With the coming start of the tenure of Peter Capaldi as the 12th actor to the role of the Doctor in a few days, it is a good time to re-visit one of the controversies of the process that chose him. The revived popularity of the show meant that there was a lot speculation in the media and on the Internet about who the next Doctor would be. Some of that attention was on the role the role of women in Doctor Who. More specifically, why hasn’t there been a woman chosen to play the role?

Continue below for more, and to read about the women who have played an important part in Doctor Who‘s history.

While audiences are gearing up for The Day Of The Doctor, Doctor Who fans can also expect another great special coming from the BBC called An Adventure In Space And Time – telling the story of how Doctor Who came to be in real life, 50 years ago on November 23 – an valuable depiction of the beginning of what would become a cultural phenomenon and the longest-running sci-fi series in history.

Mark Gatiss, of Doctor Who and Sherlock fame, writes and produces the special, which features David Bradley (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones) as William Hartnell – the first Doctor – in a piece of casting that sees Bradley look just like Hartnell. The similarities are eerie.

An Adventure In Space And Time tells of how the television show came into being, the importance of first showrunner Verity Lambert (played by Jessica Raine), and the world-shattering approach in the impossible task of trying to tell stories on poor budgeting and how much of a phenomenon the series quickly became.