Originally Posted by
Aspasia
I agree that the decision to cast a female doctor has probably come about from the push on representation but there is a REASON they're pushing that... because it's needed. New iconic characters who are female are hard to create, because wide-spread popularity takes time. Creating new shows, selling new books by new authors - this is a risk for TV companies and publishers. We're fighting against literally hundreds of years of strong and inspiring main characters being men in almost every single story that's become part of our cultural consciousness - from Beowulf to King Arthur to Gandalf to Phillip Marlowe to Atticus Finch to James Bloody Bond. So if the BBC want to take a character that has traditionally presented as male (Remember the whole premise of the Doctor is that s/he changes pretty frequently!) then I embrace that as about bloody time!