Plus both Jon pertwee and Tom baker had huge ratings so that theory dosnt hold water

I think the idea of a female Doctor was first mentioned when Tom Baker announced his retirement. I always thought Ingrid Pitt would have been an excellent female Doctor.

Doctor Who in many ways has always been a study of gender relationships between a man and his female companion(s) (yes I know he's technically an alien, but a male one). The dark sides of his character are often intertwined with his gender. The Doctor falls very much into Beware of the Fairy Tale syndrome category. The syndrome where women often project their dreams and ideals onto men. Seeing all these wonderful powers and abilities but not always seeing the flaws. The fairy tale prince. The magic Man. The Wizard of Oz. The Doctor is emotionally dysfunctional whereas his companions are emotionally attuned. The Doctor obeys the laws of the universe and remains true to the way things must be (fixed points in time) whereas the companions follow their heart and are true to themselves.

His gender is a fundamental part of his identity and an underlying foundation of the character and storyline development throughout the series. No matter which actor has played the Doctor the character is linear through his generations and is nominally the same. A female regeneration wouldn't be a regeneration at all. It would be a completely different character altogether (not just from a portrayal standpoint). It would be somebody else. A different timelord.

I can easily 'connect' to a female lead. I watched Cagney and Lacey all it's run and thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was, not because it had women starring in it. I didn't enjoy other shows starring women as they simply didn't appeal to me. It all depends on the show and the characters. The Doctor isn't female, never has been. For all we know the Corsair was a one-off, or a mutant, or from a particular House that could do things like that, as we know practically nothing about the Gallifreyan Houses and what they mean. Or he came from the loom that way... Come to think of it, for all we know the Doctor was lying about it to sound clever.

You have to remember what sci-fi fans are like. A female doctor incurs the same wrath as the merest mention of the doctor having [a] a girlfriend, or [b] a wife.

OK, I'll throw in my tuppence worth on both points.

First off, I see no reason why the Doctor can't be "non-white", whether that's black or anything else.
All we're really talking about are some relatively minor genetic changes which affect things like skin tone, hair, features ... you know, all the things that have already changed TEN TIMES.
Patrick Troughton had a darker complexion than Hartnell, Peter Davison is pretty pale, Colin Baker's hair was madly curly ... it would hardly be a stretch if a regeneration made his skin go darker than it has in past regenerations. I mean, great swathes of his DNA are essentially being rewritten when he regenerates, it's not much of a stretch to imagine this happening.

As for whether the Doctor could regenerate into a woman, I admit I'm less open to that, despite the recent mentions that it's possible (e.g. The Corsair).
For me, it doesn't make sense, because it's already been established that Time Lords DO have genders, and therefore gender roles. (i.e. they've made distinction between males and females, they use terms such as mother, granddaughter, father, etc.).
Given that, it seems like it would be quite an odd thing for those established roles to be so fluid ... "son, your mother's body wore out and she regenerated, and now she happens to be your father, just like I am. And you don't have a mother any more."

To me, the idea that they could swap genders seems to only make sense if they didn't actually have any "traditional" ideas of gender in the first place. The very fact that a species has 2 genders imposes a kind of natural order that those genders should remain fixed, in order to preserve the species. Otherwise, all it takes is for a million-to-one occurrence of everyone regenerating into the same gender to happen, and the whole species is basically extinct.

To me that sounds like a pretty good reason for being able to swap genders.

The main problem with immortality (or near immortality) would be overpopulation, it'd be pretty handy if everyone could change to a man or woman for a couple of centuries while accidents/war or something thins the numbers.

Is ingrid Pitt still alive?

No, believe it or not fans accept that we've known from Day One he's had at least one of those to become a a grandfather

To me it wouldn't make sense. For example, a Time Lord and a Time Lady fall in love, they stay together for years and years, until the Time Lord dies and regenerates, but, the Time Lord is now a woman...

