#sarah-jane is rounding when she says shes from 1980

[frolwriting]

Pyramids of Mars Part 1

Hey guys!  I am back with another chapter of Through Time and Space!  I just came back from Walker Stalker Con Nashville, and it was the most amazing experience.  I will be posting a video about it later talking about how it was working a con rather than just attending a con.  Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Fandom: Doctor Who

Series: Through Time and Space

Episode: Pyramids of Mars

Pairing: Fourth Doctor x Kate

Warnings: Blood and Injury

_______________________________________________________________________

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a scarf. There was a scarf in my face. That could only mean one regeneration. "Kate, are you okay?" That confirmed it. I was with the Fourth Doctor! I moved the scarf out of my face to find the Doctor kneeling down beside me.

"Yes, Doctor, I'm fine." I said sitting up. There was footsteps entering the console room. I looked over and saw Sarah Jane! I got up and ran to her. This is a huge honor right now.

"Woah! Hello, Kate!" She said hugging me back.

"Sorry, this is just the first time I have met you, but I've heard so much about you." She chuckled.

"Hopefully all good things." She said looking over to the Doctor.

"Oh, great things I can assure you." I said. That was when I noticed she was wearing an old-timey dress. I was still wearing the clothes I got from the bar a few adventures ago.

"I am very much underdressed."

"Come on, we'll go change that." We headed back into the Tardis dressing room. We went over to an area labeled Edwardian. I guess that's a time period. We looked through the massive amount of dresses till we found a gorgeous green colored dress. It was simple enough to not get in the way, but this dress was so pretty! Sarah helped me into it. We headed back to the console room to find the Doctor messing around on the console.

"We're ready." He turned to me.

"You look beautiful." He said as he came over and kissed me on the cheek. It made me blush. I'm still not used to this future wife thing, but I'm sure it won't take me much longer to get used to it. "Sarah, that dress you're wearing was worn by Victoria, she travelled with me for a time." She looked down at her dress.

"Well, as long as Albert didn't wear it." He didn't say anything but went back to messing with something on the console. "Oh, come on, Doctor. That's worth a smile, surely. What's the matter? You should be glad to be going home."

"The Earth isn't my home, Sarah. I'm a Time Lord."

"I know you're a Time Lord."

"You don't understand the implications. I'm not a human being. I walk in eternity."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I've lived for something like seven hundred and fifty years. Kate has been with me 95% of that time." I smiled.

"Oh, you'll soon be middle aged."

"Yes! About time I found something better to do than run around after the Brigadier."

"Oh, come on. If you're tired of being UNIT's scientific advisor, you can always resign." That was when the Tardis went dark and started to tilt. The console explodes and the lights come back on. I looked up to see a weird skull thing in the air, but as quick as it popped up it disappeared.

"What was it?" I asked.

"The relative continuum stabilizer failed." The Doctor said messing with the console.

"No, not that. I think she means the thing that was hanging in the air." Sarah said.

"What thing?" The Doctor asked suddenly getting a bit nervous.

"There was a terrible face just for a second, then it was gone. You don't believe us, do you?" I asked.

"Nothing can enter the Tardis, Kate. You know that. Unless-"

"Unless what?" I asked.

"Mental projection of that force is beyond imagination, yet it might explain the stabilizer failure. Let's see. Was it at this end of the spectrum?" The Doctor asked showing us something on one of the monitors.

"No, Doctor, don't! Whatever it was, I know it was totally malevolent." Sarah said. That was when we landed.

"We've landed." The Doctor said.

"Where? Where have we landed?" Sarah asks. When we walk out of the Tardis doors, we find ourselves in a storage room filled with what looks like Egyptian things.

"We've materialized at the correct point in space, but obviously not in time. A temporal reverse? Some vast impulse of energy has drawn the Tardis off course." The Doctor says.

"You're saying this is in UNIT HQ, but years before I knew it?" Sarah asks.

"Yes."

"But it's so different. It can't be the same house." She says going over to a sarcophagus.

