People are already suggesting Olivia Colman. Which would make it... awkward, if her Doctor met Amy. Prisoner Zero etc.

It's OK, she was so utterly forgettable in Eleventh Hour that they needn't bother coming up with a Caecilius-style excuse for the Thirteenth Doctor's looks. (THIRTEENTH DOCTOR, people! There was a time that would have sounded SO excitingly ominous...)

They did cast the black Patterson Joseph as Eleven. Joseph couldn't or wouldn't take the role (on his One Show appearance he said he wasn't legally allowed to talk about it).

Paterson Joseph is currently working on an American show, ironically about time travel (called Timeless)

I'm not sold on Moss from the IT crowd getting the role. Plus isn't Olivia Coleman having fun on broad church?

About the male/female issue. I propose that if we got Dame Edna Everage, then everyone would be happy?
(I really wish i still had that story i wrote where a politician hires Humphries as Dame Edna and, drunk at the press conference, kisses Dame Edna thinking she's an actual woman).

The new Doctor... Donald Trump.

*runs and hides from the lynch mob*

Oh gods, what a moral dilemma.

Would I sacrifice Who in order to save the world?

Sacrificing Doctor Who might be worth it.

(From the People's Republic of Trump.)

Apparently Chris Chibnall can't be bothered to start work on his first series until the start of next year, so it might be a while before the new Doctor is cast, let alone announced.

Sacrificing Doctor Who might be worth it.

Well, he DOES look rather...alien. And I suppose one could, theoretically speaking, just switch off. As in the Colin Baker era. And he'd have to regenerate sooner or later, after all. And whilst Who's reputation would take an enormous battering, having those twitchy tiny orange fingers on the nuclear button might, on balance, be more injurious to our programme's long-term viability...

Apparently Chris Chibnall can't be bothered to start work on his first series until the start of next year

Well, given that our Glorious Resurrection was delayed because Russell T God was working on that Mine All Mine flop, it would be hypocritical to criticise Chibnall if he too accidentally committed to non-Who stuff when he was blissfully unaware of his True Destiny...

...On the other hand, RTG was the bloke who gave us 'He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He is ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And...he's wonderful' and Chibnall was the bloke who gave us 'Squeaky bum time' so sod this 'being fair' nonsense.

Apparently Chris Chibnall can't be bothered to start work on his first series until the start of next year, so it might be a while before the new Doctor is cast, let alone announced.

Any actual evidence you can cite for this? A news article or you just repeating cr@p you heard on the OG forum or elsewhere? If it's true then I can't help but wonder how HE gets to decide when he starts?

Any actual evidence you can cite for this? A news article or you just repeating cr@p you heard on the OG forum or elsewhere?

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2017/02/timeline-to-series-eleven.html

What you're doing is called "shooting the messenger". Also, OG hasn't existed for the better part of a decade.

I actually shooting any messenger, just asking if you had proof. I didn't say it was rubbish....

actually *wasn't* shooting....

Can you cut the sarcasm, Kate? I cannot sanction your buffoonery.

I was being withering, not sarcastic.

But I yearn for the day that my buffoonery has your sanction once more.

RTG was the bloke who gave us 'He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He is ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe.

Yeah, but then he gave us Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Yeah, but then he gave us Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Everyone has an off-day. (Year. Whatever.) Even gods.

Peter Capaldi wants Frances de la Tour as his successor.

I have no idea what a Frances de la Tour is, but if she's good enough for Capaldi she's good enough for me.

I have no idea what a Frances de la Tour is,

Google is your friend

but if she's good enough for Capaldi she's good enough for me.

I can get behind that sentiment.

Sacrificing Who to save the real world would be a fitting finale.

"We're going to build a huge flight of stairs, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be great. And the Daleks are going to pay for it."

Sacrificing Who to save the real world would be a fitting finale.

Isn't there a theory that genes exist to perpetuate memes rather than more genes? I.e. maybe Who IS more important than mere humanity?

10 Actors Who Should Replace Peter Capaldi.

Hmmm. That list is interesting. Not sure about the top pick though.

My gut tells me they will go for a young, spunky Doctor yet again (although a Hayley Atwell would certainly keep the fanboys happy)

Hasn't Sheridan Smith dropped out of shows several times? We can't afford to have an unreliable Doctor. (Also, it would be really weird having a Doctor sounding just like Lucie Bleedin' Miller.)

And now they've decided to actually EXPLAIN the Doc's resemblance to people rather than ignore it a la Maxil/Old Sixie, the writers would really struggle to explain why the Doctor looks exactly like the Gamestation's Roderick.

'If they want to continue with a slightly older actor in the role' - Capaldi is not SLIGHTLY older than Matt!

Olivia Coleman was spectacularly uninteresting in her Eleventh Hour appearance, but I have to admit she was fun in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot...

Hayley Atwell.

The Doctor meets Peggy Carter

If she wasn't dead and a hard-right Tory, I'd suggest Wendy Richard off AYBS.

I would be extremely happy for Hayley Atwell to take over the role. Not just very easy on the eye but also a darn good actor to boot.

I don't know why, but I have a persistent vision of the next Doctor adopting a steam punk look. That would also go well with either male or female incarnation.

Oh, what the hell. Go for it, Doc! What have you got to lose? I mean, when you're stuck with CHIBNALL...

Tilda Swinton is the bookies' current favourite, at 7/2.

My, how times have changed.

she's a big star. Out of Auntie Beeb's price range i would think...

The thing is, the BBC have definitely noticed - hallelujah! A mere fifty years late! - that Doctor Who makes them money. In fact, now they've accidentally mislaid That Thing With The Cars and That Thing With The Baking, Who is probably their top earner, they've GOTTA reverse its fall in viewing figures, and they may well decide that a big star is The Answer. (Well, that or another Sexy Young Man like the last two, it could go either way.)

About comedians as possible Doctors: Jon Pertwee was a radio comedian and many Doctor actors have had substantial comic roles.

Another video speculating on who will be playing the next Doctor. The list they present is pretty well known, being a compilation of suggestions already made by other people. You can watch the whole thing if you want, however, at 12:28 they make their own suggestion and I find their reason for it interesting.

Well the actor is pretty much the only reason to watch Lucifer (a show with great potential that is mostly wasted to make the Devil the comedy half of a cop buddy show with added soap opera elements featuring angels & demons, bleh). The actor is fun to watch though. Still I believe the show has been renewed for another season, so it seems unlikely.

Ozzy Osbourne as the Doctor.

Of course, they would have to bleep out every second word

You know, this is the first time I've seen a list of potential Doctors and thought that, yeah, practically ANY of 'em would do just fine. Maybe I'm mellowing in my old age. Or just don't care any more. Or my feminist instincts are overriding my Who ones. Or they really ARE a good bunch of actors?

I think it'll be someone who isn't well known. That way you get to establish them as the Doctor. Worked with Tennant and Smith.

Capaldi's problem was to many people he was Malcolm Tucker, which created an idea of what he'd be like.

I don't think it created MUCH of an idea, EVERYONE must have known he couldn't swear like that on Who...

Capaldi's other problem was the all devouring black hole sue that was Clara Oswald.

I think they should get the guy who plays Rip Hunter on Legends of Tomorrow. ;-)

That's Arthur Darvill, who played Rory Williams in Doctor Who. If they were to use an actor who played a companion as the next Doctor, I would much prefer they picked Catherine Tate, although it would be intriguing to see Arthur in that role.

If they were to use an actor who played a companion as the next Doctor, I would much prefer they picked Catherine Tate

GOD yeah. We KNOW she'll make a great Doctor cos we've SEEN the DoctorDonna. Whereas Rory...I mean, he's lovely, and he does make a surprisingly successful warrior but basically his greatest strength lies in looking put-upon and that's not a great look for the DOCTOR.

There is one scene that shows he could be the Doctor.

"Would you like me to repeat the question?"

I don't know if we'll get the whole series before the new guy is named but I expect we should at least get a few weeks to focus on Capaldi before word gets out.

That would no doubt be sensible but you know what the BBC's like for leaks...

If they were to use an actor who played a companion as the next Doctor ...

Hmmm. Frazier Hines is still alive. Would he be up to the challenge?

yes SEVENTY THREE YEARS OLD in 2017, FRAZER HINES.

"Wait for me, wait for me!"

yes SEVENTY THREE YEARS OLD in 2017, FRAZER HINES.

The BBC got a lot of practice working round the physical limitations of elderly actors when making 'Last of the Summer Wine'. By the time they made the final episode Peter Sallis, one of the lead actors, was 88, and going blind.

By comparison, Frazier Hines is still relatively young and fit, so the BBC might think they could work with him.

I hope it's not Kris Marshall as I've always been irritated by him. He's not half the actor his father (William Marlowe*) was.

*He was in Who in two roles - Harry Mailer in The Mind of Evil and Lester in Revenge of the Cybermen. Probably best know for his role as Maggie Forbes guv'nor in The Gentle Touch.

Still fingers crossed for Hayley Atwell....

---
The BBC got a lot of practice working round the physical limitations of elderly actors when making 'Last of the Summer Wine'. By the time they made the final episode Peter Sallis, one of the lead actors, was 88, and going blind.
---
He and Frank Thornton were stuck indoors because the BBC couldn't get insurance for them to film outside - which is pretty much the reason the show finally ended (although it had turned into a fairly bad sketch show as well - primarily because they brought in a load of minor characters to take the weight off the main ones due to their age, and then had to fit them all into every episode).

Personally, I'd still like Damien Lewis - however, he's probably busy with Billions for the foreseeable future. And Hayley Atwell's doing a mini-series of Howard's End, so, depending on when they'd film the next series, she might not be available either.

Every so often a new name gets bandied about, but once a critical mass of possible names is reached, it merely becomes a list and everyone switches off and waits for the proper announcement because common sense says they can't all be the next Doctor. Though it might be possible if the thirteenth incarnation is played like some gigantic pantomime horse, with Pheobe Waller-Bridge's left arm, Frances de la Tour's right leg, Kris Marshall's head, Paterson Joseph's voice, etc etc etc. All beneath a massive, bulging coat.


(The yellow regeneration light fades away)

The Thirteenth Doctor: Oh my, what a bloody state! Look how ungainly I am! Urgh! I'm a Gell Guard-like abomination! Running's going to be a nightmare!

Bill: •••• off! You're a freak!

The Thirteenth Doctor: No, Bill, wait! Don't go! I will show you the universe!

Bill (calling behind her): No way! Goodbye 'Doctor'! I'm off to watch some more films Mark Gatiss likes!

The Guardian is rooting for some Phoebe Waller-Bridge person. And is pleasingly scathing about Kris Marshall.

But Phoebe Waller-Bridge has her own highly-acclaimed show and a career ahead of her. Why would she throw all that away for the chance to be Chibnall's Doctor?

Because even Chibnall's Doctor is THE Doctor.

What with all the hype on the next Doctor here's my speculation on a female Doctor.
Personally I see nothing wrong with this provided the character is done right ie as a female Doctor rather than female Time Lord.
Basically whoever plays the Doctor needs to be able to do comic and tragic, sometimes at the same time. But since the Doctor is the angel of our better nature they need to bring off humanity, that is elicit empathy. This rules out the oft touted Tilda Swinton who comes off a bit too distant despite pulling off comedy and tragedy. She's a female David Bowie; she'd make a Rani, Romana, or even Sister of Karn, but not the Doctor.
Olivia Colman could handle all this, and is my front runner. Additionally she is not too gorgeous. Unfortunately we're not yet enlightened enough to take a pretty woman as seriously as a pretty man, this rules out a lot of younger actresses; although Rachel Weiss anyone? Some fans think the Doctor is too grandfatherly to be played by a woman but shows more often the elder brother or uncle vibe and a similar older sister or aunt vibe would serve, and could be done less patronisingly.
Emma Thompson is another capable Doctor but she does suffer a little from class, the Doctor generally has a grammar school vibe so any upper class needs toning down.
Joanna Lumley has shown she can do it with the Comic Relief episode, such warmth and selfdeprecation, but suffers from being too old for a modern run, she'd veer into grandmother territory which is not yet comparable with grandfather. Ditto Helen Mirren and Dame Judi Dench. They'd all be great as extra Time Lord characters though!
Eve Myles would work but is too entrenched as Gwen, ditto Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart. While Anglo-Scottish has been the main accent (albeit closer to Southern British English) any generic British that isn't too posh would work.
So in summary:
Comic
Tragic
Very human
Not too gorgeous
Neither young nor old
Can bring off British
Not too posh
Any characteristics I've missed?
Who else fits these?

So in summary:
Comic
Tragic
Very human
Not too gorgeous
Neither young nor old
Can bring off British
Not too posh
Any characteristics I've missed?

Yes! She's gotta be very alien as well as very human. We don't want another bland Davison type.

Eve Myles would work but is too entrenched as Gwen, ditto Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart.

It's not her TV appearances as Kate that are the main problem - no one who's heard her BF one-dimensional going-through-the-motions is gonna put up with her.

Still hoping for Hayley Atwell....

Gillian Anderson? Maybe too expensive, but then again, I can't imagine Peter Capaldi was cheap.

Or what about Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones)?

To be announced on Sunday after the Wimbledon Men's Finals, apparently.

Let's hope it won't be one of those finals that go on for hours and hours and hours...

Wonder how they'll do it? Another half hour special?

If it's a woman, it's the post regeneration knob gags that I fear the most.

After Wimbledon???

John McEnroe is the thirteenth Doctor! ;-)

Alien: I have killed the Doctor!
Doctor: You call that shot in? It was out!!!

Let's hope it won't be one of those finals that go on for hours and hours and hours...

Oh my GOD.

You mean I might have to wait ADDITIONAL HOURS to discover whether the next SEVERAL YEARS OF MY LIFE are gonna be a barren wasteland or a feminist paradise, depending on how often some MEN hit some BALL over some NET?

If it's Luke Treadaway then at least you have an excuse to watch 'A Street Cat Named Bob'.

Just pointing out that the previous longest men's final took four hours and forty-eight minutes.

And that the longest-ever Wimbledon men's match took eleven hours and five minutes.

Having to wait until after the football finishes now doesn't seem so bad, does it Emily? :-)

Oh, thanks, RUB IT IN why don't you?

Actually *making herculean efforts not to think about this eleven hours and five minutes thing* it would be more useful to know what the SHORTEST match has ever been since that's when, may the gods have mercy on my soul, I'm actually gonna have to switch on the tennis.

Anyone else getting an image of Emily in one of those tennis skirts?

GO FEDERER! Worship the Federer! (Whatever it is.)

OK, it's all over, what's the MATTER with these people, why are they still TALKING about it, WHERE'S MY DOCTOR??

Yeah, I've kinda gone off this Federer guy.

And I'm not even thinking primarily of the Thirteenth Doctor now, I'm thinking of that moment Sylvie Kinigi single-handedly saved Burundi's democracy as genocide raged over the corpse of their beloved elected President and the BBC gave that less coverage (viz, NONE WHATSOEVER) than the sight of the Federer creature walking down a corridor.

•••• IT'S A WOMAN IT'S A WOMAN IT'S A BLOODY WOMAN AT LAST GODS PLEASE FORGET EVERYTHING I'VE EVER SAID ABOUT CHRIS CHIBNALL I LOVE HIM AND WANT TO HAVE HIS KITTENS OH GODS WHY ARE THEY RUINING MY GLORIOUS MOMENT TALKING ABOUT TENNIS AGAIN OH GODS WHATS HER NAME AGAIN AND WHO THE HELL IS SHE INCIDENTALLY I CAN'T BELIEVE I NEARLY MISSED THAT ANNOUNCEMENT COS I WAS POSTING ON NITCENTRAL...

...Actually that last bit I can TOTALLY believe.

That was very unexpected I was sure they wouldn't risk it, you'd better pray Chris doesn't mess this up cause with the show in its current state they're in last chance saloon.

Of course, it's probably a sign that Chibnall KNOWS he's gonna mess it up and also knows that a female Doctor will get all the flak when he does but what the hell! It's gonna be GREAT! Anyone got any idea who she IS?

She's in Broadchurch, so Doc Who is turning into Broadchurch. I fear this could be it guys, we've seen it before the people this draws in won't replace the ones who've been lost.

Ah. Right. She played the drippy depressed mum who couldn't even use contraception properly. Unfortunately she was so good at that that I can't really picture her as the Doctor. So OBVIOUSLY the BBC need to give me a PROPER trailer with her RIGHT NOW.

I can't wait for Jane Bond and Mr. Marple. All kidding aside, this is great!

Don't forget Wonder Man and an Alien reboot starring Matt Damon as Ripley.

Well I never thought I could picture the sweary guy from the Thick of It as the Doc and now it's hard to see him as anything other than the Doc.

Is it just me that's worries about this, with the ratings low I think this is show ending stuff.

with the ratings low I think this is show ending stuff

What percentage of the Who-watching population do you estimate are SO misogynistic they'll exile themselves to a barren Wholess wasteland out of sheer spite?

Well, I suppose that come next Autumn (next sodding AUTUMN!!) we'll find out. But I reckon her first episode might just get a massive boost from the population-at-large out of sheer curiosity and/or hopes of schadenfreude. And if it's brilliant they'll come back. (Admittedly that's a pretty big 'if', after all, Deep Breath was very nearly brilliant but somehow kicked off the steady decline in viewing figures...)

Troughton's reaction to the concept is actually on record. Sue Lawley interviewed Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison on Nationwide(?) in 1983, and when she asked about the possibility of a woman Doctor, Patrick Troughton said (not sarcastically), "Oh, what a good idea!"

Den of Geek have gone slightly and hilariously wrong with what was obviously a cut-and-paste job:

'Personally, I am ecstatic with this choice — not only is she an excellent actress who already has a working relationship with Chibnall, but she is the first non-white man to play the Doctor.'

I have never understood the instinctive hatred of a female Doctor. Why wouldn't Time Lords change their gender, I am honestly surprised we haven't seen any Time Lords that don't look human (although, most aliens in DW are human looking).

I just hope they don't make a song and dance over it. There was no mention of Smith's age in Eleventh Hour. The stuff in Deep Breath about Capaldi's age was a tad annoying.

Just let her be the Doctor.

It's not hatred of a woman. It is that it will change the whole concept of the programme for me. Doctor Who was in a sense my replacement dad. He was the protector and the educator, someone who would never bully or deliberately injure me. Ecclestone, Tennant and Smith were a different type of Doctor - the flavour changed anyway, from the point of view that the Doctor started to have a relationship with his companions and therefore were a new chapter. Capaldi was the first Doctor to whom I was actually attracted, so I miss him for that reason. He breaks my heart and he will end Doctor Who for me. I don't need a female protector, I am not attracted to her and I have no interest in whether she wins, loses etc.

We aren't going to agree, but it would be nice if people's first thought wasn't "You're such a misogynist for having a different opinion from me".

I am honestly surprised we haven't seen any Time Lords that don't look human

Romana (briefly) in Destiny? (Alright, so she just looked like a short human painted blue, but...)

There was no mention of Smith's age in Eleventh Hour.

There was, however, in Vampires of Venice ('You look about nine.')

