New Doctor Who head scribe Chris Chibnall and his writing team have their work cut out for them. Not only are they writing the first female Doctor — played by Jodie Whittaker — they need to move past female stereotypes that previous head writer Steven Moffat established during his run.
Moffat told The Telegraph that a female Doctor was “narratively possible” but blamed audiences for not making the Doctor a woman.
“I didn’t feel enough people wanted [a woman Doctor] … Oddly enough, most people who said they were dead against it — and I know I’ll get into trouble for saying this — were women, saying, ‘No, no, don’t make him a woman.’”
Perhaps Moffat wasn’t up to the challenge of writing a complex woman in the Whovian universe who wasn’t a sidekick or love interest. In fact, many of his women are caricatures: doe-eyed fangirls, feisty sirens, or worse. Here are some of the stereotypes he perpetuated.
New Era, Same Groupies
In Moffat’s “The Girl in the Fireplace,” which was written during Russell T Davies‘s tenure as head writer, the Tenth Doctor meets Reinette as a little girl while investigating strange phenomena. He presents no sexual energy, but the girl fixates on him. When the Doctor pops back into her timeline, Reinette is a grown woman. Almost instantly she assaults him with passionate kisses, saying she’s waited years for this. Surprised, the Doctor accepts her advances, despite knowing her all of 30 seconds.
Once Moffat officially took over the show, fans saw some very similar themes. The Eleventh Doctor first meets Amy Pond as a child and promises to return. Upon his arrival, Amy is all grown up. She’s now a hypersexualized kiss-o-gram who, much like Reinette, has fixated on the Doctor all these years. She even abandons her fiancé Rory on their wedding night (after handcuffing him and watching him undress). She simply can’t resist running off on an adventure to seduce the man she’s had Rory dress up as in her fantasies for years. Why must these children, now strong women, fixate on and sexualize the Doctor?
If recent female leads are any indication, the new female Doctor could easily fall into a pattern of being strong, smart, and randy — or attracting the attention of such female companions. The new writing team should take advantage of previous eras of Whovian lore, exploring new female reactions to the Doctor and their lifestyle beyond, “Hello, gorgeous,” and “Take me away, spaceman!”
Instead of being swept off their feet, these companions could respect the Doctor’s humor and wit or even have a hard time getting along with them. This would allow for more complexity in the TARDIS’ occupants.
Poison Lipstick and Commitment
The Doctor’s main love interest for most of the Moffat era is the smart and devoted archaeologist River Song. She’s also Amy and Rory’s daughter. Thankfully, the Doctor meets River for the first time as an adult, but (spoilers) their timelines are mixed up. So, he also meets her as a baby and a scared child needing help.
Despite her smarts, River quickly reduces to a sly, flirty femme fatale. She initially fixates on the Doctor for assassination purposes, at one point she tries to kill the Doctor by kissing him with poison lipstick. But this later develops into a passionate obsession. River even keeps a diary filled with their every interaction under the guise of avoiding ruining timelines. When she’s finally supposed to shoot him, she has no problem letting the universe’s timelines fall apart to save him. That’s how determined she is to keep the Doctor in her life.
The Doctor is forced to choose between allowing the end of the universe or caving in and marrying her. Neither option seems particularly alluring to him, but he chooses the latter. River and the Twelfth Doctor eventually get to spend some of their marriage as a proper couple at the end of her life, in part to tie up her re-entry into his timeline to save him.
River isn’t the only woman the Doctor marries. In fact, he has multiple partners during his lifetime, including the famously sensual Cleopatra and Marilyn Monroe. Given that both the most recent Doctor and Moffat seem to idealize these famously sensual women, these traits could also transfer into the first female regeneration.
Beyond Who — the Hypersexual Strong Woman
The belief that women are the ones dying to get sexual attention is evident in Moffat’s other work. As co-creator and writer of the BBC series, Sherlock, he turned Irene Adler into an obsessive bisexual dominatrix fixated on plucking Sherlock’s cherry almost more than saving her own skin.
