Why the Doctor should Not be a Woman

So it's been about 4 hours since the BBC announced that Jodie Whittaker will be the new Doctor. I have had 4 hours to digest it and read plenty of comments about the matter. I am in the, unpopular corner that the Doctor should never be a woman and I will try and explain my position in this post. First, I have nothing against Jodie Whittaker as an actress. She would not have been my first choice for a woman to play the Doctor and she wouldn't have even been my first choice of an actress from the TV show Broadchurch (that would have been Olivia Colman), but she is a fine actress. Secondly, just because I do not want a woman playing the Doctor doesn't make me a male chauvinist pig or sexist as it seems that the world of Twitter Trolls are attacking everyone with that opinion. They remind me of Trump fans, with them yelling "Deal with it".

Before I begin my argument, I think a distinction has to be made between "Dr Who Fans" and "Whovians". There is a difference. Dr Who fans like the show, they might even love the show, but to them it's just a show. Not to Whovians. For Whovians, Dr Who is kind of like a religion. We do not just see this as just a sci-fi TV show, but rather something that we have obsessed over from our early childhood into adulthood. One of the reasons why Whovians love the show so much is because of it's rich history. We can follow this adventure way back to a lonely junkyard. Whovians do take the show too seriously sometimes, but if it wasn't for that obsession we would not have Dr Who today. Whovians are the ones that kept this show alive, when there was no Dr Who. Whovians are the ones who never gave up on the show. Instead of looked down upon, we should be cherished. As you can guess, I consider myself a Whovian. I will continue to watch the show, but it doesn't mean that I have to agree with the choice of changing the Doctor's gender. I have yet to see one good point on why Time Lords should have the ability to change gender.

So here's my simple argument, "what if you were married?" So we know that Time Lords do marry ("Invasion of Time", when Leela stayed on Gallifrey to marry a Time Lord). So what if you are a Time Lord and married to another Time Lord of the opposite sex and you are married for hundreds of years and truly love that person. Then one day, your spouse regenerates and they regenerate into someone of the opposite sex then what you married? That would devastate you and destroy your whole marriage. I know it sounds funny, but it's true. The whole concept of marriage on Gallifrey would be in shambles if they could just regenerate into a different gender. The argument against the Doctor being a woman has nothing to do with us being against women's rights, but has to do with this universe that us Whovians live in. It doesn't make sense to the story.

I would be ok with them killing the Doctor off and starting a whole new show with the lead Time Lord as female. I would watch that in a heartbeat. Dr Who has had some strong women in the past, that "Dr Who Fans" don't know or don't remember. Romana was a Time Lord that travelled with the Doctor. She was smarter then the Doctor and could pilot his TARDIS better then the he could. She even became the President of the High Council of Gallifrey. Don't forget about the Rani, a renegade Time Lord traveling the universe as well and even the Master took a backseat to her. I would have loved to see either of these characters come back to life and be featured prominently, but instead Steven Moffat has decided to go all in with his obsession to make the Doctor a woman. It just seems a like a cheap pop and not addressing the true problem with the shows, the stories.

I hope I am wrong and that Jodi Whittaker does a fantastic job, but it will ultimately come down to stories and being able to explain why this make sense to us Whovians.

Dual Review "World Enough and Time" & "The Doctor Falls"

I thought for these last 2 Dr Who episodes, before we get the Christmas episode, we would do something a little different. I asked our guest reviewer this season, Brice Baker, to write a review of these 2 episodes and I also wanted to write a review. So I figured let's do something funky and post both of them at the same time. So my review will be in "BLUE" and Brice's will be in "RED". I know this might be a little confusing, but sometimes it's worth to try something a little different. I promise you we did not know what each other was going to write. So here you go:

Awesome Con 2017 Review

For the third year in a row we here at East Coast Who were selected to attend and cover the biggest convention in the Washington DC area, Awesome Con. I think every year Awesome Con has gotten bigger and bigger, which creates unique problems for the staff at Awesome Con. This review will break down Awesome Con with a slant toward the Dr Who Universe, because that's what we cover. We will look at guests, vendors, panels and overall feel.

Review "Eaters of the Light"

 The Doctor, Bill & Nardole head to ancient Scotland to settle a bet about the 9th Legion of the Roman Army. You would think that this would happen more often then not. Then again, why would you argue about history with a Time Lord? There they meet some Romans, some savages and a monster that feeds on sunlight. Just your typical Who adventure following in the time held tradition of Classic Dr Who. You now I was thinking how many times have we seen the Doctor get separated from his companion/companions and they each end up on either side of a conflict? It happens a lot in Dr Who.

Review "Empress of Mars" by Brice Baker

"The Empress of Mars" seems to have started the Peter Capaldi victory tour. The proper season with the overlying arc of love and family ended with the monks and finally we have at least one proper Doctor Who episode. There is no long monologue prefacing this episode. There are no basic questions from Bill. It simply jumps right into the action and has witty banter between the Doctor and his companion. 

Review "The Lie of the Land" Episode

So we finally get the conclusion of the story involving the Monks and the only thing I have to say is "Why did this have to be 3 episodes?". I mean really when was the last time we had a 3 part story? Off the top of my head I can't remember any since the show came back in 2001. Is this worth of 3 episodes? I think not. Complete rubbish.

This episode did have some moments like when Bill shot the Doctor and when she sacrificed her life to save humanity, but ultimately these moments didn't really happen and it was a cheap ploy to pull on our emotional strings. There's never a point where the Monks were a real threat to the Doctor and in the end no one except the Doctor, Bill & Nardole even remember what happens. Even brief appearances of Missy couldn't save this train wreck. I really hope that they turn this season around and let Peter Capaldi leave on a high note, because this season has been, for the most part, "BAD".

Review of "Extremis" & "The Pyramid at the End of the World"

So I was going to wait to review the whole story of the Monks, but who knew it goes going to be a 3-parter or maybe more? So, I figured I would review the last 2 episodes before I start forgetting what happened. Now I do realize that this review is incomplete, because we really need the rest of the story to accurately review it.

Let's look at "Extremis", which has starts off as a decent story. The Doctor meets the Pope and gets to solve a mystery of why everyone is killing themselves after translating this document called, "Veritas". Then enter the evil looking Monks, who oddly resemble other Dr Who monsters. I think the special effects guy got kind of lazy and made them look kind of like the Mummy in "Mummy on the Orient Express" crossed with the Sycorax from the "Christmas Invasion". After the Doctor finally figures out what is going out, we learn that this is just a computer simulation that the Monks have been running on our planet with hopes of invading. Well, there's 45 minutes that are pretty much meaningless in the Dr Who World. I mean come on, couldn't they have done that in a shorter time?