It's not hatred of a woman. It is that it will change the whole concept of the programme for me. Doctor Who was in a sense my replacement dad.

But you do accept that the Doctor means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and that every single Doctor cannot possibly be expected to conform to YOUR particular narrow specifications?

Capaldi was the first Doctor to whom I was actually attracted, so I miss him for that reason. He breaks my heart and he will end Doctor Who for me.

Sunshine, I've been RIGHT THERE but getting your heart broken should NOT mean the end of Who for you. At least you had three glorious years with the Love Of Your Life (can you IMAGINE how the McGann-lovers feel) and you can relive the Glory Days any time you want, courtesy of your DVD player. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn't spend many happy years snivelling over Capaldi's loss whilst relishing every moment of New Who and trying to work out who gets the Number Two Doctor spot. (Plus, speaking from personal experience here, just because you're wracked with agony over betrayal and abandonment there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't fall in love with the next one too - they're all the same person and it TOTALLY doesn't make you a slut!)

I don't need a female protector, I am not attracted to her and I have no interest in whether she wins, loses etc.

The ENTIRE UNIVERSE will (no doubt) be at stake, why the hell don't you care?! Think of your favourite Who stories. Think of Jodi Whittaker (ah, Whittaker, what a fine old Doctor Who name THAT is! Hope she's not too obsessed by mercury, though I wouldn't mind another glimpse of the food machine)...sorry, where was I? Look, just picture Jodi Whittaker giving that Pandorica speech, jumping down that liftshaft, cuddling that kitten or killing that Sycorax with a satsuma. You REALLY wouldn't care about these glorious stories enough to watch ANY of them just cos you can't call the main character 'Daddy' and/or don't want to get into her pants?

(Yes, I switched off over Colin Baker, but it wasn't JUST over Colin Baker, it was Colin Baker with That Coat in stories that had been ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL •••• (give or take about 10 minutes of Vengeance on Varos) for the last two years and were showing bugger-all sign of registering this fact, let alone IMPROVING.)

We aren't going to agree, but it would be nice if people's first thought wasn't "You're such a misogynist for having a different opinion from me".

All those tweets about Nurse Who and Doctor Whore aren't exactly helping in this regard...Unfortunately the vast majority of people who are anti-a-female-Doctor are misogynists.

There's a bit of whiplash in feminism between "women are not a monolith" and "but they are a monolith when it comes to misogyny"

I was coming here to tell everyone. I see it is not necessary. Whatever made me think I could scoop Emily on something like that?

But you do accept that the Doctor means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and that every single Doctor cannot possibly be expected to conform to YOUR particular narrow specifications?

You mean like doc 6?

For me it depends on how they handle it. I don't mind if they say that changing genders is unusual or if drinking an elixir from the Sisters of Karn or some other such thing is necessary to affect the change. I won't like it if they suddenly act like, "Yeah. It happens all the time!"

I'm not sure how many are going to stop watching but they've polled the fan base before and 70% ish male and female didn't want a female doc. If when half of that number aka their core audience leaves the show is in trouble. Bear in mind that the show is in last chance saloon after years of bad writing. The fans that quit just won't be replaced. People may be happy at the idea of a female doc but they won't watch it just for that. See also Ghostbusters. And yes ghostbusters was badly written but hello Chris Chinbal.

I personally don't feel it's misogynistic to not want to regender characters. I'd understand your anger at a male Rani or a male Thelma and Louise

Also notice Stephen Moffat once again copies the Curse of Fatal death.

Whatever made me think I could scoop Emily on something like that?

Well, I SUFFERED for that scoop. I WATCHED TENNIS. (Well, technically speaking I watched the post-tennis commentators' waffle, which is almost certainly the one activity in the universe more pointless than watching tennis.)

But you do accept that the Doctor means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and that every single Doctor cannot possibly be expected to conform to YOUR particular narrow specifications?

You mean like doc 6? :-)

I DID explain that every single story being utter drivel was far more of an issue in lunging for the off-switch than my intense loathing for the Sixth Doctor, right?

Plus, I never said the Doctor shouldn't have specifications. Of course s/he should. I just meant they should be very very broad instead of 'father figure you happen to fancy' or 'big-eared northerner' or whatever. Saying 'Shoot the little girl first!' and MEANING it - fine! Blowing up your own planet with 2.47 billion innocent children on it - also fine! Snogging the Master - hell, GO for it! Tipping people in acid baths and making unfunny jokes about it whilst wearing THAT coat - no. We've gotta have SOME standards on what constitutes essential Doctorishness.

For me it depends on how they handle it. I don't mind if they say that changing genders is unusual or if drinking an elixir from the Sisters of Karn or some other such thing is necessary to affect the change. I won't like it if they suddenly act like, "Yeah. It happens all the time!"

Hmm. I do get why you feel like that - whether we like it or not, the Doctor's default state is white adult male, but bear in mind that regeneration is a lottery and statistically speaking it's BOUND to throw up a wild card sooner or later. Especially with the Doctor's emergency regenerations and total lack of control.

I always thought that when the Doctor regenerates into a black person it should be in a desert so it immediately makes total sense, without having to say a word, that OF COURSE s/he'd sensibly grow a skin colour more suitable for the climate. I'm not sure what the equivalent would be for turning female, though.

I'm not sure how many are going to stop watching but they've polled the fan base before and 70% ish male and female didn't want a female doc.

Tough.

After The Sixteen Long And Barren Years Of Despair, after Eccy left us, after Tennant left us, after Tom left us, after they burnt our Hartnells and Troughtons, after Colin Baker And Colin Baker's Coat, after Adric and Mel, you'd think they'd've got the message that you don't always get everything you want in this life, but you JUST GO ON BEING A FAN ANYWAY cos what else IS there, but hey, if it takes the sight of Jodie Whittaker for the penny to drop then FINE. •••• off and see if you can find anything ELSE to fill the gaping chasm in your soul (NB: YOU WON'T).

See also Ghostbusters. And yes ghostbusters was badly written but hello Chris Chinbal.

Ouch.

I personally don't feel it's misogynistic to not want to regender characters. I'd understand your anger at a male Rani or a male Thelma and Louise

I'm sure I wouldn't despise a male Rani any more than I despise the female Rani (NB: quite a lot. Though to be fair it's not HER fault she was written by Pip n'Jane). Is there something you're not telling me about Thelma and Louise? I thought they were humans, not aliens who regularly change their entire physical appearance and personality.

Also notice Stephen Moffat once again copies the Curse of Fatal death.

What's Steven Moffat got to do with it?

So did everyone realise as soon as they saw the hand? Cos I really couldn't tell whether it was a woman's or man's. And then we saw a fraction of the face and I really thought YEEESSSSS! but couldn't be 100% sure cos I'm very, very bad with faces. Wasn't till the hood went back that I could relax, rejoice and also feel very very sorry that I can't crack open a bottle of bubbly cos I'm spending six teetotal weeks trying to regenerate my liver after Season Thirty-Six caused me to hit the bottle in a big way.

Anyway, tennis horrors notwithstanding, that was a better way to introduce the New Doc than that glitzy abomination poor Capaldi was forced into.

Hmm. Wonder what name we're gonna fall into the habit of referring to her as? We tend to go for surnames except in the case of the Bakers (for obvious reasons) and Matt (it should feel natural to refer to the Doctor as 'Smith' given it's his favourite pseudonym but it really doesn't) but 'Whittaker' is kind of already taken. And Jodi! is nice and short. (Sorry about the exclamation mark, I'm sure Ill manage to calm down and drop it eventually. Perhaps when we're onto our third or fourth female Doctor.)

I think I'm a little bit in love with Emily after your passionate defence against the misogynists around here....

Sunshine, you've ALWAYS been a little in love with me...

This pretty much sums up reaction from people...

FANTASTIC site!

Though actually I've changed my mind, I'm now totally in sympathy with anyone who thinks that Jodie! for Doctor is weird and disturbing and freakishly unnatural.

She's YOUNGER THAN I AM!

Alright, it's not like I haven't gone through this before with Bow Tie Boy, but all those years with Capaldi lulled me into a false sense of security...

Every fan has his breaking point Peter Capaldi was that for me, twice, I saw two episodes of the 2015 season and didn't finish the 2014 one. I mean why watach a show you don't like simply because you used to like it years ago.

There's no reason not to do a Thelma and Louise reboot with male characters, it's a reimagining so there's no reason they can't be male this time.

I think Jodi is the best shorthand as like you said it's short and quick to type. Plus less for auto correct to mess up.

So we've got a whole year of the fandom fighting itself and the show a lot of brainachingly stupid opinion pieces on the subject and the show itself trolling the fanbase until finally the next season starts and everyone sees what they want to see, brace yourselves people.

why watach a show you don't like simply because you used to like it years ago.

To dissect it on Nitcentral of course!

So we've got a whole year of the fandom fighting itself and the show a lot of brainachingly stupid opinion pieces on the subject and the show itself trolling the fanbase until finally the next season starts and everyone sees what they want to see, brace yourselves people.

Probably marginally better than the way we filled the LAST empty Wholess year...by watching Class.

Well yeah that's what kept me watching some of the last few years but even the promise of Nitcentral wasn't enough to get me through Capaldi's seasons.

I think you may start to feel nostalgic for Class as like you said you barely noticed it was on. This is going to be inescapable.

Here's my only problem with the casting. Moffat made the Master female, but in doing so he wrote her more stereotypically feminine--she cared more, she was less evil, she cried, she regretted her past masculine-laced evil actions, etc. Granted, it won't be Moffat helming Whittaker's Doctor, but it will still be a man (and one I'm not terribly excited about to boot). Right now, I'm having trouble imagining a male doing her justice. Ultimately, it's still a female working for a male boss. I'd much prefer a female Doctor with a female executive producer.

My mind is open and I hope it goes well. I'll just have to wait and see.

she cared more, she was less evil, she cried, she regretted her past masculine-laced evil actions, etc.

Not before the Doctor started working on her in that vault of his.

Three comments:

1- I liked it better when we found out who the new Doctor was after the regeneration was done.

2- The TARDIS appears to have accepted the new female Doctor, so if she's good enough for her, she's good enough for me.

3- Unlike 'Master' who had to be updated to 'Missy', 'Doctor' works fine for either gender, so the show's title won't have to change.

1- I liked it better when we found out who the new Doctor was after the regeneration was done.

That has NEVER happened. The new Doctor was announced before the regeneration- right back to Troughton.

Of course, we'll see all of one minute of her at the end of the Christmas special and then we'll have to wait over a year for the first proper ep.

I will just add, I LOVE this casting but the Doctor is only as good as the people writing for him/her. Chibnall needs to up his own game as well as the rest of the writers or the series will (as Daniel has said twice in as many posts) be in the "last chance saloon".

Poor Ian Levine

Doctor: can you put this in your pocket?
A man: Doctor this is your one weapon
Doctor: Aye and where tf am I supposed to keep it

(I'm not saying this is what happens when you can see my phone poking out of my bra but it totally is)

Not before the Doctor started working on her in that vault of his.

Well, slightly before that, at the so-called execution.

For the record, I wasn't thrilled with her depiction before that either. I don't like 'bananas' evil. Writing someone as bananas is an excuse to do anything without worrying about it making sense. The cold, calculated evil of Delgado, and to a lesser extent Ainley, was far more sinister than having someone go around proclaiming to be bananas.

Ultimately, it's still a female working for a male boss

Nonsense, the Doctor is the boss and Chibnall and every other showrunner and writer is non-canonical! As I seem to remember having to explain to Steven Moffat at Tavern once when he tried to pull rank on me...

she cared more, she was less evil, she cried, she regretted her past masculine-laced evil actions, etc.

True, and it's not like I haven't spent the last few years complaining about her penchant for kisses and make-up, but she retained the essential Mastery evil and flamboyance and that's the most important thing. Plus, so much of her was putting on an act for the Doctor's benefit, the Doctor herself won't have that problem.

Mmmmm. *Pauses to savour 'the Doctor herself'*

(Poor Capaldi, it's like he's regenerated into ancient history ALREADY. Well, that'll teach him to keep having fake regenerations.)

The TARDIS appears to have accepted the new female Doctor, so if she's good enough for her, she's good enough for me.

Sexy's schizophrenic. One moment she was whizzing off to the end of the universe to throw off our poor darling Captain Jack, the next she was welcoming him aboard. And her (never explained!) attitude towards Clara veered from 'spiteful cow' to 'unprecedented submission'.

Unlike 'Master' who had to be updated to 'Missy'

The HELL it did!

I liked it better when we found out who the new Doctor was after the regeneration was done.

That has NEVER happened.

I still dream about what would have happened if they'd managed to keep Eccy's betrayal under wraps. Sure, I'd've died on the spot as he turned into Tennant but what a way to go.

Of course, we'll see all of one minute of her at the end of the Christmas special and then we'll have to wait over a year for the first proper ep.

Nine months, surely, if Season 11/37 starts in Autumn 2018?

Poor Ian Levine

Ah, the icing on the cake...

Not before the Doctor started working on her in that vault of his.

Well, slightly before that, at the so-called execution.

Though the Master does have a habit of grovellingly repenting of his evil ways in order to save his skin and totally not meaning it - see The Time Monster.

I don't like 'bananas' evil. Writing someone as bananas is an excuse to do anything without worrying about it making sense. The cold, calculated evil of Delgado, and to a lesser extent Ainley, was far more sinister than having someone go around proclaiming to be bananas.

Theoretically speaking of course you're right but I adore Missy's bananas version of evil, and even Simm's attempts at it, inferior as they were to hers.

Poor McGann. Jodie! has already beaten his number of posts by a good 20% and all we've got is sixty seconds of her strolling around not saying a word.

(Well, that and her 'It feels completely overwhelming, as a feminist, as a woman, as an actor, as a human' - me LIKE the order she put that in...)

So we've got a whole year of the fandom fighting itself

Nothing new.

and the show a lot of brainachingly stupid opinion pieces on the subject

Also not new.

and the show itself trolling the fanbase

Would be new, but is not actually going to happen (except in the minds of a few idiots who think they are the fanbase).

and all we've got is sixty seconds of her strolling around not saying a word.

To be fair "sixty seconds" represents a good proportion of McGann's screen time.

To be fair "sixty seconds" represents a good proportion of McGann's screen time.

LIES ALL LI - er, slight exaggerations...

In case you needed clarification

Bugger me we're a funny bunch

Though at least ONE of those was perfectly true. ('Doctor Who's rotting carcass is briefly revived, plugged into the life-support machine known as EastEnders. Doctor Who dies.')

Plus 22/03/1984, but that goes without saying.

Considering the bashing Chibnall has taken for his scripts (*waves* Hi, Chibby!) he really had nothing to lose with this casting.

Had Capaldi stayed on for another year, Chibby probably would have felt pressured to cast another man, but now if the show tanks he can blame the woman and not his scripts.

;-)

I should point out that not only do i keep my phone in my bra, Romana tucks the sonic screwdriver down her cleavage in "The Creature from the Pit".

I have now seen my Doctor naked.

Entirely my fault for opening that copy of The Sun, of course, but I was so enchanted by the new 'DOCTHER' being their main front-page story that I just couldn't help it...and in my defence it's been a few decades since I actually touched The Sun, maybe I was assuming its reputation was exaggerated or something...

Surely no worse than this:

http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Sexterminate_Him!_Dr_Who's_Too_Blue

Plus we've been exposed to lots of explicit Doctor-related nudity in other things: Matt Smith in 'Christopher and His Kind', Tom Baker in 'The Canterbury Tales', Jon Pertwee in 'Spearhead from Space'...

Just over 24 hours ago the Facebook fan page had 8.5 million likes, it now has 5.3 million. I'm really worried guys, I think you're overestimating how much of the fanbase wants this.

They have done polls time and time again on the subject and the majority always says no. They won't all vote with their feet especially not at first but this is make or break time.

Jodie is so Chinball's human shield Keith, btw what's his shorthand going to be?

You're right Kate after the ghost busters debacle they won't dare insult the fanbase themselves. Best to let them fight it out.

Just over 24 hours ago the Facebook fan page had 8.5 million likes, it now has 5.3 million.

Blimey, if Doctor Who loses that many viewers the ratings will go negative!

You're right Kate after the ghost busters debacle they won't dare insult the fanbase themselves.

Given that none of that is based on anything I've said, implied or would ever think, I'm fairly glad not to be "right". So let's have a recap:

1) The fanbase is not insulted by this. 2) The idea that "the fanbase" is a thing to be appeased/not insulted by the BBC is risible. 3) The so-called "Ghostbusters debacle" is such an obvious case of whingeing misogynist entitlement in action that anyone citing is damaging rather than bolstering their case.

It's true that there's a tiny number of fans who'll stop watching 'Doctor Who' because of this, and good riddance to them. I've sat through three mediocre-to-terrible Capaldi seasons without feeling the need to bugger off. As far as I'm concerned, if these wimps can't cope with a casting announcement we're better off without them.

Sorry but you're wrong, over half the fanbase doesn't want this, the numbers have been clear For years, and over a third leaving the Facebook page shows that this is not just a case of a few people you can ignore.

Points 2 and 3 go together, Ghostbusters bombed partly due to misogyny, partly due to everyone and anyone making the situation worse by riling the fanbase that obviously didn't want it and partly due to poor execution of the film, remove any one of those three and it might have made some money. Trust me attitudes will harden this next year, every meme about man babies (rather inaccurate given how many women seem to be cross) means one more fan who won't give it a chance.

We can't afford to be better off without them we won't have a show without them. Even if just a third of that number stops watching that looses the show that's over a million viewers lost, Jodie has one chance to regain the masses, episode one, just like Capaldi she'll get a huge boost from the curiosity factor, probably more but if that first ep blows it the show is in trouble.

Has any of you given a thought to the possibility that the shift in Doctor gender might attract a LOT of fresh viewers intrigued by the move? AND allow the show to regenerate into something more creative than it's been in a some time?

Yes I have, but that very rarely works. Plus any more the moon is an egg and the show is finished, and let's not pretend there's not some stinkers in the works already

I like this guy's opinion on the subject. It starts at 7:20. Fair warning, he talks fast, so pay close attention.

It's true that there's a tiny number of fans who'll stop watching 'Doctor Who' because of this, and good riddance to them. I've sat through three mediocre-to-terrible Capaldi seasons without feeling the need to bugger off. As far as I'm concerned, if these wimps can't cope with a casting announcement we're better off without them.

Well said. The challenge I set my FB friends who were fistpumping the decision was to back it up with action. Watch the Christmas special and the next season and replace the those that are crouched in their basement cuddling their Tom Baker dvds......

We'll see, I'm not worried about her debut episode she'll get a big curiosity factor boost for that, possibly more than Capaldi, it's what happens by episode 7 when they're into the cheap episodes and the curiosity has worn off and people have stopped watching to make a point. That's when we'll know.

How long do people think it'll be before the next companion finds out the Doctor used to be male, if they ever do?

I can't really see the Doctor openly telling his new companion 'I've only been a woman for three days'. More likely, they'll only find out when they encounter one of the Doctor's old enemies..

