@the-bella-anima
replied to your post “Stop assuming I’m for the Doctor turning into a woman just because I’m…”I’m curious as to why you think it’s stupid writing. Surely the merit of the idea should stand upon its performance?
Superior writing can overcome bad writing, yes. It is possible that the execution of a female doctor could be so flawless that the awful lead up and method is overshadowed, but I have no reason to believe this will be so. Chibnall isn’t bad, exactly, but he’s also not some kind of phenomenal writer that would make me think he could overcome bad writing.
And it is bad writing. The idea of a female Doctor (and the other genderflipping time lords are just outgrowths of this) is really Moffat’s baby. It was never seriously discussed until the Curse of the Fatal Death, which was meant to be a parody but ended up implementing things that Moffat would later use (like convoluted ‘I plan to do this so it happens’ time paradoxes). The only times that Time Lords becoming women when they were previously men were discussed (or implemented) in New Who were episodes written by Moffat. The only time genderswitching was brought up in classic who was the extended universe, where it was explicitly a rare mistake (only possible under certain circumstances) that would be forcibly fixed immediately due to its instability.
Thus, there’s no basis for this in writing aside from a few poorly written instances all by the same writer. Certain lines were dropped like “The future is all women” and “how do you handle all that male ego” and “we should all be so lucky (to be ‘upgraded’ to female)”. None of these are proper foreshadowing, but instead just sound like Moffat’s usual hamfisted attempts to sound hip with the ladies, fetishizing the idea of being a woman rather than appreciating femininity in the same way one appreciates masculinity.
Compare this to any other significant plot twist or turn in Doctor Who, especially New Who. Bad Wolf, Torchwood, YANA, the end of everything, the crack in the universe, even River Song’s story unfolded with deliberate foreshadowing, build up and development. It wasn’t always done well, but effort was put into it. For something that should be so significant, like the Doctor suddenly regenerating into a female for the first (and perhaps only) time in 2-3000 years and 13 lives….there’s no build up. No significant foreshadowing, no mystery, and no really good plot that would culminate in the Doctor ending up female for once. It’s just SURPRISE, suddenly a woman! (and frankly it was an awful idea, because if ever you were going to surprise an audience with a new Doctor, switching the gender would do it) I mean, flipping genders is more significant than having him regenerate into a darker skinned man, which he never has, and yet it’s presented with total suddenness like it’s totally normal.
What this says to me is that the writers/producers just decided they WANTED the Doctor to be a woman, and they made it so. It’s not an outgrowth of the plot, it’s just the writer dictating it to be so. Good writing does not tend to grow out of inorganic decisions like this, and the political undertones of putting down male regenerations leading up to this only speaks of this being even less about what’s natural for the story and more about “If we do this, we’re going to score points and get viewers”. That is not good writing.
It’s just bad writing. Canon history doesn’t support it, the motivation and execution doesn’t support it, and frankly I don’t trust the people writing it to support it properly. Not only do I think they won’t handle the Doctor turning into a woman after thousands of years as a man with the proper gravity, but I think they’ll just write him badly as a woman, turning him into something like Amy or River instead of the Doctor but now in the body of a woman. When cast remarks leading into it are things like “The Doctor is a woman now, get over it” and the attitude toward dissent is ‘your male outrage isn’t my problem’, not only does it suggest the writers won’t listen to viewers, but it suggests bad forced writing about how great it is that he’s a woman now and how much better he is now that he’s female.
And now, assuming he’s ever allowed to be a male again (which is hard to say, if she’s moderately popular they might feel it’s a ‘step backward’) consider what will happen with the next writers. Even if Chibnall and his crew are actually amazing and perfect and able to execute this flawlessly, imagine what happens when inferior writers start making jokes about mood swings and period cramps or shopping spree urges that he ‘used to get’
It was never seriously discussed until the Curse of the Fatal Death,
which was meant to be a parody but ended up implementing things that
Moffat would later use“The Curse of the Fatal Death” didn’t come out in the 1980s:
“At a later stage, Doctor Who should be metamorphosed into a woman,” Canadian TV producer Sydney Newman wrote to BBC Chairman Michael Grade in 1986.
“This requires some considerable thought — mainly because I want to
avoid a flashy, Hollywood Wonder Woman because this kind of heroine with
no flaws is a bore. Given more time than I have now, I can create such a
character.”[…]
But, Stradling noted, it wasn’t the first time the idea of a woman playing the iconic character had been floated around.
“It had been discussed ever since 1981 when Tom Baker left and
suggested to reporters at the time that the new Doctor could be a woman,
which was a suggestion of the then-producer of Doctor Who John Nathan-Turner, who was quite a mischievous guy,” Stradling said.Not to mention turning into a woman is less drastic than turning into a form that doesn’t look human, which has been around since 1979 when Romana considered regenerating into a blue skinned alien. And affirmed again in 1996:
“Well, I do [have the ability to change species], but only when I die.” ~ Eighth Doctor, Doctor Who
2005, where Nine confirms there is no guarantee on what form the Doctor will have:
“I might have two heads or no
head. Imagine me with no head. And don’t say that’s an improvement. But
it’s a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you’re going to end
up with.” ~ Ninth Doctor, “The Parting of the Ways”And 2010, when the Doctor also thinks he has regenerated into a woman:
“Legs. I’ve still got legs. Good. Arms. Hands. Ooo, fingers.
Lots of fingers. Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose, I’ve had worse. Chin,
blimey. Hair. I’m a girl!” ~ Eleventh Doctor, “The End of Time: Part 2″The only times that Time Lords becoming women when they were previously
men were discussed (or implemented) in New Who were episodes written by
Moffat.Actually, this is also false. The Corsair was referenced as being both male and female in 2011 in an episode written by Neil Gaiman and it was Gaiman’s idea.
For something that should be so significant, like the Doctor suddenly
regenerating into a female for the first (and perhaps only) time in
2-3000 years and 13 lives….there’s no build up. No significant
foreshadowing, no mystery, and no really good plot that would culminate
in the Doctor ending up female for once.Again, untrue, since the Doctor literally thought this already happened and verbally acknowledged it seven years ago. Not to mention the last three years have been dripping with foreshadowing in the form of Michelle Gomez’s Master, a character who was also previously male (and a slime snake) in their past on-screen incarnations.
I mean, flipping genders is more significant than having him regenerate
into a darker skinned man, which he never has, and yet it’s presented
with total suddenness like it’s totally normal.Because it is normal for a two-hearted, time-and-space traveling alien that becomes a brand new person when they die. This is decades old news. Blue skin or two heads or no head at all are far more drastic than a 5′6″ blonde woman.
think they’ll just write him badly as a woman, turning him into something like Amy or River instead of the Doctor but now in the body of a woman.
What was wrong with Amy or River?