"It must be the old priory. The UNIT house was built on the site." The Doctor says looking at one of the boxes.

"The old priory was burnt down, wasn't it?"

"Something's very wrong."

"Doctor, I don't like it here." Sarah says scared.

"Something's going on contrary to the laws of the universe. I must find out what." I go to the door, but it's locked. "Why bother to lock an internal door?" The Doctor asks noticing I can't open the door.

"Maybe this wing of the house isn't in use. It smells musty enough." I say.

"That isn't all must, Kate. Some of it's mummy. French picklock. Never fails. Belonged to Marie Antoinette. Charming lady. lost her head, poor thing." There then came a noise that sounded like someone was unlocking the door from the other side. Me, the Doctor, and Sarah all hid. "Of course, it would make an ideal headquarters for some paramilitary organization. This room could easily be turned into a laboratory." The Doctor said not paying attention to the person who just came in. "Oh, hello." He said turning to the man.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" The man asked.

"Through the window. I understood the property was for sale. No?"

"Ah, you're not fooling me, sir. You came with Doctor Warlock, didn't you?"

"Did we?" The Doctor asked.

"He asked you to scout round whilst he kept his nibs busy. Listen, if you're a friend of Doctor Warlock, sir, tell him to watch out."

"Watch out for what?" I asked.

"The Egyptian. There's no knowing what he might do. He's got the temper of the devil himself."

"Egyptian, eh? Is this where he keeps his relatives?"

"It's no joke, sir. He's only been here a few days. I wouldn't be staying, but, well, situations aren't easy to find at my age."

"What are you afraid of?" The Doctor asked.

"He locked this wing. He didn't know there was a second key. If he were to find me along here, let alone you two, he'd go stark raving mad, sir."

"I see. In that case, we'd better leave." The Doctor said as we started walking out of the room.

"Oh, not this way, sir. Better go the way you came. He might see you."

"As you wish." The Doctor said as we sorta started going back to the Tardis.

"And remember to tell Doctor Warlock what I said, sir."

"Don't worry. I'll remember." We went out of a window and walk around the place where we landed. We walked around for a while, and then headed back to the window. We heard the man we met before scream. The Doctor went through the window and took off his scarf. He threw his scarf around the attacker and pulled him to the ground.

"Come on, quick." I exclaimed. A man in a doctor's outfit came out of the window as the Doctor held the other man down. The Doctor let the guy go and climbed through the window. The Doctor and I helped who I assume is Doctor Warlock to the gardens of this place. The man was shot.

"It's no good. I can't go much further." Doctor Warlock said.

"You must. We're sitting ducks if we stay here." The Doctor said.

"Get to the lodge. Tell Laurence-"

"Laurence?" I asked.

"Marcus Scarman's brother. He lives there. Knows me." Warlock says as he collapses. Me and the Doctor gently put him down on the ground.

"He needs help, Sarah. You go on ahead, find the lodge." The Doctor says to Sarah.

"What about you two?" Sarah asks.

"We'll be fine."

"Okay." Sarah says as she runs up the steps of the garden and through the gate. The Doctor bends down and carries Warlock as we headed off. We walked without problem, but I thought I heard something behind us at one point. When I was about to tell the Doctor that, Sarah came back with another man who I assume is Laurence.

"Oh, my dear chap. Is he badly hurt?" Laurence asked running up to us.

"He'll be all right if we can staunch the bleeding." The Doctor says.

"We'd better get him back to the lodge."

"Doctor, listen. I saw a mummy. A walking mummy!" Sarah said.

"Mummies are embalmed, eviscerated corpses. They don't walk." The Doctor said.

"Doctor, I think I heard something behind us as we were walking." I said bringing up my fear.

"Never mind about that now." The Doctor said as he walked off with Laurence. I shook my head and followed behind them up to the Lodge. The Doctor puts Warlock on a couch. Sarah goes over and puts a blanket over him. Laurence had put his arm in a sling.

"Well, in view of what you've told me, I going to fetch the police." Laurence says as he starts heading out the door.

