Good Lord, Thirteenth Doctor discourse knows no bounds. I just want to remind all y'all that it's just a show, and we should all really just relax.
In any case, I think we can both agree that the Christmas special should be called "The Two(ish) Doctors Reboot".
I'm a believer in empowering women and giving them starring, decent roles in fiction. I just don't think it's wise changing the gender of protaginists willy-nilly for that end. You change the character adversely, generally speaking.
Why not have a concerted effort to have most new TV shows have females in important, leading roles; have more female protaginists; or at least make sure that the male/female gender balance in the newly created shows is much more proportionate than in The Smurfs?
Fiction in general has a gender imbalance issue that does need to be fixed. But stuff like what BBC did is an extremely sloppy solution with bad consequences. What this tells me is, for BBC 'we couldn't think comprehensively about the male-female imbalance and treat it with care. so we used a sledgehammer'.