Sorry but you're wrong, over half the fanbase doesn't want this,

1) Not true. 2) Fall that Who fans like to complain that the sky is falling, they still end up watching. 3) Maybe a tiny, tiny number of idiots won't, but who cares? We don't need them stinking up our fandom.

the numbers have been clear For years, and over a third leaving the Facebook page shows that this is not just a case of a few people you can ignore.

And in the real world, Doctor Who permanently lost a third of its audience when Capaldi took over as the Doctor. (That's the real audience, not the small, porous and irrelevant 'fanbase', and something that's actually really happened not an inane projection based on dubious stats.) I don't recall any widespread wailing and gnashing of teeth from fandom then, or demands that we appease the tiny batch of nutters who thought Capaldi was too old or too Scottish to be the Doctor.

Let's not panic our way into indulging the worst of us, OK?

So we've got a whole year of the fandom fighting itself and the show a lot of brainachingly stupid opinion pieces on the subject and the show itself trolling the fanbase until finally the next season starts and everyone sees what they want to see, brace yourselves people.

The sad thing is, this isn't unique to Doctor Who. It seems to be the norm nowadays, and frequently makes me despair for humanity. The Sherlock fandom have been similarly tearing themselves apart ever since Season 2 aired, and it didn't help that Moffat and Gatiss took great pleasure in trolling the fandom and winding them up even worse. If Chibnall and his team have any common sense, they'll avoid this type of behaviour in future. (Although no doubt some of the 'fans' will claim he's already done it with his first casting choice.)

On another matter, it'll be interesting to see where and when the writers send the latest incarnation of the Doctor. Will they avoid sending her to times on Earth when women were very much more the second-class citizens? My first instinct is that, although watching the Doctor metaphorically (and possibly physically) kick the backsides of old-fashioned men might be delightful, maybe the writers need to concentrate - certainly in Jodie's first season - on avoiding too much sexism-whumping and just establishing her as the character regardless of gender; so maybe base her early episodes off Earth. Maybe once she's settled into the role they could start looking into how she'll be perceived in pre 21st century situations.

---
The sad thing is, this isn't unique to Doctor Who. It seems to be the norm nowadays, and frequently makes me despair for humanity.
---
Lets be honest, even pleasing some of the people some of the time seems to be a goal too far nowadays - no matter who it had been people would have been complaining about the choice (even someone like Benedict Cumberbatch).

But as to the actual casting, there'll almost certainly be some writer thinking "Ah ha, I can use her to discuss..." and she'll wind up being used to obviously hit the audience over the head with whatever the writer's personal take and preferred resolution of the issue is, rather than being done much more subtley. Hopefully Chibnall can minimise that while still keeping a good story, but it's probably going to take a lot of work.

I'm just glad it's not Matt coming back.

Will they avoid sending her to times on Earth when women were very much more the second-class citizens?

That would be completely out of character for the Doctor. She will go wherever and whenever she pleases and people's sexism (or lack thereof) be damned.

I'm kind of looking forward to the first time she encounters Daleks.

I don't think the excitement over Whittaker can be sustained, even here, for the next 14 months. Not at this level, at least, with zero footage to drool over.

Emily - "...see if you can find anything ELSE to fill the gaping chasm in your soul (NB: YOU WON'T)."

Actually, I'm pretty full right now, what with Arrow, Gotham, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Agents of SHIELD, Supergirl, Hell's Kitchen, Big Bang Theory, Tosh.O, Ridiculousness, Impractical Jokers, Star Trek - Discovery, pay-per-views, DC and Marvel movies, plus all my tapes and DVD's of the two series, plus a dozen other shows I'm into.
Emily won't be, but I'm pretty sure I'll be okay for the next one to three years.

Just over 24 hours ago the Facebook fan page had 8.5 million likes, it now has 5.3 million.

OK, that IS a bad sign.

I even made the Supreme Sacrifice and dragged myself onto Facebook to up it by one.

I think you're overestimating how much of the fanbase wants this.

I seem to remember Russell T God making it perfectly clear he didn't give a •••• how much he pissed off fans - it simply meant they'd watch each episode ten times instead of twenty.

Jodie has one chance to regain the masses, episode one

Terrifying, isn't it.

I mean, we had an identical situation with The Eleventh Hour, it just - thank the gods - wasn't public knowledge until YEARS afterwards how closely the vultures were circling when we lost Tennant and RTG.

Has any of you given a thought to the possibility that the shift in Doctor gender might attract a LOT of fresh viewers intrigued by the move? AND allow the show to regenerate into something more creative than it's been in a some time?

Certainly have!

Well said. The challenge I set my FB friends who were fistpumping the decision was to back it up with action. Watch the Christmas special and the next season and replace the those that are crouched in their basement cuddling their Tom Baker dvds......

Hear hear!

Not that there's anything WRONG with crouching in a basement cuddling your Tom Baker DVDs per se...

it's what happens by episode 7 when they're into the cheap episodes and the curiosity has worn off and people have stopped watching to make a point. That's when we'll know.

Ah, I have a Cunning Plan for this eventuality if it DOES all go pear-shaped: I just have to trust Jon Blum and then I'll live happily ever after, secure in the knowledge that Who's viewing figures have never had it so good even if they've reduced to him, me, and the cat.

How long do people think it'll be before the next companion finds out the Doctor used to be male, if they ever do?

Dammit, this would all be a lot more fun with an EXISTING Companion, I'd be demanding the return of Bill if I could stomach the thought of the Doctor battling it out with A PUDDLE for her affections.

I can't really see the Doctor openly telling his new companion 'I've only been a woman for three days'. More likely, they'll only find out when they encounter one of the Doctor's old enemies..

Come to think of it, Missy's stupid 'When he used to be a little girl' line to Clara has pretty much ruined that moment of GENUINE revelation when a villain breaks the news to a Companion, hasn't it.

And in the real world, Doctor Who permanently lost a third of its audience when Capaldi took over as the Doctor...I don't recall any widespread wailing and gnashing of teeth from fandom then, or demands that we appease the tiny batch of nutters who thought Capaldi was too old or too Scottish to be the Doctor.

Maybe that's where we went wrong.

Of course, Capaldi had massive amounts of goodwill simply from being One Of Us, A Crazy Fan. Jodie! won't.

Will they avoid sending her to times on Earth when women were very much more the second-class citizens? My first instinct is that, although watching the Doctor metaphorically (and possibly physically) kick the backsides of old-fashioned men might be delightful, maybe the writers need to concentrate - certainly in Jodie's first season - on avoiding too much sexism-whumping and just establishing her as the character regardless of gender

It's a tricky one, I haven't really been convinced by the way New Who has tackled racism when Bill or Martha went back in time and have no faith they could cope any better with sexism.

Or maybe I'm just scarred for life from that time the Doctor told Sarah Jane to tell Thalira all about Women's Lib...

Emily - "...see if you can find anything ELSE to fill the gaping chasm in your soul (NB: YOU WON'T)."

Actually, I'm pretty full right now, what with Arrow, Gotham, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Agents of SHIELD, Supergirl, Hell's Kitchen, Big Bang Theory, Tosh.O, Ridiculousness, Impractical Jokers, Star Trek - Discovery, pay-per-views, DC and Marvel movies, plus all my tapes and DVD's of the two series, plus a dozen other shows I'm into.

But they're just television programmes! You can't possibly love them the way you do WHO!

Incidentally...do we reckon that now that Our Hero FINALLY has two genders, that weird she-or-he pronoun thing will at last take off? (And, er, what IS it again? Xe?)

The polls always say the same thing, even yougov, the fanbase doesn't want a female doc, they're not all going to quit over it but the majority of the fans don't want it.

Actually a million quit over Capaldi, he brought back 2 million who did not stay the rest quit over that season. And where have you been cries of being back tennant are years old. Plus they were in denial ver that and even he didn't cause a mass exodus, can you not see millions unlikeing the page is a bad sign?

Callie, Chris you're absolutely right, writers will have to be stopped from using her to make a point, at least at first, but that's not likely.

I'm pretty sure RTD didn't lose a third of his fanbase with one casting decision, though if it cheers you up Emily I expect that they'll ease her out before they cancel the show.

In fact I think it could be closer to 4.3 million lost. The screen cap of the Facebook page showed it at 8.5 but that's just when the guy thought to screenshot it, who knows how many went before that, I was sure it was over 9 million fans recently

Sci fi rarely handles sexism well, they always seem to mess it up, or just take part in it, though it would be nice to see more offworld action.

I expect we can stick with he Emily, this won't last long I fear.

The polls always say the same thing, even yougov, the fanbase doesn't want a female doc

Actually the YouGov poll was in favour.

I'm pretty sure RTD didn't lose a third of his fanbase with one casting decision

No, but he lost a few million with 'Rose' even though it's approximately the best thing in human history.

I think most fans were massively unhappy when Billie Piper was announced but after TSLABYOD we weren't gonna jeopardise anything by kicking up too much of a fuss and besides, she's only a mere assistant...

though if it cheers you up Emily I expect that they'll ease her out before they cancel the show.

Gee, thanks.

I expect we can stick with he Emily, this won't last long I fear.

Screw THAT. I'm not referring to someone who's one-thirteenth (um, one-fourteenth. One-fifteenth?) female as 'he'.

Unless yougov has done a new poll recently it showed the public as not being in favour.

Maysb that's the problem, this show is supposed to have an audience of around 6 million but Tennant kept it artificially high.
Still it shows how radical change can cause millions to switch off, and the first season had a steady decline that was only reversed by Tennant. If the fandom was unhappy with the casting of Billie Piper spending too much time on her family could easily have been the reason for the decline.

One 14th female, yes ten wasted a regeneration but he kept his body.

Unless yougov has done a new poll recently it showed the public as not being in favour.

'The BBC has announced that the next Doctor Who will be played by a woman for the first time. Do you see this as a positive or negative move?
Positive move 36%
Negative move 14%
Neither positive nor negative move 43%
Don't know 7%'

Pretty positive, then.

Maysb that's the problem, this show is supposed to have an audience of around 6 million but Tennant kept it artificially high.

Yup, that's EXACTLY the problem. Bloody Tennant turned it into a worldwide phenomena whereas of course Who SHOULD just be ticking along nice and quietly in the schedules FOREVER.

If the fandom was unhappy with the casting of Billie Piper spending too much time on her family could easily have been the reason for the decline.

Nope, everyone TOTALLY got over that once they realised she was actually an excellent actor.

Hopefully the same will happen for Jodie! (Sorry, am TRYING to lose the exclamation mark. It's pure sexism to have one attached to her name and not any of the other Docs just because she's A WOMAN A WOMAN WE HAVE A WOMAN DOCTOR EVERYONE!!)

One 14th female, yes ten wasted a regeneration but he kept his body.

That was SO not a waste of a regeneration.

That's not yougov, that's the radio times results and sorry but no chance there's been a 40-60% swing in 4 years. Plus it doesn't really matter what the radio times readership thinks, what matters is what the viewers think. Plus it's not exactly a ringing endorsement 43% unhappy but waiting to see what she's like.

I think Billie Piper is a good actor but her soapy plots weren't enough for me to like Rose as a character

Whittaker’s already been hit with a barrage of misogyny, and I hope the BBC is filtering her mail.

That's not yougov, that's the radio times results

No, it's YouGov.

and sorry but no chance there's been a 40-60% swing in 4 years.

Whyever not? Missy would change a LOT of minds.

Plus it's not exactly a ringing endorsement 43% unhappy but waiting to see what she's like.

How did you possibly deduce that 'not negative about it' equates to 'unhappy'?

Oh so it is, sorry the radio times did a poll with almost identical figures. Maybe they stole it from yougov.

I'm not convinced walking gender stereotype missy changed the minds of 40-60% of the population

The radio times one strongly implied the 43% weren't happy but would wait and see.

I am never impressed by people who go straight to listing the reasons that a change (of any kind, in any domain) will lead to a disaster. Jodie Whittaker is now a fact. So is Chris Chibnall. I will not speculate on the quality of the resulting future Doctor Who episodes, that would be pointless. I WILL wait for the new season with the new Doctor and new showrunner to start and THEN I will have an opinion about them.

I'm not convinced walking gender stereotype missy changed the minds of 40-60% of the population

Well SOMETHING obviously did, maybe that crazy 'Women's Lib' stuff is finally getting through after all...?

Though bear in mind, said walking gender stereotype WAS the best thing about the last three seasons of Who.

The radio times one strongly implied the 43% weren't happy but would wait and see.

How DARE they extrapolate THAT from 'Neither positive or negative'?

I will not speculate on the quality of the resulting future Doctor Who episodes, that would be pointless.

Pointless?!

The point is to fill the next fourteen-or-so MONTHS!

(Well, maybe YOU have better things to do with your time but I most certainly do not.)

I WILL wait for the new season with the new Doctor and new showrunner to start and THEN I will have an opinion about them.

But they've both got a large body of previous work that we can (unfortunately in Chibnall's case) extrapolate from.

But they've both got a large body of previous work that we can (unfortunately in Chibnall's case) extrapolate from.

I for one am looking forward to seeing Jodie Whittaker's Cyberbikini.

Kate, Chibnall's work is "rapey and exploitative" according to Kate Orman

While Emily no doubt popped the champagne cork once the story broke (she's been waiting decades for this), others are not so enthusiastic.

This can end only in two ways.

1. It will usher in a new era of Doctor Who, and fans will accept the new female Doctor with open arms.

2. It will crash and burn. Thank you, good night, Doctor Who: R.I.P.

Let's not kid ourselves folks, it's either Option 1 or 2 here. There is no in-between. This is it, this is really it.

Only time will tell which Option will happen.

Emily - But they're just television programmes! You can't possibly love them the way you do WHO!"

Well, there's...uh...I mean, I really like...uh.
You're right.
Dang-it!

I think it's far more likely the poll got an unrepresentative sample.

Better speculating on episode quality than arguing the merits of the gender change for the next 14 months, at least we all agree on Chris (well mostly)

You've forgotten option 3 Tim, the mass exodus coincides with a mass influx that keeps it going as it is now, slowly declining, like I said Jodie is gone before Who goes under, as Emily said it's all they have left

OMG, the BBC's been forced to issue a statement because of the criticism they are getting over casting Whittaker :'(

Chibnall's work is "rapey and exploitative" according to Kate Orman

Does she say why? (I mean, leaving aside Cyberwoman, OBVIOUSLY.)

Surely Solomon tacitly threatening Nefertiti with rape wasn't ENDORSING it, it was just facing up to a fact of the universe that usually gets ignored (except when Barbara and Peri are around)?

While Emily no doubt popped the champagne cork once the story broke (she's been waiting decades for this), others are not so enthusiastic.

SOMEONE obviously didn't read my post on my temporary teetotalism.

This can end only in two ways.

1. It will usher in a new era of Doctor Who, and fans will accept the new female Doctor with open arms.

2. It will crash and burn. Thank you, good night, Doctor Who: R.I.P.

Don't we have that bizarre deal with China guaranteeing Who for another several years?

Well, there's...uh...I mean, I really like...uh.
You're right.
Dang-it!
:-)

HA!

Better speculating on episode quality than arguing the merits of the gender change for the next 14 months, at least we all agree on Chris (well mostly)

But I don't WANT people to agree with me on Chris! I want them to persuade me what a marvellous showrunner he'll be!

But I don't WANT people to agree with me on Chris! I want them to persuade me what a marvellous showrunner he'll be!
Given that you have NEVER changed your mind on anything Who-related unless you dragged YOURSELF kicking and screaming into the opposite opinion I doubt anyone will be able to achieve that.

But I don't WANT people to agree with me on Chris! I want them to persuade me what a marvellous showrunner he'll be!

Well, judging from his choice of actor for the Doctor, he's style will be very different from Moffat's, which at this point is a good thing by default.

Let me clarify that I don't think Moffat's style was bad, but it had become stale and repetitive as of late, so a clean break from it can only be an improvement. Whether it will remain a good thing as the new season evolves is another matter. I have a positive feeling about it though.

Kate, Chibnall's work is "rapey and exploitative" according to Kate Orman

It's going to be so much fun watching her husband desperately praising Chibnall and all his works as part of his ongoing campaign to get commissioned to write 'Time Rift' for the series proper...

you have NEVER changed your mind on anything Who-related unless you dragged YOURSELF kicking and screaming into the opposite opinion

Oh, nonsense, I'm sure ONE of you must have made an excellent and convincing point...sometime...

Let me clarify that I don't think Moffat's style was bad, but it had become stale and repetitive as of late

You're too kind, let's face it, he was repeating himself by Silence in the Library.

Kate, Chibnall's work is "rapey and exploitative" according to Kate Orman

It's going to be so much fun watching her husband desperately praising Chibnall and all his works as part of his ongoing campaign to get commissioned to write 'Time Rift' for the series proper...

I'm sure Jon Blum is defending the non-existent honour of the Doctor Who Ratings out of sheer insane conviction rather than any hope of reward...

...Well, Time Rift-related reward anyway, I wouldn't actually mind seeing Vampire Science or Seeing I on-screen. Though come to think of it, three years in the nick for the Doctor isn't as revolutionary in these post-Heaven-Sent days as it used to be.

Still, at least his vampires aren't buxom fish from space.

I'm sure Jon Blum is defending the non-existent honour of the Doctor Who Ratings out of sheer insane conviction rather than any hope of reward...

Possibly, but a man who once claimed that a Hugo nomination for softcore spoof 'Flesh Gordon' was proof that Doctor Who wasn't popular in the 1970s has got to be angling for something.

On a serious note, it's interesting that a lot of people have latched onto Whittaker's casting being front page news as a sign that 'Doctor Who' is still popular despite the dismal ratings.

Possibly, but a man who once claimed that a Hugo nomination for softcore spoof 'Flesh Gordon' was proof that Doctor Who wasn't popular in the 1970s has got to be angling for something.

Oh-kay, what was his - for want of a better word - reasoning?

it's interesting that a lot of people have latched onto Whittaker's casting being front page news as a sign that 'Doctor Who' is still popular despite the dismal ratings.

Well, I dunno about popular at the moment but my GOD it's embedded in our national psyche, even TSLABYOD couldn't take THAT away from us...

"The powerful female life force she brings to the role"

In hindsight, it was a bad idea to let Magnus Greel write the response.

THANK you!

I KNEW there was something off about that, I just couldn't put my finger on it...

For what it's worth, there have been several successful female Doctors in fan films.

The first and most remarkable was Barbara Benedetti, who played the Doctor four times in Ryan K Johnson's Seattle International films, between 1984 and 1988. The Benedetti/Ryan collaboration was significant. Benedetti was one of the first 'original' or 'nth' Fan Doctors. She was the first Fan Doctor to play in a series, rather than a one off. They were the first professional level productions - their first story, Wrath of Eukor, was shot on 16 mm film stock, something that the actual series seldom achieved. Their second was shot on commercial video. Benedetti was a trained professional actress. On the whole, Benedetti's series of four half hour stories were shorter than the comparable seasons, but the quality matched or exceeded the quality of Colin Baker's last and Sylvester McCoy's first year - that's as much a condemnation of those years as a celebration of Benedetti/Johnson. But make no mistake, this was excellent stuff.

