'Doctor Who should never be played by a woman'

Should the next pilot of the TARDIS be a woman? The answer is no, according to one former holder of the keys to the famous blue time machine.

The man who played the Fifth Doctor in the eponymous BBC series Doctor Who, Peter Davison, has again weighed in to the question over whether the role should be played by a man.

Davison is in Australia to play the role of narrator in the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular.

The debate over whether the role should be played by a woman has been long running, but in 2014 the show's producer Steven Moffat said there may well be a woman piloting the TARDIS in the future.

During the eighth season, the Doctor's nemesis the Master returned as a woman known as Missy.

But Davison said it was his own personal opinion that the Doctor be kept a male role.

"I speak now as a fan who grew up watching it," he said.

"I have trouble with the idea of a female Doctor, only because I reckon if you're born on Gallifrey a man, you're probably a male Time Lord."

Davison said the key to the success of the modern Doctor Who series was the dynamic between a troubled Doctor and strong female companion.

"It seems to me if you reverse that, if you have an uncertain, fallible female Doctor with a really strong male companion, you've got more of a stereotype than anything else."

But he said the time was right for a new female Time Lord to have a spin-off series, and laughingly suggested his daughter Georgia Moffett might be good for the role.

She has already played the role of a Time Lord descendant, the cloned daughter of the 10th Doctor, in an episode in 2008.

The Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular is a musical celebrations of the TV series.

It played in Adelaide on January 24, and is touring to Perth, Sydney and Auckland over the next two weeks.