Good point: Doctor Who is weirdly short on female writers. This list is fun, too. I think we've got the best chance of getting writers who are already working in the UK television industry, so how about Sarah Phelps, who wrote a fantastic episode of Being Human, "The Longest Day"?

Lucy Watkins wrote some brilliant Merlin episodes (I'm still sulking that she didn't write one for Merlin series 5).

Catherine Tregenna wrote Out of Time, one of the best Torchwood one-off episodes, but never made it to the parent series.

I don't think playwright and tv writer Lucy Prebble has worked in actual scifi before, but anyone who can get velociraptors into a political play about ENRON clearly has the right spirit.

And how about Heidi Thomas? She's best known for period drama, but she might be longing to write a base under siege on an alien planet.

J. K. Rowling. Think about it.

The show suffers too. Again and again we are served up female characters whose main character traits are their interest in motherhood; marriage; and being awesome-yet-infuriating to the men in their lives. Only the varying quantities of these attributes distinguish them.

It's lame.

Agree. Not that men can't write good female characters (my two favorite are Buffy and Veronica Mars and their creators are male), but the men writing Doctor Who seem to think "strong female character" is a type they can just mimic by copy and pasting "strong" attributes. "Sassy" does not equal deep or powerful or interesting, and when there's no consistency (I'm looking at you, Amy), it just plays as flat and annoying.

Yes, Amy is weirdly inconsistent and often an out and out bitch, especially to Rory. I'm also not a fan of River either. I don't buy her relationship with the Doctor at all. Clara started out intriguing and then fell off the cliff of my interests.. splat. RTD definitely did a better job of writing women. At least they've got families and backstories.

He's not female, but I really want Richard Curtis back. Vincent and the Doctor was awesome.

I am forever disappointed by the lack of female writers on Doctor Who. It's supposedly one of Britain's most iconic pop culture hallmarks, and yet it's content is almost entirely the product of (middle class, white) dudes. That seems so ridiculous! It's the 21st century ffs! Especially shameful given that one of DW's founders was Verity Lambert - if it was in part created by a woman why are we so unfit to write it now? This post makes it clear that it's in no way because there is a lack of talented female writers around, so we have to conclude that it's because the systems that get women hired in the industry are still inordinately sexist. Sad (and ridiculous).

It's more than slightly embarrassing that contemporary Doctor Who has had so few women screenwriters involved in it's production and i think writers like Jane Goldman and Abi Morgan are clearly talented enough to write for the show.My favourite,if unlikely choice,would be Peter Davison's chum ,Sally Wainwright because she's so skilled at plotting,characterisation and humour.It would just be interesting to see her writing an alien amongst her normal characters and seeing how far she would go.

An an American fan, I just saw this. But thank you for writing it. Last week's "because I'm a girl" joke was degrading and pointless. A female writer would likely have pointed that out to the boys.

What about bringing over some novelists, like they did with Neil Gaiman?

Diana Gabaldon, writer of the outlander series of books, a nurse from the 1940s is accidentally sent back in time to the 1740s. Great action writer and an amazing romance story unfolds in 7+ books. Character driven and her first book is being made into a TV series currently.

For a couple of years Diane Duane has been on my wishlist of writers for Doctor Who. 1, she's a fan; 2, she's got experience with writing screenplays; 3, she's closer in geographical terms than either Neil Gaiman or Neil Cross.
Although considering the latter lives in New Zealand, Wellington, I do wonder why they didn't look over the hill and ask Elizabeth Knox to write an episode. (Aside from the fact I don't think she has any experience writing screenplays.)

I'd like to see what Gail Simone would do.

Me.

How is Suzanne Collins not in this?

I had to give up reading when I saw Caitlin Moran's name come up - ewewewewewewewewewewewewewewewewewewew!!!! Besides, she's hardly likely to want to write for any doctor other than David Tennant... Thank God!

Cherie Priest!!! If you've read her, you know why!

Just give me time