Shady
12th February, 2013, 02:14 PM
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/femaledoctore.png
copied from
Alternate History of Doctor Who Female cast as The Doctor | Features | Science Fiction (http://www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/)
---------------------------
So, the Doctor. The Oncoming Storm. DOC-TOR. Call him what you want, but regardless of what you call him he?s always?him. A female Doctor is an idea that?s been floated more than once, with The Curse of Fatal Death giving us a brief appearance by Joanna Lumley as the Doctor, Big Finish releasing a single disc in their Doctor Unbound series based on the premise that when a Time Lord kills themselves they regenerate into the opposite gender and Helen Mirren going on record as saying she?d love the role. Oh and Stephen Moffat polling a convention about it a little while ago and the entire audience essentially telling him they?d stop watching if he did it.
Now, whilst I have my doubts about that, the truth is that right now it?s not really on the cards. Which is a real shame because, HELEN MIRREN! COME ON, MAN! She?d be awesome! But what if it wasn?t an issue?because it was never an issue? What if, in this the 50th Anniversary year, we were celebrating five decades of a show about a female Doctor? Come with us now on a journey through time and space as we explore a very different 50 years of Doctor Who, and a very different 11 Doctors?
1st Doctor- Joyce Grenfell
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Joyce-Grenfell-150x150.jpg
Doctor Who began as a show with the odds stacked against it; a crew of mavericks put together so the BBC could say they?d given them a fair chance before firing them. However, instead of bowing to the seemingly inevitable, the crew decided to take their once in a lifetime opportunity and work it for all it was worth. The end result was Joyce Grenfell being cast as the first Doctor. Best known as a perky, cheerful figure in post-war Britain, Grenfell relished being given the opportunity to play a darker, more mercurial role. Her Doctor was a chaotic figure, a cheerful nanny one moment and a stone eyed matriarch the next. Over time, the show even came to play with this, especially in Dalek stories where Grenfell would alternate between the schoolmarm role she was best known for and the darker, intense element she grew to revel in to tremendous effect. Signing onto the role amidst a sea of criticism, when she left, the BBC were flooded with tributes and pleas for her to come back. She never returned to the role, although remained proud of it for the rest of her life.
2nd Doctor-Hattie Jacques
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Hattie-Jacques-150x150.jpg
Grenfell?s replacement was no less controversial a choice. Hattie Jacques had made her name as a comic radio actress and was involved in the Carry On movies, frequently as a matronly figure. However, anyone expecting a continuation of Grenfell?s approach was in for a surprise as Jacques took the role in a radically different direction. A wildly eccentric, deadpan, puckish Doctor, she used her reputation and physical stature to create an astonishing take on the character; a cosmic clown who could bring a tear to the eye with nothing more than a change of posture. On taking the role, decades later, Miranda Hart would cite her as a major influence
3rd Doctor-Honor Blackman
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Honor-Blackman-150x150.jpg
Fresh off her success with the Avengers, Blackman took the show in a very different, far more physical direction than Jacques. Her Doctor was an action heroine, the stories filled with car chases, explosions and fist fights. Many fans welcomed this with open arms, whilst many more felt the show had become The Avengers with occasional aliens. Despite this, her run was extremely successful and is notable for a series of appearances by Vanessa Redgrave as the Mistress.
4th Doctor- Penelope Keith
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Penelope-Keith-150x150.jpg
The show returned to the controversy that had defined it?s casting of Joyce Grenfell with Blackman?s replacement. Penelope Keith was best known as a comic actress, and to make matters worse was in line for a leading role in The Good Life, a highly favoured sitcom being put together for the following year. In an immensely controversial move, Keith was awarded both roles and, in doing so, became the face of BBC TV for close to a decade. Her run as the Doctor was, and still is, regarded as the definitive version of the character by many fans, mixing her naturally arch, upper class comic timing with a tremendous flamboyance, laconic wit and theatricality. She attacked the role with a gusto not seen since the Grenfell years and proved such a success that jokes were dropped into The Good Life, hinting, strongly, that Margo and the Doctor were one and the same. However, behind the scenes, Keith freely admitted that the double duty and newfound celebrity was taking its toll and, ultimately, she asked to leave both shows. By the time she regenerated at the end of Logopolis (And a cheeky final line was dropped into The Good Life about Jerry and Margo popping out to Joddrell Bank for a picnic), she had played the role far longer than any of her predecessors. That record remains intact today and Keith was recently attracted back to the role for a new range of audio dramas.