"No! This is much too grave a matter for the police, Mister Scarman." I say.

"Too grave?" He asked confused.

"Yes. They'd only hamper my investigation." The Doctor says.

"Your investigations?"

"Yes. Why do you think I'm here? Something's interfering with time, Mister Scarman, and time is my business."

"Who are you?"

"Well, I'm Sarah Jane Smith. I'm a journalist." Sarah states.

"Journalist? Who are your companions?"

"My companions? Oh, that's the Doctor and Kate. We travel in time, Mister Scarman. I'm really from 1980."

"That is utterly preposterous, Miss Smith."

"Yes, sorry."

"Interesting contraption." The Doctor says as he goes over to a device by a wall in the room.

"Kindly leave that alone, sir. That apparatus is delicately adjusted, and furthermore is a receiver containing highly dangerous electrical current." Laurence says as he goes over to the Doctor.

"Yes, so I see. What year is this?"

"What year?"

"It's a simple enough question, surely."

"Are you telling me you don't know what-"

"If I knew I wouldn't ask. Don't be obtuse, man."

"Nineteen hundred and eleven."

"Ah. Splendid. An excellent year. One of my favorites. Yes. I really must congratulate you, Mister Scarman."

"On what?"

"Inventing the radio telescope forty years early."

"That, sir, is a Marconiscope. Its purpose-"

"Is to receive radio emissions from the stars."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Well, you see, Mister Scarman, I have the advantage of being slightly ahead of you. Sometimes behind you, but normally ahead of you."

"I see."

"I'm sure you don't, but it's very nice of you to try. Now, why don't you show me how this gadget works?"

"Do you mean you want me to-"

"Please. Just a little demonstration." Laurence flicks some switches and pulls down a lever. There was a cloud of smoke, but then the wheel starts to spin. "Amazing. That's really amazing." Laurence disconnects the device, but the wheel only goes faster and faster.

"I can't switch it off!" Laurence exclaims as he tries everything he can to get the wheel to stop. Then something explodes and the wheel stops.

"Oh, very impressive." Sarah says.

"It's never done that before." Laurence says a bit scared.

"Fascinating. A regular pattern repeated over and over again." The Doctor says as he looks at the machine intently.

"Like an SOS?" Sarah asks.

"I wonder. Where was your aerial tuned?"

"Mars. Why?"

"I just thought I'd verify the signal." The Doctor then pulls out a small radio and extends the antenna on it. He must have the bigger on the inside pockets like the Tenth Doctor.

"What's that you have, Doctor?" Laurence asks.

"Well, in principle it's exactly the same as the gadget you've invented, only less cumbersome. Yes, it is the same signal. Obviously automatic. Well, if it's a message, it shouldn't be difficult to decipher. They'd want to make it easy." The Doctor puts his radio down and stars writing something in a notebook.

"Who would?"

"Whoever transmitted it." I say.

"Now, let's see. This pattern recurs three times in one line. Let's call that E, the commonest letter in the language." There was a pause. "Beware Sutekh."

"Sutekh?" I ask.

"Better known to you as Set." My eyes widen.

"Of course, Egyptian mythology. Set or Sutekh was one of their gods. He was killed by Horus, god of light." Sarah says.

"Yes, but Egyptology and Mars?" Laurence asks.

"If I'm right, the world is facing the greatest peril in its history." The Doctor says as he starts walking out of the lodge.

"Hey, wait for us." Sarah says as we start walking after him.

"No. The forces that are being summoned into corporeal existence in that house are more powerful and more dangerous than anything even I have ever encountered. Stay here."

"What about me?" I ask. Sometimes the Doctor lets me go with him.

"You are to stay here." The Doctor says. I sighed. "I'll be fine. I don't want to put you in danger."

"I've an old hunting rifle that might come in useful." Laurence says.

"I never carry firearms." The Doctor says as he leaves.

"What I meant was that I should feel better if I could bring it." Me and Sarah are almost out the door by the time he says that. We aren't staying. When has companions ever stayed?