Yeah... no. Creepy.

What would happen with River Song? Do they break up and go their separate ways? This is just too weird for me.

The Doctor should ALWAYS be a male.

It really wouldn't make and it just wouldn't work, no matter who they got to play the role at this rate.

A bit like the Trill in Star Trek, when a host dies and the symbiont gets a new host of a different gender ... they've done that before and explored the issue you raise.

My only concern about a female Doctor is the companion side of things. They would either stick to female companions, which would be too feminine, have a male companion like some they've had before (eg Jack, Rory ect) which I cant see working without people directing their attention towards them, or a gay/camp male companion, which would get annoying after a while. I can think of plenty of female actors who would be good if not great as the Doctor, for example Alex Kingston if she had never been cast as River, but from a companion side of it I just can't picture a scenario where it would work.

No, for an audience of mainly white people, not just males. Look at Doctor Who conventions, they're ridiculously white. I've never encountered too many non-white fans. Where I live, it's seen as a white person's show.

What do you mean by 'ridiculously white'? If it was a show made in Africa with black African stars, would any white people living there -and quite a few do - by justified in calling it 'ridiculously black'?
Can people really only enjoy shows and participate in fandom if the actors on the screen look like themselves?

I wouldn't necessarily mind a Doctor Who spinoff with a female traveling time lord and her companion(s). But as I alluded to in my post above not as this timelord, the Doctor. His gender is an important part of his identity and a central element of the programme. A female regeneration wouldn't be a character modification it would be a completely new character full stop.

And in many ways a study between a madman with a box and Ian, Steven, Ben, Jamie, UNIT family, Harry, Adric, Turlough, Adam, Jack, Mickey, Wilf and Rory and Craig and Canton ...

Yes.

[quote=Talma;65620910]What do you mean by 'ridiculously white'? If it was a show made in Africa with black African stars, would any white people living there -and quite a few do - by justified in calling it 'ridiculously black'?
Can people really only enjoy shows and participate in fandom if the actors on the screen look like themselves?

Midsummer Murders is the most obvious example to back up my point. I come from London, a hugely multicultural city, and all I can tell you is what I see. I didn't say people can't participate and enjoy in a fandom where the actors don't look like them, just that Doctor Who has a mainly white fanbase in this country. Make of that what you will.

It wouldnt work. Timelords cant change their gender that would be silly.

In many ways? Not really so, at least not comparatively speaking.

I never said exclusively female companions. But most of the male companions were amongst a group of companions or like Wilf, short lived. How many times has the Doctor gone solo with a single male companion? Consider the whole history and sweep of the programme and the gender relationships on the show are central to the Doctor's character and central to the show. I mean it's bleeding obvious that whilst Rory was technically a companion the narrative revolved around the Doctor's relationship with Amy Pond (and likewise Amy's relationship with Rory).

Not really a good example, given the Midsomer Murders race row a couple of years back after the producer basically proudly admitted to deliberately only casting white faces. That's hardly something you can accuse Dr Who of.

As for Dr Who having a mainly white fanbase in this country, I don't really buy it. It certainly doesn't tie in with my experience, and I also live in London.

she isn't, no.

Not necessarily.

I think they've already changed the Doctor's character in so many ways over the years. I mean when he started out as the little man who followed his hearts and ran away from the establishment. Now he's the god like saviour of the universe. I don't think a change of gender is any bigger a change. If you're a good writer and possess the slightest imagination you can explore the change and relate it to the character as a whole.

I think to say say it would be a different character full stop shows a lack of imagination and need to follow the rules which to me is what Doctor Who has never been about.

I actually don't think there does need to be a female Doctor or that it would work. If done purely for gimmick purpose or for demographic purposes then it would probably be doomed to fail. However if well written and done because of good storyline potential then why not?

I mean a show is also just as much likely to fail because they stick to the formula in case the demographics don't like it. That's usually when the rot sets in.