Doctor Who. Doctor. Who.
Once upon a time I would have hated the idea of a woman being cast in
the role. Not too long ago I was more diplomatically against the
idea. Now, I'm all for a Lady Doctor, with the stipulation that they
don't fuck it up. As somebody who's been a fan for as long as I can
remember (Literally) It's not an easy concept to wrap your head
around.
This article is intended to
both serve as an argument towards Who fans like me, who have been
embedded in the show for a long time, as well as a caution of where
I'm worried such a casting could go wrong.
This article is not intended
to go into the wider reaching 'big picture' benefits of such a
casting, namely because as a man my opinion is not particularly
optimised to comment, but also because so many great feminist
articles have got there before me. At this point It's a no brainier
that it would be a net gain socially, but I'm here to address the
conservatives in the camp.
Let's, as is fitting, go
back in time. Like I said, I've been a fan of Doctor Who for most of
my life. The earliest memory of me visiting my Grandma and Granada is
sitting in their home reading a radio times article on the 1994
re-runs. My mother incorrectly identified a Sillurian as an Ice
Warrior, that's how vividly I remember it. I was about 7 at the time.
Naturally dedicating myself
to every Big Finish audio, novel and comic I could get my hands on in
those years, it's ultimate revival has been a bumpy road for one such
as me. My issues with both the RTD and Moffat seasons could cover
articles, but that's not what we're here for today. I hold no ill
will towards 'New Who' fans, but I think it's often overlooked that
the experiences of a seven year old English boy in the mid nineties
growing up with a patchwork of Hartnall to McCoy are worlds away of
that of a fourteen year old American girl watching a consistent story
arc unfold every week.
So many feuds could be
avoided if only people could remember that. Your show is not mine,
nor mine yours, and at the end of the day nothing can change that. It
shouldn't be any other way.
Oh wow, we're getting way
off subject now. What I'm trying to say is that we all have different
ideas of what Doctor Who is, and that intimately influences our
perception of what we feel is “proper for it”. Let's jump
forwards in time now, to just a little while ago, to when I started
to warm to the idea of a female Doctor.
This change of opinion came
about through necessity. There have been whisperings here and there
of casting a woman in the role for a while now, so I judged that if
such a move was only a matter of time then I might as well get used
to it. Then Michelle Gomez mastering (poor pun, sorry) the role of
the Master (blowing away Simms interpretation, in my opinion),
started to turn me around in a big way.
By this point I genuinely
started to think about who would be right in the role. Sue Perkins
was my first choice, since I love her in everything and she is my
spiritual sensai. Helen Mirren came to mind, bringing a certain
gravitas to the role. I remember going to a convention a long time
ago and hearing Colin Baker mention that he'd like to see Dawn French
as The Doctor. I bawked at the time, but I can see it now.
One thing all the women I
considered had in common, however, is that they all felt like
“exceptions”. They were all either older, tomboys or not
conventionally attractive. I questioned myself on whether I was
picking them in the same way I would choose a male actor, or were
these few the only ones that I could 'bare' watching in the role?
Would an outsider, or more traditionally 'feminine' actress ruin it
for me? Was I, under it all, still judging potential candidates more
harshly purely based on their gender?
Then I had a dream. Not like
the great Martin Luther King did, no, this was a literal dream that I
had. I dreamed that I was watching a new episode of Doctor Who, and
the Doctor was was played by a short, young, tomboyish woman. She
dressed with a kind of punk/hipster aesthetic, with a see though
shirt with no bra that I doubt the BBC would go for. She had the
enthusiasm of the Smith years but had the air-headedness of Baker the
first at his best. She was less likely to stand around lecturing
about what she knew and more likely to go crawling through air ducts
to find out what was going on.
It was fucking awesome, and
then I woke up and was disappointed to find it wasn't real.
Anyway, this whole thing
sold me on a Lady Doctor regardless of who's playing the part. I
don't care who they cast now, I'm interested to see who they'd go
with.
However...
Let's go back in time a bit.
Remember earlier when I said that at one point I was diplomatically
against the idea? At that point my take was that while you could have
a Lady Who, I felt there was no way they weren’t going to fuck it
up. My biggest fear was that they'd screw up either the casting or
the writing and this character would just not feel like The Doctor.
As explained, my mood has
changed, but I think my original worries do hold weight when
examining what could go wrong. In the interests of hoping for a good
Lady Doctor, lets take a look at what I think they are up against.
First up and my biggest
problem would be them making a big deal about the gender switch. Old
characters cracking out lines like “You're not the man I knew,”
“Phwor, I could get used to this,” mistaking them for the
companion, The Doctor making jokes about now having boobs and so
forth. It not only runs the risk of being grossly transphobic (which
never even crossed my mind at the time) it also just comes across as
plain cheesy and stupid. I'm not a fan of the comedy in New Who at
the best of times and I think this approach would be a big mistake.
The casting is also an
issue. I'm not dead set against anyone at this point but
subconsciously we never quite know our blind spots. Casting The
Doctor in general is always a fine art, and I always advise going
against the seemingly obvious choices (People often bring up Jonny
Depp. No, there is only one American who could handle the role, and
that's the recently departed Robin Williams). I'd hate for the
production team to get too swept up in the novelty of casting the
first Lady Doctor without really thinking they're the right choice.
Finally, and in relation to
the last point, don't treat the casting as a gimmick or a novelty.
Idris Elba has always said that he would never accept the role of
'Black James Bond' only 'James Bond'. That's the way it should be.
Don't think of this as a new age, a new evolution to the character or
whatever buzzword the tabloids will likely pull out of their arses.
Think of this as just the the next episode in a show of fifty years.
If the Doctor is to be played by a woman then you've got to remember
that this era stands side by side with all that came before. This is
still Doctor Who. Doctor Who is Doctor Who, stick to that first and
foremost.
Basically don't over-think
it.
Anyway, to round this little
thought piece off, here are a few of my picks for a lady who. (Some
of them aren’t even British!) Sue Perkins, Helen Mirren, TamsinGrieg, Dawn French, Gwendoline Christie, Ashley Burch, SarahSilverman, Maria Doyle Kennedy, and Jenny Agutter.
I have more, feel free to
bug me about it on Tumblr.
Oh and for the curious, if
you're going to go for a non-white male Doctor (who's not Idris
Elba), I say go for Benedict Wong.
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