Time for a woman to take control of the TARDIS

For fifty three years, The Doctor has been a man, traversing time and space in his little blue box. Surely, after thirteen male incarnations, it is time that he regenerated into a she. Of course many will have trouble with the concept, much like they did when The Master returned as Missy. There will always be those who criticise progress but there are some very good reasons why the next Doctor should be a woman.

Capaldi was a return to what made
Hartnel a great Doctor

I'm a big Doctor Who fan. I'll admit to not being as well versed on Classic Who as I'd like but I do have a decent conversational knowledge of the show. When Matt Smith announced his departure and there were rumblings of a female Doctor to replace him I was sceptical. The reason for that was because I didn't think it was the right time. After Eccleston, Tennant and the aforementioned Smith, I felt the show needed to go back to its routes and so championed Capaldi who eventually got the role. Capaldi was the first incarnation of The Doctors new set of regeneration's and so it felt right for him to be the character. He promised a more gruffer, older version of The Doctor which heralded back to William Hartnel's version. A woman wouldn't have had the same effect, I don't think and the reason why brings me to my second point.

If or when we do get a female Doctor, it could become gimmicky, or at least it would've had Capaldi's incarnation been a woman. At that point we hadn't met Missy. Although it had been inferred that Time Lords could switch genders during regeneration, we had never really seen the proof. Then Missy popped up and if that wasn't proof enough, we saw the process for ourselves in the season 9 finale, Hellbent. Now it is proven fact, a Time Lord can regenerate from a man to a woman and (it's assumed) vice versa. Because we, the audience have seen it and have known that Time Lords can regenerate into women for three years now, we are desensitized to the fact. After Smith, it would've been gimmicky but after Capaldi it is almost par for the course.

Moffat will soon be leaving the show,
a job he describes as "the best job in
the world" 

The departure of Steven Moffat from show runner duties is important because it allows for a mini-reboot of the show. There is a marked difference between the Russell T Davies years and the Moffat era in how episodes are structured and how they feel. With Chibnall coming on board for series eleven, it allows for another change and therefore for a change in gender of the lead character. If The Doctor does become a woman then it is likely that her main companion will be male and so we have a shift in the dynamics of the relationship between Doctor and companion. That relationship is extremely important, so important that the show pretty much rests on it. It is possibly why the likes of Rose, Amy and Clara lasted so long while Martha Jones didn't.

Could Swinton be the next Doctor?

My final point is that there are so many exciting female names being thrown into the hat now. Before Capaldi, the only female name which got a mention was Miranda Hart. Don't get me wrong, she's a terrific actress and with Call The Midwife she has shown she can do serious as well as comedy. She's not The Doctor though. This time we have Sheridan Smith, Olivia Coleman, Maxine Peake and the 4/1 favourite for the role, Tilda Swinton. As a Doctor Who fan, I would be more than happy with any of those actresses. Sheridan Smith's role as a companion to the Eighth Doctor (Paul Mcgann) in the Big Finish audio plays probably rules her out but maybe not. Peter Capaldi and Colin Baker had both prior Doctor Who experience before eventually landing the main job. All of that aside though, the world is ready for a madwoman to fly around in her little blue box, helping where she can. In fact, I'm ready!

What do you think? Are you ready for a female Doctor and if so do you have someone in mind? Or are you firmly in the male Doctor camp? Feel free to leave a comment below!