Also in the 1980s, the Thames Valley Time Lords introduced a female Doctor in their very peculiar Persephone Complex, notable for having been shot in the ruins of an actual Roman Amphitheatre.

In the 1990s, Sharon Crookes (Horton) featured as the Doctor in the rather forgettable Rutan, but went on to star in a feature length, three part serial called The Alliance. While decidedly low fi and low budget, it is an ambitious and enjoyable production, and Crookes performance is reminiscent of Davison's.

Then in the new era, Lily Daniels starred as the Doctor in a pair of half hour adventures collectively called The Ginger Chronicles.

There's another recent short fan film called Lucky 13, also featuring a female Doctor.

So yes, some fans are misogynistic twats, and some don't tolerate change. But I just want it on the record that fans have also been out over thirty years in advance of the BBC on this. They repeatedly showed it could be done, they did it to extraordinary standards of quality, and they did it with passion, integrity, conviction.

For every fan who says the Doctor can't be a woman, I throw Barbara Benedetti in their face. She did it thirty years ago, and she was terrific.

Anywhere we'd have a chance to see some of those? On Youtube or Vimeo perhaps?

As a random side-note, would the concept of "transgender" even really exist for a species that has at least subconscious control over what body (including gender) they regenerate into?

Anybody else this reaction?

https://youtu.be/ZAMm6Gv9F4c

Here Natalie goes with the transgender cr@p again....

One has to reluctantly admit, however, that on THIS occasion she's perfectly justified in airing this particular obsession.

There's a deal with China guaranteeing the show's continued existence? I've never heard of this.

Which begs a second question will they accept a female doc?

There's a deal with China guaranteeing the show's continued existence? I've never heard of this.

Season 15/41, everyone, let's worship the Butchers of Beijing!

We discuss it in Ask the Matrix: Why there won't be a new series.

You're right, of course, the Chinese will have immense problems with a female Doctor, it's great that Chibnall is prepared to spit in their faces like this, very reassuring that his Doctor won't start massacring innocent democracy demonstrators or anything.

Oh, and just for the record: Jodie! now has TWICE as many posts as poor old Paul 'Bring me knitting!' McGann. Doctors Two, Three, Seven and War are also EATING HER DUST.

Likely a temporary situation that will eventually sort itself out.

Yeah, cos as soon as we actually SEE and HEAR Jodie! in action AS THE DOCTOR we're bound to...just stop talking about her.

No, the 14 months before her first episode will slow us all down. Sooner or later we'll just be repeating ourselves.

Capaldi n'Moffat discussing The Joyous News.

Of course, The Moff is lying through his teeth about there only being one Fan upset by the news and Capaldi is lying through his teeth about the idea coming from Steven (it was TOM BAKER, people!) but apart from that...

I'm loving this tweet.

I guess that's a good sign then, even if the ratings tank over Jodie/Chris China has given them some breathing space and time to rebuild the ratings or to take drastic measures if needed.

China also has a problem with ghost stories, or will they get round that as the ghosts in Who are always aliens?

No backlash? Is that a clue into what's been going wrong the last few years? Steven Moffat just doesn't hear negative feedback which is why it took him years to try to fix the systemic problems.

We'll have her episode boards to discuss her on Emily.

No backlash? Is that a clue into what's been going wrong the last few years? Steven Moffat just doesn't hear negative feedback which is why it took him years to try to fix the systemic problems.

That would make perfect sense, except that Moffat obviously WAS listening to SOME of the negative feedback - those Abomination So-Called Daleks got shot-from-the-front, fossilised, and replaced-by-the-real-thing awfully fast...

Even Stephen Moffat isn't completely deaf, or maybe after that he resolved never to listen to the fans again.

Oh, that's unfair, I got the impression that Season 10/36 was an attempt to address the criticisms with a clean slate, good straightforward traditional stories and a platonic TARDIS team, even if by the Grand Finale he was totally back to his old timey-wimey-convolutions, kill-off-the-Companion-a-few-times-and-resurrect-her-and-have-her-fancy-the-Doctor tricks.

Reading the letters in the Radio Times this morning I realised that the major flaw in the "but the Doctor was always a positive role model for boys" argument is that a lot of the men who grew up watching Doctor Who seem to be utter scumbags.

True he did listen for this series and even the last episode used timey wimey in a sensible way, but as it was still rammed full of Moffetisms it felt a bit more like he lost his grip than he really realised he had to change.

I don't think it's that awful an opinion to say we shouldn't chnwge the gender of to characters.

Reading the letters in the Radio Times this morning I realised that the major flaw in the "but the Doctor was always a positive role model for boys" argument is that a lot of the men who grew up watching Doctor Who seem to be utter scumbags.

Ah.

Yes.

Well, maybe they grew up with the wrong kind of Doctor, like Patrick 'Why not make some coffee to keep them all happy while I think of something' Troughton instead of, say, Matt 'Do as you're told' Smith...er, bad example, maybe we'll have to wait for the Peter 'Is the future going to be all girl?' 'We can only hope' Capaldi AND JODIE! generation to grow up...

it felt a bit more like he lost his grip than he really realised he had to change.

We must agree to differ, though I'll bear that in mind during the Great Rewatch.

I don't think it's that awful an opinion to say we shouldn't chnwge the gender of to characters.

It is if the character in question is a shape-changing alien and no one can come up with an actual reason* why he SHOULDN'T change.

*No, 'I'm a male chauvinist!' isn't an actual reason.

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Reading the letters in the Radio Times this morning I realised that the major flaw in the "but the Doctor was always a positive role model for boys" argument is that a lot of the men who grew up watching Doctor Who seem to be utter scumbags.
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Hold on a second, let me see if I can find you a bigger brush to tar everyone with...

If you think the uproar about casting Jodie as the Doctor is bad, wait until she decides to leave and is replaced with a man in 3-4 years time.
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Well, maybe they grew up with the wrong kind of Doctor, like Patrick 'Why not make some coffee to keep them all happy while I think of something' Troughton instead of, say, Matt 'Do as you're told' Smith...er, bad example, maybe we'll have to wait for the Peter 'Is the future going to be all girl?' 'We can only hope' Capaldi AND JODIE! generation to grow up...
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Or no Doctor at all thanks to Michael Grade.

Hold on a second, let me see if I can find you a bigger brush to tar everyone with...

Be fair, she DID say 'a lot' not EVERYONE.

If you think the uproar about casting Jodie as the Doctor is bad, wait until she decides to leave and is replaced with a man in 3-4 years time.

A man would probably feel a bit...retrograde, come to think of it. Though I'd be fine with retrograde if he was Tennant or Eccy or someone very nearly as good as them.

A man would probably feel a bit...retrograde, come to think of it.

Well, they could just alternate from now on.

Yup, fine by me, though I just can't help pointing out that we need TWELVE more female Doctors to achieve equality...

For those of us that are 5,804 kilometres from the U.K., can you give us an example of what was said in the Radio Times?

I just feel you shouldn't change characters genders, any characters. In any franchise, I'd be the same if you suggested a male Ripley or Cortana.

Plus regeneration idea that changes gender is a very new thing. 50 years without so much as a hint then it crops up everywhere. Moffat has crowbarred it in solely to prepare the ground for this. It would be a bit like JK Rowling suddenly revealing a skin colour changing spell solely so she can cast Idris Elba as Harry Potter in the next film.

50 years without so much as a hint

ELDRAD (after degenerating from she to he): Oh come, Doctor, you sound like Professor Watson. As a Time Lord you should be well acquainted with the processes of regeneration.

And even if there HADN'T been a hint, so what? Would you have said in 1966 that 'There has never been so much as a hint that the Doctor can "renew" himself into a new body and personality, let the programme die with Hartnell'?

It would be a bit like JK Rowling suddenly revealing a skin colour changing spell solely so she can cast Idris Elba as Harry Potter in the next film.

Funny you should say that, there was a lot of fuss when Hermione was played by a black actor in the Cursed Child play, whereupon JK Rowling pointed out that all the books ever said about her appearance was fuzzy-haired and buck-toothed and NOTHING about being white.

50 years without so much as a hint then it crops up everywhere.

Apart from endless post-Tom arguments in fandom and the media about "could there be a woman Doctor?", Joanna Lumley in 'The Curse of Fatal Death', female Big Finish Doctors and Telos Masters, and the unambiguously canon statement in 'The Doctor's Wife' that individual Time Lords can change sex, it was very quiet.

Eldrad was an alien, not a Tim e Lord.

"And even if there HADN'T been a hint, so what? Would you have said in 1966 that 'There has never been so much as a hint that the Doctor can "renew" himself into a new body and personality, let the programme die with Hartnell'?"

Says the person who to this rejects Colin Baker was the Doctor.

Other than 'The Doctor's Wife' example everything else is not canon. You can pick and choose a million details in fan fiction or the audios, but we've never considered them 'canon' around here. You might as well include a commercial for a new computer featuring Four and Romana as 'canon'.

And you still haven't said what was said in the Radio Times.

Eldrad was an alien, not a Tim e Lord.

That's what made it such a masterly, low-key way of sliding sex-change regenerations into the canon. Eldrad just ASSUMED that of course Time Lords could do likewise. As did I.

Would you have said in 1966 that 'There has never been so much as a hint that the Doctor can "renew" himself into a new body and personality, let the programme die with Hartnell'?"

Says the person who to this rejects Colin Baker was the Doctor.

Nope, most of the time I reluctantly accept that he was technically speaking possibly some sort of bizarre aberrant-Doctor, I just HATE OLD SIXIE'S GUTS.

And you haven't answered my question.

Alex Kingston reaction finding out Jodie Whittacker is the 13th Doctor.

Other than 'The Doctor's Wife' example everything else is not canon. You can pick and choose a million details in fan fiction or the audios, but we've never considered them 'canon' around here.

Er... what has this got to do with "canon"? You're acting like the notion of a female Doctor is something that's just been sprung on us out of nowhere. I pointed out that we've had at least 36 years of it being an active possibility that's been argued over and illustrated at length.

Canon is not the issue here.

And you still haven't said what was said in the Radio Times.

Would you believe that the latest edition of Radio Times includes discussion about and opinions of Jodie Whittaker's casting as the Doctor?

Hard to credit, but true.

Alex Kingston reaction finding out Jodie Whittacker is the 13th Doctor.

I suppose technically speaking there's no reason she shouldn't take time out from her 24-year-Capaldi-shagathon to meet Jodie, right...?

There's a letter in my local paper saying that Whittacker looks like she should be working for a bank, probably not quite the response the BBC wants.

Probably a result of all those Scottish Widows adverts.

Still, it beats screaming for the evil witch to be burnt at the stake for having ovaries, I suppose.

Danny has a valid point here. Never in all the run of Classic Who, was there any indication that Time Lords could change sexes.

While I don't oppose a female Doctor, this whole Time Lords changing sexes was only introduced in the Moffat Era (as Steve pointed out, all the other stuff is not canon and doesn't count).

Perhaps they could have hinted that the Time War did something to the Time Lords and this changing sexes was the result.

Anyhoo, away I go for now.

Never in all the run of Classic Who, was there any indication that Time Lords could change sexes.

Eldrad TOOK IT FOR GRANTED that Time Lords could change sex. And the Doctor didn't contradict him.

And Romana turning into a blue dwarf was a pretty hefty hint that all bets were off.

While I don't oppose a female Doctor, this whole Time Lords changing sexes was only introduced in the Moffat Era

Really? So when Christopher Eccleston died *sob* announcing that 'I could have two heads, or no heads at all' it really didn't occur to you that he might possibly be capable of changing sex?

(And, OK, I'm totally cheating here, but Matt's cry of 'I'm a girl!' was, technically speaking, just inside the Russell T God Golden Age not the Moffat Era.)

Like I said the only cannon stuff has been in the Moffat era. Not even RTD went there. Didn't Moffat write Matt's fist lines? Like they're doing now.

Romana' blue dwarf was female, besides that scene was had enough to explain already.

Actually JK Rowling was wrong, she actually described Hermione as having frizzy brown hair and big teeth. And she hired a white actress to play her, and drew a sketch of her being white, and let all the other artists draw her as white, and describe her getting a suntan, turning pale, lurid bruising, having ginger freckly children etc. So whilst she never specifically stated Hermione was white she obviously is white.
JK Rowling wrote the character as white thought she could get away with the change as she never said the character was white but got tripped up on the little differences between black and white people and a fanbase that lets nothing slide.

Imagine a fanbase that obsesses over every tiny detail lol.

Though having given it some thought Idris Elba as Harry Potter does sound awesome.

Lol Scottish widows. Do they still do those adverts?

Alex Kingston has certainly reacted better than Michelle Gomez. http://metro.co.uk/2017/07/27/doctor-who-star-hints-at-girl-on-girl-action-as-jodie-whittaker-becomes-the-new-time-lord-6809807/

Can we stop pretending this argument is anything to do with "canon"? Here's the only possible statement on the subject that can be extrapolated from canonical: the Doctor can be a woman.

So that's a red herring. What's actually being evoked here is precedent and tradition. These people are contending that the Doctor can't be a woman because the Doctor hasn't been a woman before. Which, as arguments go, ranks somewhere alongside "I hate you! It's so unfair!" on the efficacy scale.

What's actually being evoked here is precedent and tradition. These people are contending that the Doctor can't be a woman because the Doctor hasn't been a woman before. Which, as arguments go, ranks somewhere alongside "I hate you! It's so unfair!" on the efficacy scale.

I have to admit, I regard 'But it's never been done before!' as a terrible reason not to try something. Especially when it comes to Doctor Who, you know, the programme that goes anywhere in time and space.

I'm just ;looking forward to Autumn 2018 when they do a sequel to 'In The Forest Of The Night', and we get to hear the pro-Whittaker side through a forced smile says, "Well...that was a...good story. Yes, indeed. That part where the Doctor...um...when she said...uh...that part when she did that thing and saved...whatever."
I think she's going to get a pass for the entire season just because she'll be the first Doctor, despite any bad episodes.
And it's going to happen if the attitude of 'She's-a woman-and-you-HAVE-to-like-her-and-accept-her' if fandom is anything to go by.

Kate (back on July 17) - "It's true that there's a tiny number of fans who'll stop watching 'Doctor Who' because of this, and good riddance to them. I've sat through three mediocre-to-terrible Capaldi seasons without feeling the need to bugger off. As far as I'm concerned, if these wimps can't cope with a casting announcement we're better off without them."

Easy enough to say that now (or at any point in the show's history-- who needs jackass fans), but if the viewing numbers drop below Capaldi's average of 4.5 million (as opposed to Tennant's average of 6.5), you might wish that they come back so that the series isn't in jeopardy of being cancelled.
Because let's not kid ourselves; it's a TV show that has to make money. No money, no show. And no ratings, equals no money, which equals cancellation.
I'm not saying it'll happen under Whittaker's watch, but she's got a bigger burden (what with a portion of fandom already against her casting) than any previous actor announced to play the Doctor

Half the fandom will give her a feee pass for Kill the Moon 2 and the other half will criticise over a Caves of Androzani quality episode.

Yeah don't soeak to soon Kate, I think you underestimate how many they're going to loose over this, the only question is can they be replaced long term? The first few episodes should be alright but a few episodes in they may go.

looking forward to Autumn 2018 when they do a sequel to 'In The Forest Of The Night', and we get to hear the pro-Whittaker side through a forced smile says, "Well...that was a...good story. Yes, indeed. That part where the Doctor...um...when she said...uh...that part when she did that thing and saved...whatever."

Well, that certainly won't be ME. It's far more likely to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and threats to feed to the Vervoids whoever forced JODIE! to degrade herself in such •••••••• and probably a nostalgic trip down memory lane about how the worst thing Eccleston ever got was Long Game and why oh why can't we return to our Golden Age...

I think she's going to get a pass for the entire season just because she'll be the first Doctor, despite any bad episodes.
And it's going to happen if the attitude of 'She's-a woman-and-you-HAVE-to-like-her-and-accept-her' if fandom is anything to go by.

I suspect it's more a question of 'She's-THE-DOCTOR-and-you-HAVE-to-like-her-and-accept-her'. Well, that's what I've been getting over Colin Baker for the past thirty years, anyway. Personally I'm just saying you have to WATCH her for AT LEAST an episode, losing Who from your life would be the worst thing that could happen to a Fan and if they managed to bring down Who due to lack of viewing figures, that's MILLIONS of lives that would be destroyed to pander to their chauvinism.

I mean, they can't possibly have literally recoiled in horror from JODIE! more than I did from Matt Smith, but it never occurred to me to STOP WATCHING. You give 'em a chance, they have a Food Scene (or equivalent) and you live happily ever after together...

Because let's not kid ourselves; it's a TV show that has to make money. No money, no show. And no ratings, equals no money, which equals cancellation.

This IS the BBC which is the one (partial) exception to that rule. Doctor Who is the jewel in their crown and they know it. And they've accidentally managed to mislay all their other jewels (viz, some programme about cars and some programme about baking. Or something). It would take REALY bad viewing figures combined with REALLY bad Who to get Who cancelled.

Of course, such things are entirely possibly during the Chibnall Era but even then, SURELY the 'rest' wouldn't be more than a few years (i.e. not much different from Who THESE days) before they rounded up a new bunch of writers to inject fresh blood.

I think you underestimate how many they're going to loose over this, the only question is can they be replaced long term?

I think so. The Moffat Era pretty much robbed us of our next generation of Who Fans, but if JODIE! n'Chibnall can appeal to kids again, we'll be JUST FINE. Unfortunately Chibnall's idea of appealing to kids seems to be forcing the Doctor to say 'Squeaky bum time' to them repeatedly but hey, maybe he's matured since then or, um, something...

Oh, and just for the record: Jodie! now has TWICE as many posts as poor old Paul 'Bring me knitting!' McGann. Doctors Two, Three, Seven and War are also EATING HER DUST.

JODIE! now has over 200 posts and Five and One are now trailing sobbing in her wake.

I'm just ;looking forward to Autumn 2018 when they do a sequel to 'In The Forest Of The Night', and we get to hear the pro-Whittaker side through a forced smile says, "Well...that was a...good story. Yes, indeed. That part where the Doctor...um...when she said...uh...that part when she did that thing and saved...whatever."
I think she's going to get a pass for the entire season just because she'll be the first Doctor, despite any bad episodes.
And it's going to happen if the attitude of 'She's-a woman-and-you-HAVE-to-like-her-and-accept-her' if fandom is anything to go by.

Those would be the fans who've reacted to Whittaker's casting in the same way that most fans have reacted to every Doctor's casting: saying, ooh look there's a new Doctor. It's the fans who've gone into meltdown who are reacting abnormally.

Even fans who thought that, say, Sylvester McCoy or Matt Smith were a mistake did so because they thought the actors were miscast, not because they had the wrong type of chromosomes.

Easy enough to say that now (or at any point in the show's history-- who needs jackass fans), but if the viewing numbers drop below Capaldi's average of 4.5 million (as opposed to Tennant's average of 6.5), you might wish that they come back so that the series isn't in jeopardy of being cancelled.

You seem to be arguing that the terrible ratings slump of the years 2014-2017 will be retrospectively the fault of someone who hadn't even been cast when most of those episodes were broadcast.

