The Citizen and Echo sports editor Phil Norris is a diehard Doctor Who fan. Here he gives his view on whether a female Doctor could cut the mustard:
COULD Doctor Who fans be in for the most radical change to the series since the Tardis first materialised on British television screens almost 50 years ago?
Rumours are rife that the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith since 2010, could regenerate into actress Sheridan Smith in the Christmas episode.
If so, some Doctor Who fans could be choking on their turkey and cranberry sauce.
Casting a female doctor is a bold and potentially controversial move for the flagship BBC science-fiction show.
Choosing the 'wrong' actor can have calamitous consequences – the show never really recovered from the Colin Baker/Sylvester McCoy castings of the 1980s and went into limbo until the distinctly average TV movie with Paul McGann in 1996.
Brought back in style in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston –¬ followed by the popular David Tennant and Smith – the series has a lot to lose if the wrong actor/actress is chosen.
For many fans, the Doctor's gender is an unalterable fact and the whole premise of the series could be knocked off kilter if a woman is cast – changing the dynamic of the show.
It would also raise questions about the Doctor's sexuality.
While never overt in the series, the Doctor is a grandfather and he has had romantic moments with previous female companions.
As a woman, how would that be handled?
Would issues like that prove too controversial or complex for what is still a children's show? A 'male' doctor in a 'female' body?
As a fan since I was a boy – growing up with Tom Baker and Peter Davison ¬– my instinct always was that the Doctor should be played by a man, pretty much for these reasons.
But what is most important, is that the right actor is cast.
Who can bring new fans to the series and retain the existing ones? Who can take the series on into its next 50 years?
Doctor Who has always prided itself on reinvention, subverting conventions, surprising its audience, and being relevant to the times.
Sheridan Smith is familiar to TV fans through her work on Jonathan Creek and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, but she also has some Doctor Who history herself, playing companion Lucie Miller alongside McGann in the radio version of the show.
Casting her as the first female doctor would be a brave move, that would provoke strong adverse reactions from some fans.
But it could also be an inspired one, and one I would be happy to see.
And of all the other names tipped – Russell Brand, Craig Charles, Rory Kinnear – her name is the one I would most like to see picking up a sonic screwdriver this Christmas.
