Oh you cheeky monkey... I was TOTALLY gonna make a thread on this today....

But seeing as you beat me to it... here's the nutshell...

They fucked up.

The "thing" they are "doing" IN THIS CASE is the exact OPPOSITE of what they SHOULD be doing...

IOW... in their attempt to "appeal to their female demographic" they are going to DESTROY IT!!!

That much overworked companion relationship thread has become the "unrequited/intelligent/informed/dark/fatherly figure" romance novel that draws in BOTH women and girls to what is one of the FEW bastions of joint geekdom where both men and women can find a point of admiration. For the boys, a sense that being smart and knowledgeable can still lead you to snagging the interests of a Rose Tyler even after turning into a withered Peter Capaldi... For girls, that "companion relationship" runs SO much deeper than just being the chick on the back of the motorcycle of some time-travelling badboy.

If ya wanna get geek about it... I could conceive of SOOO many OTHER ways in which they could create a series where there would be a Female Time Lord WITHOUT MAKING HER DOCTOR WHO!!! Fer fuck's sake, the 11th managed to SAVE Gallifrey from being locked in the Time War he had escaped from... uhhh.... how 'bout making a story about how in that time a WOMAN also had the same plan elsewhere on the planet but wasn't able to make it to safety in time before The Doctor did HIS deed...?

They could have TOTALLY put Doctor Who to bed and had a FEMALE Gallifreyan start from the VERY BEGINNING of her exit from the Time War!!!!

But no... We and YOU are too stupid and picky and would NEED to have the ANCHOR of all those years in order to "get you" and reel you in... Despite all that "Torchwood" shit and all the amazing stories revolving around a gay lead character... we need to slash and burn and shoehorn a female into a male pair of shoes JUST BECAUSE the NAME is more important than the character arc.

This is the same bullshit as James Bond... '007' is all that matters... why not make the next one "Jamie Bond"?

This is the nature of how TRADEMARKS and LICENSES work. It's not about a *character*, it's about a *franchise*.

It was always known that The Doctor only had 'X' amount of regenerations. But now...?

"How come he's always regenerating as a white, British or Scottish MAN?"

"I dunno... maybe because HE is not a GIRL and certainly not a fuckin' STARFISH!"

Full disclosure... I abandoned this series as a LONGTIME fan (still am) shortly after Capaldi took over but very SPECIFICALLY right after they made The Doctor's sonic screwdriver into a pair of 80's Ray-Bans he would touch with his finger... The Companion thing became a fuckin' literal crutch and I just was NOT buying any of the "sexual tension" or sense of responsibility between Capalldi's old ass and his WAY younger co-stars...As I get older myself, I realize that there's a certain point at which a "generation gap" might come into play... an' we're talking about the fucking Doctor...!

There were MANY episodes and stories in the series that did NOT involve a "companion".

And THAT is why a Female Doctor is gonna TANK this series IMO.

The primary underpinning of why there is such a LARGE female following of The Doctor's companions is the knowledge that:

"For every great man... dot dot dot"

There are SO MANY examples of how, "were it not for "The Girl", that The Doctor and *all of existence* would have all come to an end were it not for the vagina by his side!!!

NOW... they wanna make The Doctor 1)female 2)NOT English (or Scottish) 3)with a gay companion...

Congrats on DECONSTRUCTING everything that makes a character who they are. They win.

Honestly, the Rose Tyler/Bad Wolf storyline (I feel) made every other Companion after her seem like they were just IGNORING that whole "lesson" it supposedly "taught" our Doctor. But since then... the corporate powers that be made that relationship a key point of the storytelling rather than cranking out creepy and cool monsters for us to see.

Just look what they turned "The Angels" into.

Once an AMAZING creepy, disturbing thought that existed on the fringes of imagination... into intergalactic overlords trying to take over the universe... pfft.

Were it not for Neil Gaiman writing that episode where the TARTIS effectively became Delirium for an hour... I probably would have left after the "Dinosaurs In Space" episode that followed it... But Matt was still a good Doctor. (despite the bow-tie. yes. bow-ties are cool)

I will always wear my scarf and fez with pride... but they've really Jumped The Shark on this one. An experiment that will not yield the test results they are hoping for.

Cheshyr said
Oh you cheeky monkey...

Here's something to add to The Cheshyr's War On Everything:

YouTube Video Fan Of Dr Who-The Chasers War On Everything