Because let's not kid ourselves; it's a TV show that has to make money.

tl;dr: "I don't know how the BBC works."

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Because let's not kid ourselves; it's a TV show that has to make money. No money, no show. And no ratings, equals no money, which equals cancellation.
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Domestically speaking, that's completely incorrect - if some exec wants to support it, you could have a program that no one watches running for years on the BBC, and to an extent, that's what the BBC's for - something like The Sky At Night probably wouldn't have been commissioned, let alone run for decades on a commercial channel, ditto for a lot of the BBCs wildlife programmes, documentaries, comedy, arts, regional broadcasting, that two hour bus trip in Yorkshire shown in real time from a couple of Christmas's ago, and so on.

Internationally though, as sales of shows like Dr Who (and the Clarkson era of Top Gear and so on)helps support the small viewership programmes, then you've got a point.

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Yeah don't soeak to soon Kate, I think you underestimate how many they're going to loose over this, the only question is can they be replaced long term? The first few episodes should be alright but a few episodes in they may go.
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And how many will say they're never going to watch again, but switch on for the first episode, or start watching again when reviews come out that she's actually pretty good? ;)

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Even fans who thought that, say, Sylvester McCoy or Matt Smith were a mistake did so because they thought the actors were miscast, not because they had the wrong type of chromosomes.
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Well, McCoy was during the BBC's efforts to kill it off (and like Colin, has done better in some of the audios where the off-screen politics are no longer an issue).

Me - "...but if the viewing numbers drop below Capaldi's average of 4.5 million (as opposed to Tennant's average of 6.5), you might wish that they come back so that the series isn't in jeopardy of being cancelled."
Kate - "You seem to be arguing that the terrible ratings slump of the years 2014-2017 will be retrospectively the fault of someone who hadn't even been cast when most of those episodes were broadcast."

I said nothing of the sort. Where do I say that Smith and Capaldi's lower ratings are the fault of Whittaker.
I said what I said, and it should be clear to anyone. If the ratings slide even further, below the lowest Capaldi ratings, Whittaker and/or Chibnal's job or the show, will be in jeopardy.
I accept that the BBC works differently, but they still had a say in getting rid of Colin Baker, and killing the original show (which had higher ratings than the present-day series).

On a side note, they might think of Doctor Who as a 'crown jewel', but the fans are being screwed, what with just one Christmas special in 2016, and now just a one-hour Christmas special between the 14 or 15 months between seasons 10 and 11.

steve: "which had higher ratings than the present-day series".

Buzzt! There are more viewing options now and the audience is fragmented amongst many channels and streaming sites so the BBC's slice of the pie is smaller. But, thanks for playing!

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On a side note, they might think of Doctor Who as a 'crown jewel', but the fans are being screwed, what with just one Christmas special in 2016, and now just a one-hour Christmas special between the 14 or 15 months between seasons 10 and 11.
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Don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather that than the BBC pumping out a load of rubbish just because they think they need to keep producing episodes.

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Buzzt! There are more viewing options now and the audience is fragmented amongst many channels and streaming sites so the BBC's slice of the pie is smaller. But, thanks for playing!
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And there's the movement from the late-tea time slot to mid-evening. Let's get it back on at about 6pm and see what happens.

Buzzt! There are more viewing options now and the audience is fragmented amongst many channels and streaming sites so the BBC's slice of the pie is smaller. But, thanks for playing!

This is an excuse, not an argument, and not a particularly good one. It cherry-picks the one disadvantage the new series has over its predecessor and glosses over the fact the series' general decline in the Capaldi years.

But most importantly it ignores the way that the relaunched series was pitched as something that could unite the audience in an age of fragmented viewing habits. The whole point of Doctor Who is that it's popular television!

Just over 24 hours ago the Facebook fan page had 8.5 million likes, it now has 5.3 million.

So three million bots were programmed to unfollow. Certain groups are well-known for running bots in order to make it look as if their opinions are supported by the public far more than they actually are.

It seems quite a few comments are along the line that since the show is popular with misogynists then it should keep being made in a manner that will keep them watching. Nah, get ******.

As someone who has been watching the show since around 1970 I'm at an age where I just want to see good TV. That the complete cellular regeneration of the Doctor now causes a second X chromosome to appear is simply just a new addition to the canon. Of course in the interest of balance this means Doctors 13-26 must now appear to be female...

and killing the original show (which had higher ratings than the present-day series).

DON'T SAY IT!!

On a side note, they might think of Doctor Who as a 'crown jewel', but the fans are being screwed, what with just one Christmas special in 2016, and now just a one-hour Christmas special between the 14 or 15 months between seasons 10 and 11.

We are TOTALLY being screwed but apparently it could have been a lot worse, Moffat says he held on for longer than he'd've liked till Chibnall was free cos otherwise we wouldn't have got a series between 2015 and Autumn 2018...

Don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather that than the BBC pumping out a load of rubbish just because they think they need to keep producing episodes.

I don't think the percentage of rubbish was any higher in the Good Old Days they actually managed fourteen episodes a year than it is these days...

But most importantly it ignores the way that the relaunched series was pitched as something that could unite the audience in an age of fragmented viewing habits. The whole point of Doctor Who is that it's popular television!

Ah yes, that brief glorious resurrection of the concept of family viewing. *Nostalgic sigh* remember Russell T God commissioning that research in 2004 that concluded that family viewing was dead and RTG then having to lie to the BBC that he hadn't commissioned any research, no sirree...

Just over 24 hours ago the Facebook fan page had 8.5 million likes, it now has 5.3 million.

So three million bots were programmed to unfollow. Certain groups are well-known for running bots in order to make it look as if their opinions are supported by the public far more than they actually are.

Oh thank the gods, evil robots I can UNDERSTAND.

It seems quite a few comments are along the line that since the show is popular with misogynists then it should keep being made in a manner that will keep them watching. Nah, get ******.

Hear hear!

(NB: not quite sure I MEAN it, if my feminist or indeed any other principles go head-to-head with the survival of Who I have the hideous feeling my principles will come off worse.)

Hardly a ringing endorsement from Ecclestraitor

Actually, 'She's working class, she's northern, what can go wrong?' COULD be a ringing endorsement, it depends whether he actually MEANS it or whether it's said in bitter/sarcastic reference to his own UTTERLY DISASTROUS (to my heart if not to Who) tenure.

Wonder if JODIE! will be using this alleged Northern accent of hers?

Jodie is from Yorkshire and Eccles is from near Manchester.

So Graham you're saying the Doctor Who Facebook page has had over 3 million bots following it for years and years just in case the show ever cast a woman?

Yeah that's not a winning argument at all.

It is not misogynistic to say don't change a fictional characters gender from male to female, any more than it's misandry to say the opposite.

And if you're all done being pedantic over ratings the fact is they are not in a good place and the show is obviously close to being in jeopardy, this is make or break.

It is not misogynistic to say don't change a fictional characters gender from male to female

Not if you actually come up with a REASON it isn't. But no one has. Now, James Bond you could certainly argue has male chauvinist piggery as an integral character-trait, but THE DOCTOR...?

Adorable interview with JODIE!

"I knew it were me under the hood," she recalled. "I knew, I was one of the four people who knew, and even I was like 'Oh god! I'm walking towards the Tardis! I'm walking towards the Tardis!'"

Adorable interview with JODIE!

I'm not sure that "new TV show star gives interview" really warrants a slot on the hourly Radio 4 news bulletin though...

The reason is you shouldn't change genders because it changes the dynamic of the show or movie in a big way that's frankly a change too far.

And I could use that exact same logic to ask you for a reason as to why there has to be a female companion. If the next regen was a man and the companion a man why should we have a woman in the Tardis as long as the actor is good?

I'm not sure that "new TV show star gives interview" really warrants a slot on the hourly Radio 4 news bulletin though...

It's a DOCTOR WHO new TV show star, of course it's major news!

The reason is you shouldn't change genders because it changes the dynamic of the show or movie in a big way that's frankly a change too far.

But we don't KNOW if it's a change too far until we've actually SEEN it. And surely everyone in the universe realises that a) Who survived fifty-four years (give or take TSLABYOD) by making big risky changes and b) Who has never needed a big risky change more than it does RIGHT NOW, to NOT change would be way more of a risk.

And I could use that exact same logic to ask you for a reason as to why there has to be a female companion. If the next regen was a man and the companion a man why should we have a woman in the Tardis as long as the actor is good?

I couldn't agree more. I've been yearning for an all-male team to change the TARDIS dynamic for YEARS. I have more than once harked back to the Golden Age of Troughton n'Jamie and how they should have JUST had them for Three (or preferably more) Glorious Years instead of muddying the waters with all those pointless extra hangers-on.

And now I'm yearning for an all-female TARDIS team. I think our Glorious New Age would lose something by attempting to play it safe with a sexy young male sidekick. The way Hillary Clinton lost something when she picked an elderly white male as her running-mate instead of Elizabeth Warren AND LOOK WHERE THAT GOT HER.

Amazed it took this long to finally have a female doctor (well unless you count "Doctor Donna". In fact, I think it would be cool to have a dual female doctors episode if for a brief period of time at least the Doctor that's in Donna can be made free in some plane of existence without endangering Donna Noble's life-- that and I'd love to see Catherine Tate again).

It's a change too far, even if they make good episodes it's a bad call.

Trust me Emily the same people praising this decision would not shut up if doc 14 and companion was an all straight white male team. You'd have to have some minority mix in there to get that past. Doc 2 and Jamie do work well in many ways the earlier version of Doc 4 and Leela.

Clinton would have lost no matter who she picked, even Bernie Saunders as a running mate wouldn't have convinced the rust belters. If he had been running for president his semi protectionist policies would have done it but everyone knows the veep has no power.

In this case I suspect a female sidekick may be better for the show as the hack writers that will inevitably have an episode or two won't be able to resist making the male companion suddenly act chauvinistic or be a complete coward or idiot so the female doc can save him. Better to have a woman so they can focus on the show.

Amazed it took this long to finally have a female doctor

Hear hear!

(well unless you count "Doctor Donna". In fact, I think it would be cool to have a dual female doctors episode if for a brief period of time at least the Doctor that's in Donna can be made free in some plane of existence without endangering Donna Noble's life-- that and I'd love to see Catherine Tate again).

Ooh, very very risky. Not to Donna's health (the Doctor having made it hypocritically clear that he was just totally lying about that whole brains-splattered-all-over-the-place thing), it's just that I don't want JODIE! facing off against someone who might actually be more awesome than she is. Rose Tyler was my Favourite Ever Companion Forever until the moment she started lisping in Donna Noble's direction, whereupon she got demoted, fast.

It's a change too far

Why is Capaldi turning into JODIE! a more drastic change than impish anarchic Troughton turning into a Sexyless employee of Britain's military? Than wet vet Davison turning into That Acid-Bath Loving Abomination With The Coat? Than Hartnell turning into ANYONE AT ALL?

even if they make good episodes it's a bad call.

FOR GODS' SAKES SO THE DOC HAS XX CHROMOSOMES GET OVER IT ALREADY!

Trust me Emily the same people praising this decision would not shut up if doc 14 and companion was an all straight white male team.

Where are you getting this stuff from? Surely most people rejoicing at JODIE! would also rejoice at the sight of their thrilling new Number Fourteen (FOURTEEN!! Remember when we thought we'd be stuck at Seven and then Eight FOREVER?) as long as it wasn't Colin Baker or something. (Or at the very least shudder but then give him a fair chance, as I did Matt.)

FOR GODS' SAKES SO THE DOC HAS XX CHROMOSOMES GET OVER IT ALREADY!

I feel compelled to point out (once again) that the Doctor is not human, he-she is a Time Lord, that whole XX XY chromosome thing may not apply to him-her. Many species on Earth determine their genders in ways that have nothing to do with their chromosomes. We have no reason to believe that evolution would have been less creative on Gallifrey.

Because that's how these things work Emily. If there wasn't some form of permanent female presence in the Tardis we'd never hear the end of it.

I feel compelled to point out (once again) that the Doctor is not human, he-she is a Time Lord, that whole XX XY chromosome thing may not apply to him-her.

Ah yes, and Sixth Doctor PDA Blue Box also has a hero who has XY chromosomes in spite of resembling a woman in every way (I think. I'd've grasped the whole thing a lot better if the book hadn't been so bloody boring) but we've waited so long for a female Doctor I want her to be a PROPER woman. Oh gods now I sound totally prejudiced against trans people. I'm not, and things would have been different if this had happened in the Good Old Days, it's just that given the New Who Doctors are obviously fully-functioning males I want an undoubted female, not a man in a woman's body or a woman with XY chromosomes or some weird alien chromosomal thing.

Many species on Earth determine their genders in ways that have nothing to do with their chromosomes. We have no reason to believe that evolution would have been less creative on Gallifrey.

Would they resemble humanity quite so much in that case? I mean, the two species can obviously interbreed...

If there wasn't some form of permanent female presence in the Tardis we'd never hear the end of it.

I disagree, in fact everyone got so heartily sick of Clara that I suspect replacing her with a man would have gone down a treat, providing of course that they encountered plenty of strong interesting females on their journeys.

Rodney - 'Hardly a ringing endorsement from Ecclestraitor'

Actual;y, I'm not surprised at his reaction, since he's made it clear that his time on Dr. Who is something he'd like to forget, and couldn't care less about.
It's like asking someone, after they've been to a lousy party, to offer a ringing endorsement for it. Who's going to do that?
Or it's like having Colin Baker try to say nice things about Michael Grade.

If you make everyone hate the previous companion you might get away with it but it's far more likely people would ask why you didn't just hire another woman

I'm not surprised at his reaction, since he's made it clear that his time on Dr. Who is something he'd like to forget, and couldn't care less about.
It's like asking someone, after they've been to a lousy party, to offer a ringing endorsement for it. Who's going to do that?
Or it's like having Colin Baker try to say nice things about Michael Grade.

You're right, and indeed if I ever encounter the Great Traitor, I may just decide to badger him with endless questions about Who instead of confiscating his ears.

If you make everyone hate the previous companion you might get away with it but it's far more likely people would ask why you didn't just hire another woman

These days, whoever you chose a lot of people will be asking why you didn't choose the opposite sex. Just ignore 'em, Who's doing JUST FINE in this regard.

Have just watched JODIE! in some programme or other where she is, ironically, pretending to be a doctor. Am much reassured that she makes an absolutely superb leading lady AND that she can do a ridiculous range of these 'emotion' things, in fact, far more than she'll ever be called upon to do as a Time Lord. (Lady. Whatever.)

My one reservation is her nose. All the best Doctors have oversized honkers and I'm not 100% sure that JODIE!'s measures up. Still, I'm prepared to forgive her in a Christlike act of benevolence for her boringly normal-sized proboscis, just like all the traditionalists will totally be prepared to forgive her for her lack of a •••••...right, guys...?

Jodie was born in 1982. Once again we have a Doctor being played by an actor who is younger than I am.

Anyway, can this work the other way now. Can Romana reappear as a man?

Can Romana reappear as a man?

Theoretically speaking, of course she can, but a) she has frankly insane amounts of control over the regenerative process and absolutely no incentive to let THAT happen to her and b) she's dead.

and b) she's dead.

Not really a big problem in the Whoniverse.

she has frankly insane amounts of control over the regenerative process

True. If she felt like it she could probably turn up as a tom cat, talking to the Doctor through telepathy rather than out loud.

she could probably turn up as a tom cat, talking to the Doctor through telepathy rather than out loud.

I have long yearned for Thomas Kincaide Brannigan for Thirteenth Doctor but now we have JODIE! he can be Romana instead, that would be GREAT.

David Tennant defining the Doctor's most important characteristic as 'not being a jock.'

(He's playing a cartoon duck these days? How the mighty have fallen.)

Sorry but can I just stomp on this rubbish that all 3 million fans who unfollowed the Facebook page are bots. Even the Kremlin doesn't have 3 million fake profiles and the idea that those who set up fake profiles had them like the Dr Who page for years just to unfollow as soon as a wonder took the job is just daft.

3 million is probably most of the fake profiles and those that run them have better things to do that coordinate a mass unliking

Matt sang to Jodie

Dorable!

Dorable!
.....the explorable???


Also, what in the name of the gods of Ragnorok is he WEARING in that clip?? That's as bad as unshaven Tennant in a kilt....

Also, what in the name of the gods of Ragnorok is he WEARING in that clip??

Yeah, Matt Smith's fashion sense is so bad that even I've noticed.

Still, what can you expect from a guy who thinks bow ties are cool...

Is it just me or should we have had SOME further crumbs of info about our new Living God by now? Her costume? What accent she'll be using? A TV interview devoted to Who like wot Matt and Capaldi got? SOMETHING?

I don't think we've ever gotten the costume this soon. I doubt we will until after the regeneration, so we're looking at a loooong time.

Maybe with Eccleston we did, but then, we didn't believe that actually *was* his costume.

Not that I wouldn't love to have some table scraps thrown at us.

Considering the show's return is a whole YEAR away, or even FOURTEEN MONTHS, I'm not surprised the news has died down.
It's almost like the BBC want us to forget the series is even coming back.
This wait is suspiciously, bizarrely loooong.

It's not THAT suspicious, if you just assume that the BBC are valiantly blaming Who's plummeting ratings on being on in the Summertime, so are sensibly determined to wait until next Autumn (by which time they'll have to come up with another excuse, hopefully not involving the words 'Female Doctor').

But there was a massive surge of excitement over JODIE!'s casting and they're idiots not to capitalise on it A BIT right now.

Pink News

Like the Doctor would bother with, or even care about such bureaucratic twaddle.

S/he might have to now that s/he's President of Earth, just as poor Pertwee had to in the UNIT era...

I just feel it's suspicious because we're not talking about creating a new show from scratch, which needs a bunch of sets for the character's house and their workplace and all the other things that go into a brand new show that's just starting.
Even a Hollywood movie can take less time to make from scratch.
They could keep the TARDIS set the same, and they'll probably have some of the same writers and directors, so what's the hold-up?
Just how much do we, the fans, have to prove to the BBC that they have a goldmine on their hands and that they should bloody well air the show with a minimum of time between seasons, and not 14 or 15 frickin' months?

They could keep the TARDIS set the same, and they'll probably have some of the same writers and directors, so what's the hold-up?

Chibnall's a Fan, he's probably been redesigning the TARDIS console room since he was FOUR.

Admittedly, of all the new Producers, he's the one who's stamped his mark indelibly on the programme without having to do a •••• THING after casting his Doctor...

Just how much do we, the fans, have to prove to the BBC that they have a goldmine on their hands

Hey, it's been YEARS AND YEARS since they've shovelled the only copies of dozens of Who episodes into a furnace, or given us a Sixteen Long And Barren Years Of Despair...they're learning!

We'd need some competent people running the BBC, not the usual gang of fools.

If the new Doctor goes looking for women's clothes in the Tardis wardrobe what is she likely to find?

She could find assorted historical outfits, of course - a nun's habit or Victorian crinolines - but she could also find versions of the outfits of her old companions. I think we can be pretty sure the next Doctor won't dress like Leela, but how would people feel if the next Doctor dressed like Barbara Wright, Sarah Jane, or Ace?

