Steven Moffat: ‘Fans didn’t want a female Doctor Who’

Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat has justified his decision not to cast a woman in the TV show’s lead role, insisting female fans in particular did not want the Time Lord to change gender. Bosses behind the hit sci-fi series spent the last few months searching for a replacement for current star Matt Smith, who is due to step down at the end of the year (13), before announcing The Thick of It actor Peter Capaldi had landed the job.
However, there were calls for an actress to be cast as the first female Doctor Who, with Hollywood star Dame Helen Mirren among the most high-profile campaigners urging producers to choose a woman, but Moffat is adamant fans wouldn’t want to watch a Time Lady.
He says, “It’s absolutely narratively possible (that the Doctor could be a woman) and when it’s the right decision, maybe we’ll do it. It didn’t feel right to me, right now. I didn’t feel enough people wanted it. Oddly enough most people who said they were dead against it – and I know I’ll get into trouble for saying this – were women. (They were) saying, ‘No, no, don’t make him a woman!'”