I’m probably the last Doctor Who blog to comment on this, but a few days ago at the Hay Festival, Steven Moffat made some comments about how and why the Doctor would ever be portrayed by a woman.
I don’t know why I’m the one who gets the grief for this. I’m the one who put the dialogue into the show to say it can happen. Do you know how it will happen? It will not happen that somebody sits down and says we must turn the Doctor into a woman. That is not how you cast the Doctor. A person will pop into the showrunner’s head and they’ll think. ‘Oh, my God, what if it was that person?’ And when that person is a woman, that’s the day it will happen […] So you don’t mess around with that; you don’t cast for any other reason than for passion and for aesthetics. It’s not a political decision, it’s an aesthetic decision and will always be.
Needless to say, I’m a bit upset that Moffat is defining the whole campaign for a woman to portray the Doctor to be “political.” Sure, elements of it were political. One of the reasons I and many others campaigned for a woman to play the Doctor was to provide increased representation for leading female protagonists in science fiction. But we also argued that the Doctor should be a woman for narrative purposes, or what Moffat might define as “aesthetic” purposes. The Doctor is an alien who can change literally everything during a regeneration, and it seems odd that the Doctor always regenerates as a white man. Furthermore, we felt there were lots of talented actresses who were being overlooked for the role. That was the purpose of the Time Lady Project I ran last summer. We proposed over 40 actress who we felt would be excellent candidates for the role. But even the simple act of proposing female candidates became “political.” By proposing female actress for the role, I had to justify why the Doctor can and should be portrayed by a woman.
So I don’t think the conversation about the Doctor being portrayed by a woman is entirely “political,” and nor do I think that the political aspects about that conversation are inherently bad. And I believe it’s a bit disingenuous for Moffat to defend his decision not to consider casting a woman with statements that the decision can’t be “political” when he himself has relied on very similar reasoning in other casting decisions. For example, let’s examine the most politically charged argument for the Doctor to be portrayed by a woman: the power of representation. In a interview Moffat gave about a month ago to a Swedish podcast, he discussed how much he took to heart the criticisms that are frequently made about his shows. When someone criticized him for the lack of representation of gay characters in Doctor Who, he immediately set out to fix that problem:
It was pointed out to me, when I finished my first season of Doctor Who, somebody said to me, ‘You haven’t had a single gay character in Doctor Who for a whole year. And I thought ‘Oh God, I haven’t. I really haven’t’ […] I immediately set to work to bring fun, gay characters to Doctor Who.
Sure, adding in a few characters who are gay isn’t quite the same as making the Doctor a woman, but both decisions would be made for what Moffat deems are “political” reasons. Moffat recognized that it was wrong that no gay individuals were represented by the show, and we believe it is wrong that a character who CAN be portrayed by a woman ISN’T being portrayed by a woman.
Curiously, some of the arguments Moffat has construed as being “political” are ones he has used to defend his choice of Peter Capaldi. One of the major arguments he’s given for casting Capaldi is that the Doctor couldn’t be another young man:
Can you imagine if we had cast another handsome yet quirky young man with entertaining hair? The show would just have become that little bit more ordinary. You start to work out what the joke is and it’s never quite as magic again.
Funnily enough, that’s the exact same way many of us feel about the Doctor being another white man. If the Doctor can change absolutely everything during regeneration, then why has he stubbornly remained a white man? We’ve worked out the joke, and the magic is beginning to wear off.
Capaldi is a wonderful actor and I am genuinely interested in seeing what he does with the role. I know I’ll never convince anyone of this, because so many people have assumed that because I campaigned for a woman to play the Doctor that I automatically hate Capaldi, but I am honestly excited. I’ve been watching his previous work, looking for pictures of Series 8 filming (and automatically feeling guilty for spoiling myself), and I’ve been genuinely touched by his interactions with Doctor Who fans. I know he cares about the show and will do an amazing job.
But you can’t keep teasing all the young girls and women who want to see a woman portray the Doctor with the promise of “someday.” You can’t keep telling the fans that the Doctor could become absolutely anything and then celebrate changing the Doctor’s age and accent as signs of diversity.
And finally, I’m a bit tired of Moffat constantly playing the victim whenever this question comes up again. He gets the most grief because he is the one with the power to decide who will be cast in the role. It’s that simple. I could make a list of all the people responsible for casting all of the previous Doctors, but it wouldn’t do any good, because they’re not responsible for casting the Doctor anymore. Moffat’s complaints about receiving criticism for his casting decision becomes especially disingenuous in light of another comment he made during the Swedish podcast interview:
I think it is important that there is a feminist critique of television, because things that go unquestioned go unchanged and what goes unchanged becomes institutionalized and what becomes institutionalized becomes your fault. So it should be questioned. I think some of the criticisms that are aimed at me personally are a bit over the top and unfair, but who said the prosecution has to be fair? And it’s a case that needs to be prosecuted.
Well, guess what. We’re questioning the Doctor constantly regenerating as a white man because if it goes unquestioned it will go unchanged, and because it has continued to go unchanged it has become institutionalized, and because Moffat is now leading the institution it has become his fault. This is the prosecution.
Yes, Moffat put dialogue into Doctor Who that made such a regeneration canon. But he has also cast three white men to play the Doctor (Smith, Hurt, and Capaldi). He cast Capaldi without even considering any other candidates. And during the special show announcing Capaldi’s selection, he mocked one of the most prominent advocates for a woman to portray the Doctor, and implicitly mocked the idea that a woman should ever portray the Doctor.
I’d have a great deal more respect for Moffat if he’d just simply said, “I didn’t want to cast a woman as the Doctor,” or if he at least admitted he is now complicit in an institution which has steadfastly refused to cast anybody other than a white man for the Doctor. I understand it’s probably not pleasant to have your every word scrutinized and your decisions criticized. And because this is the internet, I’m sure people have said things which were just rude or went way over the line (I sympathize, you should see my inbox sometime). But I’m not going to apologize for giving Moffat grief over this. He is the institution now, and like hell am I going to let this go unquestioned.
