Has the Doctor been a Woman before?

[Jayson1]

Something confused me in the Spider episode. The Doctor had a line about once being a sister. It kind of confused me because I thought all the Doctors past lives have been the ones we saw on the tv shows. Was that a reference to something on the show I don't know about or am I wrong on how many times he/she has changed form?

Jason

 

[diankra]

Sister as in being a member of a holy/secure order. Possibly an honorary one?
The Doctor hasn't been female before unless there's an unknown pre-Hartnell incarnation (who didn't in the Morbius images).
Now the Master... might be a previous female incarnation between the kid and Delgado. Missy implies so, but she lies a lot.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

While the incarnations we have known have not been a woman, since the introduction of Missy, some key lines have implied the Doctor was a woman/identified as a woman at some point in their past. In Magicians Apprentice Missy says she has known the Doctor "since he was a little girl." While it's implied that's the lie Missy tells in that episode, dialogue in "Heaven Sent" implies that lie is one of Missy's other statements.

 

[Christopher]

There are multiple references throughout the series to Hartnell's Doctor being "the original, you might say" (in his own words) and "the earliest Doctor" (according to the Time Lords in "The Three Doctors"). And the modern series has specified that Smith was the Doctor's 13th life, counting the War Doctor and Tennant twice (because of his aborted regeneration). So there's no room for an earlier incarnation before Hartnell. But there are other ways to change sex or gender besides regeneration. Maybe the First Doctor went through a genderfluid phase in their youth.

 

[thribs]

In the Unbound verse, where it should have stayed.

 

[OCD Geek]

Back in the '70s during the Tom Bakers years when Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes were in charge, they had the idea that there were other incarnations before William Hartnell's Doctor. This idea was made explicit in The Brain of Morbius (ghost re-written by Holmes under a pseudonym) where we actually see the faces of these earlier incarnations played by members of the writing staff and crew.

While the revival series and indeed the rest of the classic series ignored this, EU sources differ on whether they were earlier incarnations of The Other (who may or may not have been re-loomed/essentially reincarnated as The Doctor), one of the founders of Gallifreyan society as we know it alongside Rassilon and Omega or whether there was an entire regeneration cycle of earlier incarnations of The Doctor him/herself before Hartnell. Or maybe even both. Or it's all hokum. Choose Your Own Canon is the Doctor Who way.

Regardless, whatever The Doctor's backstory (He/she also may or may not be half-human on his/her mother's side), pretty much everyone agrees that William Hartnell's First Doctor IS the first Doctor due to being the first incarnation of our favorite British superhero to dedicate his/her life to actively trying to make the universe a better place after being inspired by the heroism of the more breakable and far less immortal-ish Ian and Barbara. pushes up glasses

 

[Nightowl1701]

"Everything you thought you knew about the Doctor's origins is a LIE... a lie even the Doctor was brainwashed to believe! Just what did happen to the Doctor's family? Is the Doctor half-human?? And how many lives has (s)he really lived...???"

Man, I hope Chibnall isn't going this route...

 

[OCD Geek]

"Everything you thought you knew about the Doctor's origins is a LIE... a lie even the Doctor was brainwashed to believe! Just what did happen to the Doctor's family? Is the Doctor half-human?? And how many lives has (s)he really lived...???"

Man, I hope Chibnall isn't going this route...

As much as I freaking love the lore from the 7th & 8th Doctor novels created by Lawrence Miles, Lance Parkin, Kate Orman and Marc Platt, I really hope he doesn't go that route either. I love the Looms, The Other and his wife Patience and the Doctor's parents Time Lord Ulysses and Victorian mad scientist (and accidental inventor of human time travel) Penelope Gate, but I completely understand that these parts of the Whoniverse are controversial as fuck.

