International Young Naturists Organisation
General Talk (primarily non-naturist) => Television, Movies and Theatre => Topic started by: Dario Western on July 25, 2017, 06:16:57 am
-
Hi all,
Unless you have all been living under a rock for the past week, you would no doubt know that the new Doctor Who has been announced, and for the first time in the show's 54-year-old history, the role has been taken on by a woman.
35-year-old British actress Jodie Whittaker who has previously been in shows like "Broadchurch" and "The Smoke" is excited to be taking on the role, and has been warmly welcomed by several DW actors and actresses on Twitter and on social media.
Not everybody is happy with the change, especially a number of old school fans who have decided to boycott the show saying that the Doctor should always be played by a man.
To rub salt into the wound, The Sun also tried to discredit Whittaker by publishing stills of some nude roles she has previously done in her acting career including some sex scenes and posing nude for a life drawing class.
As I am a feminist, I applaud the change and I am more than willing to give her a chance to see how she pans out as the 13th Doctor.
Here is a lovely YouTube clip of her introductory scene to the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-_bSdWEYK8
-
I'm just a stickler for change I suppose. So much trying to conform and they ultimately just ruin it all.
Ghostbusters - flop
Karate Kid - flop
Just two examples. Popular shows just need to keep the same gender for the leading role. Just my opinion of course. Would be like if we turned Orphan Anne into Orphan Andy. Or Jill Valentine in Resident Evil became Jim Valentine. Same difference. Just my 2 cents on it anyways.
-
Don't watch the show, don't care to be honest. If they want to make the doctor a woman that's fine by me. As long as the show doesn't take a completely different route I can understand the change. Just don't ruin the show by pushing the fact that she's a female doctor as the driving point of the show. Make the plot of the show the driving point. Simple as that.
-
I have mixed feelings. I feel that the gender switch might make the show too different. With all the other doctors being male I feel that it wouldn't be a reincarnate. It would be a totally different other doctor set in the whoverse. If they had reincarnated to other females in the past then i would be ok with it. But I'll give her a shot. I gave capaldi a shot and didn't like him and stop watching his. So if I don't like her then I'll just wait till they reincarnate a new dr
-
Whittaker is a brilliant actor, I think she will do the role justice. For balance they'll give her a male companion, and i would assume try to explore the internal power struggle of the Doctor trying not to fall in love with her companion; because for some reason, writers always like to make a female protagonist fall in love.
With Moffat leaving the show; BBC is bound to try something new and edgy before they revert back to a male lead after 1 season - maybe 2 if they can stick away from a "Doctor in love" storyline.
-
Jodie Whittaker wasnt born too far from me and i always support local talent so good luck to her.
-
I think it's ok, no one really knows if the Dr is originally male or female.
I'd actually like to see the other time lord (the woman that's on the current season, forgot her name) be the new Dr, she i bit of a bitch but the nice kind, and she is spicier then the current Dr
-
I think it's ok, no one really knows if the Dr is originally male or female.
I'd actually like to see the other time lord (the woman that's on the current season, forgot her name) be the new Dr, she i bit of a bitch but the nice kind, and she is spicier then the current Dr
Considering the first Doctor is the original incarnation (in most works, the series is rather inconsistent from what I have read), so I am pretty certain that "originally", the Doctor is male. Not sure what the point of that is though, both the Corsair and the Master have already had incarnations of different sexes. I know rather little of Doctor Who, but I would imagine that neither the concept of gender nor the biological property of sex transcend regenerations in a Time Lord. Or... Time Lady?
-
I welcome the change. The show has always successfully functioned on two things: The talent of the lead actor and the strength of the stories that have been written. From what I have seen of Whittaker, she's a talented actress. My hope is the writing will be just as good.
On a side note, glad to see Moffatt finally stepping off this show.
-
You need to remember that the Doctor isn't human, he's Gallifreyan. So far, we've only seen two genders of Gallifreyans portrayed, but for all we know, there are many others. So for all those of you who are complaining that he's gone from being a man to being a woman just be grateful he's not turned into a giant ostrich or a ten foot snake. ????
But seriously, I'm looking forward to the change and it will add a whole new dynamic to the Doctor Who universe and may even bring in a new generation of viewers and fans.
-
@Dante
I agree 100% with all that.
BTW, did you know that in Alien, the captain of the Nostromo was going to be a woman and part of the second in command (Ripley) was going to be a man.
