Who is/was the first woman Doctor Who?

Question

With the news of Jodie Whittaker being cast as the new Doctor, most every article is claiming that she is "the first woman" in the role.

However, I've also seen a lot of fans scoffing and saying that she is not.

Who is/was the first woman Doctor Who?

I'm just going based on things like the Facebook headline on my feed today: "BBC Reveals the First Female 'Doctor Who'" — phantom42, Jul 17 '17 at 12:49
This interview with BBC uses just "Doctor", and so does their Twitter. — Gallifreyan, Jul 17 '17 at 12:54
@phantom42 the BBC news department and the BBC television department are different entities. in particular, the news department probably has limited headline space and tries to avoid multiple articles in the same headline. Because of these reasons and the usual rush to be the first outlet reporting on the news, it's to be expected that they're going to be somewhat loose with their titles. Note that they've already adjusted the title to "Doctor Who's 13th Time Lord to be a woman", which is more accurate. — Nzall, Jul 17 '17 at 13:48
@Gallifreyan calling the character "Doctor Who" instead of "The Doctor" is correct. I cannot find the image, but some early episodes of New Who listed the character as "Doctor Who". They may now refer to the character as simply "The Doctor" but it is no more or less correct. — Dave Johnson, Jul 17 '17 at 14:00
@DaveJohnson Or perhaps there is a reason the character is referred to as "the Doctor" now? — Gallifreyan, Jul 17 '17 at 14:03
@Gallifreyan Just to add some extra confusion, I've seen one or two "She's the first female Time Lord" — Izkata, Jul 17 '17 at 14:15
“some early episodes of New Who listed the character as "Doctor Who"” — yup, and that was wrong. “They may now refer to the character as simply "The Doctor" but it is no more or less correct.” — It’s infinitely more correct than the incorrect “Doctor Who”. — Paul D. Waite, Jul 17 '17 at 14:25
I know next to nothing about Doctor Who, @Izkata, but that's just not true. I've seen this Time Lady mentioned in the other discussion about whether the Doctor could be female. — Shokhet, Jul 17 '17 at 16:42
@Shokhet Likewise here, despite having only ever seen The Waters of Mars, I remember others on this site talking about The Corsair switching back and forth — Izkata, Jul 17 '17 at 16:47
@Gallifreyan - The Master (in her Missy incarnation) said that the Doctor’s name was “Doctor Who” just a few episodes ago. ;) — Adamant, Jul 17 '17 at 17:36
@Adamant And you believe her? Regardless, the Doctor has never referred to himself as "Doctor Who". — Gallifreyan, Jul 17 '17 at 17:59
@PaulD.Waite So, the show was wrong to name its character what it wanted? Pretty sure it was that way for the whole first season. — Dave Johnson, Jul 17 '17 at 18:29
relevant reading: https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/330mys/does_the_doctor_ever_get_called_doctor_who/ My point being, it doesn't matter. Everyone knows what you're talking about when you ask who Doctor Who is. — Dave Johnson, Jul 17 '17 at 18:34
@Gallifreyan Why shouldn't we believe her? She was legitimately trying to be good at the time, and Doctor Who doesn't contradict her. — J Doe, Jul 17 '17 at 18:58
@DaveJohnson Yes, exactly. The character's name is the Doctor, but if you mention "The Doctor" to anybody without sufficient context, naturally their reply will be "Doctor Who?" — , Jul 17 '17 at 18:58
@DaveJohnson: yup. That’s why they changed it. TV shows are run by human beings. Human beings make mistakes. — Paul D. Waite, Jul 18 '17 at 08:04
The Doctor talked about an old friend of his, the Corsair, being both "he" and "she" at different points. Finally, in Season 8, we saw the Doctor's long-time nemesis The Master had regenerated into Missy, played by Michelle Gomez. — rosey, Jul 19 '17 at 03:43

score 91 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 20 '17 at 12:32

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It depends on what you consider "official".

Doctor Who is famous for its very loose and ill-defined canon, with tons of spin-off materials (TV movies, comics, novels, audio-only stories, etc.) piling on top of the TV shows. One, in particular, stands out as an anomaly: the Comic Relief special.

Of particular note here is that, in that show, The Doctor regenerates multiple times over the course of the movie, finally into Joanna Lumley.

However, the Comic Relief show is generally not considered canon by most fans. It's an obvious parody of Doctor Who, written for charity. (This isn't the only comedy Doctor Who special — there's also one where David Tennant plays The Doctor teaching the class from Catherine Tate's Lauren sketches). The actors in the show playing the 9th–13th Doctors don't fit anywhere in the continuity of the TV show (which does, at this point, have an unbroken line from 1st – 13th doctor.)

