A female Doctor.

[Ginger Tea]

As weve already established how another timelord can be made (although not sure if she has two hearts seeing as both parents were human not galifrien (sp)) he could rejuvenate his, well not species as they would be regenerating humans/other, why hasn't he just opened up a room for time travel jiggy jiggy?

Then again he'd have to raise them to be sensible moral and stuff, first whiff of regeneration some would probably re-enact the robot chicken Contra sketch with the Konami code.

[lordlundar]

well my understanding is the master used up his regenerations completely and they restored him.

The regeneration aspect is a convenient plot device, nothing more. Until they decide to shut the series down (again), they will come up with any manner of excuses to keep the number in flux.

[smileyeagle1021]

While I believe that a woman can play a perfectly fine Doctor-like character, it would be like getting a woman to be the next 007. The character is established as being male and should remain so.

A woman as another 00x agent? by all means.

If they made the gender swapping canon a while ago...I'd have no problems with that. But so far as we've seen, male timelords stay male and female timelords remain female.

Two things, first, the 007 analogy is a bit of a false analogy, because whilst 007 does change actors, it is not because of a biological process of 007, it is because, well, screw you audience, that's why. Also, it may yet be established that James Bond is just a code name (they did acknowledge that Mathis was just a code name) and that these are just different agents who had inherited the role, in which case the code name could easily be changed to Janice Bond to suit a woman being the next person who comes up for the coveted role of lead spy.
Second, there has been at least offhand remarks about timelords changing gender before, so it is something that has been established as being possible. Also, even if it hadn't been, remember, River gave up her regenerations to the Doctor to save him... we don't know what all is in a timelords' regenerative energy, it may contain some of her genetic material for all we know, it could contain part of her soul for all we know, so it isn't unfeasible that her doing that could open the door to allowing (or perhaps even requiring) the Doctor to change gender during the next regeneration.

[Hyena Dandy]

While I believe that a woman can play a perfectly fine Doctor-like character, it would be like getting a woman to be the next 007. The character is established as being male and should remain so.

The reason that doesn't fit is that, well... He's kinda NOT established as being male.

He's established as not being HUMAN. Regeneration, for the Doctor and the Time Lords, is a process which humanity cannot replicate.,

The metaphor breaks down because, to the best of my knowledge, James Bond is a human being. The Doctor, to the best of my knowledge (and 8th is a bit fuzzy on it) is not. So we can't just say "The Doctor can't be a woman" on the grounds that a human being who's a man can't change into a woman. But a human being who's a man can't be fall from the sky onto marble and survive, or transfer his DNA through a lightning strike, or have two hearts, or expel radiation poisoning into his shoe, or die 12 times and come back.

My stance on aliens is that, if we haven't been told something explicitly, we might be wrong. The Doctor refers to his father's estate while talking to The Master, but if a Time Lord ages from birth to adulthood in even just a hundred or two hundred years, that's well within the lifespan of a regeneration.

Romana showed the ability to choose appearance on regeneration, and her regeneration went smoothly. The Doctor, on the other hand, has never regenerated smoothly. He's had temporary amnesia (twice,) needed to recuperate in a special room, gone delirious and passed out, tried to strangle his companion (in his defense, it was Peri at the time). He even almost destroyed the TARDIS. His only smooth-ish regeneration was one where the Time Lords made it happen.

Possibly, other Time Lords are unlikely to, but with The Doctor's hectic regenerations, combined with the fact he's implied he MIGHT, coming back female doesn't seem as bad as James Bond being female. James Bond having different actors might just be the same character with different actors. Each Doctor is distinct enough that that's not a fair comparison.

[Kheldarson]

The reason that doesn't fit is that, well... He's kinda NOT established as being male.

He's established as not being HUMAN. Regeneration, for the Doctor and the Time Lords, is a process which humanity cannot replicate.,

Tradition indicates that he's male, or prefers the male form. The only comments he's ever made about his regens is the fact that he's never been ginger, so that's obviously something he'd prefer, whereas a gender change has not been indicated.

I'll be honest; I'd rather see the Doctor remain male. I totally have a crush on the Doctor (okay, specifically Ten, but please, just send me a Doctor, oh gods of the universe!), and that would get strange if the Doctor was a woman :P

[Hyena Dandy]

Tradition indicates that he's male, or prefers the male form. The only comments he's ever made about his regens is the fact that he's never been ginger, so that's obviously something he'd prefer, whereas a gender change has not been indicated.

He hasn't said he WANTS to be female. But it has been implied to be POSSIBLE

Legs... I've still got legs. Good. Arms! Hands! Oooh, fingers. Lots of fingers. Ears, yeah, eyes too, nose... I've had worse. Chin... Blimey! Hair. *shocked look* I'M A GIRL! *grabs neck* No! Nooo, I'm not a girl. And still not ginger! And something else, something important. I'm, I'm... HA! Crashing! Ha-ha... Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo-hoo! GERONIMOOOO!

