Jodie Whittaker – What The Papers Are Saying…
Whenever I have been interviewed about Doctor Who, the question has come up about the possibility of a female Doctor. I have never been able to think of any logical reason why an alien being capable of regenerating in extremis would necessarily retain all or indeed any of the characteristics of his (or her) pre-renewal self. (Pronouns are about to get tricky when talking about the Doctor).
The dozen or so personalities to emerge thus far from the chrysalis of regeneration have been as different as any you could pick at random on the Clapham omnibus on Gallifrey; except in one particular – gender. They have been young and old, they have been Scottish, northern and received pronunciation,they have been grumpy, feckless, patrician, barmy, innocent, brash and potty – but never female.
I have always found that problematical, not in the world we live in, but in the world the characters live in, particularly the Doctor’s world. The world we live in has a history of male domination, of stereotyping, of resistance to change, of playing it safe. Doctor Who has never been about that. The Doctor in all his incarnations has always been a passionate defender of justice, equality, fairness and resisted those who seek to dominate or destroy.
Admittedly, when the programme was first broadcast in the 60s, the character of the Doctor reflected the zeitgeist of that decade. William Hartnell gave us a patriarchal Doctor, perhaps patronising and condescending to our eyes today. But we have evolved, thankfully, and most of us see the absurdity of a world in which either gender should dominate the other or be regarded as second-class citizens. There is undoubtedly still much work to do but we are making progress.
So when I have been asked that question at conventions I have taken the opportunity to take a show of hands (from large numbers of predominantly Doctor Who fans in most cases) about their view of whether the Doctor could or should be a woman. I confess to being surprised when about 20%, or sometimes more, have considered the notion unthinkable – and many of them were women, whom one might think would be offended by the exclusion of their gender from the Tardis.
I like to think that it is not just because I am a father of four daughters that I resent the barriers to advancement and opportunity that are routinely thrown in their path. But it is certainly true that there are fewer striking role models for young females in our society – and on television and film – and fewer realistic opportunities to see paths through to the kind of success to which they have every right to aspire.
I have repeatedly stated publicly that I personally would not just welcome but expect a female doctor, but that I doubted the courage of the decision-makers at the BBC to allow a showrunner to explore the exciting opportunities afforded by such brave and game-changing casting. Clearly I was wrong and I congratulate Chris Chibnall, the incoming executive producer and writer, on succeeding where others may have failed or maybe not even tried. What is doubly encouraging is the fact he has very long track record of writing good strong parts for men and women alike, including the new Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, who was superb in Broadchurch (written by Chibnall).
But I have been shocked by the reaction of some people who would describe themselves as fans of the programme to the casting of a really good actress in the role. Some of them I know and am sad to see them vowing to never watch the programme again.
It is not an unfamiliar position in fandom (and I know I risk being a troll magnet in saying this) to mistake being a fan of something to owning it. A true fan of a football team supports their team even in defeat and as they slide down the leagues. I do not believe such catastrophe awaits Doctor Who and expect a renaissance not that one is needed. Peter Capaldi was magnificent and was a refreshing contrast to the youthful trend that preceded him (who were also superb I hasten to add).
Lets hope the disgruntled fans can be convinced in the end. But if we do lose some fans we will gain many more when it’s not just little boys in the playground (or bigger boys in the acting profession) saying: I want to be the Doctor one day.”‘
Jodie Whittaker has been revealed as the new star of Doctor Who.
The actress – most famous for her role as Beth Latimer in Broadchurch – was revealed in a clip played after the Wimbledon men’s final, as she becomes the first woman to take on the role.
Jodie said in a statement: “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.”
New showrunner Chris Chibnall added: “After months of lists, conversations, auditions, recalls, and a lot of secret-keeping, we’re excited to welcome Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor.
“I always knew I wanted the Thirteenth Doctor to be a woman and we’re thrilled to have secured our number one choice. Her audition for The Doctor simply blew us all away.
“Jodie is an in-demand, funny, inspiring, super-smart force of nature and will bring loads of wit, strength and warmth to the role. The Thirteenth Doctor is on her way.”
Outgoing Doctor Peter Capaldi added: “Anyone who has seen Jodie Whittaker’s work will know that she is a wonderful actress of great individuality and charm
“She has above all the huge heart to play this most special part. She’s going to be a fantastic Doctor.”
Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content said: “Making history is what Doctor Who is all about and Chris Chibnall’s bold new take on the next Time Lord is exactly that. The nation is going to fall in love with Jodie Whittaker – and have lots of fun too!”
Piers Wenger, Controller BBC Drama also said: “Jodie is not just a talented actor but she has a bold and brilliant vision for her Doctor.
“She aced it in her audition both technically and with the powerful female life force she brings to the role. She is destined to be an utterly iconic Doctor.”
It comes as Peter Capaldi and former Doctor Who stars Billie Piper and Karen Gillan called for the new Time Lord to be a woman.