5th Doctor- Joanna Lumley
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Joanna-Lumley-150x150.jpg
Another former Avenger, Lumley was given the thankless task of succeeding Keith in the role. She responded to this with aplomb, opting to go in the exact opposite direction to Keith?s performance, whilst at the same time keeping her inherently British approach. Dressed in cricket whites and with an air of the polite swashbuckler to her, Lumley?s 5th Doctor was arguably the nicest version of the character, a woman desperate to save everyone and shown, again and again, that she could not. Despite this, Lumley continued Keith?s sense of humour in the role and both were major influences on Perkins? performance, with Lumley appearing alongside her in Time Crash.
copied from
Alternate History of Doctor Who Female cast as The Doctor | Features | Science Fiction (http://www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/)
---------------------------
So, the Doctor. The Oncoming Storm. DOC-TOR. Call him what you want, but regardless of what you call him he?s always?him. A female Doctor is an idea that?s been floated more than once, with The Curse of Fatal Death giving us a brief appearance by Joanna Lumley as the Doctor, Big Finish releasing a single disc in their Doctor Unbound series based on the premise that when a Time Lord kills themselves they regenerate into the opposite gender and Helen Mirren going on record as saying she?d love the role. Oh and Stephen Moffat polling a convention about it a little while ago and the entire audience essentially telling him they?d stop watching if he did it.
Now, whilst I have my doubts about that, the truth is that right now it?s not really on the cards. Which is a real shame because, HELEN MIRREN! COME ON, MAN! She?d be awesome! But what if it wasn?t an issue?because it was never an issue? What if, in this the 50th Anniversary year, we were celebrating five decades of a show about a female Doctor? Come with us now on a journey through time and space as we explore a very different 50 years of Doctor Who, and a very different 11 Doctors?
1st Doctor- Joyce Grenfell
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Joyce-Grenfell-150x150.jpg
Doctor Who began as a show with the odds stacked against it; a crew of mavericks put together so the BBC could say they?d given them a fair chance before firing them. However, instead of bowing to the seemingly inevitable, the crew decided to take their once in a lifetime opportunity and work it for all it was worth. The end result was Joyce Grenfell being cast as the first Doctor. Best known as a perky, cheerful figure in post-war Britain, Grenfell relished being given the opportunity to play a darker, more mercurial role. Her Doctor was a chaotic figure, a cheerful nanny one moment and a stone eyed matriarch the next. Over time, the show even came to play with this, especially in Dalek stories where Grenfell would alternate between the schoolmarm role she was best known for and the darker, intense element she grew to revel in to tremendous effect. Signing onto the role amidst a sea of criticism, when she left, the BBC were flooded with tributes and pleas for her to come back. She never returned to the role, although remained proud of it for the rest of her life.
2nd Doctor-Hattie Jacques
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Hattie-Jacques-150x150.jpg
Grenfell?s replacement was no less controversial a choice. Hattie Jacques had made her name as a comic radio actress and was involved in the Carry On movies, frequently as a matronly figure. However, anyone expecting a continuation of Grenfell?s approach was in for a surprise as Jacques took the role in a radically different direction. A wildly eccentric, deadpan, puckish Doctor, she used her reputation and physical stature to create an astonishing take on the character; a cosmic clown who could bring a tear to the eye with nothing more than a change of posture. On taking the role, decades later, Miranda Hart would cite her as a major influence
3rd Doctor-Honor Blackman
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Honor-Blackman-150x150.jpg
Fresh off her success with the Avengers, Blackman took the show in a very different, far more physical direction than Jacques. Her Doctor was an action heroine, the stories filled with car chases, explosions and fist fights. Many fans welcomed this with open arms, whilst many more felt the show had become The Avengers with occasional aliens. Despite this, her run was extremely successful and is notable for a series of appearances by Vanessa Redgrave as the Mistress.
4th Doctor- Penelope Keith
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Penelope-Keith-150x150.jpg
The show returned to the controversy that had defined it?s casting of Joyce Grenfell with Blackman?s replacement. Penelope Keith was best known as a comic actress, and to make matters worse was in line for a leading role in The Good Life, a highly favoured sitcom being put together for the following year. In an immensely controversial move, Keith was awarded both roles and, in doing so, became the face of BBC TV for close to a decade. Her run as the Doctor was, and still is, regarded as the definitive version of the character by many fans, mixing her naturally arch, upper class comic timing with a tremendous flamboyance, laconic wit and theatricality. She attacked the role with a gusto not seen since the Grenfell years and proved such a success that jokes were dropped into The Good Life, hinting, strongly, that Margo and the Doctor were one and the same. However, behind the scenes, Keith freely admitted that the double duty and newfound celebrity was taking its toll and, ultimately, she asked to leave both shows. By the time she regenerated at the end of Logopolis (And a cheeky final line was dropped into The Good Life about Jerry and Margo popping out to Joddrell Bank for a picnic), she had played the role far longer than any of her predecessors. That record remains intact today and Keith was recently attracted back to the role for a new range of audio dramas.
5th Doctor- Joanna Lumley
http://www.scifind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Joanna-Lumley-150x150.jpg
Another former Avenger, Lumley was given the thankless task of succeeding Keith in the role. She responded to this with aplomb, opting to go in the exact opposite direction to Keith?s performance, whilst at the same time keeping her inherently British approach. Dressed in cricket whites and with an air of the polite swashbuckler to her, Lumley?s 5th Doctor was arguably the nicest version of the character, a woman desperate to save everyone and shown, again and again, that she could not. Despite this, Lumley continued Keith?s sense of humour in the role and both were major influences on Perkins? performance, with Lumley appearing alongside her in Time Crash.