The 50th Anniversary Special is fast approaching. Matt Smith is bowing out as the 11th Doctor this Christmas. The 12th Doctor is being cast as we speak. Change is thick in the air for the 8th Series of Doctor Who, slated to hit our TV screens in 2014. What exactly those changes will be is anyone's guess. As fans prepare our stacks of tissue boxes for Matt Smith's sure to be tearful farewell, we're also engaging in spirited speculation about what might come next. The upcoming 50th Anniversary Special is sure to throw some theories for a wild loop and introduce more into the mix as well. But November is too far away to simply sit idle until then - so, in the (slightly paraphrased) words of the Doctor, let's "be very clever down here", and dive into some of the possibilities for what we might see in Series 8. BE WARNED: Some SPOILERS for Series 7 lie beyond here. If you haven't caught up, don't read on!
8. A Female Doctor
It's an unfortunate fact that 11 out of 12 people you ask assume the next Doctor will be another youngish, white, probably British, man. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, but this and the next few items on the list deal with possibilities for drastic change on the part of the Doctor himself. First among these, obviously, is the chance that our new Doctor could be a woman. Many people have a varied slate of issues with this. They range from the fact that the Doctor has always been a male, to the canon-based argument that Time Lords cannot change gender during regeneration. Some, myself included, simply fear what a mangled mess a female Doctor would be in the hands of Steven Moffat. Say what you will about his writing skill, but the man has proved time and again that his work, if not blatantly sexist, at least fails to do much to combat the problem. Nonetheless, the possible casting of a female Doctor is an intriguing idea that has the potential, if carried out, to not only draw more attention and accolades to an already popular show, but open new avenues for storytelling and character interaction. Just imagine the interplay between Jenna Coleman's Clara and a female Doctor!