Sea Star]

I think we'd all agree that a person's physical appearance isn't fundamentally who they are* but I'm interested in this suggestion that a person's personality is similarly superficial. What is it that you're saying is underneath facial appearance and personality that constitutes what we really are?

(*although in terms of our neurological functioning face recognition is quite significant to how we know a person - suggesting that we've all got over an in-built prejudice long before now if we accept that the Doctor is the same person despite all of the regenerations so far)

Inner life might be the answer to who we really are. I'd say autistic people are very familiar with there being a mismatch between perceived personality and who we feel we really are. And when the real you comes out via technology, as computers help autistic people to come out of themselves, then you have to consider that there really is an inner self below the personality that is on show to others. I think so anyway.

 

[Sea Star]

I don't believe it! Another job denied to white middle class men

Chances are the next doctor will be a populist Nazi though

 

[billy_bob]

Inner life might be the answer to who we really are. I'd say autistic people are very familiar with there being a mismatch between perceived personality and who we feel we really are. And when the real you comes out via technology, as computers help autistic people to come out of themselves, then you have to consider that there really is an inner self below the personality that is on show to others. I think so anyway.

Fair enough to suggest that the Doctor has some inner-self personality that remains unchanged throughout all the apparent changes in visible personality, and that fans would be justified in outrage if that were interfered with. For example, depending on incarnation he (/she) can demonstrate a dislike for Daleks in a range of ways from sarcastic put-downs to wobbly-lipped sincerity to blowing up the fucking lot of them, but if the new Doctor no longer gave a fuck whether they destroyed planet Earth and enslaved humankind it might feel like a betrayal of that inner character.

But in the comment I quoted Bungle seems to link this fundamental character with the Doctor's biological maleness - or even (given that he's fine with all the other biological varieties the Doctor has exhibited over the years) to say that it depends exclusively on his being a man. So you can change anything else about the character's physical and personal manifestation (although I don't think Bungle ever answered the question about whether a black man would've been OK...) but if you mess with his dangly bits you've unacceptably altered who he is.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, AuntiStella, but I'm imagining you wouldn't go along with that?