Huh. I thought people with opinions like aceplace were primarily located on reddit and in youtube comment sections. Oh, well. It’s not that big of a deal.
If the writing is good and the directing is good, she should do fine. I hope she has a season that airs in 2018. 2019 is too long to wait.
Let’s face it, with all the problems in writing that have dogged the show over the last few seasons, the re-imagining of a long-established major character as female has been one of the consistent high points. If a female Doctor can bring half the zest and joy that Michelle Gomez brought to playing Missy, bring her on.
Wow… Way to blow things out of proportion. And seriously, comparing Doctor Who to historical drama?
Jodie, I for one enthusiastically welcome you as our new Doctor! I was totes in love with you on Broadchurch.
Good riddance, Moffat, sad to see Capaldi go. His reveal, or rather, the reveal of his eyebrows, gave me chills down my spine. I’m also sad he suffered by two such terribly written seasons. Can’t be fun being Moffatses rebound.
…for an insight into “American style writing rooms” read this article about behind the scenes of the Leftovers finale. (But if you haven’t watched the Leftovers: then DON’T READ THE ARTICLE. Just go watch the Leftovers already. Plenty of spoilers.)
I would wish that every TV series would have writing rooms like this one. The two main writers, Lindoff and Perrotta, balanced each other out. Lindoff would throw high concept ideas (known as Damon grenades) while Perrotta acted as skeptic-in-chief. Other writers acted as pop culture experts, religion, one guarded against logic problems, one was more production orientated and one kept it all together.
The end result was one of the most magnificent TV series I had ever seen on TV, that ended on a pitch perfect note. The biggest thing about Doctor Who has been inconsistency from writer to writer. So a shake up here will be potentially bigger than having a female Doctor. It would be sad to loose stand-alones written by people like Neil Gaiman, Richard Curtis, and Sarah Dollard. But I think this change is needed and would make for a much more consistent universe. (This is assuming this goes ahead: its all speculationat the moment.)
A female Doctor will mean a new dynamic to the show in terms of story-lines and personality. Ecclestone did a great job rebooting the show with his almost depressed portrayal of a wounded Doctor. Aloof, cynical and going through the motions.
Capaldi and Smith were let down in my opinion because of weak writing. However they both also shared that whimsical trait which got overdone. Their portrayals felt unintentionally meta and their stories same-y. Tennant made it work but he also had great story-lines to portray.
The new Doctor has the opportunity to put her own stamp on the role and since this is uncharted territory this is a pivotal moment for the show. Ratings have been going down and purely for curiosity sake that will get better.
And, thank goodness, a new writer is taking over as head-writer and showrunner. I hope that livens things up.
Oh, I think it’s well past the “getting” stage.
Sigh… I’m not bashing women. I have always liked strong female characters. I was thrilled when Kate Mulgrew became the first Star ship captain.
But it was an entirely new character. We got to see how a female would command a ship with hundreds of people. Handle combat situations and diplomatic encounters. The writing on that show let Kate down.
Doctor Who has already been redefining the roles of women. There’s a night and day difference between the old series companions and today’s assistants. They often carry the plot independently. That’s a good improvement.
Obviously the BBC will do whatever the hell they want. Let’s see how it works out for them.
My bold. Doctor Who is a show about a character that literally reboots over and over and over again into a new character. How is this a problem for you, other than gender?
Look inside yourself for your own biases here. The problem here (in your mind) is with you, not with casting a woman for a sci-fi TV show in which they’ve already had characters be reborn in different guises (including different sexes, IIRC).
The Doctor is a fictional character of a species established as gender fluid. Washington and Lincoln… not so much.
There are three confirmed Time Lords who’ve swapped sex upon regeneration, aside from the Doctor’s upcoming one, two of whom have appeared on screen.
The Corsair has never appeared, but The Doctor mentioned in The Doctor’s Wife, that they’ve been both male and female.
The General regenerated from male to female in Hellbent, and mentioned that that was her usual gender. She also went from white to black. THAT wasn’t commented on.
Then, of course, there’s Missy, the most recent known incarnation of the Master.
The only thing I’ve ever seen her in is Broadchurch - and I hated her character and I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t supposed to. I don’t know if it was the writing or the acting, but* when a pregnant woman whose husband is cheating on her and whose child has been brutally murdered isn’t sympathetic, someone (or some group of people) has not made good choices. And as the Broadchurch showrunner is the new Who showrunner - I’m skeptical.
That said, I’ll still watch it.
*The spoiler is from the first season of Broadchurch. But just in case.
Well, they showed her as a blonde, so I’m sure that’s the direction, but dayum, if she wasn’t hot as a redhead.
You really should try Attack the Block, where she plays The Nurse. (*Attack the Block *is essentially a *Doctor Who *episode with more f-bombs.)
She’s in a Black Mirror episode too, which is a great show. Her episode is really good.
It’s episode 3 of the first season, called The Entire History of You.
But the premise of the Doctor’s regeneration is that it’s not just a new body, it’s a whole new personality. The different Doctors act differently. They talk with different accents. They are different people who carry the memories of the earlier incarnations. This has been established and emphasized many times.
I think the outpouring of hot angry internet tears this has caused has already more than justified this casting—if people can still get this riled up about such a change, it’s a necessary one. And it’s not a PC- or stunt-casting; the showrunners are taking a real risk here, what with the currently rising tide of misogyny and MRAism among the show’s nerdy core audience.
I’ve always identified with the Doctor as male. I’m not sure that I can let go of decades of watching the character. He’s a very old friend. Maybe the previews and show buzz will spark my interest. I’d gotten very excited with the possibility of the actor that looks like Hartnell exploring the early Doctors origins.
It will be easier for younger fans to accept this new version. Many have only seen the last Doctor and maybe Matt Smith.
It’ll help if the writers preserve essential elements of the character’s personality. Like they’ve done with other new Doctors.
I do wish Jodie Whittaker well. I know little of her work. I’m sure she’ll do the best she can.