The Next Doctor To Be Revealed July 16th - Done, it is Jodie Whittaker

So now I need to watch Broadchurch I guess.....get a sense of this actress.

Certainly hope she can pull it off.

Also wondering how the hard core fans are going to react.

Most hard core fans do NOT like having their fandom screwed with, and it seems even today writers, directors and producers still do not understand the power that the fans have over the show.

ETA - Ah, here's a image of Jodie Whittaker, the next Doctor:

originally posted by: eriktheawful
So now I need to watch Broadchurch I guess.....get a sense of this actress.

Certainly hope she can pull it off.

Also wondering how the hard core fans are going to react.

Most hard core fans do NOT like having their fandom screwed with, and it seems even today writers, directors and producers still do not understand the power that the fans have over the show.

Well there are currently nearly a dozen different Doctor Who hashtags dicussing this "issue". It's like a civil war.

Another show succumbs to political correctness and appeasement. Virtue signalling at it's finest.
Maybe she can have wimpy guy as an assistant or better still she can be a lesbian and have a sexually charged relationship with a female assistant.

I will hold all judgement until I see her playing the Doctor.

They (the show producers) technically have been preparing us for this for a couple of years now:

Missy was the first clue. I thought it was funny and cute that they made the Master into Missy. Even the Doctor wasn't sure how to handle that.

The general on Galafrey, when the Doctor shot him, he regened from an old white guy, into a young black woman.

Several interviews with Moffat who said that it was entirely possible for gender change, and now that we've seen it a few times in the show, it's become canon now.

I certainly hope like I said that they picked her because they think she can pull it off and make a female Doctor a believable thing. And not because they wanted to make some sort of a PC statement (that's how I felt with Bill, like they were trying to push a message...I could care less what the Doctors companions sexual orientation is....why does it even need to be an issue FFS?).

a reply to: Perfectenemy

As per previous post.
I've not watched since Pearl joined and now I'll never watch again. .
Job done.
The Biased Broadcasting Corporation just dropped a bollock of biblical proportions.
It will however save me a huge wedge in DVDs.
MODS apologies for the UK based profanity.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Well said. Bills homosexuality was just too much in your face. The cringe in the Lost Legion episode was nearly unbearable because of that. I have a soft spot for british women in general and Jodie is fairly attaractive so i don't mind the gender change at all.

Now please give her Matt Lucas as companion and i'm all set for the 13th season.

originally posted by: Cymru
a reply to: Perfectenemy

As per previous post.
I've not watched since Pearl joined and now I'll never watch again. .
Job done.
The Biased Broadcasting Corporation just dropped a bollock of biblical proportions.
It will however save me a huge wedge in DVDs.
MODS apologies for the UK based profanity.

Could you please elaborate on your issues with the first female doctor? I'm only curious so no worries i won't judge.

I guess another thing too is: how do you perceive the Doctor?

For me, way....uh have to add a few more "ways"....way, way, way back when, I was first introduced to The Doctor with a book. It contained 3 Doctor Who episodes, that were all 3 based upon the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker).

Later I tried watching what is now called "Classic Doctor Who" and while a lot of it was interesting, the later episodes were too campy and corny for me at the time.

During this time I thought of the Doctor is: this guy who is a Time Lord that once in a while changes his body.

Many years later on I was introduced to something I'd never encountered before with the TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
I was introduced to Dax.

Here we have a beautiful Dax.......who actually has a symbiotic relations ship with an old guy named Curzon.

So ooooookay.....that was different.

Then saw it again with the Stargate series with the Gauld......

So much more later on, watching the new version of Doctor Who with the 9th Doctor, I got to thinking:

This isn't a man or a human, no mater how much he might look like one. This is suppose to be a ALIEN. Time Lords are NOT humans. Their physiology and DNA are not the same as ours. In fact, their race is literally suppose to be billions of years old.

So while watching each episode of Doctor Who, I reminded myself each time: this isn't some human guy. This is a ALIEN called a Time Lord....they just LOOK human.

And apparently gender swap just fine.

Okay, but still......can a female Doctor work?

Well......Captain Janeway for Star Trek: Voyager worked. Doctor Weir from Stargate: Atlantis worked. Two as the captain in the show Dark Matter works. Dutch from Killjoys work (those last two will kick your ass too).

I don't have an issue with a female lead role

Yah, but the Doctor has ALWAYS been a guy!

Nope. Sorry......may have been PLAYED by a guy....but the Doctor is a ALIEN being, who regens with the DNA being rewritten.

Why would only how the Doctor looks be the only part changed? Seems to me we're lucky that the Doctor has stayed at least looking like a human.

So for now, I can accept a female Doctor (I mean come one, Time Lords have been around for billions of years....you think it's always just been males that do every thing???).

