Russell T Davies has called the apparent backlash over a female Doctor Who “outrageous”.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Jodie Whittaker would replace Peter Capaldi to become the 13th and first ever female Doctor during this year’s Christmas special.

Following the announcement, there was a lot of praise for the decision, with a number of famous faces coming out in support of the refreshing and progressive change.

The decision did prompt some criticism, however, from certain sections of the fanbase, but according to former showrunner Russell T Davies, the naysayers were few and far between.

Elsewhere in the interview, Davies was asked how he felt about some of his narrative choices being retroactively changed by Steven Moffat during his time as showrunner, specifically relating to Gallifrey’s salvation in ‘The Day of the Doctor’.

“When you leave Doctor Who, you have to take a deep breath and think it’s all up for grabs now, it’s all there to be rewritten,” he mused.

“It was interesting. I love that episode. It wasn’t so much the Time Lords disappearing, it was all the Daleks shooting themselves.

“It was like, couldn’t any of them [have] missed?”

Doctor Who returns December 25 to BBC One.