"Bring it." Sarah says as we leave. We walk back to the house avoiding the Doctor. We enter a hallway where the Doctor is looking through a crack in the door. He gestures us to go away, but we don't move. I hear a voice coming from the room that the Doctor is peering through, but I can't understand anything the voice is staying. When Scarman showed up, we walk over to the Doctor to watch. There was the man from earlier who the Doctor held down and another creature. The creature puts his hands on the first man's shoulders. That man started to scream as smoke started coming from his skin.

"Die. I bring Sutekh's gift of death to all humanity." Welp, there goes another human who thinks they'll get something for helping a creature who wants to take over the world. The creature then turns into a very pale man.

"Marcus!" Laurence yells. I guess that might be what Marcus looks like.

"Shush." The Doctor says.

"Take up the generator loops." That's when I notice there was also mummies in the room that start to move and pick up jars. "Place them in position at the compass points. Activate at ground strength." 'Marcus' says.

[dinafbrownil]

Coping With Loss Of Hospital, Rural Town Realizes: We Don’t Need A Hospital

Eliza Oliver helps her daughter, Taelyn, step down from the exam table after her wellness check at Community Health Center. The child’s doctor, who worked at the now-closed hospital, has been given a medical scribe who takes notes. The visit this time seemed more “personal,” Oliver says.(Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

This story also ran on NPR. This story can be republished for free (details).

FORT SCOTT, Kan. ― Dr. Max Self grabbed a sanitary wipe and cleaned off the small flashlight in his hands. More than 20 years as a family doctor in rural Fort Scott, Kan., has taught him a few tricks: “I’ve got my flashlight. See? Look, you want to hold it?”

Read More From Our 'No Mercy' Series

Exploring what happens when the closure of one beloved rural hospital disrupts a community’s health care, economy and equilibrium. Read KHN’s year-long series, No Mercy.

Two-year-old Taelyn’s brown eyes grow round and her tiny hand reaches out. But, first, Self makes sure she opens her mouth wide and he peers down. Behind him sits another staff member ― a medical scribe. Self’s scribe gives him the ability to “focus on people,” rather than toggling between a computer screen and the patient. It’s a new perk he didn’t have when he worked at Mercy Hospital.

That beloved hospital closed one year ago and, in the passing months, the small town’s anger and fear evolved into grief, nervousness and ― lately ― pragmatic hope. Most of the handful of physicians in town stayed, taking jobs at a regional federally qualified health care center that took over much of the clinic work from Mercy. The emergency department, after closing for 18 days, was reopened temporarily ― run by a hospital 30 miles south.

It’s not “all gloom and doom, although we all wish we had a hospital ― no doubt about it,” insurance agent Don Doherty said during the town’s weekly Chamber of Commerce coffee on Dec. 12.

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Nationwide, death rates have been higher in rural America compared with urban areas since the 1980s, and the gap continues to widen. More rural residents live with chronic conditions, like diabetes, that affect their daily lives, and there is a higher percentage of older residents. Rates of smoking and premature births are relatively high, and people often die younger here than the national average.

Since 2010, 120 rural hospitals have closed across the country ― 19 in this year alone, according to data from the University of North Carolina’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. A national analysis of Medicare cost reports found that 21% of the nation’s remaining rural hospitals are at high risk of closing.

“Frankly, it’s not getting better,” said Dr. Daniel DeBehnke, study co-author and a managing director with Navigant’s health care practice.

A year ago, after Mercy gave a 90-day notice that it would close, City Manager Dave Martin said the betrayal felt by city leaders led to lawyers and calls with other health care systems about taking over the facility. Now, Martin has realized “we will not have ― or do we need ― a hospital.”

But, if not a hospital to care for rural communities like Fort Scott with its 7,800 residents, what is needed? The answers to that question play out every day here and could hold lessons for the rest of the country.

