Jodie Whittaker

Wow...

I was not expecting Jodie Whittaker to be revealed as the thirteenth Doctor. When her name first appeared on betting sites,  I assumed that someone has got the wrong end of the stick of a Broadchurch actor being the new lead. Even after her face featuring on the front page of The Sun I was still convinced they'd all got it wrong. As it turns out I was the one who was wrong, just as I had been when I assumed that Peter Capaldi would not be the twelfth Doctor. I'm really not very good at guessing these casting decisions.

It's debatable whether the decision to broadcast the reveal after the Wimbledon Men's Final was a wise one. I normally enjoy watching tennis but this time around I felt especially tense and wanted the match to be over just so I could find out who the new Doctor was. There was no way of knowing how long the match would go on for and every little delay caused frustration. On the other hand, it meant the announcement could have been seen by a very wide audience, if they hadn't walked away in the gap before the next match started.

When we finally got to the reveal that too was drawn out. We saw the new Doctor from the back, walking through a sunny forest, in a long coat and hoodie that concealed the face and body. It could just as easily have been a slender man. It was not until a flash of eyelash that we got a hint that it was a woman and when she finally removed her hood, smiled and walked towards a dodgy TARDIS, viewers like me were left stunned.

If there was ever going to be a female Doctor then Jodie Whittaker was a good pick. She's not an overly 'eccentric' actor like a lot of the popular choices for a female Doctor Who. She was great in Broadchurch when she played Beth Latimer.  She has also appeared in a television adaption of Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Return to Cranford. I hope she keeps her Yorkshire accent. She is also the first Yorkshire Doctor. The decision is also in keeping with Chris Chibnall's desire to work with actors he has worked with before. It will be interesting to see how she acts. I certainly hope she keeps the costume she wore here, or something reminiscent of it, at least.

Reactions to the new Doctor have been understandably mixed. Some fans, like Ian Levine, have been getting angry about this change. Other fans have been crying 'sexist' at the doubters. Many more others are just fine with it. I'm personally indifferent. If she gives a great performance then I'll watch. I used to be against the idea of a woman as the Doctor until I saw the Barbara Benedetti fan film series a couple of years back. Those fan films were a little ropy by today's standards but they did prove that a female Doctor would not interfere too much with the format of the show.

It will be interesting to find out whether Steven Moffat knew the identity of the new Doctor, given how many references to Time Lord gender change were made in the finale of Series Ten. It's interesting to  that he was paving the way for his successor. I guess we'll find out in upcoming interviews.

We will have months to speculate on how this decision changes the show Will there be a new male companion? How often will the show refer to the Doctor's new gender? How will it affect the way the Doctor's personality is depicted? There are a lot of questions that the writers must answer.

Chris Chibnall has gone up in my estimations. Whether or not people accept this new Doctor remains to be seen but Chris has proved that he's willing to take risks and not just go for a bland conformity. There's no guarantee that Series Eleven will be better of course. There will probably be the usual mix of mostly good but some bad episodes. But it does seem more exciting than it did before.