Why would the Jodie Doctor have to wear women's clothes? I shop in the men's section.

I think there are plenty of women's clothes in the wardrobe. Each of the female companions has dressed appropriately for the era/location on several occasions.

And several of 'em have dressed extremely INappropriately for the era/location, by ANY culture's standards. (Remember when Tegan had to borrow the Professor's stinking overalls to venture into that Cyber-ship? She had NO faith that Sexy would come up with any suitable apparel.)

Why would the Jodie Doctor have to wear women's clothes

He wouldn't have to. She's be free to wear men's clothes, just as Three or Six could have worn miniskirts and bikinis if they felt like it, but notice neither of them ever did that we saw.

I suspect she'll generally dress female by human standards just as her past regenerations usually dressed male by human standards.

just as Three or Six could have worn miniskirts and bikinis if they felt like it

Well, thanks for casually shattering my fundamental belief of thirty-three years that NOTHING could have been worse than That Coat...

*image of Colin Baker in a bikini while the I Dream of Jeannie theme plays* *shudders*

I wonder...
With all the controversy of making the Doctor female, and saying that regeneration could result in either sex, I wonder what the reaction would have been if the producers had gone in a different direction, and regenerated the Doctor to a younger version...like 12 years old!
How would everyone react to the new Doctor as a kid?

12 year old Doctor: "The Daleks? Taking over the universe again? I HATE YOU!"

Well, thanks for casually shattering my fundamental belief of thirty-three years that NOTHING could have been worse than That Coat...

Then you don't know how lucky you've been. I've known for over 35 years that no matter how bad things are they can always get worse, and usually do, but then I live up north, in a city that has still not recovered from the 80s, when Thatcher reigned supreme.

I rewatched the video revealing Whittaker as the new Doctor because I wanted to check something. There is not a spark of darkness in the whole thing. She walks in a brightly lit forest, birds are singing, she smiles, the TARDIS beams. Jodi Doctor actually looks happy, I hope this actually foreshadows the tone of Chibnall's tenure as show runner, it would be a welcome and refreshing change of pace.

How would everyone react to the new Doctor as a kid?

THAT doesn't worry me as much as how kiddie-Doctor would project the necessary authority. We don't want another Peter Davison type around the place...

There are also all those pesky laws about child actors. We just can't WORK the Little Buggers properly as in the Good Old Days when they actually justified their snotty-nosed existences going up chimneys and suchlike.

I've known for over 35 years that no matter how bad things are they can always get worse

Yeah, that's always been my attitude too (despite being a soft southerner) but obviously I made an exception for Colin's Coat...

Jodi Doctor actually looks happy, I hope this actually foreshadows the tone of Chibnall's tenure as show runner

A HAPPY Doctor?!

Are you CRAZY!

It would be against ALL PRECEDENT!

TOTALLY BEYOND THE PALE!

Our Hero has NEVER been HAPPY for more than 32 seconds at a time and after thirteen (fourteen. WHATEVER.) bodies and two thousand (four and a half billion. WHATEVER) years you can't just screw with Sacred Canon out of some crazy Happiness Patrol agenda!

If the new Doctor goes looking for women's clothes in the Tardis wardrobe what is she likely to find.

Probably lots of female clothing (where do you think Zoe, Romana, Peri, etc got their clothes from?

A HAPPY Doctor?!

Are you CRAZY!

It would be against ALL PRECEDENT!

I completely agree. Unless getting a female body completely changes who the Doctor fundamentally is then she shouldn't be all "peaches and cream" towards everyone and everything. As I've said before no matter what the incarnation the Doctor was never a "nice guy." He just did what was right.

Actually I WAS taking the mickey out of the hysterical overreaction of certain chauvinists (not on THIS board, obviously) to a female Doctor, a happy Doctor might actually WORK. And make logical sense, without all that testosterone swishing around in her system AND without the guilt of Gallifrey's destruction (not that this did much for CAPALDI'S character, but hey, if he WILL insist on torturing himself for four and a half billion years...). And of course we'd never really KNOW if she was genuinely happy or just putting on a front the way, say, Tennant and Tom and Eccy were when they gave us their widest grins. And being the happy-go-lucky sort would make it even more effective whenever she went all Oncoming Storm on the baddies.

But nice, you're quite right, we should draw the line at THAT.

It's just that having watched Broadchurch, I was afraid that Chibnall would serve us a dismal, depressing version of the whoniverse.

I think Tom was genuinely a happy go lucky Time Lord for much of his tenure, so a "happy" Doctor, or at least one who doesn't carry a weight of guilt that rivals the mass of a black hole, would be perfectly viable option.

When I think of the third Doctor (pertwee) I see his smiling face and lighthearted disposition.

Troughton could be happy as well, although there he could go from happy to "Oh, my giddy aunt!" in two seconds flat, so a sustained happy second Doctor scene might be harder to find.

Colin could be most pleased with himself (because if he couldn't be, who would?) ;-)

Early McCoy could be happy... before he became the boring, omniscient chess player. (Yes, he may have been happy afterward, but I suspect he knew that people hate know-it-alls.)

It's just that having watched Broadchurch, I was afraid that Chibnall would serve us a dismal, depressing version of the whoniverse.

To be honest, I found Chibnall's portrayal of a universe in which basically every single man bar David Tennant is a sick pervert to be...fairly realistic. And providing the vast majority of characters in his Whoniverse are female, it needn't be too depressing.

I think Tom was genuinely a happy go lucky Time Lord for much of his tenure, so a "happy" Doctor, or at least one who doesn't carry a weight of guilt that rivals the mass of a black hole, would be perfectly viable option.

Hmm. That's true. I keep thinking of his Late Depressive Burgundy Phase but actually, before JNT got his grubby hands on our Raison d'Etre, Tom, and therefore the Fourth Doctor, was basically blissfully happy, albeit with moments of stunning alien darkness.

When I think of the third Doctor (pertwee) I see his smiling face and lighthearted disposition.

Whereas I think of the chauvinist establishment figure who may (now you mention it) have been happy, but who was so desperate to get the hell away from Earth that he didn't REALISE he was happy.

Troughton could be happy as well, although there he could go from happy to "Oh, my giddy aunt!" in two seconds flat, so a sustained happy second Doctor scene might be harder to find.

Yeah, I don't trust Troughton's exuberant joyousness one iota, scratch the surface and you get a sinister master-manipulator worse than McCoy's (cos at least with McCoy he was OPEN about his secret sinister master-manipulative nature...).

Colin could be most pleased with himself (because if he couldn't be, who would?) ;-)

Ugg yeah, Old Sixie's vile expression of smug self-satisfaction was no doubt completely genuine, but I don't get that confused with genuine HAPPINESS.

Early McCoy could be happy... before he became the boring, omniscient chess player. (Yes, he may have been happy afterward, but I suspect he knew that people hate know-it-alls.)

McCoy was NEVER boring or omniscient, he just very responsibly attempted to be less happy-go-lucky than his other selves. I suspect he had the potential for light-hearted happiness during Season Twenty-Four but he was travelling with Mel Bush so obviously THAT got nipped in the bud.

Emily - "To be honest, I found Chibnall's portrayal of a universe in which basically every single man bar David Tennant is a sick pervert to be...fairly realistic."

Ooooo-kay, fine. Remind to never, ever visit Britain, the Land of Sick Perverts.
Just what kind of men are you hanging around with, Emily?!

"I don't trust Troughton's exuberant joyousness one iota, scratch the surface and you get a sinister master-manipulator worse than McCoy's (cos at least with McCoy he was OPEN about his secret sinister master-manipulative nature."

I can't agree with that. What episodes are you using as an example? Because you can't just claim it happened in 1 or 2 or even 4 episodes. McCoy was always a manipulator, who knew more than he was letting on. To compare the two seems to me, at the moment, like comparing a race cars to a horse and buggy.

Ooooo-kay, fine. Remind to never, ever visit Britain, the Land of Sick Perverts.
Just what kind of men are you hanging around with, Emily?!

Trust me, my brief flirtation with sexism wasn't aimed at BRITAIN, we're a haven of non-groping compared to, say, South Africa or India, and let's not go into all the personal experiences over the years that make me feel like this, suffice to say, we're OWED our female Doctor.

Saw the movie Venus (2006) which marked Jodie Whittaker’s feature film debut with Venus being a reference to her character noting what a beauty she is.

Venus has a reference to The Lion King and curiously enough David Tennant referenced The Lion King in his formal debut as the Doctor in The Christmas Invasion later at the end of 2006 and I saw Venus just as we are awaiting Jodie Whittaker’s own debut as the Doctor.

Moffat has been doing angry doc for 3 years now and RTD did sad Doc so I assume it's going to be happy Doc for Jodie. Moffat did that a bit with Matt it made for a good contrast. Plus they need to win over the mainstream, they can't have her alienating fans.

Surely the BBC gave him some strict marching orders.

Moffat has been doing angry doc for 3 years now

Oh, SO not fair!

Darling Capaldi stopped being remotely as angry and started having a thoroughly cheery mid-life crisis by his second year...(Gods, I miss his 'Kill the little girl first!' days...)

Plus they need to win over the mainstream, they can't have her alienating fans.

I think THAT ship has sailed.

I wonder if Sad-JODIE! would wind up the haters any more than Happy-JODIE!, as they attempt to keep their vows never to watch whilst still obsessing over every detail of her performance...

Hmm. You know what would REALLY help JODIE! stay happy? Not getting as obsessively attached to her human pets as some of her previous selves.

Not getting as obsessively attached to her human pets as some of her previous selves.

"Whoops! Another dead companion! They're like goldfish these days. Well, time to go to Earth and get a new one."

;-)

"Psst! Little human. I've got candy!"

;-)

"Whoops! Another dead companion! They're like goldfish these days. Well, time to go to Earth and get a new one."



Perhaps a happy medium between that and hitting a diamond wall for four and a half billion years.

(Something like Davison in Earthshock/Time-Flight? Pretend to look unhappy to appease any surviving pets for all of ten seconds, whilst swearing that you can't go back to save 'em, honest, and why don't we all have a lovely holiday to cheer us up?)

Cartoon-JODIE! - adorable!

What's the gag with cranberry juice about?

I wondered about that myself - I thought it was good for prostate problems - but apparently it helps prevent urinary tract infections in middle-aged and pregnant women. Maybe I should try it...(Um, because I'm middle-aged obviously, not because I've got so desperate to up Who's viewing figures I've started growing my own Fan...)

I'd complain about the cartoon implying Time Lords have anything to do with such disgusting biological issues, but, let's face it, New Who has revealed Our Hero has a LOT of disgusting biological issues that I'd honestly thought s/he was above...

Only a year to go now, right?

Aaaaaghhhh, don't think of it as a year, think of it as ONLY TWO MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!! There's some talk on Gallifrey Base about JODIE! blessing us with a LOT more than the minute or two that most new Docs get in regeneration stories...

Oh, oh! TWENTY-TWO days without a comment about Whittaker!
That's it! It's done!
Fans are bored with her already!
Bring on the Fourteenth Doctor!

*Glares* she's got more posts than any Doctor but Capaldi, Matt and Eccy and she hasn't even opened her gob yet.

So we got this now.

Yasmin (Mandip Gill), Ryan (Tosin Cole), and Graham (Bradley Walsh).

https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22554908_1640703075950104_3236743022574221931_n.jpg

Or if that doesn't work:
https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22554908_1640703075950104_3236743022574221931_n.jpg?oh=476f86487286a2d3a18a949993f97324&oe=5A811ED4

THREE ••••••• Companions! Who needs THREE ••••••• Companions when you just want to concentrate on the Shining Glory that is Our New Doctor...?!

Classic Who started with three Companions.

That's true, I always forget that very successful (give or take screamy old Susan) team and automatically think of the misery of Davison and his three squabbling teens.

Still, they HAD to have three of 'em in those prehistoric days so they didn't have to take an expensive break between scenes (or something), there really is no excuse for it now we all just want to gaze adoringly at JODIE!...

Classic Who didn't start with three companions. It started with an ensemble cast of four, and it was only later on that the series became perceived as being about "the Doctor plus".

Once the initial mould was broken we only get three companions twice and for fairly specific reasons: in 1966/7 when Innes Lloyd decided that this "Jamie" character was loads more interesting than Polly and Ben (who he then dumped at the earliest opportunity); and in 1981/2 when JN-T felt it was necessary for the new Doctor to be surrounded by lots of familiar faces to ease his transition.

I'm telling you this smells rotten to me.
1. Waiting over a year, inexplicably, for the new season.
2. Shorter season.
3. More companions which means less camera time for the new Doctor.
I'm seeing less and less confidence in Whittaker as we speak.
All that's left is for her to get post-regenerative laryngitis and then I'll be POSITIVE something's fishy.

Classic Who didn't start with three companions. It started with an ensemble cast of four, and it was only later on that the series became perceived as being about "the Doctor plus".

Honestly, he's THE DOCTOR, what's the MATTER with 'em! Alright, he's some rock-wielding coffin-dodger with a little Adipose fang and no sonic screwdriver, Master, or inclination to save the universe, but APART from that...

Waiting over a year, inexplicably, for the new season.

I don't think it's inexplicable, Chibnall needs time to get his team in place and of course in view of the rubbish viewing figures the BBC would want a nice dark-eveninged start to give Who a chance.

Shorter season.

I think ever since the Gaping Chasm of Despair Year (2009) I've known that thirteen-glorious-chunks-of-shining-perfection-plus-Christmas-treat wasn't some kind of fundamental norm, it was the whim of the gods and they giveth and they taketh away...

More companions which means less camera time for the new Doctor.

Now THAT I'm having REAL problems with.

Of course JODIE!-Doc will have twenty times the personality of that Davison wimp but still, SMOTHERING her with sidekicks instead of letting her stand on her own two feet - zooming round the universe with one (preferably female) best chum by her side - is...troubling.

Also makes me worry that our precious extra five-minutes-an-episode will be taken up with everyone having a bit of pointless TARDIS chit-chat a la the Davison Era.

Let's wait until we see Jodie's Doctor, before we make any real decisions on how she plays the character.

'Wait and see' is all very well if said waiting wasn't A YEAR!!!

Or even just TWO MONTHS!!! Intolerable! Gotta fill the endless emptiness with SOMETHING!

I don't think it's inexplicable, Chibnall needs time to get his team in place and of course in view of the rubbish viewing figures the BBC would want a nice dark-eveninged start to give Who a chance.

And it's not like we haven't had a few instances of "the Moff has a sniffle today, best postpone everything for a year" recently.

So we'll see Jodie for the first time in the Christmas special.

And it's not like we haven't had a few instances of "the Moff has a sniffle today, best postpone everything for a year" recently.

EVERYTHING?

Aren't you forgetting Class?

Or should I say, REFUSING TO WATCH MOST OF CLASS?

So we'll see Jodie for the first time in the Christmas special.

But dammit, we won't see her IN COSTUME (if tradition is maintained) in the Christmas Special and I've got a collection of papier-mache Doctor-Cats (Tomcat Baker...Paw Mewgann...Collar Breaker etc) who DESPERATELY need to be joined by Jodie Whiskers...

Well at least the new series Doctor have had more lines, post-regen / pre-closing credits, than any of the classic series ones, save Colin Baker. (And McGann obviously.)

Yeah, I suppose poor McGann's entire EXISTENCE is basically one big pre-closing-credits disaster...

I see the Savile Gentlemen's Club is admitting its first female after a member had a sex-change. Presumably this means JODIE! would be entitled to stroll into any of those ghastly gentlemen's clubs at which Pertwee had his cosy chats with head-of-the-civil-service 'Tubby' Rowlands (assuming Pertwee didn't just make the whole thing up)?

Oh Dear God...

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2017/11/new-doctors-costume-revealed.html

It took me a moment to realise that the discussion on GB was about suspenders = braces, not suspenders = stocking suspenders. Though I'm sure that other Doctors have worn the stocking sort in the past. Especially Eleven.

Actually, I like it, it has a good "in character" vibe.

"What's everyone complaining about? The Doctor is an alien and would obviously wear something that looks strange to us. It underlines the character's eccentricity, and it's not like the BBC is suddenly going to cancel the series just because its star looks like a pillock" - Doctor Who fans in 2017

"What's everyone complaining about? The Doctor is an alien and would obviously wear something that looks strange to us. It underlines the character's eccentricity, and it's not like the BBC is suddenly going to cancel the series just because its star looks like a pillock" - Doctor Who fans in 1984

Oh.

Um.

Jeez, the joy of JODIE! was LITERALLY the only thing I had to live for but now...

...Well, I wasn't exactly enamoured of Tennant's stripey suit either, and I grew to love it more than life itself so maybe the same thing will happen with the *shudders* braces and things...and a long coat is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT for a Doctor and maybe she'll accidentally lose this abomination and replace it with Tennant's...and, er, the boots are FINE!

Gods, looking on the bright side just isn't my forte, is it...

Number me among those who like it. It's Doctorish. It's feminine without being sexualised. That's a hard balance to strike and they did it well.

Then I'm not the other side.
My first impression was;
Uh...yikes. Nope.

'It's taken four iterations of New Doctor to get a woman, but now we're here, we may as well breathe in the joyous smell of success before returning to laugh hysterically at this outfit' - rather nice Telegraph article which cheered me up a bit.

Even compared to the past outfits it does stand out, yes they were often quirky but they were roughly the same, some kind of suit or jacked and a shirt. The only real exception to that was Eccy and I remember criticisms at the time of him looking too normal.

If the Time Lords really are beyond gender and all it's stereotypes why not wear a suit. Somehow I think that line is going to haunt the show in her run as she displays countless human gender stereotypes.

I remember criticisms at the time of him looking too normal

Ahhhh, those happy long-ago days, as if Eccy's ears and nose weren't enough to mark him as alien, alien, alien...

Somehow I think that line is going to haunt the show in her run as she displays countless human gender stereotypes.

Ah.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Moffat's well-meaning line that paved the way to the glory of JODIE! will be wheeled out (not least by me) every single time the Thirteenth Doctor doesn't act like a stereotypical male...

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Moffat's well-meaning line that paved the way to the glory of JODIE! will be wheeled out (not least by me) every single time the Thirteenth Doctor doesn't act like a stereotypical male...

Well, she's wearing suspenders, so that's a good start.

BRACES! The British call them braces and as the Doctor is so obviously British you should do likewise.

(I think they're growing on me but the clown-trousers they're attached to...no. Just, no.)

I wonder if she regenerated with holes in her ears or just suddenly got the urge to punch holes in her ears and hang rings in them cos she's a woman?

apparently, the rainbows over the chest remind some fans of "children's tv presenter who was your first crush".

How about a quick poll about everyone's opinion of the new outfit? Nothing to do with the actress, or how you would change it. Just based on what you see, on a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate it?

I'm giving it a 3.

Doctor, the ghost of Sarah Jane called and she wants her Andy Panda suit back. 8-o

Steve, is 1 good or bad? When creating a rating system it helps to state which end is good and which end is bad.

What's wrong with the look, well, what's right with it, frankly?

