For the first time in the history of Doctor Who, central character The Doctor will be female. In a trailer broadcast at the end of Sunday’s Wimbledon men’s final, the BBC announced that Jodie Whittaker will be taking over the role, making her debut as the 13th Doctor in the upcoming Christmas special. Here’s the trailer:
Whittaker has played plenty of prominent parts across stage and screen, including Beth Latimer in ITV’s Broadchurch (alongside David Tennant, who was the tenth Doctor; that show was also created by Chris Chibnall, who’s the new Doctor Who showrunner). She also appeared in short-lived 2014 ABC miniseries The Assets and Sky’s The Smoke, and has been in numerous movies, from Venus to Attack The Block. She told the BBC she can’t wait to take up the role:
“I’m beyond excited to begin this epic journey – with Chris and with every Whovian on this planet.
“It’s more than an honour to play the Doctor. It means remembering everyone I used to be, while stepping forward to embrace everything the Doctor stands for: hope. I can’t wait.”
Plenty of people freaked out about a female Doctor on Twitter, but not with any good cause. The show has long explained that the Doctor changes appearance with each regeneration, and also previously introduced the idea of Time Lords (the Doctor’s race) being able to change gender with his archenemy, The Master (portrayed by eight different actors over the years, including Michelle Gomez from 2014 through this year). So this works just fine from an in-universe standpoint. And while the complainers were loud, there were a lot of great owns of them:
https://twitter.com/markhoppus/status/886610594329178112
Sadly, if you don't like the Doctor Who casting choice, you're stuck. Once they cast Doctor Who, it stays with that actor forever and ever.
— David Gaider (@davidgaider) July 16, 2017
"First Ghostbusters and now Doctor Who. Fuck, they even cast a woman as Wonder Woman."
Steve, on the hardships of broflakes these last years— T. Caires (they/them) (@TheOneTAR) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/peterbroks/status/886629588847218688
Whoflake: n
Easily upset male viewer of Doctor Who, unable to accept idea of a regenerating, immortal, time-travelling alien being female.— Fenris Games (@FenrisGames) July 16, 2017
Yes, you're right, a time traveling alien who can regenerate to a brand new form for centuries would always default to "pasty English guy"
— AK Lingus (@aklingus) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/InternetHippo/status/886627099460734978
A female Doctor Who? What is next, nations and societies which do not systematically reduce women to second-class citizens across the world?
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) July 16, 2017
The Doctor, who can regenerate into different ages, accents, looks, personalities etc has randomly been 12 men and now one woman.
— Laura Kate Dale – Mastodon "@LauraKBuzz@tech.lgbt" (@LaurakBuzz) July 16, 2017
Dudes: women are too emotional to be leaders!
Dudes: a female Doctor means the end of the world. We're literally all going to die from this.— Emme Reynolds (@TheEmmeReynolds) July 16, 2017
Oh, and the show itself owned people freaking out about this in an episode last month:
A good non-spoilery scene from this evening’s #DoctorWho. 🙂
Expanded: https://t.co/DtKTJqoOfg#gender #trans #genderfluid pic.twitter.com/UUxHevmbt3
— Cas ➡️ @cassolotl@eldritch.cafe (@cassolotl) June 24, 2017
So well done, Doctor Who.
[BBC]