-
I like how each regeneration has a "hard reset" feel to it. But, around the last few episodes with Matt Smith, I'd lost interest. I didn't care for the whole "impossible girl" story at all. For me it can only get better instead of worse at this point.
I don't think gender plays too much of a role in who the character of Dr Who is.
So I'm not only cool with it, but its finally got me interested in the show again.
-
@Dante
Yes I preferred it when the companions were people who had accidentally stumbled on the TARDIS of the Doctor and got pulled in the the story.
I've never liked the idea that companions are in any way "special" or that the Doctor keeps revisiting them at home, asking them to go on an adventure with him, like they are playmates or something.
The companions are our way into the story and, as such, they need to be the "everyman" (or woman) so we can insert ourselves in. That's why this last few series has felt so alienating.
-
She was great in Broadchurch... and it's a nice twist, the doctor re-gender-rated
-
It all boils down to what story arch the writers will give to her. She's a great actress.
-
If the scriptwriters have any sense, they won't play up the feminine side of the Doctor. After all, they didn't play up his masculine side when he was a man.
-
From what I've heard, I think the season is going to be a shake up season, with a bit of a different style, with the new show runner. The doctor being female is just part of it. Can't really say either way until I see it. As long as they don't focus too much on her being female..... like how many times did the doctor get slapped? Will they still do stuff like that or avoid it because she's female. Also could have some good Vastra storylines.
-
I wonder if the Doctor will still be in deeply in love with Rose? And does that mean the Doctor will be a lesbian? Or is he/she gender-neutral when it comes to his/her feelings? There's a whole new set of storylines right there!
-
I wonder if the Doctor will still be in deeply in love with Rose? And does that mean the Doctor will be a lesbian? Or is he/she gender-neutral when it comes to his/her feelings? There's a whole new set of storylines right there!
May not matter one way or the other as the new Doctor won't be visiting Rose anytime soon. Besides, I think Rose has been plenty busy with the Meta-Crisis Doctor in that other universe. :wink:
-
Ah, but if Rose ever turns up again, I reckon they'll start lezzing about. :laugh:
-
Good for the Doctor I say !!
Might change up the dynamics between the doctor and her assistant(s) !
But anyway, the Doctor shall remain ... the Doctor !
And Daleks wil be Daleks ...
-
Strange how the daleks always have male voices.
-
My wife is a massive Doctor Who fan and I never really understood the appeal of the recent series of Doctor Who.
However, Capaldi changed my mind, and I loved him as the doctor, simply because he wasn't a twat like the other recent regenerations before him.
I will be interested to see where they go with the story and the dynamics that take place. In my opinion the Doctor could be male, female, transgender, intersex, part robot part human - it doesn't matter frankly seeing as the Doctor is an alien anyway. Also the story in the latest season had quotes and references from the Doctor's mouth referring to gender not being a significant factor in our world, and he did state a number of times about this throughout the latest season.
And all that rubbish about what the actor did prior to her role in Doctor Who - I'm sure once she is on the screens as the Doctor all that will be forgotten by most. It shouldn't matter anyway...
-
@Dante
Yes I preferred it when the companions were people who had accidentally stumbled on the TARDIS of the Doctor and got pulled in the the story.
I've never liked the idea that companions are in any way "special" or that the Doctor keeps revisiting them at home, asking them to go on an adventure with him, like they are playmates or something.
The companions are our way into the story and, as such, they need to be the "everyman" (or woman) so we can insert ourselves in. That's why this last few series has felt so alienating.
The reason why the writers keep doing the “Special Companion” thing is because The Doctor needed a reason to bring along a fragile human into such dangerous situations. Martha was the last companion to quit traveling with The Doctor. After The Doctor wiped Donnas memory to save her life he didn’t have a full time companion until he met Amy. And he only picked her and Rory up due to the whole crack in time mystery. And the fact that one of the cracks was in Amy’s bedroom. After they were killed he only started traveling with Clara because she was “The Impossible Girl”. And once she was killed, he spent 70 something years working as a University Professor/Prison Guard, until he met Bill. And since Bills time on the TARDIS ended with her getting a hold shot through her chest and turned into a Cyberman, the new Doctor will probably be reluctant to bring along another human companion as well. However, since the next companion is a middle aged man, and most people don’t care when they die, The Doctor will probably have no problem putting him in all sorts of dangerous situations.
