Me personally I hate her and I have given my reasons here in this article (note this was written after her first appearance, but my feelings are largely the same now after having viewed Death in Heaven. I admit the Moffat making gay jokes argument was weak however and ultimately wrong, but I stand by everything else. ) http://t.co/78kmpK81GS

What do you think of her though

Lmao.

Yeah I know LOL, but believe it or not that is what so many people were saying. On tumblr even in actual articles for the Guardian they were saying Missy offers Transgender people the representation they have always needed! One guy when on about how Roger Delgado would be proud of Missy giving LGBT people representation, whilst Paul Cornell said people who don't like their favourite characters changing gender are the same type of people who would turn on family members if they changed gender! Missy is an alien and a monster, I actually can't believe I had to explain why that wasn't good representation or even a representation at all of LGBT people!

Gomez was terrific. Really enjoyed her performance and it'll be Interesting to see where they go with the character now that we have a fresh "take" on The Master. I don't really analyse it any further than that, really. Shallow as a puddle, me.

I've said it before and I will say it again. I HATE the character Missy. I thought the idea was nothing more than a publicity stunt, I didn't like the way she was portrayed, The stupid prancing and posing that Gomez carried out (probably at the behest of the director) was silly. The "Mary Poppins" moment was just ridiculous. I didn't find this version of the Master at all threatening or clever or funny or any of the other things Delgado played so brilliantly. O K so she killed Osgood. So what she only did it so that the audience couild go "oooh she must realy be the Master coz she's just killed someone we like Even her name, Missy, annoyed me. What sort of a name is Missy for the most evil man (or Timelord) in the universe !
There - rant over.

Now, that's just being alienist and monstrophobic.

But I do so agree with what you say in your article. An excellent analysis!

"I think that making the Master into a woman is a horrendously wrong decision and I can only hope that Moffat recants on this"

I'm afraid we can hope as much as we like, Moffat will not change his mind - he thinks he is being so frightfully clever with Missy.

Yeah agreed it doesn't seem likely he is going to go back on it now, but we can only hope. TBH I don't think its Moffat trying to be too clever I think its more him being spineless and giving in to the Tumblr bullies the STFU Moffat crowd.

She should have just turned out to be the rani then the story might have worked much better.

Missy is the best thing to happen to Doctor Who since the idea of regeneration.

Probably the highlight of the season.

You are kidding right? Missy will sink Doctor Who. Thing is Missy has assured us of a female Doctor which is a very bad idea.

You all think a female Doctor is gonna be great, but it sucks. The Doctor is a man he works better as a man. He is the quintessential British Gentlemanly hero. I know he is not technically British but you know what I mean that's the type of hero he is no matter what incarnation he is in.

Also the companion Doctor dynamic will not work in reverse. Tell me do you want the female Doctor to always get saved by her male companion? Do you want the female Doctor to only save the day twice which is the amount of times Eccelston saved the day in his first season. Do you want them to make out the she Doctor needs a man like Rory or Martin to keep her sane and stop her from drowning the Racnoss. Do you want her to get stuffed in a bird cage by Missy and get saved by Martin? Do you want Donald to get her powers and use them better than her? Do you want Jamie Pond to remember her back into existence. Do you want Clarence to be retconned into being the hero of every one of her stories? Do you want Clarence to convince her to undo the biggest mistake she ever made? Do you want Clarence to convince the time lords to save her? Do you want the old she Doctor to beg Clarence who wants to leave her because he doesn't fancy her anymore to stay and look after her? Do you want Clarence to take her place in the opening credits.

Only way round this is to have a female Doctor and a female companion, but really that's going too far. If you do that we will have removed all male roles from the show. The Master, the Doctor, the companion and the Brig who is now replaced by his daughter!

In order for a show to be mainstream IMO it needs to have a mixture of male and female roles. That gives both young boys and young girls heroes to look up to in it. Shows that are all female like Xena or all male like Supernatural are never as mainstream.

Buffy meanwhile has roles for both and thus is more popular than either, same with Who.

Also I might add do you want the actresses playing the female Doctors to be objectified? Martin to go on about how tight her dresses are a friend of WInifred to feel up her bum, Lord Christopher to force a kiss on her, Jamie Pond to force himself on her, Clarence to make jokes about her chin and force a kiss on her and moan about her appearance being too old and ugly when she regenerates into a 56 year old woman!

Added to that its gonna open up a huge can of worms about casting the Doctor. There are gonna be discussions about should the next 13 doctors be women, should we have a woman or a man next.

Its a disaster waiting to happen.

Sorry if I sounded aggressive I am not I just think a female Doctor is such a bad idea and that along with the 10 reasons I listed are why Missy IMO is the worst thing to ever happen to Doctor Who.

I think it's a bit weird to ask 'what do you think of Missy?' as if she is a new character when the character has been around since the 70's. When the doctor changes you don't say 'what do you think of the doctor?'. You might, in both cases say 'what do you think of the latest incarnation', but that is a different question because that means your acknowledging it is a slightly different version of the same character they have always been which a lot of the people who say 'I hate missy' etc seem to be forgetting and acting as if she's some entirely new character.

