Ughhhhh. Just when we get Stephen Moffat on board with the idea of the Doctor becoming a Time Lady – both in interviews and tacitly through dialogue at the end of Series 8 – along comes the 5th incarnation of the Doctor with his rigid views on Gallifreyan biology.
Peter Davison, who played the fedora-wearing (coincidence? I think not) incarnation of the Doctor from 1981 to 1984. During an interview with ABC Australia, the question of the last of the Time Lords switching genders came up.
Davison said, “I have trouble with the idea of a female Doctor, only because I reckon if you're born on Gallifrey a man, you're probably a male Time Lord.”
Ah yes, because a species whose entire survival hinges on complete DNA regeneration would never have need nor desire to change gender.
But why would Davison, who”s own daughter Georgia Moffat played the Doctor”s Daughter during David Tennant”s tenure, think in such a way? Chalk it up to his assumption that a female Doctor would never be written as brashly as, say, Peter Capaldi”s Doctor.
“[…] if you have an uncertain, fallible female Doctor with a really strong male companion, you've got more of a stereotype than anything else.” Davison explained. He goes on to say ladies could have their OWN show, maybe even with is daughter as the lead.
Personally, I”m all for the return of the Doctor”s Daughter. But there”s nothing in the Whovian rules that says the Doctor has to be outwardly uncertain to be emotionally damaged, as Missy has so capably shown us. Or that the companion has to be the opposite gender of the Doctor. In fact, I”d argue that Vastra and Jenny are basically a prototype for a Time Lady and her female companion.
But, I guess the concept of a fictional alien who can physically alter everything about himself CHOOSING to be a woman is a silly idea, when you think about it. I mean, with ingrained sexism like this, what man in their right mind would willing subject themselves!?