One of the biggest criticisms of Steven Moffat's Doctor Who revival has been the lack of diversity in the series, or, more specifically, the lack of a female Doctor. A female Doctor was something many viewers hoped they would see following Moffat's departure from the series later this year, but recent rumors suggest that any hopes of the series casting a female Doctor as the 13th incarnation of the spacefaring problem solver have been dashed. So why exactly have we never seen a female don the role of the Doctor? According to Moffat, it wasn't that he went out of his way not to cast a female Doctor, it was just that, over his eight year run, he happened to cast men.

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In a new interview with BBC Radio 4, Moffat addressed the much discussed topic, simply stating that he ultimately cast the people he wanted to see in the Doctor role.

“I didn’t not cast a woman… I cast a man. I didn’t [cast a woman] because I wanted to cast Matt Smith and I wanted to cast Peter Capaldi. I didn’t think it was a terrible idea [to cast a woman], I just thought, ‘I want to cast those people’ – that was it.”

Moffat's quote is sure to upset fans that hoped to see the showrunner toss support behind the idea of a female Doctor. On one hand, we did get to see the Doctor’s nemesis, the Master, become Missy (Michelle Gomez) under Moffat's time as showrunner, and Bill has brought even more diversity to the series, but with reports stating that a man will be cast in the role yet again it's hard to deny the series missed the chance to go out with a more notable bang.

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With the current Twelfth Doctor set to depart the series the same time as Moffat -- following this year's Christmas special -- the highly coveted role is up for grabs. That is, if it hasn't gone to one of the rumored front runners: Luke Treadaway (Fortitude) and Sacha Dhawan (Iron Fist). The new Doctor is set to serve as the Thirteenth -- and final regeneration -- of the Doctor, making the casting even more important than those before. With BBC remaining mum on who'll take over for Peter Capaldi, fans just have to wait and see what the series has planed for the rest of its season ten run, which will end with what Moffat refers to as a "slightly different" regeneration.

Starring Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts and Matt Lucas as Nardole, Doctor Who airs Saturdays on BBC and BBC America.

(via Den of Geek)