My 10 year old daughter perked up and smiled as The Doctor was revealed. Then she said: “I guess The Doctor will have a boy companion now” and left the room utterly pleased a girl had the role. Works for me.
I don’t mind the pick from a gender perspective, but I am sort of ambivalent on the actress herself. Then again, I was ambivalent about Matt Smith when he was announced, and he turned out to be one of my top 3 Doctors of all time. I will definitely watch and see where it goes.
I’m pretty enthusiastic about the change to Chris Chibnall as executive producer going forward. I really liked his work on Torchwood, and Broadchurch is so well written and produced. As much as I enjoyed Moffat’s run on Doctor Who, I feel like the last season or two he’s been far too hung up on creating these “epic” episodes that are just jam packed with callouts to the past, inside jokes and too much of “the Doctor as God, or godlike, or human” stuff.
I want a return to Doctor Who where we go on a cool adventure every week, the companion does companion-like stuff (instead of being some mystical being in their own right) and it’s alternately creepy, funny, intense and joyful throughout each episode. That’s the formula that makes Doctor Who entertaining for me. Hopefully with a new producer, new writing room and now a brand new Doctor, the show can go back to doing what it does best.
I dont really like Dr Who, always did prefer US (or as it generally turns out to be, Canadian) TV sci-fi and try as i might I couldnt get into any of the “new” series (Tennant onwards) but kinda puzzled with the “we’re making history here!!!” and the “this is sucks how could this happen!!!” type remarks I’m seeing from the pros and anti’s.
because Star Trek had a female captain, a female head of science and security, and a female mixed race (and species) engineer on one ship 20 years ago, and of course an egalitarian pedigree going back decades.
Now Attack the Block has both Finn and the Doctor. Not to mention Broadchurch is a festival of Doctors.
She was excellent in both. I’d have loved to see Tilda Swinton in the role, but Jodie Whitaker is a great choice.
I’m psyched about the choice of Whitaker, but I’m more excited about Moffat leaving. I’ve never felt the show was as good from a script/plot standpoint in the Smith/Capaldi years (though I love both doctors) as it was in the Tennant years. It will be nice to see a fresh approach.
Well imagine instead James T Kirk, and in the next movie they have a woman playing him. Because that’s the comparable situation, not the casting of a woman in a sci-fi show. The character has been played by a man for 53 years.
It’s a bunch of people who don’t watch Dr Who or are into sci-fi doing the usual twitter/clickbait thing. The only reason its a big deal because its trendy politics to make a big deal out of something that was normalised decades ago.
No. It’s simply because it’s the first time The Doctor will be a woman. No more, no less. It’s newsworthy and a (welcome, as far as I’m concerned) break from tradition/expectations within the context of the show. It doesn’t have a larger meaning.
Now imagine that 13 people have played Kirk and his whole thing is that he comes back as a new person every couple years and his main adversary came back as a woman (as well as others).
It’s the fucking Doctor. not Kirk or Han Solo. It’s a character specifically designed to change constantly. His personality and habit changes make less sense, but no one cares about that.
They could have slotted in Judi Dench in the 00s reincarnation and no one would have blinked. I think a dozen people raised an eyebrow when she was the first female M in an iconic franchise.
It’s a Time Lord, an alien being with two hearts and access to time travel technology. Have they really established that they are truly “male” and “female”?
And Matt Lucas (Nardole) was particularly miffed at the choice. All Doctors cast have been human! Very unfair to alien actors.
They’ve established that they can change genders after resurrections. Corsair and Master are either specifically mentioned or seen doing it. So no, not really “truly” any sex, just whatever they want to be?
Edit:
Or to steal it from Wikipedia
There was a spoof that I think Richard Curtis wrote one year for comic relief where the doctor regenerated as
Joanna Lumley
In fact, here is a link to the whole thing:
I forgot how good this was.
There was also this 1984 entry into The World Science Fiction Convention:
So a month late, I’ve finally finished after giving up waiting on my partner, who burnt out hard on the dynamic duo of Capaldi and Clara, who she hated with a passion. “The Pilot” just wasn’t enough to reengage her, despite Bill being charming as all fuck, so I finally got around to realizing she wasn’t coming back on board and charting my own course forward.
This season more or less confirms for me that Capaldi’s the best of the new Doctors by a mile, though he’s been saddled with some of the lamest writing of them all. But also the 3rd and 5th best companions (Bill and Nardole, respectively), so that’s something.
The ending was almost oppressively grim, but I have to admit that I loved the creepy hospital vibes of the first part of the two-parter, though it was, again, Moffat going back to the well of his work under Davies (specifically, “The Doctor Dances” two-parter), and hell, the tragic ending of the genesis of some Cyber-Men and a (at least temporary) separation of companion and Doctor mirrors the end of S2 to pretty directly, as well.
I’m with you guys on the water-girl quick-fix at the end was painfully bad, but the remainder of the ep was actually pretty sweet and heartwarming, and man, that teaser at the end was fantastic.
So. . . here’s to Christmas and Capaldi’s last hurrah!
Not to go against conventional wisdom, but does Capaldi’s performance change from his initial episode? I’m way behind on Who and was binging a little. I’m up to his first episode and I don’t care for his Doctor. I’m just curious if it stays more or less the same for the rest of his seasons or if it changes–and I’m not sure what “it” is, the performance, the tone, the feel. (No disrespect to his many fans on this thread. His Doctor just isn’t connecting with me.)
Oh my, yes, and then again not in every conceivable way. He’s still “Capaldi-ing” from start to finish, but his first episode was imho not a very good one (I think it was primarily written for those who had a crush on Smith, and they never got around to really fleshing out his take on the character). I think he really starts to come into his own later on in no small part because the writing (and possibly direction) picks up.
Yes he changes a ton over the course of his 3 seasons. And his hair also got more magnificent.
Thanks for the insight! I hope that he grows on me, but now I have some desire in moving forward.
Yesssssssssss, majestic as fuck.