People don't understand the difference between a law and theory, or that a theory exists for specific purposes,but is still supported by evidence. A good article here gives a quick and dirty explanation.

Theory is very substantial, when it is scientific theory and not anecdotal hypothesis.

Than it's good, I never claimed such a thing! In fact I didn't believed this theory myself, until I saw some proofs of it.

I have a theory that this thread is an unsalvageable mess. :P

Probably shouldn't comment here, but what the hell.

I get the people who don't like their favorite characters (who they also grew up with) being changed to a different gender. Tbh, I wouldn't like that happening in my favorite books either.

BUT!

I'm really not well versed in Dr. Who technicalities, but the guy gets reincarnated every time, right? Are there any lore-related stuff that say the reincarnation can't be female?

And in Western comics etc. there are reboots every few years. Changing gender shouldn't be that big of a problem. It's more in our heads, because that's just what we're used to. Gotta try to have an open mind, at least.

Clearly, since it's Doctor Who, not Dr. Who :D

Technicaly not anymore, since they shoehorned plenty of "hey look, that other Time Lord regenerated into a woman" lately, but that not the way it was for 50 years. Like I said before, there are other instances in sf of aliens that change gender - for example in LeGuin's phenomenal Left Hand of Darkness or in Star Trek, but in those that fact has always been there and is part of their culture as a whole and the identity of particular characters. Here after 50 years of it clearly not being a thing it just feels like a really awkward and forced retcon.

That's true. I've been saying all along that it's all very subjective and I've mentiond superhero comics often. Because it's true - stuff get's rebooted or retconed there all the time. But always when that happens there's people who are on board with that, and those who are not. I don't think anyone likes every single iteration of Batman or Superman or any other superhero ever introduced. You always have to sort of "take what's yours and leave the rest". You can take any of a number of examples, like Wolverine's origin. It's not even a bad comic, but I always felt like the very idea of giving him a definite origin is a bad idea. I liked it more when his past was a mystery and "Logan" was all we had as a name for him.

So yeah, it's important not to rage about this change, and the people behind it, but it's also important to acknowledge that it's perfectly all right to say "thanks, but no thanks".

It's not exactly a reincarnation, but his (or her) body "regenerates", completely changing his appearance and, to some extent, his personality, so each actor can play a different variation of thr character. The lore has had Time Lords changing their gender during regeneration at least since 2011.

I feel excited about this. They have just doubled the pool of potential actors to play the Doctor. The future is more open than ever. And I think Jodie is a terrific actress (she was great on Broadchurch), so she at least deserves a chance to prove herself worthy of the TARDIS.

I'm staying here.

Were the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi seasons any good?

My work schedule changed during David Tennant's era and I kind of lost track of the show.

Personally I liked Tennant's stories more. He was less "eccentric" amd there was more consistent overall storyarc.

You are welcome.

I think both actors did really well. Capaldi in fact is probably the best one of them. But the quality of the show overall somewhat declined in Smith's time, and that trend continued when Capaldi took over. Season 8 was weak, and season 9 was just terrible, close to "I'm done with the show" terrible. To my great surprise however, season 10 was an incredible improvement. The best season since season 5. If Capaldi's entire run was written like this he'd definately be the best Doctor ever he's fantastic when given really good scripts.

At this point, i'm highly amused. GIven dr. who has traditionally been a scifi show about a, maybe decent looking dude with his hot chick sidekick, i'm kinda curious who the doctor's sidekick was when the doctor's a chick.

What do you mean? It was regeneration, like previous changes.

I wouldn't mind that job.