Thirteenth Doctor The Thirteenth Doctor was the first female incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor and the second incarnation to come from the Doctor ' s second regeneration cycle . Biography . A day to come . When the Twelfth Doctor broke his toe , Clara Oswald suggested regenerating to heal the injury , but he berated the idea as a waste . ( PROSE : " The Blood Cell " ) While suffering from the common cold , the Twelfth Doctor , overreacting to the illness , considered the possibility of regenerating . ( COMIC : " The Day at the Doctors " ) When the Twelfth Doctor confronted Rassilon on Gallifrey after escaping from his Confession dial , Rassilon contemplated using his gauntlet to force the Doctor to regenerate as a method of torture , but was interrupted before he could . ( TV : " Hell Bent " ) After the Monk invasion , the Twelfth Doctor needed to know if his companion , Bill Potts , was under the control of the Monks , and deceived her into shooting him in a rage to see if she had succumbed to the mind control , secretly putting blanks in all the guns , and faking his regeneration to complete the illusion . He made it look like the process had started , but emerged as himself to show her that he had deceived her . ( TV : " The Lie of the Land " ) Post - regeneration . After the Twelfth Doctor was gravely wounded by the Cybermen on the Mondasian colony ship , the regenerative process began . However , tired of " being someone else " , the Doctor delayed the change for some weeks , ( TV : " The Doctor Falls " ) until an encounter with his first incarnation , Archibald Hamish Lethbridge - Stewart , and the Testimony caused the Doctor to concede that another regeneration wouldn ' t " kill anyone " . After taking a final look at the universe and providing advice to his next incarnation , the Doctor regenerated inside his TARDIS in an explosive fashion . Staggering to the console in a daze , the new Doctor examined her face in a reflection , finding her new appearance " brilliant " . After she pressed a button on the console , the TARDIS suddenly spiralled into chaos , caused in part by the explosive regeneration . Subsequently , she was thrown out through the TARDIS doors in the confusion after the time rotor exploded , with the TARDIS itself vanishing without the Doctor as she fell towards the Earth . ( TV : " Twice Upon a Time " ) Adventures . The Doctor once posed as a museum curator in Venice . visited her to ask for the location of items that had been stolen from her in the 14th century . Missy took an old map from her and left . Later , she saved Antonia from being left behind in 14th century Venice , returning her to the present . She left Antonia with a note chastising Missy for her actions and that she would have to try harder next time . She then cleared out her office and told her assistant to tell anyone who asked that " the Doctor doesn ' t work here any more . " ( PROSE : " The Liar , the Glitch and the War Zone " ) Appearance . This incarnation of the Doctor resembled a woman in her mid - thirties , possessing jaw length blonde hair with dark roots and hazel - coloured eye s . ( TV : " Twice Upon a Time " ) Behind the scenes . First female Doctor . The Thirteenth Doctor is the first , in the show ' s history , to be played by a woman . Before Jodie Whittaker , though , the idea of a woman Doctor had been explored . The idea that a female actor could take the role of the Doctor was first publicly introduced by John Nathan - Turner and Tom Baker in 1980 . By Baker ' s suggestion , he told the press , " I certainly wish my successor luck , whoever he — " or she " — might be . " Peter Davison was cast as the Fifth Doctor , but the idea remained alive . By the time Whittaker was announced as the actor to follow Peter Capaldi , it was well - established , to viewers and within the " Doctor Who " universe , that the Doctor could be played by a woman . Though a parody , " The Curse of Fatal Death " ( 1999 ) by Steven Moffat introduced " another " Thirteenth Doctor , played by Joanna Lumley . This Doctor , upon regenerating , immediately noted that she had " etheric beam locator s " . When Emma tells her that those are actual breasts , the Doctor says that she " always wanted to get [ her ] hands on one of these " . At the end , she suddenly finds the Master attractive and walks off with him , arms around each other ' s waists . The Big Finish " Doctor Who Unbound " story " Exile " ( 2003 ) , though not set in the prime " Doctor Who " universe , starred a female Third Doctor , played by Arabella Weir . The story tried to establish that , in this universe , suicide was necessary for a " sex - change regeneration " , which was also considered a crime by the Time Lord s . Later stories , particularly in the Steven Moffat era , would contradict the idea that changing gender in regeneration was anything out of the ordinary . In 2010 , " The End of Time : Part Two " had the Eleventh Doctor briefly think he had regenerated into a female form , immediately post - regeneration . He quickly realised that he was mistaken , on finding his Adam ' s apple . In 2011 , Neil Gaiman ' s " The Doctor ' s Wife " was the first to make direct reference to a Time Lord changing gender through regeneration . The Doctor talks of the Corsair , a " fantastic bloke " , who was also a " bad girl " in a couple of their incarnations . In 2013 , " The Night of the Doctor " had the Sisterhood of Karn offer the Eighth Doctor the choice of " man or woman " , for his approaching regeneration . In 2014 , Steven Moffat introduced audiences to , revealed in " Dark Water " to be the first female incarnation of the Master . Missy was a recurring character in Series 8 , 9 , and 10 . In 2015 , " Hell Bent " showed audiences the regeneration of the General from a male body to a woman , the first time such an instance occurred on - screen , though the Big Finish audio story , " The Black Hole " , had a male to female regeneration eighteen days before the episode aired . A year later , " Enemy Lines " showed the first female to male regeneration . In 2017 , " World Enough and Time " included a rooftop conversation , between the Twelfth Doctor and Bill , in which he ' s only " fairly sure " that his first incarnation was a man , as it was a long time ago . The Twelfth Doctor here claims that Time Lords are " beyond [ the ] petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes " . The same year , the audio story " The Conscript " included a conversation between the Eighth Doctor and a Time Lord soldier , where the Doctor stated that he was a " he , for now at least . "