Monday 29 April 2013

"Whoever he or she may be..."

Recently, I was discussing with a Doctor Who fan on Twitter that old chestnut of whether or not the Doctor should ever be played by a woman. The difference was that, today, this is a whole different discussion. In the 21st century, this is a thornier issue regarding equality and prejudice.

When Tom Baker came out with that line for a laugh in 1980, no-one had seriously considered it before. It seems extraordinary in a way that whilst the world had accepted a Time Lord who could regenerate into an entirely new body, the idea that a male Time Lord could regenerate and become a female Time Lord seemed somehow a step too far. The general consensus - I believe (I was only four) - was that this would constitute a whole new character, rather than the continuation of his essence that existed from William Hartnell through to the current incumbent.

Why is this? Why would the world have found this so hard in the eighties? It's not as if we were talking about JR Ewing or Kerr Avon - it was well established that the Doctor could be played by a variety of actors. However, it seems that only 50% of the population were eligible.

What I don't recall, during the 20th century, is any discussion of a possible female Doctor which referenced the very real issue of the trans* community. Possibly it's because those words would have been as meaningless as Courtney Pine to a Cyberleader. At school in the 80s, I'd heard of transsexuals. They were men who felt they were women trapped in men's bodies (or vice versa). To solve this, they needed a sex change operation. This was my primitive understanding and not just because I was young - this seemed to be the prevailing wisdom amongst the adults I knew too.

The world has moved on and become more enlightened. Television up to the 80s was very slow to embrace what would become known as political correctness - or its less maligned twin, equality. When Doctor Who returned in 2005, there was a scramble to right wrongs. Finally, the Doctor could sound Northern, Jack could be gay, Martha could be black and so on.

I don't think there's anything to stop the BBC from including a trans* character in Doctor Who except fear. It wouldn't be uncontroversial; the recent sad case of the schoolteacher hounded by sections of the media and subsequently taking her own life shows that some people remain jittery about children being exposed to the concept of trans* people. This is their problem, but given Doctor Who's status as a children's programme, the Littlejohns of this world would be bound to get all Westboro on us. On the other hand, Waterloo Road have managed it.

Back to my original point, though. Perhaps a companion could be trans* - but the Doctor?

One needs to define gender. The notion that genitalia are a giveaway is now prehistoric; gender is generally held to be a question of identity which can only be decided by the person in question. (This makes those "It's a boy!" balloons a bit questionable. Suggested alternative: "It's a penis!")

When a person identifies as trans (or indeed anything under the trans* banner) they consciously come to this conclusion in their own heads, then choose what to do about this. If these values are applied to the Doctor, does that help us understand how regeneration fits in here? Can we imagine a situation when he looks within himself and realises he wants to live as a woman? Being a Time Lord, he would have no need even to consider gender reassignment surgery - he can just regenerate.

But since when are decisions involved in the Doctor's regenerations? "You never quite know what you're going to get." Say he did regenerate (accidentally, just as he accidentally became the non-ginger Matt Smith) into Emma Thompson or Olivia Colman - would that make him trans? The two processes are not equivalent - only the symptom (surface gender) is the same.

The Doctor's regenerations may be arbitrary and chaotic but this isn't true for everyone. Just because he always becomes a white male, as do Borusa and the Master, it proves nothing. His dying ninth self suggests he could have two heads or no head. The possibilities have not had their limits drawn up.

(There's certainly nothing wedding him to a race as Paterson Joseph's agent might agree. Romana proved this in Destiny of the Daleks by briefly turning blue...although frankly this opens up a whole can of worms. Even if a future incarnation is non-white, the show's still being racist towards blue people.)

So, If Time Lords are able to switch gender on a whim (or by chance) - and the anecdotal evidence of The Corsair proves it is possible - then can they even be said to have a gender? A trans person decides on a definite identity at odds with their body; a Time Lord could transition back and forth willy nilly. If you'll pardon the phrase.

Could the Doctor be a transsexual? In theory, yes, although with some scripting difficulties: I don't know the figures on how many people at and beyond middle age discover this about themselves, but it would take a very good writer to persuade the audience that after hundreds of years the Doctor has finally made this leap.

Could the Doctor regenerate into a female body? Yes, in theory. My contention is that these two questions are entirely distinct from each other. The first concerns the soul (or other concept of your choice); the last, merely the body.

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P.S. I'm not an expert. If you are, and you can see that I've made a faux pas with terminology in this blog, please tell me and, assuming you're right, I'll adjust it. I certainly have no wish to offend anyone (except those who deserve to be offended).
If you simply disagree with me, I'm happy to debate that. Please don't confuse an honest mistake with an accidental fluff, though. Let's keep this friendly.