High pants and susp... uh, "braces" - Reminds me of old geezers who hike their pants up as high as possible and it doesn't look good.

Boots - While not good-looking I can live with 'em because shots rarely focus on the Doctor's feet.

The baggy coat? - I'm not really sure what that thing is. It just hangs there and does not look good. Maybe it'll work better in other angles or motion, but for now... NO.

The shirt - While otherwise bland and nothing special, the rainbow across the chest seems designed to focus attention to her chest as if to say "Yes, the Doctor has boobs now, in case you've been living on Mars with your fingers in your ears."

Is it too late to get that outfit she wore in the intro video?

Keith, I recently checked Australia's baby naming laws and naming your kid "Suspenders" is banned because Americanisation means its now associated with the ladies' underwear not the British braces but it's legal in Australia to call your kid "Knickers".

BRACES! The British call them braces and as the Doctor is so obviously British you should do likewise.

That sounds weird, because to me braces are something one wears on their teeth.

apparently, the rainbows over the chest remind some fans of "children's tv presenter who was your first crush"

What kind of freaks had their first crush on TV presenters not the Doctor and/or his Companion?

I'm giving it a 3.

Me too.

I tried to will myself up to a 4 but it just didn't work.

Steve, is 1 good or bad? When creating a rating system it helps to state which end is good and which end is bad.

Bad.

Boots - While not good-looking I can live with 'em because shots rarely focus on the Doctor's feet.

Whereas I ADORE the boots and stripy socks, in fact I'm attempting to develop a belated foot-fetish so I can just ignore the rest of the costume.

Admittedly that bare bit of leg is a bit weird, especially for someone who'll probably spend a lot of her time striding around alien flesh-eating plants (or at least nettles), but it's fine, as are MOST of the culottes until you get to that waist oh dear gods make it go away.

The baggy coat? - I'm not really sure what that thing is. It just hangs there and does not look good. Maybe it'll work better in other angles or motion, but for now... NO.

Yeah, until I saw that...cheap-looking mess I would have assumed that any long coat would look good on any Doctor unless it was Colin Baker's but boy was I wrong.

the rainbow across the chest seems designed to focus attention to her chest as if to say "Yes, the Doctor has boobs now, in case you've been living on Mars with your fingers in your ears."

Oh. Actually I got on OK with the T-shirt (I mean, we weren't gonna develop a lifelong relationship of worshipful adoration a la Tom's Scarf but it was fine compared to SOME things I could mention) but of course you're right, dammit.

Is it too late to get that outfit she wore in the intro video?

Yeah, I didn't feel that JODIE! or Capaldi exactly rocked the hoodie look, but it was several million times better than THIS and it had a GOOD COAT to go with it. Perhaps we could start a petition, alright, it might sit uneasily alongside petitions about ending the genocide of Rohingyas but the fact the world is going to hell just makes it even more important for humanity to get ONE THING RIGHT.

It's great. May not be as breathtaking as other Doctor's outfits (like Capaldi's first) but I prefer this over some sexed up fetish job.

Remember this is a being used to dressing like a man....

May not be as breathtaking as other Doctor's outfits (like Capaldi's first)

You found it breathtaking? I can't even remember what I thought of it at the time but these days I find most of Capaldi's costumes rather boring.

(Of course, I try not to think about the question-mark underpants.)

Remember this is a being used to dressing like a man....

Absolutely! Which is why the braces are genius and I'm really really trying to love them and stop getting PTSD-style flashbacks to Colin's yellow braces...

But why can't she wear PROPER trousers instead of clown-trousers? And a half-decent coat - there are no gender-related (or any other) excuses for THAT thing.

But why can't she wear PROPER trousers instead of clown-trousers? And a half-decent coat - there are no gender-related (or any other) excuses for THAT thing.

She had to work with whatever was in the TARDIS's wardrobe, and remember that it used to contain That Coat!

Judi - Keith, I recently checked Australia's baby naming laws and naming your kid "Suspenders" is banned because Americanisation means its now associated with the ladies' underwear not the British braces but it's legal in Australia to call your kid "Knickers".

Why would "Americanisation" make Aussies think of the British definition rather than the American one? I'm not even sure what the British think when they say suspenders (garters? panties? kumquats?).

I thought that it was the Americans that called the ladies underwear "suspenders". Sorry, brain fart.

So she's had her ears peirced? But I thought Time Lords were beyond gender and all it's stereotypes. So why has she done that,

Her run hasn't even started and already I can hold that line against her.

Surely the Tardis has some kind of clothes machine. I suspect we'll see a change of clothes very quickly

Her run hasn't even started and already I can hold that line against her.



There's the dyed-hair too...

Surely the Tardis has some kind of clothes machine. I suspect we'll see a change of clothes very quickly

I'm now hoping she hangs on to Capaldi's minimalist-magician gear for as long as possible. Maybe her whole first season...

A breakdown of the 13th Doctor's outfit.

We should be gratefu. I believe this was the first version...

A breakdown of the 13th Doctor's outfit.

The Radio Times is trying that little bit too hard to convince Fans that they love it really cos the Doc's suddenly developed a weird previous-self fetish. Claiming that the horrible dull cheap greyness of JODIE!'s coat is a nod to the greyness of Sylvester McCoy's jacket would be a spectacularly stupid thing to say even if said jacket wasn't CREAM NOT GREY YOU MORONS.*

Has she really got a hood hiding round her neck? Why would she be so concerned about keeping her hair dry when her ankles are so cruelly exposed?

Why don't they realise that high-waisted clown-trousers look great on Troughton because he IS a clown BUT JODIE! ISN'T?

We should be gratefu. I believe this was the first version...

Ha! If you were bwahaha-ing to yourself about driving me into a nervous breakdown, prepare to be surprised, Sunshine. I was JUST FINE with that picture. I'd seen a similar blasphemy perpetuated on Eccy years ago and the wonderfully, nay, miraculously reassuring thing is...even in THAT COSTUME you just take one look and think, yup, that's my Doctor.

(Poor Colin. Poor, poor Colin.)

*Alright, I'm slightly colour-blind with some colours (usually green/blue/grey) but it looks cream to ME and what's more, I've had the misfortune to read thousands and thousands dozens of Seventh Doctor novels helpfully mentioning cream jackets.

Yeah the internet seems to be in real denial about how awful it is. I wonder if too many people are too concerned with praising the first female doc to admis it's a stupid ourfit

Well, if push comes to shove, it's just clothing, she can change.

How many Doctors have kept their original costume throughout their run anyway? 1, 2, 5, 6, and 9 I think. (Not counting story-driven changes like Black Orchid's harlequin costume or dressing like Salamander, or one-offs like the mercifully blue colour of mourning on Necros.)

Any changes to those costumes must have been pretty subtle. Changes in colour to the first two obviously don't count.

I'm slightly colour-blind with some colours (usually green/blue/grey)

Just chiming in to say me too, in the same spectrum. Throughout the decades I've worn green jackets that I thought were blue, and grey jackets that I thought were blue, until someone pointed it out, months or even years later.

KAM - "Steve, is 1 good or bad? When creating a rating system it helps to state which end is good and which end is bad.'

Keith, your teachers must have loved you! "Sir, I just wanted to thank you for giving me that 3 on my exam! I'm glad you thought it was so great and nearly a perfect 1!"
So, yeah, I meant that 1 is the worst, and 10 would be awesomely excellent.
But that mess is not.
I'm reminded of Jo's proclamation in 'The Curse of Peladon', "I'm not exactly dressed for mountaineering!", and that's my impression of this stinker. That outfit is not exactly dressed for cosmic crusading and fighting Daleks and Cybermen, and half of the nasty environments of alien planets.
Oh, wait.
I forgot.
The Doctor no longer visits alien planets.
Okay, but that outfit won't cut it in a episode set in the Antarctic.

Okay, but that outfit won't cut it in a episode set in the Antarctic.

Time Lords don't care about cold.

Well, if push comes to shove, it's just clothing, she can change.

Oh.

Yeah.

I never thought of that.

Plus she won't be wearing the dreary anorak thing during TARDIS scenes at least, we can hope.

I'm slightly colour-blind with some colours (usually green/blue/grey)

Just chiming in to say me too, in the same spectrum. Throughout the decades I've worn green jackets that I thought were blue, and grey jackets that I thought were blue, until someone pointed it out, months or even years later.

For decades I just thought mum was an idiot for insisting that my blue carpet was grey, then when I saw a road sign that was blue in the distance but green close-up I started to consider the possibility that I was the one with the problem. And it STILL catches me off-guard (MUM, recently: You REALLY need to polish those shoes. ME: Yeah, I had a vague look round for some blue shoe-polish but couldn't find any. MUM: Those shoes are grey. ME: ...Oh.).

The Doctor no longer visits alien planets.

Lies! Slander! Capaldi was on an alien planet only - um...well he had that tiresome little Mars trip not too long ago...

I fear they won't admit they've made a mistake on the costume for at least a season, I mean they never changed Colin's

Ignoring the stand point of the Doctor and the fictional world he lives in, we in the real world are going to be subjected to that ludicrous outfit FOREVER, not only on TV but books and memorabilia. IT'LL NEVER GO AWAY! Just like Colin's coat!

Oh, and the stripes and light blue/grey remind me of Wesley Crusher's look from the second season of The Next Generation.
Not a great look to mimic.

Hm. 3 days and not a comment from Emily.
Maybe my FOREVER comment sent into apoplectic shock!
Hey, kids! Get your gawdawful ugly-costumed Thirteenth Doctor action figures now!

It was the 'fictional' nonsense that got to me, though admittedly the 'forever' didn't help...

Sorry!
Maybe this will make you feel better...

https://youtu.be/7YjLK3RGVJ0

Or this one...

https://youtu.be/zY3OEv5CkGw

Hmm. I'm not sure the creators of EITHER of these should be holding their breath awaiting the call that the bloke who invented YouTube's Capaldi-and-cogs opening sequence was unexpectedly blessed with...

That was strange...

Aaaaaand it takes Doctor Who for the BBC to finally grasp the principles of equal pay: Whittaker to get the same as Capaldi.

Pity she didn't think to demand the same as Tennant or Ecclestraitor...

With some exceptions BBC pay is about star power. For example Graham Norton with his prime time A-List chat show is going to get a heck of a lot more than one of two people who spouts inanne prattle on the One Show.

I have a feeling that if Who pay were ratings based Jodie will either be deserving of loads more money or loads less, not the same amount.

She could always earn some extra cash by turning tricks as Smart Alec might say

I am not amused.

Yeah, come on Judi, you wouldn't stand for it if one of the MEN suggested the Doctor turn to prostitution cos she's a woman now and all women are whores...

She could always earn some extra cash by turning tricks

You mean sleight of hand? Sawing a companion in half? Making a phone box disappear? Those kind of tricks? ;-)

This is the year that Jodie will start her adventures as the first female Doctor.

My best wishes go out to her.

I would have appreciated if her debut had happened a bit earlier in said year though. I AM rather patient, but still...

Autumn. That's September at the earliest. Our glorious new Hero is gonna spend NINE SODDING MONTHS plummeting to the ground while misogynists make jokes about women drivers...

She's thrilled to be a woman and she's absolutely nailed the Doctor's mad-glare, anything ELSE to be spotted during her pitifully brief moments as Doctor (DAMMIT, I NEEDED a trailer...)

...unless the "Oh, brilliant" was meant sarcastically.

(Don't get me wrong. I'm not against Jodie or the idea of a female incarnation of the Doctor. Just pointing out the possibility.)

Well, I don't think she would have been smiling ear to ear like that if she had said it sarcastically.

*looks at picture of Jodie in costume*

Nanu Nanu!

Dare one ask what Nanu Nanu means...?

catchphrase of Mork from the seventies series Mork and Mindy. Mork also wears a rainbow costume.

So that's why Jodie's costume looked so familiar!

Anybody else get the feeling that this picture was just the BBC ribbing the fans and Jodie will actually wear something more dignified?

IF ONLY.

(Mind you, I'd have to get a new Jodie Whiskerfur (papier-mache Doctor-Cat) for my collection, but it would be a small price to pay for not spending the rest of my life looking at those clown trousers...)

Seeing Little Amelia Pond sarcastically name Santa's reindeer would be as joyous and as merry as seeing Scaroth trade quips with the Bescarfed One for eternity.

No it wouldn't.

NOTHING beats seeing Scaroth trade quips with the Bescarfed One for eternity. Not even having one cat on either side of your pillow, purring directly into each ear in stereo...

It has been pointed out that before we can have a convincing female Doctor, we do need a largely-female writing team and production team; otherwise we'll just end up with the Doctor being River Song, and no-one deserves that.

River Song's fantastic and I could live with a River-style Doctor, no problem. (He's just got too NICE recently. Even CAPALDI, for heaven's sake.)

And I'm not one of those cultural-appropriation maniacs who thinks only Native Americans should be allowed to write about Native Americans, only black people should be allowed to write about black people - and, by logical extension, only women should be allowed to write about women. Chibnall may not be able to write a good Who episode to save his life, but the third season of Broadchurch really proved that he GETS what it's like to be a woman in today's society.

I've said as much elsewhere here: She's still a woman working for men. Most of her lines and plots will be written by men, and even those that aren't will be approved by men.

But then, Verity Lambert was also in a similar position.

I`m betting that`s the real costume. Wait until the action figures and books come out. You`ll never get away from that horrid monstrosity.
FINALLY! Colin has competition for his multi-colored costume.

FINALLY! Colin has competition for his multi-colored costume.

Oh no no no, I wouldn't go THAT far...of course, Colin's Costume had the added disadvantage of having Colin inside it...

Aaaaaand it takes Doctor Who for the BBC to finally grasp the principles of equal pay

Oh. It turns out JODIE! actually had to DEMAND equal treatment, paying her the same as HER PREVIOUS SELF just didn't come naturally to the BBC...

I guess we'll all see how the costume affects our attention span of what's being said on screen. So far, it's only a photo. That colorful mess is going to be moving about and blocking other people sooner or later, and might just be distracting.

With the obvious and unfortunate exception of Ecleston, all new-series Doctors have changed their costumes since their original, pre-filming press release, sometimes quite radically.

Oh, I wouldn't say radically. They were all variations on the original theme, with the occasional deerstalker or orange spacesuit thrown in...

Who changed 'quite radically'? I wouldn't call a change in coat or coat color 'quite radical'.

'Radical' was a reference to Peter Capaldi who went from a Pertwee clone to a hoodie (and fortunately back again, even though the hoodie looked pretty good).

Titan has announced that a companion comic book series to the Thirteenth Doctor will appear at the same time as her first season starts.

I can just imagine the writers watching and rewatching those few seconds of her in the Christmas special to pick up on those subtle little nuances that will be such an integral part of her performance.

*snicker*

Or it will be a train wreck that gets the character completely wrong! 8-o

Well, it's a comic, luckily when they get the character completely wrong no one'll know that it's supposed to be JODIE! going by the pictures...

Jodie's episodes start in the fall, right?

October.

Sodding OCTOBER.

To put that in perspective, at least for me...

You may remember I'm on a one-year sabbatical. During this whole year, exactly one episode--the last Christmas special--will have aired.

I mean I survived the 16 years and all, but over a year between series...

...Yeah, brings back bad memories, doesn't it.

18 months without the Killer Clown was a GOOD thing. (disclaimer: Colin Baker is not a serial killer)

Theoretically speaking, eighteen months without having to look at That Coat is a blessed relief, but breaking Who's sacred yearly ritual was what set us up for The Sixteen Long And Barren Years Of Despair and DEAR GOD it's not as if those extra eighteen months to return Who to Shining Glory exactly bore fruit...

I'll cancel your reservation for Paradise Towers, then!
(And it even had a nice view of another wall!)

Jodie needs an umbrella... A SONIC UMBRELLA!

Missy's got a sonic umbrella. (Parasol. Whatever.) JODIE! should stick with the screwdriver, I think the sonic specs proved that Our Hero just shouldn't screw around with the classics.

A sonic bra! Then when she wants to open a door she can stick out her chest!



Jokes aside, I think she should stick with the screwdriver.

A sonic compact

The sonics would be hell on the mirror glass. ;-)

I hope that any male fan who calls Jodie the Nurse gets a kidney stone the size and shape of a Lego.

So far there's been just the one male I've had to gently explain that women can be doctors too to. (And then followed it up with a slightly-less-gentle IN FACT MOST DOCTORS IN THE UK ARE FEMALE YOU ••••••• MORON.)

The Doctoress?

;-)

•••• off!

From dictionary.com"
'Joke';
noun
1. something said or done to provoke laughter or cause amusement, as a witticism, a short and amusing anecdote, or a prankish act:
2. something that is amusing or ridiculous, especially because of being ludicrously inadequate or a sham; a thing, situation, or person laughed at rather than taken seriously; farce:
3. a matter that need not be taken very seriously; trifling matter:
4. something that does not present the expected challenge; something very easy:

So, Emily, lighten up, if you're not taking KAM's comment as a a joke. Notice the happy face? If you were replying sarcasticaly, then you should have added a smiley face, too.
But if you were being serious, I can see we're going to have a problem with even the smallest bit of criticism towards Whittaker.

So, Emily, lighten up, if you're not taking KAM's comment as a a joke. Notice the happy face?

Yes, and I'd've realised he was joking even without it.

But it's not a joke if it's not funny, and it's not funny, it's just a piece of blatant sexism. 'Doctor' has no gender, there's no such thing as 'Doctoress'. (Of course, I'm not accusing KAM of sexism so much as Moffat with all that 'I could hardly keep calling myself the Master' rubbish...)

But if you were being serious, I can see we're going to have a problem with even the smallest bit of criticism towards Whittaker.

You see wrong.

I have nothing against justifiable criticism of our beloved Thirteenth Doctor.

I myself am in a constant state of horrified hysteria about her clown trousers, Colin-Baker-style braces and grotty anorak.

Thirteen looks like Mork from Ork ("Mork and Mindy")

When I first saw Emily's response I laughed... then I thought, "Oh, wait, what if she's serious? Hmmm..."

But mainly "Doctoress" was a response to Natalie's comment about people calling 13 the Nurse, as if nurses and doctors do the same job. Heck, 11 had a nurse as a companion and HIS name was Rory.

But it's not a joke if it's not funny

But since humor is relative, with Person A thinking something is funny and Person B thinking it's not funny, that would mean that jokes fall into a Shroedinger's Cat style of existence being both funny and not funny at the same time. ;-)

Although aren't most sexist terms just shoehorned onto an existing job title because now a woman has the job? Women get hired to do the job of a steward, but they have to be called stewardesses. A person who headed up a meeting was called a chairman, then women started doing it, so they called them chairwomen, then people got upset about the original name so they renamed it chairperson. People who flew planes were aviators, then women started doing it so they coined the term aviatrix. So doctoress isn't so much a stretch, but a bullet the profession managed to dodge.

Makes one appreciate Star Trek's "All superior officers are "sir" regardless of sex." stance.

Thirteen looks like Mork from Ork ("Mork and Mindy")

Ah yes, the latest programme to have unsavoury revelations made about it...

When I first saw Emily's response I laughed... then I thought, "Oh, wait, what if she's serious? Hmmm..."