For months after Mercy Fort Scott Hospital closed, patients couldn’t get appointments with Dr. Max Self quickly. “I don’t like to hear that,” Self says. His new employer, Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, assigned him a medical scribe, who does his computer work. Now, Self says, he can see more patients.(Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

‘You Will Be Taken Care Of’

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Self has cared for his share of struggling patients in this town, where 1 in 4 children live in poverty, and its main corridor ― U.S. 69 ― is lined with fast-food restaurants. But Fort Scott is “not far off” from what it needs to be healthy. Sure, residents have to travel south 30 miles to Pittsburg, Kan., or north 90 miles to the Kansas City, Kan., area to be hospitalized, but “you will be taken care of,” he said.

Self’s new employer is Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, which as a federally qualified health center gets a higher level of government reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid patients than Mercy did, said Jason Wesco, executive vice president at CHC.

The center can also gain grants to take care of the uninsured, which is important in states like Kansas that did not expand Medicaid, though Wesco said it has not received any for Fort Scott.

Wesco estimates 90-95% of the health care offered before the hospital closed is still available locally. And services have been added, including a much-needed therapist on-site for behavioral health and telehealth access to a psychiatrist and substance abuse services.

“Drive up there, go into the parking lot, you’re like ‘There’s a lot of people here,’” Wesco said. CHC’s Fort Scott facilities have filled more prescriptions and done more mammograms in a month than the hospital “ever did,” he said.

Jason Wesco, executive vice president of Community Health Center, says he believes “the best people in the world” are from southeastern Kansas, where the federally qualified health center he helps run is based. Since the center took over clinics in Fort Scott, Wesco says, the primary care services they provide can “lift up this place. … We can fix it, we just need time.” (Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

Community Health Center’s Fort Scott facilities have filled more prescriptions and done more mammograms in a month than the hospital “ever did,” Wesco says.(Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

Local residents like 28-year-old Eliza Oliver, whose daughter, Taelyn, easily passed her annual wellness check with Dr. Self, said it’s much less expensive to get care and prescriptions at the new health center. That part is great, Oliver said, but she still worries about the future of emergency care in town and where people can deliver babies.

Another Catholic hospital chain, Ascension Via Christi, which has a facility 30 miles away in Pittsburg, Kan., stepped in at the last minute to operate Mercy’s old emergency room, signing a two-year agreement. This was vital: While much of the rest of Mercy Hospital Fort Scott had been underused and patient rooms sat empty, the ER handled nearly 9,000 people the year before it closed.

Mercy Hospital delivered more than 230 babies between July 2017 and June 2018. A few months ago ― after the hospital closed ― Oliver drove a friend who was in labor across the Missouri border more than 20 miles to deliver. “We had to jet over there and even though we made it in time, it’s nerve-wracking,” Oliver said.

Another Catholic hospital chain, Ascension Via Christi, stepped in at the last minute to operate Mercy’s old emergency room, signing a two-year agreement.(Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

Not having a community hospital does require a new mindset. The community still has an obstetrician, but doctors send patients out of town to have their babies. By June this year, Ascension’s Fort Scott ER staff had delivered three babies for expectant mothers who didn’t leave enough time.

Randy Cason, president at Ascension’s Pittsburg hospital, drove to Fort Scott to tell the weekly chamber coffee that doctors needed to “counsel and educate” mothers that it’s no longer a 10-minute drive to the hospital.

Sherise Beckham, a former Mercy dietitian, was anxious on bed rest this spring while awaiting a baby. “You’re on a two-lane highway; a lot of times you get behind a semi, behind a tractor,” Beckham laughed. “Sometimes, you are lucky if you have cell service.”

Beckham’s delivery did not go as planned. After driving to Ascension’s Pittsburg hospital to meet her family doctor, she had an unexpected cesarean section, and the baby, whose heart rate dropped dramatically, was transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit an hour away from home in Joplin, Mo. Now, eight months later, the baby is healthy though he continues to see a physical therapist who monitors his developmental progress.

Dietitian Sherise Beckham cooks dinner with her family — husband Tanner, 8-month-old Barrett and 2-year-old Warren.(Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

Recent research by Katy Backes Kozhimannil, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health found that rural residents have a 9% greater chance of dying or suffering complications such as heart failure, stroke and the need for blood transfusions during childbirth compared with non-rural residents.