Moffat's brief nod to it in Hell Bent ("Are you the hybrid? Are you half-human?" "Does it matter!?") was the perfect way to go. People that love The War/Faction Paradox side of the Whoniverse got a rare nod to that part of the canon. Those that hate it had that nod be ambiguous enough that they can still ignore it altogether.

EDIT: Useless fact of the day: The ancient Gallifreyan Hybrid prophecy regarding The Doctor actually originated in Kate Orman's 8th Doctor novel Unnatural History (1999).

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Sister as in being a member of a holy/secure order. Possibly an honorary one?

That's how I read the line.

 

[Awesome Possum]

There's some mystery about her being "the Timeless Child". Maybe there is more to the Doctor's past than she is aware of. Something she has been blocked from knowing about either by a past incarnation or the TIme Lords themselves. We've been shown that Time Lord memories can be erased with some traces left over, which might explain the confusion about her past genders. She may vaguely remember being female but just doesn't fully know the details.

 

[Christopher]

Back in the '70s during the Tom Bakers years when Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes were in charge, they had the idea that there were other incarnations before William Hartnell's Doctor. This idea was made explicit in The Brain of Morbius (ghost re-written by Holmes under a pseudonym) where we actually see the faces of these earlier incarnations played by members of the writing staff and crew.

Although this contradicted what had previously been established in "The Three Doctors." It's like how Star Trek: "The Alternative Factor" claimed that any matter-antimatter reaction would destroy the universe, even though the earlier "The Naked Time" had already established that the Enterprise had matter-antimatter engines. It was a single exception to the otherwise consistent portrayal, and so it doesn't make sense to treat it as anything more than a passing glitch.

While the revival series and indeed the rest of the classic series ignored this, EU sources differ on whether they were earlier incarnations of The Other (who may or may not have been re-loomed/essentially reincarnated as The Doctor), one of the founders of Gallifreyan society as we know it alongside Rassilon and Omega or whether there was an entire regeneration cycle of earlier incarnations of The Doctor him/herself before Hartnell.

I never liked that idea. I don't like it when the Doctor is elevated to being The Single Most Important Time Lord Ever. I prefer the idea that the Doctor is simply a member of Time Lord society who rebelled against its strictures and stole a TARDIS to see the universe. The Doctor's importance should be because of what that act of rebellion allowed them to achieve subsequently, not because they were Gallifreyan Jesus from the start.

We've been shown that Time Lord memories can be erased with some traces left over, which might explain the confusion about her past genders. She may vaguely remember being female but just doesn't fully know the details.

Then again, the Doctor didn't necessarily have to be female to be a "Sister" in a religious order. If it's a title, it could theoretically be applied in an honorary or symbolic way. Or maybe the Doctor was just cross-dressing, as the Troughton and Pertwee incarnations were known to do on occasion.

 

[matthunter]

You COULD stretch the War Doctor logic to get around Hartnell's "earliest Doctor/the Original!" lines if the Doctor doesn't consider themself to have BEEN the Doctor until they swore The Promise (or after breaking it during the war, so they thought). Until now, we've been led to believe the Doctor chose the name fairly early and before first regeneration... wouldn't explain his fear of the process in The Tenth Planet, though, unless he simply wasn't sure it would work away from Gallifrey?

 

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[Christopher]

You COULD stretch the War Doctor logic to get around Hartnell's "earliest Doctor/the Original!" lines if the Doctor doesn't consider themself to have BEEN the Doctor until they swore The Promise (or after breaking it during the war, so they thought).

Except the rule is that a Time Lord gets only 13 lives without getting a new regeneration cycle, and "The Time of the Doctor" accounted for all 13 -- Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, T. Baker, Davison, C. Baker, McCoy, McGann, Hurt, Eccleston, Tennant 1, Tennant 2, Smith. And getting a new regeneration cycle is supposed to be exceedingly rare and exceptional, a gift from the Time Lords that the Doctor never expected to get. If this was the second time he got a new regeneration cycle, that totally undermines its importance. I don't understand why anyone would want that.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

Back in the '70s during the Tom Bakers years when Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes were in charge, they had the idea that there were other incarnations before William Hartnell's Doctor. This idea was made explicit in The Brain of Morbius (ghost re-written by Holmes under a pseudonym) where we actually see the faces of these earlier incarnations played by members of the writing staff and crew.