So, for most purposes, it's accurate to claim that Jodie Whittaker is the first female to play The Doctor.

The backlash against the media isn't because they claim she's the first female Doctor. It's because there are a number of media outlets claiming she's the first female Time Lord. That's patently untrue, as so far in the show we have seen many female Time Lords.

One of the Doctor's old companions was a female Time Lord (sometimes called a Time Lady) named Romana,
and one of the classic villains was a female Time Lord called The Rani.
There were multiple minor/unnamed female Time Lords shown on the few occasions where The Doctor returned to his home planet.
Depending on how you define a Time Lord (vs. just being genetically Gallifreyan) it's also possible to count The Doctor's granddaughter Susan (most likely), his daughter Jenny (probably not) or his wife River Song (possible) as Time Lords.

It's not even the first time that a male Time Lord regenerated into a female one.

It was hinted at a few seasons ago when The Doctor talked about an old friend of his, the Corsair, being both "he" and "she" at different points.
In Season 8, we saw the Doctor's long-time nemesis The Master had regenerated into Missy, played by Michelle Gomez.
And we finally, in Season 9, we see an on-screen regeneration of a Gallifreyan general from male to female.

The backlash is coming because it's so trivially easy to check this kind of thing, but so many media outlets are making the same silly mistake.

edited Jul 20 '17 at 12:32

BCdotWEB

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answered Jul 17 '17 at 12:52

KutuluMike

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And don't forget the General regenerating into a female in Hell Bent. – Nzall Jul 17 '17 at 13:39
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It amazes me that anyone can say Jodie is the first female Time Lord, since the last episode that was aired literally two weeks ago had Missy in it. – DisturbedNeo Jul 17 '17 at 13:56
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For the first actual on-screen male-to-female generation (excepting the Comic Relief special), the Gallifreyan general in "Hell Bent": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93nJQj2Z97M – apsillers Jul 17 '17 at 15:16
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It seems to me that she’ll be the first serious female Doctor. In “The Curse of Fatal Death,” not only was the whole thing rather comedic and out of continuity, but the idea of the Doctor being female was itself treated as a joke. – Adamant Jul 17 '17 at 17:39
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@Adamant Given that the whole thing was supposed to be comedic that isn't unexpected, however given that it portrayed the 13th doctor as a woman and the actual 13th doctor is literally going to be a woman, perhaps it's not a joke after all... – Jul 17 '17 at 19:01
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Also Arabella Weir played a female Doctor in Exile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_(audio_drama)) which is another official continuity, but not the one of the current TV show. – FuzzyBoots Jul 17 '17 at 19:26
Defining who is and isn't a Time Lord, even strictly within TV continuity, is a giant headache. Romana is a particularly funny example of a female Time Lord because she spent time as both a companion and Lady President of the High Council, so it's not like she could be considered insignificant or not counting some how. – Kaithar Jul 18 '17 at 15:05
Media can be lazy donkeys, regurgitating a release instead of research / writing their own. Probably the initial slip came in a press release now re-circulated unchecked. Probably a temp with no knowledge of the show. I worked in TV and witnessed this including a mighty gaff on Lorraine (UK morning show) - she pointed out Grammy Award winning Michael McDonald on a video / album with him sat next to her, rabbled on about it for 2 mins - he's looking bewildered as well he might... it was 2 years before he joined the band and he had nothing to do with it. Oh dear, how slack and embarrassing. – Applefanboy Jul 19 '17 at 08:22
The backlash is generally because they consider making the doctor female is pandering to some form of political correctness where female gender is promoted ahead of men. Personally I think its crap that they had to cast a young, attractive woman instead of keeping the doctor slightly younger with each incarnation. But the BBC has never been good at keeping old actresses employed! – gbjbaanb Jul 19 '17 at 20:39
@gbjbaanb Slightly younger with each incarnation? But the Doctor's age has been all over the place! Pertwee was older than Throughton, Colin Baker was older than Davison, Capaldi was older than Smith, etc. – Mr Lister Oct 10 '18 at 18:15
@MrLister Actors can be any age, as long as they can play the required age of the part. Capaldi was older than Smith because they "reset" things - Smith was supposed to be the last incarnation (ie only 12 regenerations). so they fudged it, but still - they could have chosen any old actress rather than some hot young blonde. – gbjbaanb Oct 10 '18 at 18:55

Politank-Z · Answer 2 · 2017-07-17T12:22:06.707

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Joanna Lumley played the 13th Doctor in Comic Relief: Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal Death (1999).

