Ponder Point: How We Got to the Who: Time Lords, Show Runners, and Jodie Whittaker

Jodie Whittaker has been announced to be the next actor to play the role of the Doctor after Peter Capaldi regenerates in the Christmas Special this December. The internet is of course divided into about three parts: those that are overjoyed, those that are annoyed, and those that are just kind of sitting on the sidelines watching both sides devour each other. What I wanted to talk about here is how I think we got to this point and the current state of the series as well as the direction the show needs to go. We will cover the way the pieces were put in motion by the current show runner, the decision of the upcoming one as well as anything else I think about as I write this.

Steven Moffat and Missy

Steven Moffat is one of the biggest writers on Doctor Who in recent years and honestly he is where the idea of the Doctor being a female came from as an actual idea. He has been dropping hints of it being a potential idea as far back as the End of Time, and dropped a hint in the episode The Doctor's Wife. He even wrote a parody of episode Curse of the Fatal Death that ended with the Doctor regenerating into a woman. This theory culminated with the introduction of Missy, a new incarnation of the Renegade Time Lord known as the Master and known for being male throughout every other incarnation. Missy would also drop hints that even the Doctor himself may have been a girl at one point in his past though hints that it may be a lie. In regards to Missy, Moffat played it very careful with the fans, really going out of his way to make sure she was referred to as "Missy" as opposed to "Master" which I think did more harm than good really but the intent was clear that the character of Missy was to show the audience that it could work as well as getting a feel of the audience and Missy was mostly well received by fans.

Regeneration and Time Lord Society

Moffat introduced the concept of regeneration changing gender as really a theory only. Fans still were waiting for Missy to be someone else, like the Rani; who I was hoping for if for no other reason than the Master was too obvious (and who doesn't want more Time Lords?) It wasn't until the episode Hell Bent where the Time Lord known as The General was shot by the Doctor and regenerated into a woman that we got the full confirmation. This not only told us that Time Lords could change gender when they regenerate but the dialogue implied that the General had only changed gender once and had spent the first ten incarnations as a female. This added with Missy meeting the Master and them knowing each other told us that it was possible and had every reason to happen with the Doctor. Later on in the episode The Doctor Falls, both Missy and the Doctor seemed to hint at neither of them knowing whether they were or had been male or female, the Doctor hinting that Gallifreyan society had been around for billions of years and had evolved past petty issues about gender. That particular scene may have also been a response to an older response Peter Davison made about how Time Lord society probably frowned on that kind of change.

In regards to the Doctor regenerating  himself, well I honestly never thought the Doctor gave much thought into what he looked like most of the time. Despite wanting to be ginger, he's never tried and by try I mean we have seen characters like River and Romana have some impact on what they look like. Romana showed to able to totally change her body at will during her fifteen hour post regeneration. I think the Doctor only cares more about the personality and mindset and that impacts what he looks like. This is best shown in how the incarnations of the Doctor after the Time War kept looking younger as if they were afraid to be grown up and how the 11th Doctor had come to terms and was willing to remember everything about his life, which led him to regenerate into a much older looking and more grown up form.

Chris Chibnall

When it came time to pick a new show runner for the show, it was mentioned that Chinball was chosen because he would be a safe choice. He had written a few episodes for Doctor Who like the two part story Hungry Earth & Cold Blood, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, and The Power of Three. He also worked on the show Merlin  before it took off and helped produce An Adventure of Space and Time. Ultimately people remember him for creating and writing the series Broadchurch which was a smashing success in both America and the UK. Now Chris as far as I know didn't really seem to care about the Doctor being a female but he would be getting a new Doctor and he would have led the casting for it. So when you are starting your own run of a popular show involving a popular character you would pick someone you knew you could work with. 

Jodie Whittaker, the New Doctor

The Chibnall info is important when you realize where Jodie is best known for recently: she was one of the leads in Broadhchurch. While I'm not saying it was that role ONLY that got her the job but it would be Chibnall and the BBC who would have final say on who played the role and Chibnall would of course want someone he had experience working with. This isn't to say that Jodie isn't qualified but I do think this played a role as again, the BBC would want someone they know. That is always something to take into account of when the new Doctor is cast these days, the powers that be will want someone they know. This is what I mean by safe choice, they got someone relatively  well known to play the role but not too out there and that is what the role of the Doctor is for really, not something for well known actors (ignoring Hartnell and Troughton). I personally don't care about her previous work and am going to rust the higher ups for this, I mean if I judged David Tennant off the only performance I saw him in before he was the Doctor, I'd be freaking out cause that was Barty Crouch Jr. 

The Noticeable Divide

The internet/fanbase has been rather split by this decision, but then again this has been a topic raging for a while: could/should the Doctor be played by a woman? Of course the more surface arguments have been "If you don't like it, your sexist" or "if you like it, you are just pushing some sort of agenda" and of course it is believed that each side has only men against and women for. First of all, plenty of women have been against the idea of the Doctor being a woman, Alex Kingston said she didn't think it was a good idea a while back and a poll done a few years ago said more women were against the idea. Some people are afraid that it just seems like more PC interfering with their fandoms and that a show that always had such strong female characters and only one consistent male lead would only be a mistake. Of course the counter argument could be made that by making the Doctor female, it would free the writers up to make more male companions which the show has always had a problem with making them characters who aren't just there because their girlfriend/wife is traveling with them. That has been a problem.

One thing we have to remember is that fanbases are the groups most resistant to change that they don't like. Look at Ben Afleck in Batman V. Superman or changes made to Star Wars in recent years. Whether these grievances have any valid arguments are not, the fans see their fandoms as something special to them that they have to protect and that a lot think they know what is best for. Whether that is a need for change a steadfast resistance of it. This is ultimately pointless because to an extent, both sides of the aisle are right, this could be what kills the show if it is done wrong, and there are probably some sexists out there who don't like a woman playing the Doctor. Despite this, a majority of the fans are still going to watch. Alex Kingston may have said the Doctor should always be a male but she is looking forward to Jodie in the role and Colin Baker also supports it. Also, let's be clear that fans never know what they want until they actually get it, plenty of people didn't like Capaldi, Smith, or even Davison taking the role of the Doctor and fans ultimately loved them. 

My Thoughts?
"There is no good reason for the Doctor to be female because a reason isn't needed."

How do I feel about Jodie Whittaker? Well I've only seen her in Broadchurc and all I learned form that was she can really act like a woman whose son was murdered. I wish her well with the job even though I have personally felt the Doctor should always be male. I'm certainly not going to stop watching and at least now I can join the slew of fans who talk about how sexy their Doctor is LOL At this point though it isn't her I'm worried about over the writing and direction of the character. Female leads in recent years have all felt......... the same really. I don't want that to happen to this role and I certainly don't want the direction the Doctor has been in (a bumbling genius) to change. I don't want episodes waving how progressive the show feels it is in my face like it has been doing with it's references to Trump and Hillary. When the Doctor regenerates this Christmas I don't want the Doctor to notice the obvious change the audience notices, sort of like the 10th Doctor in The Christmas Invasion where his only question is if he is ginger or how other incarnations don't really acknowledge how they look that much different from each other. Long story short, I'd like it more if the show didn't reflect it's audiences expectations good or bad and everyone on both sides needs to chill out.



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