But....again....I'll reserve judgement until after I've watched a few episodes when they come out.

I wish Michelle Gomez (Missy!!) would have been the next doctor, she would have been awesome.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
Why would only how the Doctor looks be the only part changed? Seems to me we're lucky that the Doctor has stayed at least looking like a human.

So for now, I can accept a female Doctor (I mean come one, Time Lords have been around for billions of years....you think it's always just been males that do every thing???).

But....again....I'll reserve judgement until after I've watched a few episodes when they come out.

Your whole post was great, but, just a little one, the Doctor looks the way the Doctor looks so that he (he is still a he for now) can do his "job" (however self-assigned that "job" may be), to defend humanity. Regenerating as a woman, after so long as a man, will better enable the Doctor to do that, fool his enemies and the such like.

Bearing in mind that this is essentially children's/young person's viewing, that demographic seem very happy about it being a woman, but don't seem to know who Whitaker is (because she has mainly appeared in adult dramas). Bill was very popular with the younger viewers in the UK too, they care about issues regarding sexuality and want to see minorities being represented. I liked her too, thought she was going to put me off, but I warmed to her very quickly.

For me, David Tennant has been the only bum note. I have concerns about Whitaker, she is a very capable actress but is she Doctor material? I think she could be brilliant. The expectation last time, when Capaldi got it, was that it would be a woman, so I don't think it is particularly surprising or even remotely driven by concerns of being PC and much more about meeting the demands of the audience that they most want to reach out to. The BBC is all about social learning through the medium of broadcasting, that is it's primary purpose in the UK, and Doctor Who is a programme specifically directed towards children and young people, hence why they, and not the stale old fogies who are scared of change, are all buzzing around happily at the prospect of a female Doctor, because tolerance and consideration of others is the norm, not the exception, and they don't understand why old people don't get that. Long may they stay so unjaded.

Well done BBC!!!

The first woman Doctor Who...though I must confess to being a bit puzzled that we haven't had a non white one yet. Still, a step in the right direction.

I suppose the ideal candidate would be a black, Pakistani, white pansexual, Muslim Christian agnostic liberal left Remainer of indeterminate gender. But, alas, that may be a few years away, I fear.

Sometimes I think the BBC lacks ambition.

I have to agree, I think this was done because of the vocal minority being loudest. I suspected due to the secrecy around this new doctor, it was going to be a woman. Missy/Master was the test really. You saw them cave as well because of the calls for a LGBTQ companion too. But honestly, if you are going to give in and do something or try something radical, it really IS the time to do it when you get a new showrunner (and probably others as well in various posts).

I don't know the actress or her body of work, but I hope she is successful -- after all, it's probably not anything PC for her, it's the role of a lifetime.

That all being said, on a personal level I believe some iconic characters should just not be radically altered. For me, it spoils it when my childhood heroes become something I don't recognize and can no longer relate to. So my 40+ year journey with the Doctor is done until at least the next Regeneration, which I selfishly hope will be next year lol. So I am a bit bummed out about it, but it does seem to be the kinda thing media is pushing, but I suppose that is okay. Less TV for me to watch is probably a good thing.

You know, it's funny, I can think back 15 years ago and see where I'd probably have been for all this upheaval and change. I remember a conversation with my brother where all this kind of stuff just seem to upset him and push him away from shows he liked. Now, 15 years later, seems I've come around to that point of view....pretty interesting.

I think it has less to do with being PC, than it does with a new show runner taking over a huge, iconic show that's 50+ years old, with an entirely new batch of characters at the same time.

I think he looked at it, and wanted someone that he knew fairly well, and was comfortable with as the Doctor. It's got to be stressful enough just taking over, but to do it when everyone else was leaving at the same time, has to make it worse.

and you might be right about that.

It's just all the timing involved and such that makes it seem suspect to me (as to why they did it).

a reply to: Thanatos0042

The timing could have been better. My other half thinks the next companion will show if it was a PC move, or if it was more him wanting people he's comfortable with.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yes, it definitely could have been better. Your other half is smart indeed - that might be a very telling move. I'll be looking on for that information with great interest.

A lot of people felt that Bill was a very PC move, what do you think about it?

a reply to: Zaphod58
This should make it easier to bring back male companions. As my thread on companions points out, the modern present-day-earth based Doctor has needed the flirtation factor to induce companions to stay with him. The old Doctor had them trapped on a moving Tardis, so they had little choice once they were there.

a reply to: Thanatos0042

I wasn't really impressed by Bill. Nothing against Pearl Mackie, I just didn't like the character that much. She did seem to be a bit PCish, but I just haven't been a fan of certain companions so I'm not sure if that's my dislike for the character or not, take that as you will.