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Should the Next 'Doctor Who' Be a Woman?
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Jennifer Finney Boylan writes in the NYT that for those who did not get beaten up in high school, 'Doctor Who' is a beloved British sci-fi series about a character called the Doctor who is able to regenerate into a new body whenever a mortal would die or whenever an actor grows tired of the gig. The Doctor has been played by 11 different men since the show went on the air in 1963 and with Matt Smith, stepping down this Christmas, many fans had hoped that this time, a dozen cycles in, the Doctorship would finally go to a woman. 'Maybe it was the election of Barack Obama that made it seem, fleetingly, as if there were no more glass ceilings, for offices from president to pontiff,' writes Boylan. 'Whether the 45th president is a woman (Hillary Rodham Clinton?) or a Latino (Marco Rubio?), it still feels, on a good day, as if we've entered a time when there are fewer limits on what men and women can aspire to.' But unlike presidents or popes, we may not get that many more chances at a glass-shattering Doctor. According to long-held Doctor Who mythology, the character's 13th regeneration could be his last. 'As the producers think about whom they want to take on the role next, they should keep in mind the way people's hopes are lifted when they see someone breaking the glass ceiling, even when it's for something as seemingly trivial as a hero on a science-fiction program. Equal opportunity matters — in Doctor Who's universe as well as our own.'"
Why not a vegan tranny black lesbian Muslim in a wheelchair?
That is just absurd !!
It seems there is a subset of people out there who just can never be happy unless they are going against the grain. There will be people out there who make a big deal about who the next Doctor is regardless of who gets it. Not everything has to be groundbreaking or new. Sometimes tried and trusted are the way to go.
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No, because that means Samuel L. Jackson would be out of the running. (Admit it, you'd watch that.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do-wDPoC6GM This already happened.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I think that people who want to see the next Doctor be some sort of handicapped post-op lesbian hermaphrodite never watch the show but just want to push some sort of agenda to get some checkbox filled somewhere. They would never watch a single episode with their politically-corrected Doctor but that's not really the point.
the character's 13th regeneration could be his last
Okay, first, the article means his TWELFTH regeneration, his thirteenth INCARNATION. Secondly, it's already canon that doctors can regenerate far more than twelve times.
It has already been established in canon that they can.
"See that snake. The mark of The Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself unless he had that tattoo. Or herself a couple of times. Oo hoo! She was a bad girl!"
The clue is in the title. Who ever heard of a "Time Lady"?!
Um, everyone who ever watched season 16?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
So somehow changing an indubitably male character into a woman is a 'victory' for women?
Perhaps we could just work on creating an interesting, engaging, successful female character and celebrate her? Or celebrate one of the many strong female characters already present in media?
Perhaps there's a moral in here for the whole feminist movement.
-Styopa
Surely a science fiction concept with a female lead can be developed outside of the current Dr. Who franchise. Or, a spin-off series featuring a female timelord can be developed in parallel, like Star Trek did with Voyager. The can have separate adventures and then guest star from time to time on each others' shows. Seems like you get more audience that way. Why is there a need to take an established character and turn it into something completely different?
Dr. Who will always be Tom Baker in my imagination anyway.
Also it has no explosions caused by bullets hitting a car tire, no bodybuilders screaming slogans only three words long yet still incomprehensable, no storylines designed to last for 20 seasons only to be cancelled after the second season, nobody trying to be "cool" or "edgy" or "bad-ass". Quite frankly, it's a breath of fresh air amongst so many sci-fi series desperately trying to appease pubescent boys.
I thought Dr. Who would be tacky/cheesy/lame as well until I actually saw a whole episode, now I'm hooked.
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garbage
It seems you are not British, so perhaps you see it differently to us. A lot of the Russell T. Davies stuff was cheesy crap, but Moffat's episodes are good. Many of them are quite dark and produce a real sense of drama.