Federal policymakers have said they want to do better. President Donald Trump’s administration this year set new Medicare payment policies that included more telehealth services and changed some payments for rural hospitals. Seema Verma, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, also promised a new rural health payment model and “a lot of people are waiting with bated breath,” said George Pink, a senior research fellow at UNC’s Sheps Center.

CMS declined to comment on the timing of the proposal.

Congress, too, has made overtures to passing legislation. Maggie Elehwany, lead federal lobbyist for the National Rural Health Association, said the Affordable Care Act’s promise that hospitals would have more insured patients and less bad debt “never really unfolded in rural America.” The 14 states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion are largely rural and many are in the South, where the greatest number of hospitals have closed.

Sisters of Mercy nuns founded the Fort Scott hospital in 1886. A mantra etched in stone over the entrance of one old Mercy hospital building read: “Dedicated to suffering humanity.”(Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

Signs Of Change

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As Fort Scott deals with the trauma of losing a beloved institution, deeper national questions underlie the struggle: Do small, rural communities need a traditional hospital at all? And if not, how will they get the health care they need?

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Catholic nuns founded the Fort Scott hospital more than a century ago and 89-year-old Fred Campbell still recalls a mantra etched in stone over the entrance of one old Mercy hospital building: “Dedicated to suffering humanity.”

“We always felt that, man, come hell or high water, you’re gonna be with us and you’re not going to abandon us,” Campbell said.

But exactly a year ago, its then-owner, St. Louis-based Mercy, a major health care conglomerate with more than 40 hospitals, declared it no longer financially viable.

Within weeks of Mercy closing, a newly built $9 million grocery store closed. A few weeks later, the cancer center closed and, by October, the town’s dialysis center had closed, too. John Leatherman, professor for the department of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, said there’s no doubt Bourbon County took “a big hit” when the hospital was shuttered.

Roxine Poznich lost her income when her job at Mercy ended. After more than 20 years at the hospital, the 73-year-old said she now finds herself paying for groceries with her credit card ― even though she is unsure whether she can pay the bill at the end of the month. “I’m scared,” Poznich said.

Roxine Poznich, owner of Books & Grannies in Fort Scott, Kan., was a 27-year employee of Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott. She lost her job when the hospital closed and now manages her bookstore full time.(Christopher Smith for KHN)

But Fort Scott economic development director Rachel Pruitt said the loss of the hospital has not affected the city’s sales tax revenue. Manufacturers like the community’s largest employer, Peerless Architectural Windows and Doors, with its 400 jobs, continue to expand ― just down the road from where Mercy’s 177,000-square-foot hospital building still stands.

City leaders say ideally the community would “right-size” its health care. That would include keeping the current outpatient clinics that provide primary care and an emergency department but also adding some inpatient beds, allowing residents with short-term hospitalization to stay local. Pruitt said there has even been talk of adding a wound center that could treat injuries among the town’s industrial workers.

And, though the mostly empty Mercy Hospital building feels like a white elephant, that too may soon change: Mercy recently announced it would donate land in a repurposed corner of its property to Community Health Center. Health center leaders have hired an architect for a new building that will probably be about 30,000 square feet. Wellness, imaging, walk-in care, a women’s health center, dental care and expanded primary and specialty care would be available.

Fort Scott City Manager Dave Martin says he knows the town will never have another full-service hospital, and it doesn’t need one. Instead, Martin and his staff believe they need “right-sized” health care. (Christopher Smith for KHN)

Reta Baker was the president of Mercy Hospital Fort Scott when it closed. She has since sold her house and moved closer to her new job at CHC headquarters in Pittsburg, Kan.(Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN)

ER operator Ascension declined requests for interviews, but spokeswoman Michelle Kennedy said the Pittsburg leadership team is “working on plans related to our presence in Fort Scott in the near future” but could not release details. City leaders say they are confident an ER will remain.