As for the topic at hand, I will not have any problem with The Doctor being a woman as long as she continues to be well written and her gender is not the focus of her character. However, the way the entertainment industry has been going these last few years I’m not optimistic about that. Hopefully the writers don’t make the female Doctor into the most perfect version of the Doctor ever. Where she never makes a mistake and is perfect, perfect in every way, because she now has vagina power.
-
I think it will be great. Whittaker is a great actress. They changed up The Master to a female and Missy ended up being my favorite actress.
-
Now that the season premiere has come and gone, here's my assessment:
I had a few gripes about the story of this first episode and one major one, but I won't discuss for fear of spoiling something.
I found the main villain in this one to be laughable, but so are nearly all Doctor Who villains in one form or fashion.
Not sold on the new companions yet, but it always takes more than one episode for me to like or hate the newest companion(s).
Jodie Whittaker knocked it out of the park as the Doctor. My only hope now is Chibnall and co. have given her quality material to work with.
-
From the wikipage on regeneration:
Whether Time Lords could change gender in regeneration was never addressed onscreen during the classic series and not explicitly focused on for much of the revival. In The Hand of Fear (1976), the Kartrian Eldrad compared his transformation from female to male to Time Lord regeneration, possibly suggesting the process could produce a sex change. The concept of Time Lords changing gender upon regeneration was seeded throughout Moffat's tenure as showrunner. In the second part of The End of Time (2010), the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) briefly checks for an Adam's apple upon regeneration to confirm if he is still a man. In the 2011 episode "The Doctor's Wife", the Doctor recalls a Time Lord acquaintance known as the Corsair, who had at least two female incarnations.[33] In the 2013 short "Night of the Doctor", the Sisterhood of Karn offer a dying Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) control over his inevitable regeneration, with "man or woman" being touted as possibilities.[34] The first on-screen cross-gender regeneration was shown in the 2015 episode "Hell Bent", in which a white male Gallifreyan general (Ken Bones) regenerates into a black woman (T'Nia Miller), who states that her previous incarnation was the only time she had been a man.[35]
The most notable Time Lord to have appeared in both male and female forms prior to Whittaker's casting is the Doctor's nemesis, The Master, portrayed from 2014 to 2017 by Scottish actress Michelle Gomez. This character was known as Missy, short for "Mistress".[36] In "World Enough and Time" (2017), the Doctor tells his companion Bill Potts, in reference to Missy, that Time Lords are mostly beyond gender norms and stereotypes; however, Bill points out that the males and females of the species collectively refer to themselves by a male title. From "Twice Upon a Time" onward, Jodie Whittaker portrays the Thirteenth Doctor, the Doctor's first female incarnation.
And if I dive even deeper in the fandom, then you come across that Time lords only a part of the Gallifreyian society.
And even deeper thoughts there are hints that the Doctor has reproduced sexually, and therefore the Gallifreyians are reproducing sexually. However other fandom say that Time Lords are cursed and cloning themselves.
A nice thought I found on the internet is that yes they are potraited as female and male. But do they have the sexual organs as we are used to see? For the 11th doctor has been nude, but the reproduction organs have not been shown.
(I also found a (almost disturbing) close up rant on the sexual organs, reproduction and birth of Time lords. The writer stated that they are hemiprodites and impregnated each other. However no sources were given for these facts)
And even more deeper (now we are at the bottom of Mariana trench). It is stated that everything is configurated when the Time lords are regenerating. So they always check if every body part is still there. But also internally everything is rewired. This also hints on that the brain is rewired. So they still have the memories of previous Doctors, but they also form new brain waves. And with that possibilities of different thought processes (for example how do I solve a problem and who do I fancy (read sexual atraction).
I think there is a beautiful hidden message in the regeneration of the Doctors. Whomever you are, whomever you have been, you will fall in love with just another. Even it is another species (o no another can of worms :D). So the duality between man and female is not there. They are both and at the same time they are either female or male.
(Sexual) identity, (sexual) atraction it is all a spectrum.
And last but not least, the Daleks are a hybrid between organic and mechanic. So what you hear is the machine talking. Apperently the programmer of the Daleks was a man :D. Well at least a Dalek with a deep voice. For all we know female Daleks could have had longer vocal chords.
-
As long as we have a well written Doctor and good stories and scripts I'll be happy.
Joanna Lumley was considered for the Doctor in the 1980s. And she played the Doc in a parody from the 1990s.