As you probably know yesterday the BBC announced that Jodie Whittaker will be playing the 13th Doctor in the next series of Doctor Who. This announcement has sparked a lot of reaction, debate and conversation online and I thought I should add my voice to this.
First off, it is far too early to be judging what the new
Doctor is like. We haven’t seen her in an episode yet. We haven’t even seen
what her costume is going to be. We really don’t know what she is going to be
like. This immediate knee jerk reaction to dismiss the new Doctor happens every
single time. I remember the near total dismissal when Matt Smith was cast and
now he is regarded as one of the best Doctors. I think everyone who has already
written her off – whatever their reason - needs to give her a chance first.
I have seen some reactions that seem to think because we’ve
had Rey in Star Wars and Wonder Woman has had a movie that we don’t need any more women in sci-fi/fantasy. This just
completely misses the point. The number of men compared to the number of women
in sci-fi/fantasy is still vastly unequal. It would be nice if we could get to
a point where women in sci-fi/fantasy are just seen as characters rather than
female characters however part of that coming about is through choices being
made like casting a female Doctor.
The Doctor being female is definitely going to change the
dynamic of the show. But that’s not a bad thing. Change has always been at the
core of Doctor Who. Whoever was cast
as the 13th Doctor was going to change the dynamic of the series.
The grandfatherly 1st Doctor has a completely different dynamic to
the cool 10th Doctor. Doctor
Who never stays exactly the same and introducing the first female Doctor is
just another change.
Sadly Doctor Who
has been in a weak position lately. Whatever your opinion is on the 12th
Doctor, Clara Oswald, Bill Potts and the past few series it is hard to deny
that the show is in a precarious position. Ratings have been declining and main
stream appeal has been lost. Christmas 2016 was the first one since 2005 were
none of the major high street stores listed Doctor
Who toys in their Christmas gift guides. There’s not really many younger
viewers becoming Whovians at the moment. Before the announcement yesterday I had assumed
that the BBC would see a female Doctor as too big a risk given the uncertainty
around the show’s future. However the BBC seem to have decided that right now
is the time to take a bit of a risk and finally cast a female Doctor. It was
possibly a casting decision that was motivated by a want to get people talking
about the show again which it certainly has done! I hope for the sake of the
shows future that this is a risk that will pay off in terms of support for the
series.
Also I’d like to see how River Song will react to learning that
her husband is now her wife. River’s story was nicely concluded in The Husbands of River Song. However I would
be really interested to watch Jodie Whitaker’s Doctor meeting her wife,
Professor River Song.
Right now it is too early to say if Series 11 of Doctor Who will be good and if Jodie
Whitaker is going to be good as the 13th Doctor. A lot is going to
depend on who her companion (or companions) are, what her stories are like, how
her Doctor is going to be written and what monsters is she going to be
fighting. However I have faith that Doctor
Who is about to enter a new era that will end up being a very highly
regarded and much loved era.
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