For me, I like Missy. When her true identity was being rumoured I didn't know how I felt about a female master if true, but then when it was true and we got to see her with the secret out, she played it brilliantly. I liked Simm's master and think she is just as good. I still think a female doctor would be a very bad idea, but I don't think anything could change my opinion on that. My only complaint regarding Missy was that her debut as this incarnation had so much going on that I felt we haven't got to see her full potential yet. Glad she'll be returning soon and still hoping that we get a flashback of the Simm>gomez regeneration at some point.

I think "Missy" is great and Michelle Gomez is fantastic and a female regen is perfectly fine and good.

But she should still be called The Master. "Missy" is just silly.

The amount of things that should have sunk Doctor Who is enough to fill a novel.

Hartnell being recast! Show will never be good with that babbling Patrick Troughton!
Space Monsters? This was supposed to be an educational serial series not a kids sci-fi show!
The show will never survive without Tom Baker/David Tennant etc
Moffat will get this show cancelled within a couple of years etc.

I for one, like Missy. She's basically John Simm's Master in a female casing and a bit more class and subtlety. The Doctor's reaction to her was perfect as well - gender is fluid on Gallifrey. It's not a big deal within the show, but unfortunately it seems to be so here.

Missy seems testing, though reactive to situations, she seems to bring The Doctor into some kind of questionable observance that sways him but The Doctor does his own thing, helping others along the way and that's just the way it is.

I liked missy as an evil time lady but not keen on her being the master. It just feels like another stunt to get über reactions from all quarters just like the creation of the war doctor. I wonder what the original creators of the master think.

I had forgotten about her, the character made little impact on me.

I like Mary Poppins.

Enough already.

Oh Missy, you're so fine, you're so fine, hey Missy!!

I think she's great, but what really made her shine was Michelle Gomez's delicious performance. The look on her face when she reveals to the Doctor who she is is just one example.

You feel very passionately about this and I respect that, but you're wrong.

First of all, you make this topic about Missy, when it's really about your dislike of the idea of a female Doctor. You should try to look at Missy as a character in her own right and you will see obvious merit, at least in Gomez's portrayal. You are allowing your feelings about a female Doctor to colour your perceptions of Missy.

Second of all, to address your obvious real concern, I read your reprise of old Doctor stories with growing astonishment, for two reasons:

1) These are old stories written for the genders as they were. Do you seriously believe that they'd have been written in the same way for a female Doctor!?

2) That you held those stories up as examples of what wouldn't work reflects your own "buy in" to the stereotypical gender roles that society today still often expects people to conform to. Movies in the 50s and 60s almost always had the poor, hapless female in danger rescued by the strapping male hero, or twist an ankle running. I'm glad that today attitudes are generally better. It's implicit in your assertions and examples that you believe a female Doctor would be less capable or more deserving of sympathy. I'd re-examine your own views and attitudes towards sexual equality if I were you.

3) The only concern I have about a female Doctor is whether the public at large would accept it, and that it not be treated as a gimmick.

I still say go for it. Doctor Who has always pushed the boundaries of change. And the Doctor has always been about knowledge and intellect neither of which attributes are restricted one or other gender.

Pretty sure I've applauded you before GDK and I'm gonna do it again... *applauds*

I quite agree. Missy (played by Gomez) as a character in her own right, not as the Master.... that would have worked so much better. No problems with transgender regeneration controversy. No problems with her snog-attack on The Doctor. Her history would have had to be different, and explained, but that would have been easy. Yes, that would have worked infinitely better than Missy being the Master.

This echoes my thoughts exactly. Why people get so offended over someones gender is absolutely beyond me. We have a lead character who can change his face and flies around the universe in a blue box, and people get caught up on a gender change. The only thing that they could have done wrong would have been to fixate upon the change and make a huge deal out of it - they didn't and I like that a lot. I cannot wait to see Missy in a hopefully better story - I was hoping not in Series 9 (I like to break these characters) but it seems we may likely see her sooner rather than later.

Missy's plan, motives and overall story was a slight let down for me in the end. But that's a plot issue - not a character issue. I'd have had the same issues if it had been John Simm in the role. And that says it all. Anyone - man or woman - can deliver the story, you've just got to hope said story is good. What matters behind the scenes is that they got a good actor/actress in the role. Doctor Who has shown a shred of originality once again by shaking things up, changing the dynamic and having a logical explanation as to how the lead character could switch genders in future.

Yes, an eventual (and inevitable?) female Doctor will be the biggest shock to the system and change for the show since the Hartnell to Troughton regeneration. I just hope that it is only a shock to the system insofar that it switches up the rules a bit. It'll keep the show original, allow stories to be told in a new way and ultimately save it from going stale (which all good things do if they are drawn out in the same way for long enough). Many of the people who seem to detest a female Doctor are the same people who suggest to others skipping a particular Doctor if they don't like them. Those people have the right to do exactly that themselves if the thought of a female Doctor offends them so much - I just hope they spend some of their time away realising how pathetically sexist that sounds!

A show that doesn't create discussion (or controversy) once in a while risks falling into realms of irrelevancy. There's nothing wrong with shaking up the formula a bit, and it just so happens that the rules in Doctor Who are flexible enough to allow gender change to be an element up for change within that formula.

Whilst I wasn't bothered whether a man or woman played The Master (or The Doctor for that matter) so long as the casting was good, I have to admit that I was quite happy that one of my favourite shows hadn't fallen into a rut of complete repetition and that it tries new things.