today's Doctor Who casting announcement

[kindkit]

I am cautiously pleased. I'm not personally invested in the Doctor being female, but it's certainly well past time that it happened.

Everything will depend on how it's handled. I want the character to be "the Doctor, who just happens to be female in this regeneration" and not "the female Doctor." The way Missy was handled (though I haven't seen all her episodes) seems like a good template: she's clearly the Master who happens to be female, and that saved her character from Moffat's general inability to write more than one type of personality for a woman. (Sexy, flirty, sassy, making a big show of independence but utterly devoted to her man--on reflection, it probably helps that the Master was most of those things already, but there were moments when you could see echoes of previous incarnations in Missy, and that grounded her and kept her from being just an antagonistic River Song.)

Things I emphatically don't want to see: more focus on romance for the Doctor (though if it's f/f romance I'll tolerate it), the Doctor suddenly becoming interested in shoes or babies, the Doctor becoming more nurturing or empathetic or any other stereotypical female quality, the Doctor becoming in any way like a Moffat-written woman. I do know that Moffat won't be the showrunner anymore, but I'm not sure I trust Chibnall not to copy a winning formula (everyone who isn't me seemed to adore River Song).

Every version of the Doctor has a different personality, and I'm prepared for that. I just want Thirteen to be a recognizable version of the Doctor who is female, and not have her Doctor-ness suffocated under a thick layer of "this is What Woman Are Like, so that Doctor must be like this now."

Comments

[vilakins]

If they use the crap female stereotypes, I'll stop watching. I almost stopped during RTD and Ten's era because of all the Rose romance and whiny emo-ness.

She looks the part: strong and characterful - but a lot will depend on the writing.

[kindkit]

I kept on through RTD's run because despite everything I really liked Ten, even though I hated the romance. (Rose in herself I usually liked, but sometimes the Rose/Ten dynamic was appalling, and I hated the emphasis on Rose as the best, most lovable, most perfect companion ever and the only person the Doctor loved.) I didn't stop watching until the Clara era, because I couldn't make myself give a damn about her and her early episodes with Twelve were just so bad.

I'm trying to remind myself that Chibnall is responsible for Broadchurch, which at its best was truly great television (with very very good female characters) and not just for everything in Torchwood that annoyed me. (I loved Torchwood, except when I hated it.)

[vilakins]

I stopped watching Torchwood early on because I loathe horror and gory violence. I've never seen Broadchurch. I'll hope for another good Doctor and run.

Clara did annoy me with her selfish lies, but I enjoyed the rest.

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, it's really going to depend on the writing. That said, Chibnall is certainly able to write more than one female character. Even when I wasn't a huge fan of his episodes, that wasn't the problem.

[kindkit]

Yeah, as I said to Vilakins above, I'm trying to remember that Chibnall did Broadchurch, with its really outstanding female characters. I tend to associate him with all the things that went wrong with Torchwood. (There were parts of Torchwood that I loved. It makes me all the more bitter about the things I hated.)

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, we have yet to see how he goes as a showrunner, but I'm definitely going to start watching again.

[st_aurafina]

Broadchurch was really good and together, and had great female characters, so I'm hopeful that as showrunner, he's going to be better than his Who stories. And I'm really happy with the casting choice - she was fantastic in Broadchurch. I haven't seen her in anything else but it sounds like I need to watch Attack the Block.

[halotolerant]

Yes, all of this basically. I wasn't thrilled with the Doctor in the last few years having to have peri-romances with Earth girls of a certain age, but I don't want that to stop simply because the Doctor no longer theoretically might have a penis (how Gallifreyan genders even map to Earth ones is not clear anyway), especially not replacing the girls with some Suitable Man.