While not a part of any future Doctor Who continuity, this was a BBC approved production, written by future series writer and show runner Steven Moffat.

Link to youtube

edited Jul 17 '17 at 12:22

answered Jul 17 '17 at 12:16

Politank-Z

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So why is she being ignored? – phantom42 Jul 17 '17 at 12:19
so if joanna played the 13th and jodie is maybe it was planned for a while! ;) – Dreamwalker Jul 17 '17 at 12:22
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So it's a splitting hairs thing? "She's the first in-universe woman doctor, but not the first one in an official production"? – phantom42 Jul 17 '17 at 12:22
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Correct. Also, CoTFD is fairly obscure. – Politank-Z Jul 17 '17 at 12:22
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And it's a Parody made while DW was on its break. It's nice that Rowan Atkinson got to be The Doctor for a bit, though. – DisturbedNeo Jul 17 '17 at 13:56
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@phantom42 Curse of Fatal Death is usually regarded as non-canon (to the extent that there's any concept of canon in DW), and it certainly contradicts the main continuity of the show, with the Ninth to Thirteenth incarnations of the Doctor being played by Rowan Atkinson, Richard Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley rather than Eccleston, Tennant, Smith, Capaldi, and Whittaker. It was a spoof and clearly takes itself even less seriously than the rest of DW. – Rand al'Thor Jul 18 '17 at 11:09
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@Randal'Thor "takes itself even less seriously than the rest of DW" Is that possible? ;) – Adam Davis Jul 18 '17 at 11:59
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@AdamDavis "It will be the deadly vengeance of deadly revenge! Mwahahahaha!" "Oh no! Planet of the bottom burps?" – Rand al'Thor Jul 18 '17 at 12:01
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@phantom42 I wouldn't say it's a 'splitting hairs' thing - that implies that it's a fine distinction that most people wouldn't care about. CotFD was a parody comedy sketch, never considered a part of Who proper. Imagine if Saturday Night Live did a Star Trek sketch with a Klingon as the captain; nobody would consider that to be "the first non-human Star Trek captain". – Werrf Jul 18 '17 at 12:23
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@AdamDavis: How often does the Master fall into a sewer (repeatedly!) in the regular series? – John Bode Jul 18 '17 at 14:40

Moominpapa · Answer 3 · 2017-07-19T11:15:02.723

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There was a brief period in "Journey's End" where Catherine Tate's character Donna became the "DoctorDonna", the mind of the Doctor in Donna's body. This could be argued as being a prior time that a woman played the Doctor, albeit briefly. http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Journey%27s_End

edited Jul 19 '17 at 11:15

answered Jul 19 '17 at 11:03

Moominpapa

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One of the greatest story arcs of the Tennant era, IMHO. <3 Donna. – Chris K Jul 20 '17 at 04:47
What about Rose Tyler in "The Parting of the Ways"? "Rose appears, wrapped in the glow of the time vortex" – Jul 20 '17 at 19:28

Dronz · Answer 4 · 2017-07-19T06:14:55.363

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It's fan fiction and not canon, but if Rowan Atkinson's comedy version can be considered, then it seems to me that one could also consider the fan fiction film series that contains The Wrath of Eukor and Broken Doors (which are not comedies, and are earlier) from 1984-1988, which cast actress Barbara Benedetti as The Doctor.

Links:

The home page of the series.

http://www.fanfilmfollies.com/movies/dr-who-broken-doors/

https://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/uncategorized/fan-film-review-broken-doors/

edited Jul 19 '17 at 06:14

answered Jul 19 '17 at 05:22

Dronz

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Was this done by the BBC or an otherwise BBC approved production like the Rowan Atkinson one was? – phantom42 Jul 19 '17 at 05:35
It was not done by the BBC, and I see no sign it was BBC-approved. It was a fan production in Seattle, in the USA. The series home page link I added mentions the BBC in the context of remarking that anyone thought it was a BBC production. I don't see any mention of them consulting the BBC even for permission. – Dronz Jul 19 '17 at 06:21

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 19 '17 at 03:49

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After Joanna Lumley there was Arabella Weir in the 2003 story Exile from Big Finish productions (also starring David Tennant).

edited Jul 19 '17 at 03:49

jwodder

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answered Jul 18 '17 at 20:21

Robert

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You might want to expand on this answer, adding some links and pictures would be nice. – Gallifreyan Jul 18 '17 at 20:23

Who is/was the first woman Doctor Who?

Who is/was the first woman Doctor Who?

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