Image: Still via Youtube
After months and months of rumours, speculation, and flat out waiting, we finally know who is taking on the TARDIS as the thirteenth Doctor in season 11. Ladies and gents, say hello to your new Time Lord: Jodie Whittaker, the first woman in Doctor Who‘s 54-year history to land the title role.
Revealed at the end of the Wimbledon’s Men’s Final, Whittaker — best known to international audiences for her roles in both Attack the Block and more recently as Beth Latimer in crime drama Broadchurch, created by incoming Who showrunner Chris Chibnall — will make her first appearance in Doctor Who during this year’s Christmas special, which will see Peter Capaldi bow out his time on the show in an adventure with the very first Doctor, played by An Adventure in Space and Times‘s David Bradley. Here’s the short clip that premiered to celebrate the announcement, featuring Whittaker’s Doctor (perhaps not in her actual costume) finding her key to the TARDIS:
We might get a few more teasers of the 13th Doctor at San Diego Comic-Con, but for now, tell us what you think about Whittaker’s monumental arrival in the comments below.
Comments
50 responses to “The New Doctor Who Is Jodie Whittaker”
Great actor, let’s see how she goes with some (hopefully) good scripts.
The best thing about Who next year is no more of that muppet Moffat. Capaldi was wasted on him.
I couldnt agree more. While I’m not super stoked for a female doctor it should at the very least freshen things up and thank God we have a new show runner.
Such a perfect choice. Before Missy I never thought I would ever want a female Doctor and even now, this Who fan for 40 odd years, still have his doubts, but I totally look forward to be proven wrong. It does help she is one of my favourite UK tv actors.
Though not looking forward to the certain ring-wing misogynist corner of interwebs losing their nut over this, wait yes I am, they are going to be hilariously sad and hyperbolic. I see they have already launched their downvoting videos of her campaign. As predictable as the sun shining.
Love how you’re assuming the right-wingers won’t like it. Jesus, just enjoy this without pretending we don’t as well. We had a female master, we didn’t care. It was a matter of time before a female doctor. Again, no one *really* cares.
Have you see the internet in the last day!? The right-wing male ‘fenemists/SJW/snowflakes are destroying the world hysteria, is absolutely everywhere.
It’s not just the end of Doctor Who but the end of the world as we know. I wish I could say I am being hyperbolic but no, it is everywhere, using the same old lines, memes just as predicted
Super keen to see how she goes!
I gave up on doctor who when Capaldi started it, but wasnt there that thing about the forgotten “war doctor”, making Capaldi the 13th doctor? I’ve always been curious to know how they were going to handle that one given timelords are only meant to have 13 lives anyway
Pretty sure they handled it with the Smith to Capaldi regeneration.
When the Time-Lords reaching out to him through the crack gave him all that power. Capaldi later said in-character that he had no idea how many he’s got, now.They’ve actually already kind of dealt with that. Technically Matt Smith should have been the last Doctor since he had technically already burnt through all of his regenerations. But they gave him another one (somehow) so it’s entirely possible the Doctor now has another 12 to burn through.
Yeah from memory hes no longer bound to the regeneration number.. or something like that. It was pretty vague
The way I understand it is as follows
The War Doctor (technically the 9th) didn’t call himself “The Doctor” as it wasn’t fitting for him
This technically makes the 9th Doctor (Eccleston) the tenth in regards to regenerations.
Then we have the 10th doctor (Tennant) (11th regen) who actually regenerated into himself, which makes the 10th doctor both the 11th and 12th in that regard.
Which makes Matt Smiths 11th Doctor (13) the final incarnation of the doctor. except at the end of his tenure The Doctor was granted another regeneration cycle, which im guessing is another 13 lives (I am over a series behind currently (rip Clara), so this may not be accurate)
This would make Capaldi, the first Doctor of the new cycle, and Whittaker the second
Capaldi was already technically the 14th, as there was that one time David Tenant regenerated into his own hand and didn’t change.
Man, Doctor Who is weird.
Correct about the 14th(I think), but only because of The War Doctor, not Tennant’s selfish regeneration
Mods: If seen, ignore this. Or delete it please
1 – First Doctor (William Hartnell)
2 – Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
3 – Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
4 – Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
5 – Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
6 – Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
7 – Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
8 – Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
9 – War Doctor (John Hurt)
10 – Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)
11 – Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
12 – Tenth Doctor: Version 2 (David Tennant)
13 – Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
14 – Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi)
15 – Thirteenth Doctor (Jodi Whittaker)
I think Capaldi is the 13th incarnation of the character but only the 12th Doctor because the war guy didn’t use the title “Doctor” because he did a bunch of horrible sh*t during the war. Or something like that. It’s been a while.
