So once again we have a new Doctor officially cast, and for some reason I suspect this one’s going to be getting a lot more attention than the last few, and not just because we’re going into lucky Doctor Thirteen. But admit it, it was fairly likely with all the fan demand, longevity of the show, and nature of the character that the next Doctor was going to be a cast member from Broadchurch. Hell, with David Bradley officially playing the First Doctor in this year’s Christmas special, Broadchurch has had two Doctors in its cast already (three if you count Lenny Henry’s sketch), a companion, a few alien villains, and even Gwen Cooper from Torchwood. Chris Chibnall likes this universe’s talent, and he’s just added a new name to it.
Enter Jodie Whittaker, easily one of the best cast members from Broadchurch, certainly the one with the most demanding role at its outset. Beth Latimer is going to be a Time Lord and I think that’s cool. She wasn’t who I was expecting, though in fairness I haven’t paid a ton of attention to the speculation, and as far as Broadchurch cast members go I would have preferred Olivia Colman. But Whittaker is certainly a good actress and I can see her pulling off one of the greatest heroes in the whole of fiction. Whether she actually does that remains to be seen, but I have confidence, especially with someone like Chibnall taking over, who both knows good storytelling and the strengths of this actress.
Is there anything else worth saying about Jodie Whittaker cast as the next Doctor?
Oh yeah. She’s a woman.
And for some reason this is stirring controversy. I already talked about the idea of a female Doctor and how this was inevitable, so just read that for further clarification. Suffice it to say, Doctor Who has been a show in evolution since its earliest years and it doesn’t bother me one iota that the new Doctor doesn’t have a penis. What matters is the quality of the art itself. As long as the character is done justice and the stories told well, the sex of the Doctor is irrelevant. If the character is not done justice and the stories told poorly, her sex would still be irrelevant. At the same time I acknowledge this is a big step, and an important one. Doctor Who by its root philosophy, embraces diversity, and those who are mad at just the fact the Doctor’s a woman are probably fans of the show for the wrong reasons.
And we don’t know anything about Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor yet. Every new Doctor deserves the benefit of the doubt. Some like Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi had already proven themselves great actors before taking the role, while others like Matt Smith and even David Tennant were relatively new faces who had a lot to prove. Whittaker I think is somewhere between them, and I’m anticipating eagerly where she and Chris Chibnall take the character in 2018.
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