The Wimbledon final had finished. We were sitting by the TV, poised to discover who would take Peter Capaldi’s place in the TARDIS. Boris Becker droned on and on spouting, though I’m sure fascinating, rather annoying, endless tennis analysis. Surely there would be time to discuss the men’s final after the 13th Doctor was revealed? After what felt like an age, but was probably just 5 minutes, Sue Barker finally shut them up. It was time to reveal the next Doctor. As ever, the clip was mysterious; an unknown figure walked towards the TARDIS just as a key to the TARDIS dropped out of the sky (what a coincidence!). When the unknown figure removed their cloak, the reveal became anticlimactic. None of us had any idea who the person was. However, we all knew, without doubt, that the 13th Doctor was a woman.
Personally, I was quite excited by this change in gender. I thought it was a bold move by the show to try something different. Immediately, I checked twitter to see what the national (and international) reaction was. From the tweets I read, it appeared a majority were in favour of the baton (a.k.a sonic screwdriver) being handed to Jodie Whittaker, because of both her gender and previous acting credentials. On the flipside, I saw a number of tweets from supposedly lifelong fans, viewers of every Dr Who episode and owners of all the merchandise, saying they would never watch the show again. From what I read, the overwhelming argument against Whittaker’s casting is that she is a woman. For over 50 years, men have played the Doctor and that is the way it must be. This argument appears flawed. The Doctor is a Time Lord, a very clever alien. Surely, at least one generation, by the laws of probability, would turn the Doctor into a woman. It’s clear that Time Lords have no set gender. The Master, a clever, evil Time Lord, regenerated from a man (John Simm) to Missy, a woman (Michelle Gomez). In the real world, the House of Lords contains both men and women and isn’t called the House of Lords and Baronesses. How do the Whovians know that Whittaker won’t turn back into a man when she regenerates? Will that turn them into ‘lifelong’ fans again? Those criticising Whittaker forget that she was chosen as the best, most suitable candidate for the role. She auditioned for her role fairly and the directors decided she was the person to take Doctor Who on its next journey. Given the amount of speculation about male actors replacing Peter Capaldi, I’m sure (and hope) there were a number of male candidates who also went for the role. I oppose positive discrimination and hope Whittaker was chosen for her skills, not to fill a quota. The male actors may be successful in the future, but critics must realize the amount of thought that went into choosing the Doctor means all candidates would have been fairly considered. Peter Davison, a former Doctor, put forward an argument against a female Doctor. He stated the casting of Jodie Whittaker would mean “a loss of a role model for boys”. This is frankly pathetic. The idea that role models have to be the same gender as the person they inspire is ridiculous. Davison is essentially saying Batman only inspires boys and Lara Croft only inspires girls. Davison seems to think that, when children look for role models, they care more about the role model’s gender than what the person believes in and does. Hasn’t Davison considered that Doctor Who may be a role model for girls as well? The whole ideology surrounding Doctor Who was to fight for good in the universe and to inspire anyone – whatever their gender. In the 21st century, gender should be a non-issue. I believe the most important factors regarding the new Doctor are: how good of an actress Whittaker will be, what will the quality of the storylines be, how successful will the interactions between the Doctor and companions be and what villains are chosen for the Doctor to face. If critical Whovians put as much energy into asking those questions as they put into criticising Whitaker’s gender, then debate on twitter would be a lot more worthwhile. A male Doctor is no good without inventive, engaging, somewhat believable storylines. The exact same is true for a female Doctor. I’ll admit it: I’m not a massive Doctor Who fan. I’ve not seen every episode. I don’t own all the merchandise. I wouldn’t do well in a trivia quiz. But I still enjoy watching it. In a world of chaos and uncertainty, led by, frankly, dangerous people, there’s something nice about knowing chaos isn’t unique to Earth. It’s refreshing to think of life that could be out there; how aliens of all kinds are filled with the same problems that worry humans. In the end, the gender of the Doctor shouldn’t matter. It should be about what the Doctor does and their ethos. People endlessly finding things to unnecessarily criticise and moan about are wasting time. Unlike the Doctor, we have precious little of that.
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Author:Noah enjoys writing a blog and drinking tea Archives
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