Peter Capaldi is the 12th Doctor Who . . . Doctor, following in the footsteps of the greats: David Tennant and Matt Smith. After much controversy created by TV critics and fans about the fact that there has not been a female Doctor Who or one of color, we got another white dude.

Helen Mirren pointed this out saying, “I do think it’s well over time to have a female Doctor Who. I think a gay, black female Doctor Who would be the best of all.”

Even a group of female scientists lobbied for the 11th doctor to be a lady. It is a bit weird that a character who is constantly changing (or “regenerating)” bodies can only take on the form of dudes who all kind of look the same, but hey maybe it’s just like, a brand awareness thing ……. IDK.

Steven Moffat, the Doctor Who writer, has kind of been a poo poo pants about changing the Doctor’s gender, saying of his choice for Peter Capaldi, “It’s absolutely narratively possible [that the Doctor could be a woman] and when it’s the right decision, maybe we’ll do it. It didn’t feel right to me, right now. I didn’t feel enough people wanted it.”

So do you go with progress or do you go with your perception of what people want? It’s a difficult decision when an entire franchise is on the line. However, months ago, Steven Moffat was a bit more snide about the gender switch, “I like that Helen Mirren has been saying the next doctor should be a woman. I would like to go on record and say that the queen should be played by a man.”

That response is utterly dismissive and denies the simple basic fact that Doctor Who can technically be portrayed by anyone in any body. Doctor Who has been a staple of science fiction television and British TV for 50 years but has always been a white guy. I would argue that, after so long, it may be somewhat necessary to have Doctor Who remain male, maybe that “maleness” is necessary to sustain a certain dynamic in the show. With that said, then why does he have to always be white? Why not Indian or Jamaican? Who knows what kind of politics and weirdness goes into these kinds of decisions. Ugh.

Anyway, from what I’ve seen Peter Capaldi do he is a good choice, even if he is, “cultural identity wise” the obvious choice.

He’s from Glasgow. Peter Capaldi is sort of great. I haven’t seen him in many roles but the ones I have seen him, as Sid’s dad on Skins and Malcolm Tucker in In The Thick Of It, are always kind of similar, he has a scathingly crass sense of humor that is brash, inappropriate and scary.

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