A Woman is the Master of Time and Space. Deal with it!
Jodie Whittaker is the 13th Doctor and it isn’t the end of the World
It has barely been a day and the rantings about how terrible Doctor Who will be now that Jodie Whittaker is in the role of the Doctor range from: “The Doctor is a male role and no woman can do it justice” to “this is the final nail in the coffin of a show already in the shitter.”
Sight unseen, fanboy crybabies, oozing their entitlement tears about the loss of another thing that has been exclusively male and white for 50+ years; their unsightly whining reverberates across the Internet, filling the cups of people who are happily embracing this new development.
Truthfully, as a fan of the Doctor, the legends of the TARDIS and his adventures across Time and Space have been in need of a shakeup. Nine was great. Ten was my favorite, Eleven mixed it up with great stories and a version of the Doctor I had to grow into. River Song is still my favorite character in the newest iteration of the Doctor.
But there was still something missing. And I realized it when Missy, the evil iteration of the Master came onto the scene. Why hadn’t the Doctor ever been a woman? I did the research. It was possible. Gender was just as fluid as their bodies when they regenerate. Gallifreyans are beings of energy made flesh.
Missy was deliciously evil and I loved it. I think the Master’s female transition was outstanding and Missy was one of the most terrifying versions of the Master to date.
This is a change which has been a long time coming and completely within the canon of the character, even from its initial design. Why didn’t it change? Likely because of social pressures and the implied patriarchy with the role itself.
White men wrote Doctor Who. White men benefited from the psychology of the Doctor. The Doctor is always right. The Doctor sees beyond the realm of mere mortals with their limited lifespan. The Doctor makes hard decisions and lets the damage fall on those same lesser life forms.
The Doctor has been in his way an example of the demands of patriarchy and perhaps in recent years, it has become painfully obvious that others noticed it. Hence the transition to younger Doctors and the nature of the Doctor’s emotional relationship to his companions. He has come to the point of being deeply involved in their lives, even to his detriment.
The most important aspect has been the admission that the Doctor lies. We were always willing to take his word for things, but in recent years, even he cannot abide his bullshit and admitted, he’s been known to lie to protect you from the horrors of the Truth.
The Daleks hipped us to this. They knew him better than he knew himself. No one is saying you have to like the transition to the Doctor as a female, but the canon writings have said it was possible as far back as the seventies.
The fact the Doctor hasn’t been a woman until now says more about our society and their fears related to women than it does about how well the character should do in the media.
The Doctor is not Human. All pretense of gender is exactly that. A pretense.
The Gallifreyans only LOOK Human. Their gender and even their bodies are little more than clothing and when looked at in this perspective, EVERYONE should be pissed that we have not had the good sense to allow the Doctor to be female before now. That we haven’t had a Doctor of any diversity before now.
The Human Genome is varied and diverse, if the Gallifreyans are anything like us, their genome should have similar variation. Better yet, since we (as Humans) invented the Gallifreyans they should be as diverse as WE want them to be!
How many different takes on problems could the Doctor have had if he hadn’t been straitjacketed into the male perspective. Granted, he’s more broad of mind than the average Human male but he can be just as condescending sometimes. Perhaps the change in gender energy will be invigorating for the character and invite new viewers to participate in this incredible show and its fantastic premises.
I say quit your complaining and give the woman the chance to take on the role: new writers, new characters, new direction, new Doctor.
The Doctor is in. She’s a woman, now. Deal with it. Women can be Masters of Time and Space. And it’s about goddamn time.
Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning essayist, author and journalist for various online publications, anthologies and websites which fancy themselves having discriminating tastes in speculative fiction, non-fiction journalism and critical thinking.
He is a known collaborator as the Answer-Man with Krypton Radio and the Good Men Project. He edits Future SF Magazine, right here on Medium and blows the doors off the Nerdist’s comic commentary when he writes on Quora.com. He also coordinates and works with the Afrosurreal Writing Workshop in the city of Oakland. In his spare time, he collaborates with Black Comic Creators in an effort to promote their work and the impending Black Age of Comics.
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