Next Doctor Could Be Female

And so it begins. Whenever a Doctor leaves this rumour is usually one of the first the follow.

So right on schedule, following last night’s big news

of Matt Smith’s departure, The Times are today claiming his successor could be female. They cite “informed sources at the BBC.”

Extract:

THE Time Lord may be about to become a Time Lady. Matt Smith, the 11th actor to play Doctor Who, is to leave the series at the end of the year and could be replaced by a female Doctor for the first time.

Smith will depart after a 50th anniversary episode in November and then a Christmas special. Informed sources at the BBC suggest that his successor might be a woman.

Having a female Doctor could go some way to answering recent criticism that the plots have taken on too dark an edge but would upset some of the series’ purist fans.

The series, which ended initially in 1989 before being revived in 2005, has also faced criticism for its convoluted plots and suggestions of racism in not casting a black or Asian Doctor.