Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
We had a really good Dr. Who thread on the old site but I think most of the Who fans from that thread are gone now. Anyhow, the Doctor is getting ready to regenerate again and the new star of the series, taking over from Peter Capaldi, is Jodie Whittaker. Jodie is the Thirteenth Doctor and the first female Doctor. For those not in the know, the Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey and travels through time and space in a vehicle called a TARDIS. When a Time Lord's body is stressed or damaged, they can "regenerate", growing a new body with a new personality. This was originally written into the show as a way to handle the retirement of William Hartnell, the First Doctor, but quickly became an important feature of the show and one of the reasons it has lasted as long as it has (1963-1989 in the original run, 2005-present in the new series, plus a TV movie in 1996).
The casting of a woman in the part is causing some gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands among the same people who just finished bitching about the number of female and non-white characters in the new Star Trek series. However, there's been a lot of support for having a female Doctor in the Who fan community during the last couple casting decisions so I can't see the whimpering and shrieking of a bunch of sexist trolls stopping this from happening. In fact, the latest incarnation of the Doctor's arch-enemy and fellow Time Lord the Master is female, going by the name Missy (short, of course, for Mistress), setting the precedent that Time Lords can gender-flip when they regenerate.
Whittaker isn't that well-known here, but her biggest TV role that I know of is on the series Broadchurch, which is what got her the part of the Doctor. To whit: former Tenth Doctor David Tennant is one of the stars of Broadchurch and, more importantly from the standpoint of this decision, Chris Chibnall, the showrunner of Broadchurch, has just taken over the same role on Doctor Who.
The casting of a woman in the part is causing some gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands among the same people who just finished bitching about the number of female and non-white characters in the new Star Trek series. However, there's been a lot of support for having a female Doctor in the Who fan community during the last couple casting decisions so I can't see the whimpering and shrieking of a bunch of sexist trolls stopping this from happening. In fact, the latest incarnation of the Doctor's arch-enemy and fellow Time Lord the Master is female, going by the name Missy (short, of course, for Mistress), setting the precedent that Time Lords can gender-flip when they regenerate.
Whittaker isn't that well-known here, but her biggest TV role that I know of is on the series Broadchurch, which is what got her the part of the Doctor. To whit: former Tenth Doctor David Tennant is one of the stars of Broadchurch and, more importantly from the standpoint of this decision, Chris Chibnall, the showrunner of Broadchurch, has just taken over the same role on Doctor Who.