Yaaaaaaaayyy!!
Only time will tell.
Still on Smith’s final season. Should probably try to finish it.
I’m still halfway through Eccleston’s season… Just couldn’t get into it.
i dont blame you eccleston’s doctor is someone a lot of us had to endure before david tennant arrived
Yeah, I’ve got a few Whovian friends who’ve hinted at enduring Eccleston… I liked him as the gangster boss in Gone in 60 Seconds, but yeah, couldn’t make it work in Dr Who… Maybe I should just skip to Tennant…
honestly skip straight to tennant there’s a reason everyone loves his dr who.. clever, funny, observant, thinks outside the box and deadly serious when he needs to be
He was pretty damned good as Kilgrave in JJ, so maybe I’ll give it a shot. Just restarted S4 of OITNB so I’ll queue that up too.
I was a bit ‘meh’ at how fucking camp Eccleston was and basically enjoyed ripping apart each episode’s plot holes and god awful special effects purely to irk my rabid Doctor fangirl GF, but a couple episodes into David Tennant’s run, she teased me about actually watching the episodes instead of shredding them.
Oh good, I’m not the only one who noticed the horrific mix of terribad CGI and prosthetics. 😀
Fair enough. It’s tremendously uneven at times, hence my dropping off for several seasons. But there’s some great TV in there 🙂
Still think it would have been better if they revealed it during the Christmas special.
Yeah totally but sadly there is no way to keep a secret that huge, especially from the likes of the Mirror and the Sun. especially when filming out doors is involved, that’s why the TARDIS isn’t actually in this reveal video just a stock image of it. And in order to move forward with the next season in terms of scripts and the pool of who needs to know gets big
i will freely admit ive been gleefully poking the “dr who cant be a woman” trolls for a few hours but frankly they seem to of missed the point of the show
this is a character who embraces differences, who explores time and space, who engages with different beliefs, cultures and people, tries to find solutions using both head and heart rather than violence as a rule and someone who loves the diversity and wonder in the universe.
i do wonder how the doctor would react to people saying “you cant be a woman, its tradition!”.. the doctor would probably laugh at them and go GERONIMO!
Geronimo? I beg your pardon. Allons y
ha good point 😀
Man “the internet” (read: 4 twitter trolls) is having a shitstorm over this! But just imagine the backlash if she was black, or even worse, unattractive!
That’s the hilarious part no matter who they cast (even a white guy) it was going to be a massive storm, from one group or other… glad someone (and BBC) finally had the guts to do something brave
Most of the triggered alphas don’t watch DW anyway. Otherwise they would’ve realised gender bending regeneration already happened with Missy.
there was one that was making me laugh screaming that this makes the dr transgender and its ruined the show. haha while i would welcome a transgender dr if they could find a great actor.. yeah they sort of showed they both dont watch the show and dont get the lore
I didnt want a female doctor, i still dont, It changes too much about the shows dynamics, just like going back to an older doctor changed alot.
But you dont always get what you want.
Only hope the new doctor doesnt get moffat type writing going forward from the new guy.
I couldn’t agree more. Making the Doctor fundamentally changes the character, who is known for going on endlessly about his cock and solving the problems of the universe with his Sonic Penis. How could a woman possibly do that?
I said the shows dynamics, not the doctor itself Mr Sarcasm.
Ah, OK, the show dynamics. Yeah, it’s hard to imagine what companions will talk to the Doctor about, now that there’s no longer a penis to discuss. We know well that the Daleks are motivated primarily by misandry and the Cybermen are terrified of vaginas, so where will the conflict come from? Good point.
Oh FFS.
I wonder if its only the idiots who hide behind “anyone who doesnt want a female doctor must be a sexist” or its just a case with nobody knowing shit about writing and interpersonal dynamics in media.
But here i go.
1. The show started with the very first doctor and his granddaughter. for all of the original run of the show, the companions were a surrogate of that. Playing of the father/grandfather role to a mortal human who is the gateway to the show of the viewer. A few of the original run doctors (four of five specifically) had elements of the love dynamic that comes more in the reboot.
2. When the doctor became younger in the movie. It switched roles into a more typical Will they wont they avenue of writing completely, with at least some level of crush going forward. With Rose with the reboot, martha being the “i like him, but he only cares about his ex” this continued on until Clara which still had the crush, but with the doctor still being married made it less on the forefront, with the male companions written as rivals to Doctor who in personality or goals in Mickey, Jack & Rory.
