Doctor Who‘s 13th Time Lord will be played by Jodie Whittaker, a woman. Until now, every other actor playing the Doctor in Doctor Who has been played by a man.
I don’t really have a strong feeling about making the Doctor a woman. Not really. I’m been on a break from Doctor Who ever since Matt Smith left the series. Peter Capaldi, the actor who replaced Matt Smith as the Doctor, never much appealed to me. I took it as a sign that I was probably a good time to take a break from the Whovian Universe.
Now that it’s established Time Lords can regenerate as male or female, why have all the other Doctors been male? Maybe they’re address this on the show.
Doctor Who is science fiction. One of the benefits of science fiction as a story telling device is it allows perceived notions and boundaries to be pushed and warped. It allows concepts to be turned on their metaphorical collective heads. At the very least, it means the Doctor can be played by a woman. I remember in the make believe world of Star Trek when Vulcans and Romulans could be black. Life went on.
If it turns out Joe Whittaker doesn’t cut it as the Doctor, they can always replace her. They could even replace her with another woman. Maybe this will start a streak where the Doctor is always played by a woman. Two hundred years from now, people won’t even remember a time when the Doctor in Doctor Who was played by a man.