The Doctor would probably prefer to be male, and ginger, but that doesn't mean he can't be, if he's concerned about not having legs. (Given the trauma of his regeneration being enough to almost destroy the TARDIS, it's a valid concern)

Remember, 11th comes out the most coherent version of The Doctor post-regen, except maybe 3rd. His regeneration was traumatic, but it appears that, aside from a small amount of confusion with piloting, he's mentally all there.

Other Time Lords seem to have some control of their regenerations. Romana, if you recall, treated choosing a body like choosing an outfit in Destiny of the Daleks, consciously choosing to imitate someone she'd met. While The Doctor has had at least two tries where he can't even get the hair color he wants.

[SongsOfDragons]

This thread just made me think of a quote...

"Oh I'm a man!! Yum. So many parts! And hardly used!!"

XD

[Hyena Dandy]

Another piece of evidence for weird regen possibilities.

Rose: You're not making sense
9th: I might never make sense again. I might have two heads. Or no head!

9 is perfectly coherent pre-regeneration, and he thinks it's possibile to come back with two, or zero, heads.

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

The thing is though, there's a difference between what a writer thinks is a funny offside conversational toss-in which becomes canon and actually having to pay it off dramatically.

Also quickly I want to correct the Eccleston as to why he left. It wasn't mutual, Eccleston wanted out.

That's what I think is interesting about this whole thing. As soon as they tossed out the possibility of a genderswap, segments of the internet got very evangelical about why it hadn't already happened. I'm ok with it, but somehow the overt politicking that's going into it is distasteful to the point I just don't care. The annoyed writer in me wants to make the next 10 Doctors also white males (I hate fans browbeating creators). The part of me that's Stephen Fry and realizes this is a kids show says cast Thandie Newton.

[Ginger Tea]

I'm not sold on the "I could come back with two or no head's" line, yes it was dialogue in the show and at a crucial part, but just cos the doctor said it doesn't automatically make it so.

The throwaway line that Gaimen wrote about gender swapping could have been just that, a throw away line, there is no set in stone lore it's all "wibbly wobbly" (was I the only one that wanted to punch Matt Smith when he said that?) and it might not have been picked up by the script editors or mattered enough to those in charge to say "hang on Neil, let's not give the fans more fuel eh."

I'm not even sure the writers and producers give as much of a fuck as the audience gives them credit for, granted they've created characters that broach still taboo subjects Captain Jack would not last an episode in classic who, the media would give them so much backlash, given that it was then a predominantly children's show and the Sun newspaper had a double page article on the first gay kiss in east enders which iir was rather homophobic, yet the scene lasted a second and it was a peck on the cheek not a snog.*

Time has moved on and to some extent, so has society, but you still read about people cursing up a storm cos a little girl is trying to find a card for her auntie and her girlfriend (not always working), or the recent CS post about the obituary section.

*Brookside also had a bit of a to do about a lesbian clinch with Anna Friel, I saw the scene uncut in context and the snog was brief, but the outcry from the press and Mary Whitehouse brigade was immense, the scene was recut and cleverly so, the scene starts as normal, goes in for the kiss and cuts to the next scene for a few minutes and back to the kiss now ending to continue the scene as it did originally. Taking what was a few seconds and turning it into an off screen snog of a few minutes.

[HYHYBT]

Surely, somewhere within all of time and space there's a way to change one's hair color without having to regenerate a whole new body.

[Gravekeeper]

A female doctor could be interesting. Whether or not the current doctor would turn female is another matter though.

However, thats only if Jimmy Carr is not available to be the next doctor ;p

[Nekojin]

When it comes right down to it, anything is possible. If the writers could find sufficient justification for it, any permutation imaginable (and portrayable) could be done. They could even get a CGI William Hartnell, if the director decided that was appropriate . Time travel could paradox even a Time Lord, perhaps, causing him to revert to his first incarnation, and causing a branching history where the subsequent incarnation wasn't Patrick Troughton, a la the new Star Trek series. While The Doctor is normally immune to paradox, a well-written explanation could certainly be done... just as with any other facet of the show. The Tardis could suddenly become a 1967 Aston Martin.

[Ginger Tea]

Oh, I think there would be a larger lynch mob over changing the tardis than what's between the doctors legs.

[HYHYBT]

The thing is, while they *could* do that, it would be both expensive and pointless. Star Trek did it because they wanted to go back to the original characters, and because they wanted to dump their continuity. But Doctor Who has kept the one ever-present character while long ago providing a method of replacing actors, and the continuity is flexible.