The 12th Incarnation of the Doctor Will Be a Woman?

Or to be more specific, "The Woman"?

There are rumors floating around (and that's all they are at this point - rumors.) that BBC execs are considering the idea that after Smith's departure from the long running sci-fi series, the doctor will regenerate into a female timelord played by Lara Pulver, who played The Woman/Irene Adler in BBC's "Sherlock".

The current source of the rumor is the Daily Express, so take it with a grain of salt. The people behind Doctor Who have always been so secretive to the point that even the auditions are done in secret and under a codename (The name Torchwood was originally a codename for the show, with Torchwood being an anagram of Doctor Who).

And even if the rumors are true, you have to pay attention to the words used: "considering". The show's producers are only thinking of the possibility of making the 12th Doctor a Woman. At best, we're probably only getting a single episode in which the producers test our reaction to a female doctor. Like, I dunno, the doctor using the chameleon arch to turn into a woman, or the doctor traveling to the future and seeing what he could become.

Besides, with River Song on the show, we already have an idea of what a female doctor would be like. Lara Pulver will be redundant. If they really want to test people's reaction to a female doctor, do a story arc in which the doctor goes missing, then have River Song take the lead.