6 Actresses who
would be perfect as the first female Doctor Who
An
article by Rowan Crump
With a lead protagonist who travelled through time
and space in a Police Telephone Box that is bigger inside than out, Doctor Who was already one of the most
unique shows on television. But it was the events of 1966 that saw the show
bring in one of the ideas that made it like no other, and the reason the show
is still going today.
William Hartnell, who had originated the role of the
Doctor in 1963, as a sometimes tetchy, but often eccentric and whimsical
grandfather figure, had started to become old and tired. He often had a habit
of fluffing his lines, and because the show back then was recorded as if it
were live, it was impossible to do anything about it. Eventually, the
production team realised that there was only one way forward – they had to
replace the actor playing the Doctor. Back then, if an actor was replaced in
the same role by someone else, they never mentioned onscreen the fact that they
were a different actor (see roles like James Bond or Miss Marple). But when the
Doctor Who team came to change the
lead actor, they actually bothered to come up with an explanation for the
viewers. Not only that, they also chose not to replace Hartnell with someone
similar looking, playing the role as he did. They completely changed the
character of the Doctor, and allowed new lead Patrick Troughton to put his own
spin on the role. It is this idea (which later became known as regeneration)
which allowed the show to continue on BBC One until its original cancellation
in 1989, and for the new series to be running into its ninth year.
Since Troughton replaced Hartnell, there have been
eleven more actors playing the Doctor, all of them male. It has been a long
running discussion amongst fans, sometimes embarrassingly mumbled quietly, as
to whether or not there will ever be a female Doctor. A recent survey in the
official Doctor Who Magazine revealed
that most fans say they are not ready for the Doctor to be played by a woman.
Some even say that they will stop watching if the Doctor becomes a woman. When
Helen Mirren announced her interest in possibly playing the Doctor, current
showrunner Steven Moffat commented back that he would one day like to see the
Queen of England played by a man. As part of the 331/3 percent who
like the idea of there one day being a lady behind the TARDIS controls, I get
really sick of people’s sexist attitude towards this, and am especially shocked
that a lot of it comes from women. So much for sisterhood. The casting of the
Doctor should be based around how good the acting is, not around whether you
fancy them or not. If the Doctor became a woman it opens up a load of fantastic
story possibilities. How would the character ease into being female, after
nearly a thousand years of being male? How would she cope if the TARDIS landed
in a time period when women were not as listened to as men? How would the
Doctor’s companions and old friends or foes get used to the man they knew now
being a woman? A whole universe of ideas awaits whoever makes the decision.
Here is a list of qualities essential for whoever
plays the Doctor:
1) Needs
to be an eccentric character.
2) Needs
to have a playful, childish side to them.
3) Needs
to have a unique sense of fashion (but not too unique, eg. Colin Baker).
4) Needs
to be able to flit between loveable eccentric moments and moments of darkness
and anger.
5) Needs
to have a good use of language.
6) Needs
to be a British actor.
7) Regardless
of age and appearence, they need to be believable as an over-900-year-old
humanoid alien.
8) Needs
to be a heroic portrayal, but has to go into moments of mystery (like we don’t
know what the Doctor is planning).
9) Most
importantly, needs to be a good actor.
So, with that in mind, here is my list of six
actresses who I think will be perfect to add a bit of oestrogen to the iconic
time travelling hero:
1)
Janet
McTeer
As I previously mentioned, Helen Mirren said she
would be interested in playing the Doctor, but if I were to choose a similar
actress for the role, I would go for Janet McTeer. First making her name on
stage and in film/TV, she first became really popular in the Lynda La Plante prison
drama series The Governor (1995-96),
and won both an Olivier and a Tony award for the 1996-97 stage production of
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. She was then
cast in the film Tumbleweeds (1999)
as a single mother who roams from town to town with her young daughter. It was
this role that earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress (alongside Meryl
Streep, Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, and eventual winner Hilary Swank), and
led to Janet getting a lot more noticeable roles. I really enjoyed her
performances as a dreadlocked crazy woman in Terry Gilliam’s Tideland (2007), and as a well-spoken yet
sadistic assassin in Cat Run (2011). She earned a second Oscar nomination
for the 2011 film Albert Nobbs, which
saw her and Glenn Close play women who had to pass as men to work and survive
in 19th century Ireland. It was her androgynous look in this that
made me first think how great she could be as the Doctor. She could be an
older, maternal incarnation (very like Mary Poppins, or her performances as
strong mother characters in Parade’s End and
The White Queen), and her height of
6’1 means she’d be as tall as David Tennant’s incarnation, two inches shorter
than Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. I also love her big blue expressive eyes, one
of her best features.