In the background, there is Reta Baker. Residents here denounced the former president of Mercy Hospital Fort Scott at the time of the closure. She sold her house and moved closer to her new job with CHC, at its headquarters in Pittsburg, Kan.

Baker, who started her career as a nurse at Fort Scott’s hospital in 1981 and grew up nearby, said she continues to “be engaged in a lot of conversations” about the community’s future. The next year will have growing pains, she said, but she believes the health care needed for residents is there.

“Now, we need to cement it,” she said.

This is the fifth installment in KHN’s year-long series, No Mercy, which follows how the closure of one beloved rural hospital disrupts a community’s health care, economy and equilibrium. Coming in 2020, a podcast from KHN with more voices and stories from Fort Scott, Kansas.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/coping-with-loss-of-hospital-rural-town-realizes-we-dont-need-a-hospital/

[tragicbooks]

10 'Doctor Who' quotes that show why it's the perfect time for a woman in the role.

These are uncharted waters for the long-running BBC series.

After much speculation, the news is out: Jodie Whittaker will be the first woman to play The Doctor on BBC's "Doctor Who."

This news was a welcome relief to Whovians, many of whom have been clamoring to see a woman pick up the mantle of The Doctor for years. To others, casting a woman in the role of a regenerating, time-traveling alien was an outrage. The role had been played by a dozen men before her and was always meant to be played by a man, they insisted.

A letter written by "Doctor Who" creator Sydney Newman to BBC One management in the mid-1980s offering up some suggestions on what to do with the character he'd created more than 20 years prior, however, suggests those outraged voices haven't done their research:

“At a later stage, [The Doctor] would be metamorphosed into a woman. This requires some considerable thought — mainly because I want to avoid a flashy Hollywood ‘Wonder Woman’ because this kind of hero(ine) has no flaws — and a character with no flaws is a bore.”

While "Doctor Who's" many years on air have been a pretty mixed bag when it comes to bucking sexist stereotypes (in fact, sometimes it was just flat out bad at this), there are a still plenty of quotes from the show that prove women (and men and aliens and everyone in between) can be whatever they want — which seems to now include the role of The Doctor as well.

Here are 10 "Doctor Who" quotes that anyone who says The Doctor can't be a woman should remember:

1. In "The Idiot’s Lantern" (2006), David Tennant's iteration of The Doctor takes on gender roles, delivering a royal comeback:

The Doctor: Hold on a minute. You've got hands, Mr. Connolly. Two big hands. So why's that your wife’s job? Eddie: Well, it's housework, isn't it? The Doctor: And that's a woman’s job? Eddie: Course it is! The Doctor: Mr. Connolly, what gender is the Queen? Eddie: She's a female. The Doctor: And are you suggesting the Queen does the housework? Eddie: No! No, not at all. The Doctor: Then get busy!

GIF from Doctor Who/YouTube.

2. During "Empress of Mars" (2017), companion Bill calls out the sexist views about what jobs women can do while stranded on Mars with a few accidental travelers.

Bill: What, you can deal with big green Martians and, and, and rocket ships, but you can't deal with us being the police? Godsacre: No, no, no, no, no. It's just such a fanciful notion. A woman in the police force. Bill: Listen, yeah? I'm going to make allowances for your Victorian attitudes because, well, you actually are Victorian.

3. Bill made history as The Doctor's first lesbian companion, but "The Eaters of Light" (2017) saw sexual politics turned on its head when she met up with a group of soldiers from ancient Rome.

Bill: There’s, um, something I should explain — this is probably just a really difficult idea. I don’t like men ... that way. Lucius: What, not ever? Bill: No. Not ever. Only women. Lucius: Oh. All right, yeah, I got it. You’re like Vitus, then. Bill: What? Lucius: He only likes men. Vitus: Some men. Better-looking men than you, Lucius. Lucius: I don’t think it’s narrow-minded. I think it’s fine. You know what you like. Bill: And you like ... both? Lucius: I’m just ordinary. I like men and women. Bill: Well, isn’t this all very ... modern. Lucius: Hey, not everybody has to be modern. I think it’s really sweet that you’re so ... restricted. Bill: Cheers.