Writer Mark Gatiss has also said it is the perfect time for an actress to take on the lead role in the show.
Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Broadchurch star Jodie Whittaker are among the actresses who have been backed for the role.
Capaldi’s decision to step down sparked speculation that the next incumbent could be female after he said he would like to see a woman take his place.
Shortly after announcing his decision he told BBC Radio 2: “The time felt right to bow out, to let somebody else play this wonderful role and I would like Frances de la Tour to be the first female doctor.”
De la Tour, 72, has a 50-year acting career behind her and is best known for playing half-giantess headmistress Madame Olympe Maxime in the Harry Potter films and landlord Rigsby’s tenant Ruth in 1970s comedy series Rising Damp.
Actress Billie Piper, who played companion Rose Tyler, ruled herself out of becoming the first female doctor, saying the responsibility would be “too enormous”, but added her vote would be for Captain America star Hayley Atwell.
Describing her as a “sassy” option, Piper previously told the Press Association: “She would be amazing.”
Meanwhile, Gatiss has said: “I would love it to be a woman, I think it would be marvellous.
“Not through pressure of political correctness but it sort of just feels like it’s time. I think it would just be great. The show is not the new kid on the block anymore.
“It’s been back for 12 years and I think it would just be really thrilling, but a lot of people disagree but I just think, why not?”
The news that the next Doctor Who will be a woman sent Twitter into meltdown.
Many traditional Whovians greeted the announcement with scepticism, saying the Time Lord should be a man and a woman won’t work.
But many Brummies also love the fact that the 13th Doctor will be acclaimed actress Jodie Whittaker.
Several commented on Twitter that it was about time and a major step forward.
Some joked about the new gender, saying: “Them Daleks won’t know what’s hit them when the Doctor is having a dose of PMS.”
And another said: “The new Doctor is going to be so happy with all the closet space in the Tardis.”
The Broadchurch star, 35, will appear as the next Doctor in the Christmas special, as Peter Capaldi regenerates after going on an adventure with the first Doctor William Hartnell, played by Midland actor David Bradley .
Pretty cool to have a female doctor. Jodie Whittaker is a great actor. Should be fun #doctorwho13 #doctor13
— Rich (@richdee22) July 16, 2017
Astonishing that there's still #firsts for #women in #2017
Best of British to Jodie in new role #doctor13#sistersaredoingitforthemselves— Jennifer Gray (@Tzenh) July 16, 2017
So excited about the new Doctor!#doctor13
— Karen R💙 (@krichardson888) July 16, 2017
I'm all about girl power but… Doctor Who as a woman? 🤔😒 #Doctor13
— Louisa Pouli OLY (@Louisa_Pouli) July 16, 2017
After suffering through a few rounds of tennis this afternoon, the BBC gave the world what it had really been watching for: the reveal of the next titular incarnation of the long running show Doctor Who.
Doctor Who has been important in my life since my junior year of high school. I was going through a hard time – dealing with trauma I hadn’t identified, feeling like I couldn’t bear getting up in the morning – and the show was exactly what I needed. What’s more escapist than troubled humans a few years older than me running off in a time machine to go exploring? I hung on every episode of the revamped series that year. I cried when Rose was forced to leave the Doctor, when Donna had her memory wiped, and when Amy and Rory were taken by weeping angels. I was genuinely attached to those characters – they felt like my friends, or stand-ins for where I wanted to be.
Once I got to college, the appeal faded. I had my own life now, that was eventful and adventurous. I didn’t need to rely on other people’s fantasies to get through the day. My reality was stable and exciting enough to merit my full attention. That combined with a show that, when I stopped regularly watching, was becoming less and less fun due to the often over-wrought plotlines and halting character development of Steven Moffat, made me tune out.
Nevertheless, when the buzz around the Thirteenth Doctor’s casting started going at the tail end of last year, I got excited – specifically because I was hearing that for the first time in fifty years, the Doctor wouldn’t be a white guy.
As Doctor Who faded to the background of my life, feminism came into sharp focus in the foreground. I began to read Audre Lorde, Kimberley Crenshaw, and bell hooks. I studied queer theory, and critical masculinities. I started to see how the principles that were described in these books played out in the culture all around us. Principles like patriarchy, white supremacy, and heteronormativity were in full display in the television shows, movies, and music videos I watched. Once I began to see these trends, I couldn’t stop. My eyes had been opened, and there was no closing them again.
This afternoon, when Jodie Whittaker – an outstanding actress whose role in Broadchurch moved me profoundly over the course of its three seasons – was cast as the newest version of The Doctor, I watched the fanboy internet suffer a collective meltdown. Every comment thread was filled with white men complaining about how the show had crossed the line, lost their support, and been cuckolded by PC culture.