2)
Helena
Bonham Carter
If there is any actress who could deliver a kooky,
eccentric, but dark performance as the Doctor, it is Helena Bonham Carter. As
we have seen in the Harry Potter films
and her collaborations with partner Tim Burton, we know she has a knack at
playing strange, dark, eccentric characters. Add in the fact she won a BAFTA
for The King’s Speech, and her kooky
fashion sense seen at premieres and awards ceremonies, and you know you have
someone the role of the Doctor is built for. I think she could give a very
similar performance to the way Tom Baker did it. She could switch from the
sweetness and odd way that the Doctor observes the world, the sensitive way
that ‘he’ helps those in need, and the sometimes scary way the Doctor can turn
on his enemies in a fight. If not the Doctor, she would be perfect as a female
member of the Doctor’s people – perhaps Romana or The Rani.
3)
Ellie
Kendrick
A personal favourite choice for me, Ellie Kendrick
is a young actress I have admired ever since I saw her in the title role in the
2009 BBC adaptation of The Diary of Anne
Frank, one of the best debuts from an actress I’ve seen in years. Since
then, she has made appearances in shows such as Being Human, Misfits, and Chickens,
and she currently stars as Meera Reed in Game
of Thrones. It is her performance in Being
Human that I think gives us a good clue to how she could play the Doctor.
She plays Allison, a young woman who is very geeky, likes fossils, and is a
school debating champion. Oh, and a werewolf. The scene where she is down by
the docks trying to reason with a vampire who she thinks is trying to reveal
the existence of werewolves to the world shows that she would be able to stand
up to the Daleks or Cybermen. Later on, she shows great skill at retort against
a vampire who is obsessed with 80’s action movie-style puns. These and other
adorable quirks of hers - her glasses, her fashion style, the odd way she runs,
and the fact she says things like ‘paxis’ (Latin for ‘peace’) and ‘takk’ (‘thanks’
in Norwegian) also give her an eccentric quality, something that the Doctor
needs to have. Her youth and her height may hider her chances though. At the
very least, her appearances in other sci-fi/fantasy shows mean it’s only a
matter of time before the ‘Whoniverse’ comes a ’calling. If she were to play
any other role, I think she’d be great as the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan.
4)
Sue
Perkins
Returning to the androgynous Doctor idea I discussed
with Janet McTeer, Sue Perkins is another who fits well in that category.
Mostly know as a comedienne and co-host of The
Great British Bake Off, Sue has always had a unique appearance (I believe
it’s known as lesbian chic) with her short quiffed hair, specs, and designer
suits, and I think that would work to make you believe she is an eccentric
alien. She’s quite thin, so you just see her behind the controls of the TARDIS,
like a female Tennant-esque incarnation. She is also very quirky, and hopefully
can also bring a serious edge to the role as well. I think she could play it as
a mix of Tennant and Matt Smith’s incarnations, as well as adding a few quirks
of her own. The Doctor could also develop a love of carrot cake as an in-joke. Perkins
herself has said she is delighted that several fans set up petitions for her to
become the first female Doctor. Maybe one day, she will fulfil the fan’s wishes.
5) Adelayo Adedayo
Along with the debate on whether the Doctor should
become female or not, there is also the discussion as to why the Doctor has not
yet been played by a black actor. So, to kill two birds with one stone as it
were, I present to you Ms. Adelayo Adedayo. Viewers of BBC Three will recognise
her from her role as Viva, the sensible one in teen sitcom Some Girls. In that role, she portrays someone wise beyond their
years, and that is another thing essential for whoever gets cast as the Doctor.
The fact that the Doctor would be black and a woman means that she would have
to adjust to both thingsbe stories where the character could face prejudice in
time periods such as 1950’s America, or the Deep South. As a young actress still
at the start of her career, I can’t predict how Adelayo would play the role. I
think she should make the character her own and see how it fits her, but put in
some of the wit she uses as Viva.
6) Katherine Kastin
Another personal choice, and not just because she
happens to be a friend of mine, Katherine Kastin is a born performer. Born in
the States, she moved to London as a baby with her mother, who would later
marry Dan Crawford, founder of the King’s Head pub/theatre in Islington. Katey
grew up around the stage, going on to appear in several of the theatre’s
productions, as well as achieving minor fame when she was cast as the scheming
head prefect Rose Carter in the 1995-96 BBC adaptation of Gillian Cross’ Demon Headmaster books. It was a re-run
of this series on the CBBC channel in 2008 that reminded me of how fantastic
she was as Rose, and inspired me to write a letter to her, saying how much I
admired her, and asking for advice on acting. She wrote back to me the most beautifully
written letter saying thanks, passing on advice, and inviting me to see her in
a play at the King’s Head that summer. So, I went to see her in her mother’s
adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s The
Shadowmaster (in which she played Mabel Purdey, a young married woman who
discovers that her husband is having an affair with her best friend Joanna),
and she was amazing. After the show, we met properly for the first time, and we
have been friends ever since. She now lives in New Zealand with her husband
Fraser Wyeth, their daughter Arielle, and their hound Pan. Still acting in
independent productions, I think Katherine would make a perfect Doctor because
her maturity yet childish playfulness suits the character, and she can also
flip from kookiness to darkness and anger, which is essential for the role. Also,
her unique features would make her believable as a
humanoid alien older than her years. If I was ever in charge of the series, she
would be my first choice.