GIF from Doctor Who/YouTube.

4. Back in 1968's "The Web of Fear," companion Anne took a stand for women and girls who want to be scientists everywhere.

Capt. Knight: What’s a girl like you doing in a job like this? Anne Travers: Well, when I was a little girl, I thought I’d like to be a scientist ... so I became a scientist.

GIF from Doctor Who/YouTube.

5. The first on-screen mention of a Time Lord being able to jump from male to female and back came during "The Doctor’s Wife" (2011), when The Doctor talked about The Corsair.

Amy: Doctor, what is it? The Doctor: I've got mail. Time Lord emergency messaging system. In an emergency, we'd wrap up thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space. Anyway, there's a living Time Lord still out there, and it's one of the good ones. Rory: You said there weren't any other Time Lords left. The Doctor: There are no Time Lords left anywhere in the universe. But the universe isn't where we're going. See that snake? The mark of The Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself unless he had the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times. Ooo, she was a bad girl. Rory: Oh, what is happening?

6. Bill and The Doctor have a chat about Missy, The Doctor's gender-swapping nemesis, and society's focus on the concept in "World Enough and Time" (2017).

The Doctor: She was my first friend, always so brilliant, from the first day at the academy. So fast, so funny. She was my man crush. Bill: I'm sorry? The Doctor: Yeah, I think she was a man back then. I'm fairly sure that I was, too. It was a long time ago, though. Bill: So, the Time Lords, bit flexible on the whole man-woman thing, then, yeah? The Doctor: We're the most civilized civilization in the universe. We're billions of years beyond your petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes. Bill: But you still call yourselves Time Lords? The Doctor: Yeah. Shut up.

Time Lords = genderfluid! 🌈#Pride2017 #DoctorWho http://pic.twitter.com/isSTjMZIeg

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) June 28, 2017

7. When Martha Jones meets The Doctor in "Smith and Jones" (2007), she makes it clear that she's the doctor in this pairing.

Martha: I promise you, Mr. Smith. We will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There’s got to be a way. The Doctor: It’s not Smith. That’s not my real name. Martha: Who are you then? The Doctor: I’m The Doctor. Martha: Me too, if I ever pass my tests. What is it then, Dr. Smith? The Doctor: Just The Doctor. Martha: How d’you mean, just The Doctor? The Doctor: Just. The Doctor. Martha: What, people call you The Doctor? The Doctor: Yeah. Martha: Well, I’m not. As far as I’m concerned you’ve gotta earn that title. The Doctor: Well, I better have a start then.

10 years ago today, a man named Smith met a woman named Jones…https://t.co/spiimjQV0J#DoctorWho http://pic.twitter.com/NqJW7GWk3G

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) March 31, 2017

8. In part two of "The End of Time" (2010), we learn that former companions Mickey and Martha are now married. And we also learn that Martha isn't the type to sit things out simply because of that.

Mickey: Yeah, but — we’re being fired at by a Sontoran. A dumpling with a gun. And this is no place for a married woman. Martha: Well, then, you shouldn’t have married me.

GIF from Doctor Who/YouTube.

9.  In "The Ark of Space" (1975), fan-favorite companion Sarah Jane Smith stands up to some condescending language in an awesome way.

Harry: She's coming round. Steady, steady on, old girl, steady on. Sarah: [dazed] Harry? Harry: Yes, I'm here, I'm here. Sarah: Call me old girl again ... and I'll spit in your eye.

10. That time Donna Noble, aka the best temp in Cheswick, absorbed The Doctor's knowledge and became The Doctor Donna, a highlight of her time on the show in "Journey's End" (2008).

The Doctor: How did you work that out? You’re —Time Lord. Part Time Lord. Donna: Part human. Oh yes. That was a two-way biological meta-crisis. Half-Doctor Half-Donna. The Doctor: The Doctor Donna!