It works both ways of course. A lot of US shows that people rave about seem pretty bad to us too. Many of the good ones have British actors in the major roles.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Romana, played by the rather lovely Lala Ward.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
It takes different strokes. Possibly you don't appreciate the story because you're not familiar with older plot lines from 30 years ago that are quietly addressed. Possibly you've never read any of the well written books from that time either. Possibly you like Mango Ice cream or Kardashian's when everyone else is going 'yuck.' It's television. If you don't get it, don't hurt your brain trying to figure it out. Some people simply have different tastes, and your perception of lame is someone else's uber. It's perfectly reasonable to hate the old black and white shows, specific Doctors, or the entirety of the show, but it's not a mathematical proof that can be explained to you in hopes that one day you'll understand (especially since you've already walked into the conversation with the idea that Dr. Who blows monkey chunks).
My Uncle has been taping the show since it's inception, and he owns every book that came out prior to 1992. He's hated every single Doctor since 8, and calls the current show all manner of names. He'd agree with you that everything currently playing is garbage, but then again, he thinks the only good think on TV these days is H20.
In spite of its legendarily low budget in... well, just about all of it prior to the Christopher Ecclestone series, it's been some groundbreaking science fiction. Oh it's had its dud episodes, you might need to suspend disbelief more than you would for most other TV shows, and the special effects should be taken as a symbolic gesture rather than actually looking like something, but it does actually do some pretty interesting stuff.
That said, it's not everyone's cup of tea. Culturally, the show is very British, so Americans don't tend to "get" it as much as the British or Australians.
Jennifer Finney Boylan writes in the NYT that for those who did not get beaten up in high school...
Whining about diversity and coming out with the stereotyping right out of the gate(and yes, it's a quote from TFA, I did check). Maybe she thought that was cute?
I had a nice rant with lots of big words about diversity not about messing with established characters and missing the point and all that, but you know what? Screw it.
Why should we bloody-nosed, inhaler puffing masses give a fuck what this imbecile has to say?
Really depends on what you've seen. A show that's spanned half a century has some good ones and some bad ones.
If you want to check out the best of what the new series can offer, try The Girl in the Fireplace, or Blink.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
.. why? If gender doesn't matter any more why are we fixating on it here?
The Doctor should never be a woman. We have seen how that turns out in the spoof "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death", where the female Doctor notices the sonic screwdriver has "three settings".
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_and_the_Curse_of_Fatal_Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p18DKN27IZQ
While I try to refrain from insulting entertainment by insinuating that it's aimed at pubescent boys, and while this might make me seem one in your eyes, I feel that Dr. Who actually is cheesy and lame.
I had avoided the show for various vague reasons until recently, when a friend of mine forced me to watch the first episodes of the most recent series to change my mind. While the writing was rather interesting and the retro visuals had enough charm to make me understand why someone might like it, there are some serious problems with the show.
First, I was annoyed that The Doctor is portrayed as somewhat all-powerful for no reason at all. He can threaten his enemies and make appeals with no credentials whatsoever. I kind of understand that scenes where he says that "the Earth is protected" by him are perhaps awe-inspiring to a 50's born nerd who has watched all of the previous 200 episodes, but I really don't get why the aliens he is currently facing won't just incinerate him on the spot. To an outside observer, it simply seems like a lame would-be superhero saving the day by just boasting about it. This is actually repeated twice during the first three episodes.
Secondly, while all of the previous posters are talking about strong female leads, I was left with pretty mixed feelings about this character in the most recent show. Of course she is shown as intelligent and resourceful, but at the same time, she is shown to be a slave to his charms, eloping the very day before her wedding. The convenience of the former is rather astounding, as the series of course contains time travel and implies that the female lead can experience a whole new life, whisked away to adventure by an exciting man, and still return to her life with the random beta (or absence of it, depending on the attitude of the scriptwriters), like nothing had happened.
Is this really what being a strong woman is about?
These sidekicks are hot by the standards of women on British TV where the extremes in cosmetic dentistry, dermatology, and plastic surgery are not followed as rigorously as in Hollywood.
So would the female Dr. Who have a beefcake dude sidekick? Would the female Dr. Who be a babe or perhaps a mature woman in the tradition of Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, or Amanda Richardson? Or maybe a West Indian babe with a delicious regional accent as the police captain who thinks Holmes is a dangerous vigilante and medler into police business as in that Sherlock Holmes reboot (and gosh no, not the Robert Downey Jr. one).