For the majority of the younger doctors, action was higher than the original run,
3. When they went from a younger doctor back to the older doctor, the dynamics shifted back into the father/grandfather dynamic with the companions as well as toning down the action the doctor can actually do, this was also shown as clara had to come to terms that the doctor and clara werent going to, so danny pink was written into the show and the show went into clara riding her luck, cause shes with the doctor and thinks she can do it just like him, a friendly and loving rivalry… to the point it leads off to Me(lol) and Clara going off on their own adventures that we will never see.
4. with the introduction of bill, the show became more of a teacher/student dynamic that elements of some of the different doctors had in the original run, but not since.
So now that the doctor has changed genders, the dynamics of the writing style and the interpersonal relationships between the stories protagonists and the POV characters will change once again.
Will it be a straight gender swap to one of the previous archetypes from the shows, Maybe? Will it be a whole new and exciting dynamic between the main chars, Maybe?
We wont know for a long time
I would have preferred they DIDNT change again, but as i originally said, you dont always get what you want.
Only time will tell if i enjoy the dynamic shift , or wont. Like i didnt really enjoy capaldis run for the most part.
So to you the central dynamic of Doctor Who is white men holding power over weaker/less experienced people in some way?
Well how about that.
What in the hell? Why make everything about identity politics? Are you so thirsty to see the evil in everything?
So it’s gone from the caring grandfather to the Hot Auntie?
obnoxious older twat not caring grandfather.. he was quite willing to leave companions to die
No Doctor has been perfect, and it always comes down to the same thing: Writing. S good writer has a way to make any character compelling and interesting, but unfortunately Moffat was stuck in some serious corners with the characters and then did too much to bend to the whim of the “audience”.
– Christopher Eccleston was nothing more than a grumpy brooding jackass thanks to the story taking place post-Time War.
– David Tennant was an egotistical pretty boy brought in to save the series thanks to the Harry Potter explosion at the same time
– Matt Smith started out all fun and adventurous but became so brooding by the end that I though I was watching a Nolan Batman film
– Peter Capaldi was a return to an older style but was very confused by the constant redirection of his character thanks to fan backlash.
Jodi Whittaker brings yet another fresh take on the character and the first real clean slate the series has had in decades. Plus with the new Showrunner in control we might actually get something either really good or something really shit, leading to them both getting replaced in 12 months.
Am I worried that with the Doctor being a woman that the tone of the show will change? Not really. It’s still going to be a show about a time travelling alien who can go anywhere and do anything. Do I think this is going to spawn a trend inside the show where it’s more liberal and feminist leaning? Damn right. But that’s the way the societal pressure is going and the writers don’t have much choice in the matter anymore given the current political ideological climate of the world. Will it turn me away from the series if they go in this dirtection? Who knows. I’m willing to give these new people a go just like I did when Capaldi was introduced.
What worried me the most are the article and tweets and Facebook posts that are popping up about “bathing in male tears” and “We took your comic books, Sci fi Movies, Superhero movies and now we’re taking your Doctor and there’s nothing you can do but bow down to us powerful women you pitiful men”. I know there is backlash about the Doctor being female, but like “every gamer is a pitiful basement dwelling out of shape nerd and you’re not our audience” posts that happened, the other side is not exactly a bunch of angels are they?
NO.
This is UNACCEPTABLE.
She’s the new Doctor, not the new Doctor Who.
Yes!
I watched ABC News 24 covering it this morning, and Michael kept saying, “The new Doctor Who,” and obviously weatherman Nate is a fan, because he corrected Michael several times.
Also hilarious was there was apparently some twitter backlash, which Michael referenced, and it seemed to have resulted in the news ticker being updated to something more fan-approved, referencing “Doctor Who’s new Timelord,” rather than, “The next Doctor Who.”
Before the end of this season, I would have totally supported you, but…
MISSY: He says, I’m the Doctor, and they say, Doctor who? See, I’m cutting to the chase, baby. I’m streamlining. I’m saving us actual minutes.
BILL: Yeah, okay, whatever.
MISSY: Also it’s his real name.
[…]
BILL: Sorry, what do you mean, it’s his real name? Nobody knows the Doctor’s real name.
MISSY: I do, because I grew up with him, and his real name is Doctor Who.
I’m not going to cross Missy. Are you?
So angry at this casting choice. STILL NOT GINGER!
But in all honesty I hope she does well. I dropped Doctor Who after Capaldi’s first season. Not because I thought Capaldi was bad, no, quite the opposite. I found the writing horrible. Learning that Moffat is out has me both excited and dismayed that we won’t see a Moffat-free Capaldi before the change.
i thought the same.. capaldi turned me off badly. i straight up stopped watching and thats something not even colin bakers dr could do.. that said i binged his episodes when i heard he was going to get up to date and this last season hes been.. tolerable