I absolutely hate The Brain of Morbius faces. I get the intent but it was silly and dumb considering it didn't fit with anything else. And there are people who absolutely want them.

As much as I freaking love the lore from the 7th & 8th Doctor novels created by Lawrence Miles, Lance Parkin, Kate Orman and Marc Platt, I really hope he doesn't go that route either. I love the Looms, The Other and his wife Patience and the Doctor's parents Time Lord Ulysses and Victorian mad scientist (and accidental inventor of human time travel) Penelope Gate, but I completely understand that these parts of the Whoniverse are controversial as fuck.

Moffat's brief nod to it in Hell Bent ("Are you the hybrid? Are you half-human?" "Does it matter!?") was the perfect way to go. People that love The War/Faction Paradox side of the Whoniverse got a rare nod to that part of the canon. Those that hate it had that nod be ambiguous enough that they can still ignore it altogether.

EDIT: Useless fact of the day: The ancient Gallifreyan Hybrid prophecy regarding The Doctor actually originated in Kate Orman's 8th Doctor novel Unnatural History (1999).

I was actually surprised Moffat was able to squeeze that line into the episode without some sort of fan revolt! It's like people missed it. The alternatives to the hybrid prophecy are kinda silly. "It's Me!" What? Come on. "It's you and your companions." I mean sure, but come on. But the fact that it's brought up and the Doctor doesn't deny it really cements that random bit of dialogue people railed against for demystifying the Doctor as being true. But then Moffat is an avowed McGann fan, so it makes sense that he'd bring that into the fold.

That's how I read the line.

The line is supposed to be confusing and play into the Doctor's change of gender - there's been one reference to it in each episode so far. Simply, "I was a sister once" is meant to disrupt the audience's expectations about the past, the joke is then that one of the previously known Doctors lives as a nun for a few weeks. Which, does not necessarily prelude one of his previous incarnations hiding away in a nunnery. Imagine Pat Troughton in a habit.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Eight and Twelve both spent time on Karn (in Night Of The Doctor and The Magician's Apprentice), the inhabitants of which are known as... So there's at least one in-universe on-screen handwave away. (As for Missy's thing about "one of the those was a lie"- that was the lie, as it's established between Hell Bent and Husbands Of River Song that they were all lies to some degree.)

 

[Pindar]

It could have been on one of the many trips she had between episode 1 and 2 .
It could be how she idintifies and refers to herself now.
It could also have been banter/nonsense on the Doctors part.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Eight and Twelve both spent time on Karn (in Night Of The Doctor and The Magician's Apprentice), the inhabitants of which are known as... So there's at least one in-universe on-screen handwave away. (As for Missy's thing about "one of the those was a lie"- that was the lie, as it's established between Hell Bent and Husbands Of River Song that they were all lies to some degree.)

The Eighth Doctor also spent time with them in the Big Finish audios Sisters of the Flame/Vengeance of Morbius.

 

[Jayson1]

You know if she had been a literal sister would it make sense for her to just blab it out in a throwaway line. Since we don't know his/her name do you think the Doctor would just open up about these moments in his/her past? Granted I think I am seeing a pattern in the new version in that she seems more open and even honest with her companions than in the past. Sort of goes into the idea she wants the almost be friends on a human level without the power balance that has been part of past lives.

Jason

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Considering it happened in the middle of her awkward and alien attempts at small talk, yes, I think she would just say it as a throwaway line. Her definition of openness and honesty, and any connotations and social qualms, are going to be different from us humans. Not just because it's a new incarnation of The Doctor but because, as we sometimes forget, she's an alien.