It strikes me as heavily ironic that in a show featuring a thousand year old alien with two hearts who flies around in a time machine saving the universe from other aliens, some of whom in their early versions literally had weapons made from toilet plungers, the fact that said alien is now a woman is what made the show “unrealistic”. Like, come on.
But these sorts of mass outcries on the part of devoted white male fans are happening more and more frequently. Last year’s Ghostbusters remake was subject to a coordinated online tantrum that saw trailers and movie review sites sabotaged by men irate that women were now the ones fighting specters. The new Star Wars trilogy faced criticism both because the lead, Rey, is female and because John Boyega, who is Black, couldn’t play a stormtrooper because of his race. As the world, and the fictional worlds its inhabitants spawn, become more diverse, these men become more and more determined to hold these films and shows back in the past.
In some ways, I kind of get the impulse. For the year or so when Doctor Who was getting me through the school week, its familiarity and easiness was part of its appeal. It felt incorruptible, somehow insulated from the messiness of the outside world I was so desperate to escape from. It sometimes felt like it was all I had.
For a lot of these outraged fans, I’d imagine they feel the same way. The world is changing quickly, and maybe it’s left them behind. Everyone has shows and movies they enjoy, but when they become your entire life, you’re filling an emptiness in some other area. “Nerd culture” has long been a home for self-described misfits and outcasts. And if those who feel ignored by the world feel they are being usurped by women, by people of color, and others – instead of other white men, who in most cases are the aforementioned usurpers – they will lash out.
I’m sure in the circles that obsess over this show, there will be heated debate and vitriol spewed by those on both sides of the fence. But to those who think Whittaker’s casting is the end of the world, and those in Doctor Who: get a life. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. Because once you stop living in someone else’s universe, you’ll find that it’s much more interesting than anything you can watch on TV.
The first female Doctor Who has been unveiled as Broadchurch star Jodie Whittaker. She is also the first to hail from Yorkshire.
The 35-year-old, who is from the village of Skelmanthorpe, near Huddersfield, had been bookmaker’s favourite to be the 13th Time Lord ahead of the announcement.
She is best known for her role as Beth Latimer, the mother of murdered schoolboy Danny Latimer, in hit ITV show Broadchurch.
And the Time Lady has urged fans not to be scared of her because she is a woman. She said fans must not be “fearful”, adding that she is a feminist who does not want to be “boxed in by what you’re told you can and can’t be’.
Yesterday we were met with the news that we never thought would come – the BBC announced that the 13th Doctor would be played by a woman, Jodie Whittaker.
This was met with the predicted outrage, many fans could not see the change working and even more took to social media to proclaim that it was ‘PC GONE MAD’ and that they’d never watch Doctor Who again.
But the announcement wasn’t for them.
The Doctor being played by a woman symbolises so much for female fans.
Being born in 1989 I never got to experience the thrill of new episodes until I was 16. But I was still plonked in front of reruns by relatives.
https://twitter.com/themackenzilee/status/886613715617034242
I was enamoured with the Doctor and all his eccentricities, but I couldn’t identify with him. It’s hard to be empowered by a show when the only characters that look like you are the assistants running along after the Doctor, being reduced to either eye rolls or tiny costumes.
I never got to be the Doctor growing up because the Doctor was a boy’s role. I did however have the incredible Sarah Jane Smith.
When Doctor Who was rebooted in 2005, I was thrilled to see the show I’d grown up with thriving and being updated for a modern audience.
My daughter watching the #DoctorWho announcement. #doctor13 #DoctorWho13 pic.twitter.com/eX0w1rW4E9
— Jenny Trout (@Jenny_Trout) July 16, 2017
Eccleston and subsequently Tennant became staples of my Saturday evening that inspired me and gave me a distraction during ill health.
The assistants were savvy and smart but still became lost puppy dogs over The Doctor. I can’t help but think how much a female Doctor would’ve shaped me as a teen, but it may have faced even more backlash from ‘fans’ back then.
But now, girls get to see this fierce powerful role model who battles aliens and doesn’t care how her lipstick looks.
They get to pretend to be her in the school yard without scorn from their classmates that the Doctor is a boy.
This is huge. Little girls watching Doctor Who, just like Wonder Woman, will have heroes to aspire to be. Not just companions. #DoctorWho13
— Julie Benson (@TheJulieBenson) July 16, 2017
They can dress up in some incredible costumes or recreate beautiful cosplays that are functional and made for real body shapes as opposed to tight and sexualised – though unfortunately she probably will get vulgar comments.
The advent of a female Doctor doesn’t however have to mean that The Doctor will stop being a role model to little boys.
Seeing a positive portrayal of a strong woman who is also the same old Doctor they’ve always loved shows them women are not just sidekicks and deserve respect.
Most importantly, girls will get to see a fully fleshed out character who is as funny, articulate and as determined as the 12 men before her, and she will hopefully shape their futures.