Molly Hooper, Sherlock’s assistant, openly longs for the detective throughout the series — even when he’s whipping a cadaver. He uses her affection to his advantage either for information or support. When Sherlock insinuates her boyfriend is gay for treating her platonically, Molly gets visibly upset. She even dates a Sherlock look-alike in an unsuccessful attempt to get over him.
In Moffat’s BBC One drama, Jekyll, the main character, Tom, meets Claire on a double blind date. During the date, he gives little hint of a personality, so she giddily steals his shoes. In the next scene, we find the two of them in a relationship, with Claire stripping naked to get Tom’s attention off the television and into the bedroom.
These women all desperately try to get their love interest’s attention. Moffat’s one-note style highlights his inability to create female characters with depth and variation. It’d be like Sex and the City if every female character was like Samantha in her Richard-obsessed phase. It shows a lack of respect and imagination when it comes to portraying women.
This doesn’t mean that the new female Doctor shouldn’t desire companionship. But, if she does, it should be in her own way. We don’t need her to walk the same path of feisty seduction we’ve seen throughout Moffat era. It’s time for something new.
Attempts at Three-Dimensional Female Characters
Now, the Moffat era did possibly try to rectify its sexist undertones by attempting to write a complex female character before promptly deeming it impossible.
Clara Oswald’s character(s) and lack thereof failed to leave a lasting impression on fans since her personalities would change from episode to episode. Fans and writers alike struggled to build a foundation for this Impossible Girl.
The potentially strong lesbian coupling of Vastra and Jenny, a detective and her companion, often devolved into their passion for the female form. In a typical codependent, clingy, sexually fueled, Moffat-era scenario, Vastra flirts with Clara when she gets a little feisty, Jenny reminding her “Oy, married!” In one scene, Vastra pretends to paint a scantily clad Jenny just to have her near as she works on a case. A different scene has Vastra kiss her to avoid an enemy that can detect oxygen.
Naturally, a couple can have strong physical feelings for one another. But amid the continual lust-hazed lens, the Moffat era still failed to recognize their triumphs beyond the physical rewards of kisses and an honorable death.
The Curious Case of Bill Potts
Bill Potts was the latest long-term Moffat-era companion. It’s clear that the writers sincerely attempted to build her a consistent and likable personality. However, within the first two minutes of her introduction, Bill reveals that the only reason she came to the Doctor’s lectures was that she was following a hot girl. She then lamented that she gave the object of her affection too many fries, and she got fat. The focus of Bill’s development eventually shifted away from her attraction to others, turning her into a sharp companion.
The lack of varied female ambition and characterization in the Moffat era of Doctor Who and his previous projects doesn’t mean there weren’t any good, self-contained stories or admirable traits about these characters. Nominated for and winning multiple awards, the Moffat era had its strengths, and certainly, other eras similarly had their weaknesses. But the lack of care in female character development over the last nine years will soon be noticeable to all when the female Doctor takes over unless the new team works to correct this oversight.
The Evolution of Chibnall’s Women
Now that Moffat has moved on from Doctor Who, it’s up to Chris Chibnall to steer the show’s female characters in the right direction.
When it comes to female character development, Chibnall’s previous work with Doctor Who looks fairly promising. The women in his two-part arc (“The Hungry Earth” and “Cold Blood”) seem focused on revenge or saving their race as opposed to finding a mate.
However, in his first episode of Doctor Who spin-off series, Torchwood, Chibnall managed to combine the Moffat-era ideas of women being clingy and hypersexual. A young woman reeling from a breakup becomes host to an orgasm-oriented alien and ravages men to dust. The leading men are also hypersexual in Torchwood, although significantly less wistful about the possibility of romance.
Chibnall’s time on Doctor Who and Torchwood were years ago. He has grown as a writer since then. His more recent works like Broadchurch have included more complex female narratives. In fact, the third series of Broadchurch garnered much praise for its treatment of women as complex characters, with DS Ellie Miller garnering cheers with her development as a character.
Here’s hoping Chibnall’s team continue to grow and expand, allowing the new female Doctor and, in fact, all of Doctor Who‘s characters to do the same.
The new series of Doctor Who is set to premiere in October 2018.