Well, hopefully the exclamation mark (and the fact that Nitcentral can't really afford to lose any posters, and the fact you've probably gathered what I'm LIKE after all these years) tipped you off that I wasn't 100% serious but still...

I bet if Patterson Joseph had been chosen as Thirteen, NO ONE would have said 'We can't call him Doctor! Let's call him...Witch-Doctor!' because we all know that Racism Is Wrong but so many people still struggle to accept this basic fact about sexism...

Makes one appreciate Star Trek's "All superior officers are "sir" regardless of sex." stance.

I'd appreciate a 'All superior officers are "ma'am" regardless of sex' stance more...

Let's call him...Witch-Doctor!

That's an oldies song, isn't it?

Oop eep walla-walla bing bang!

I just saw Jodie Whittaker in a movie titled Attack the Block, about teenagers in South London defending their council estate from an alien invasion. Jodie plays Samantha Adams, a young trainee nurse who is first mugged by said teenagers, but then joins them to fight the alien creatures. Jodie's upbeat and energetic performance in this movie, who's scenario wouldn't be out of place in a Doctor Who episode, made me quite optimistic that she will do a very good job in her tenure as the Doctor.

OF COURSE she will!

JODIE! JODIE!

Aliens invading council estates?

Did RTD write this

It was written by somebody called Joe Cornish, but since it's from 2011 I wouldn't be surprised if the guy was a Who fan.

It was a surprisingly good film. It sounded like it would be rubbish but I watched it on a boring Sunday evening and thoroughly enjoyed it, and even liked the way they portrayed the ludicrously cheap aliens. The young actors and the directing totally carried it, and I remember Jodie being very good in it.

I wonder, as Steve pointed out, was the chap that wrote this a fan of RTD era Doctor Who.

Sorry, but when I think of aliens stalking council estates, that's where my mind goes.

Jodie treading in Eccleston and Tennant's territories

Missy *whispers to Companion*: But, I have found *something* to entertain me. Watch!

[to JodieDoc]

"Oh, no! We're out of mascara!"

Jodie: *screams*

I'm sure the Doctor could cope.

S/he's coped without mascara for a couple of thousand/four-and-a-half-billion years, after all...

If there was JUST ONE THING that could make JODIE!Doc even more perfect, it's...

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 11/37 - well, spoilery RUMOURS anyway...

A CAT A CAT A TARDIS CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At last!

The Doctor is getting a cat?

A real cat, or a robot one like K9? Or is it one of those evolved cats from the far future?

I want it to be a persian white cat, with the Doctor gently stroking it as she says "So, we meet again (insert name of the villain here)".

Doctor Blofeld?

So Worsley (sp?) can become canon? That's nice.

If you mean darling Wolsey, no, this is a completely different moggie, with a stupid name like Percy or something, which is probably just as well (aside from Percy being an INCREDIBLY stupid name for anyone let alone one of our feline masters) cos Wolsey originally owned Joan Redfern before defecting to the Doctor and as there was no sign of this in the television version of Human Nature...

Yes, the cat should be named Purrcy, not Percy. ;-)

Or Mewsley?

Or Sylvester

Who'd be Tweety Bird?

Legal rights probably prevent the kitty from being called 'Garfield', or 'Felix', so I'm going with 'Bill The Cat' (a Bloom County comic strip reference for those not in the know coughcoughEmilycoughcough.)

Or gee, maybe they could give the cat a totally original name.

Sadly, I can almost see Fee-Line.

Fee-Line? That'd be as bad as the time they named a story Attack of the Cybermen!

How about Cat-herine?

So many are moaning this is happening because of pressure from SJW's.

Don't they know that the idea for a female Doctor has been around LONG before anyone even heard of SJW's.

At least we didn't get Judge Judy as the Doctor.

Those Whovian geeks have been busy creating new JODIE title sequences.
Here's one...

https://youtu.be/QvD-gaxDj0I

And another...

https://youtu.be/AnZztoir0jI

Hmm. Hopefully not either of 'em - the first one is scary and the second not that great (though having most of JODIE!'s body worked a lot better than when they tried that sort of thing in the Pertwee era).

Em: At least you haven't seen the sexualised title sequences. Just because she's a woman they have to turn her into sex. B'Stards!

the first one is scary

Both of them are! They both say the story is by Chris Chibnall! I'm still hiding behind the couch because of that!

It occurred to me that when we first see the Fourteenth Doctor (or Fifteenth-- whichever goes back to being male), he's going to be a little embarrassed.
When a Doctor regenerates, the clothes stay the same.
So if Thirteen is wearing female clothing of some kind...
He might even 'grow into it' and be too big, so he'll do his own imitation of Bruce Banner turning ito the Hulk!

When a Doctor regenerates, the clothes stay the same.

Not necessarily, people with sharper eyes than mine claim the clothes regenerated too during Hartnell-to-Troughton...

he'll do his own imitation of Bruce Banner turning ito the Hulk!

If that didn't happen during Davison-to-Colin it's never gonna happen...

When a Doctor regenerates, the clothes stay the same.

New Male Doctor: Why am i wearing a peephole bra and panties with a pink heart embroidered on them?

How do we know ALL the Docs weren't wearing panties with a pink heart embroidered on them?

Apart from Capaldi of course, the only Doctor who's seen fit to tell us all about his taste in underpants...

If the Doctor has been wearing that, then this one will do the opposite-- wear baggy boxer shorts, wear socks with a hole in them, not shave and let her body hair grow, scratch her crotch and belch!
And watch football instead of saving Earth!

scratch her crotch

So, imitating Michael Jackson rather than Madonna ;)

How do we know ALL the Docs weren't wearing panties with a pink heart embroidered on them?

Apart from Capaldi of course, the only Doctor who's seen fit to tell us all about his taste in underpants...

Almost certainly Eccleston as well, come to think of it, or there's no way Mickey wouldn't have shared THAT bit of information with Rose after putting the newly-regenerated Tennant to bed.

I ADORE the boots and stripy socks, in fact I'm attempting to develop a belated foot-fetish so I can just ignore the rest of the costume.

Delighted to see that the Dr Men books obviously agree with me - JODIE!'s wearing ONLY shoes and socks on the Dr Thirteenth Cover.

JODIE!'s wearing ONLY shoes and socks on the Dr Thirteenth Cover.

(KAM) She's topless?! in a children's book?!(KAM)

I had a similar reaction not too long ago.

And why are you putting those words in KAM's mouth?

It seems like something he'd say.

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

A topless blob on a children's book?!?!?!?!

It's the end of civilization as we know it!!!

What's next? Someone burning down Brazil's National Museum???

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

Hey, Snagglepuss! How's Yogi Bear? ;)

Smith was Tennant without his Lithium. There's a lot more pressure on Jodie. Some wanting her to fail, some hoping she'll succeed, and others not sure what to feel.

Doesn't every new Doctor bring some trepidation and worry over what will happen?

"That's Eccleston's costume? A leather jacket? The show is dead!"

"Tennant? He's too good looking to be the Doctor. It's not Cassanova in space!"

"Matt Smith? Is he even old enough to be the Doctor? He's a fetus with floppy hair!"

"Oh, Capaldi will be cursing up a storm!"

Five days to go...

JODIE! JODIE! JODIE!

Does anyone else read that in a Cary Grant-style voice?

The Woman Who Fell to Earth:

ADORE the Doctor's pout when Yasmin refuses to put the lights and siren on.

So what's with her dark roots? Does her hair just happen to be two drastically different colours or was some peroxide involved in the regenerative process?

'Scout's honour' - don't tell me s/he used to be a scout as well as a Vestal Virgin (Second Class)?

'Of course it worked. I'm not an amateur' - cf Matt's claim to be 'Less of a young professional - more of an ancient amateur.'

TZIM-SHA: They're held in stasis in our trophy chambers, on the cusp between life and death.
DOCTOR: Left to rot? How completely obscene. - But not so obscene she actually feels the need to do anything about 'em, like RESCUE them. And why is she getting stasis confused with rotting, surely its exact opposite?

DOCTOR: What time did your dad say he'd get here?
RYAN: Two hours ago.
DOCTOR: If he said he'll come... - You don't know a thing about this guy Doc! Not to mention, does TWELVE YEARS AND FOUR PSYCHIATRISTS! ring any bells?

YASMIN: Have you got family?
DOCTOR: No. Lost them a long time ago.
RYAN: How do you cope with that?
DOCTOR: I carry them with me. What they would've thought and said and done. I make them a part of who I am. So even though they're gone from the world, they're never gone from me. - That's quite the change from Troughton's they-sleep-in-my-mind and everyone else's 'Family, WHAT family, I couldn't care less about my dead kids' kinda attitude.

'Okay, you three, I'm almost gonna miss ya' - what a FANTASTICALLY casual attitude to have towards your new pets, no chance JODIE!'ll be spending four and a half billion years punching any walls for them...

The British Library suggests the casting of Whittaker was prophesied quite a while back...
http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2018/10/a-female-doctor.html

Adorable!

We're not calling her the Doctrix though.

TV WEEK (Australia) of October 27- November 2 2018 has a letter about the new Doctor from reader Beth.

Under the headline “A new Doctor in the house”, Beth wrote:
“It’s been nice to finally see a female doctor in Doctor Who. The show is lucky to have Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor.
She’s a breath of fresh air. I can’t wait to see what adventures they have in store for her.

TV WEEK’s response:
“As long as the Doctor is quirky and intelligent, it doesn’t matter who they’re played by, although fans might argue each actor brings something new to the role.
We look forward to watching all 10 episodes with Jodie and the Christmas special in this series.”

Every moment of JODIE! makes me love her more and hate her clown trousers more too.

Mind you, the coat is the lesser of two evils now we've seen the weird long-sleeved vest thing she wears underneath. Odd seeing her rip the coat btw, after growing up with Tom who had a 'You'll have to KILL me!' protective attitude towards the Sacred Scarf, well, when he wasn't trying to get it arrested for murder anyway.

I don't think there anything clownish about Jodie's trousers. They're a sensible Tardis-y blue, not some tweedy-plaid like Troughton's, or garish yellow, or looking like deckchair material, or (dare I say it) calf-length burgundy breeches. Maybe it's the braces?

There's nothing wrong with calf-length burgundy breeches!

Honestly, I'm adapting to the braces, in a few years I'll hopefully be associating them entirely with the joy that is JODIE! (As long as I don't do anything as stupid as rewatch any Colin Baker stories.)

But the trousers (culettes? Oh, whatever) still scream CLOWN at me, I just can't help it.

Obviously I'm not the only one, it's never a good sign when the SCRIPT agrees (Yaz: 'THAT's what you're going with?').

Well, the current fashion trends appear to be disagreeing with you, Emily. Culottes can be seen quite commonly in the shops and being worn. Maybe the Doctor is a trendsetter? At least, the New Who ones seem to be: Tennant made suits and ties popular, sales of bow-ties increased after Matt said they were cool and Capaldi... um... wore hoodies? Certainly the rainbow stripe tops are popular, I'm planning on getting both versions we've seen (so far) when I can.

Yaz may have been disappointed in the Doctor's choice (I wonder what she was hoping Jodie would wear? ) but Ryan gave an approving nod, if his sartorial input counts for anything?

Well, the current fashion trends appear to be disagreeing with you, Emily.

That's not much surprise, current fashion trends and me are...pretty incompatible. Like matter and anti-matter only less potential for universal destruction owing to me not giving a ••••.

Culottes can be seen quite commonly in the shops and being worn. Maybe the Doctor is a trendsetter? At least, the New Who ones seem to be

Yeah, it's JUST NOT NATURAL. I miss the Hartnell era.

Ryan gave an approving nod, if his sartorial input counts for anything?

Frankly...no.

I haven't noticed a thing about what Ryan's wearing (which is probably a good sign) but he's given me no more cause to trust his fashion-sense than his gun-sense, bicycle-sense, alien-sense etc etc...Plus the poor guy was probably just desperate to stop standing around outside a woman's changing-room...

Arachnids:

Ahh, JODIE!'s 'Oh, you know. Back in the box. There's loads to see' and desperation for TEA AT YAZ'S! was all very sweet but not exactly a Tennant-style moment of Lonely God heartbreak...

Also, all that 'By yourself' stuff reminded me of the rumours that JODIE! would have a cat WHERE IS THE TARDIS CAT?

Oh, great. They've discovered the one way to make the Clown Trousers look worse - a bum bag. Incidentally an incredibly unfeminist move, sure, we all know that pockets are yet another of those things that women are denied but THIS IS THE DOCTOR OF COURSE SHE HAS POCKETS. Numerous bigger-on-the-inside pockets stuffed with junk. Anything else would be a clear sign that she's No True Doctor. (Of course it's understandable that in episode one everything had fallen out of said pockets during her plummet to earth but by ep two she'd already pickpocketed some charity shop sunglasses, for heaven's sake.) So why the hell are you openly undermining her pocket-based credentials?

'Sisters. I used to have sisters. I used to be a sister, in an aqua-hospital. Actually, turned out to be a training camp for the Quiston Calcium Assassins' - blimey, Troughton's washerwoman, Pertwee's cleaning lady, Tennant's 'All girls here' in Pompeii and Capaldi's 'Vestal Virgin, Second Class' weren't one-offs, then? How many times did the Doc disguise himself as a woman and why didn't he JUST REGENERATE into one of the critters sooner?

Also, does 'I used to have sisters' apply to the assassin-sisterhood she just starts waffling about or is it a separate thing? I.e. did HARTNELL have biological SISTERS?

'If you thought it was appropriate' - jeez, now The Doc's ASKING PERMISSION to sonic open a LOCK? Since when has s/he cared about 'appropriate'? Since when has a lock not been like catnip-to-a-cat to her/him? And why does she always stretch her arm out like that when sonicking?

'Something's happening with the spiders in the city. They're out of control' - and JODIE! looks so astonished at this mind-bogglingly obvious piece of information WHY, exactly?

'You can't be President if you fire Yaz's mum' - well, that's very sweet but it's not exactly bringing-Harriet-Jones-down-in-six-words quality, is it...

'I eat danger for breakfast. I don't, I prefer cereal. Or croissants. Or those little fried Portuguese...Never mind, it's not important' - it's TOTALLY important, Doc, especially when you're still brand new and still sorting out your taste-buds! Take me as your Companion and I will fry you Portuguese ANYTHING (up to and including people) every morning!

'I call people "Dude" now' - Have you forgotten that time you taught all those Vikings to call people 'Dude' when playing your electric guitar on top of that tank? What the hell's the MATTER with you!

Najia notices 'that smell' before the Doctor does? She wasn't exaggerating in Woman Who Fell to Earth about her new nose being unreliable was she, though that's still no excuse for sticking a finger up it.

'One of your neighbours had a spider problem. The link between both places is you' - look, I've nothing against fallible Doctors leaping to the wrong conclusions (except that it brings back unpleasant memories of Peter Davison but never mind, that's my problem, all I have to do to cope is think of the hilarity of The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot or, indeed, what happened to me/Who/the universe when Davison LEFT US) but s/he's gotta counterbalance that with moments s/he saves the universe/wipes the floor with the baddie/offers someone some jelly babies and it's not really happening. (Also, isn't she forgetting GRAHAM having his own giant-spider encounter?)

What you DON'T follow it up with is the baddie saying 'Shoot them!', the Doc saying 'We're not going to shoot them!' and then...the baddie shooting them with sod-all repercussions from the Doctor. (Have I mentioned that HARRIET JONES is much on my mind at the moment for SOME REASON?)

It's Boaty McBoatface all over again:

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a869881/doctor-who-banned-bank-of-england-new-50-note/

That's just DISCRIMINATION.

And what the hell d'they mean, FICTIONAL CHARACTER???

Emily - "Also, does 'I used to have sisters' apply to the assassin-sisterhood she just starts waffling about or is it a separate thing? I.e. did HARTNELL have biological SISTERS?"

Chibnal will probably establish that the Rani was Hartnell's sister, since Moffatt didn't retcon it before him.

Apparently there won't be a christmas special this year - the final epof this season will be in the new year, and have something to do with the start of 2019....

Whilst waiting for her next episode as the Doctor, Kerblam!, I saw Jodie Whittaker in the movie Journeyman in which she played the wife of a boxer.
Journeyman was released earlier this year in March and I decided to watch it when it was mentioned in an interview she did on BBC Radio just days before her debut as the Doctor.

Journeyman is not about time travel and Jodie Whittaker is now playing a time traveller in the Doctor.

Journeyman is also the name of a short-lived series in 2007 in which curiously the title character is a time traveller.

If anyone is still being an ••••••• about JODIE! - that's what DVDs of your favourite past MALE Doctor's era are for!

Also Big Finish.

Oh, I'm sure JODIE!'ll infect Big Finish with her feminine wiles any minute now.

How IS Jake Dudman's Thirteenth Doctor voice, I assume he's been practising...?

"Dudman felt a pain in his throat. The pain soon passed... but left him with a voice that had no business coming out of a man"...

Demons of the Punjab:

'Don't call her a thing, Graham' - AT LAST! The Doctor is stepping up to defend Sexy's honour (albeit sadly not with a spoon). Though given that SHE'S been calling the Old Girl 'it' for the past five episodes she's not exactly in much of a position to criticise now she's FINALLY remembered that the TARDIS has a gender...

Since when does the Doctor take a VOTE about doing something she KNOWS (thanks to Father's Day, if not before) will be a disaster.

'I knew this would happen...We shouldn't have come. I'm too nice. This is what happens when you try to be nice' - EXACTLY! And what sort of freakish Doctor ARE you, that you should be trying to be nice! What was wrong with your NEVER MISTAKE ME FOR NICE attitude in Love & Monsters? This is all Capaldi's fault, laying those dying geas on you to be bloody nice, like HE knew what he was talking about in this regard...And even letting your Strays have a VOTE! You should get back to the good old Davison attitude towards democracy...

'This is the best thing ever' - having bad patterns painted on your hands? Better than chips with Rose Tyler? Better than a night with River at the Singing Towers of Darillium?

'My references to body and gender regeneration are all in jest' - BLESS!

'I know there aren't many certainties in any of our lives, but Umbreen, Prem, what I see you in you is the certainty you have in each other' - Well not for much longer. Five minutes, tops - 'Something I believe in, my faith - FAITH! DOCTOR! - 'Love, in all its forms, is the most powerful weapon we have, because love is a form of hope and, like hope, love abides in the face of everything' - GOD I MISS you when your idea of a solemn ceremony was 'Top layer if you want to say a few words' - 'You both found love with each other. You believed in it, you fought for it, and you waited for it. And now, you're committing to it. Which makes you, right now, the two strongest people on this planet. Maybe in this universe' - There must be SOME other people in the universe who are doing the lurve thing right now - 'I am not sure how we formalise this' - you didn't think to ask EARLIER?

I can't access the JODIE! page at my work (weird filter settings) so Em can feel free to move this to the appropriate board....

If you make it to the end of this little rant then good on you.

This girl has issues (or as she pronounces it- IS-SUES)

I didn't make it to the end.

I agree that she may have some issues-- but I think she makes some good points as well( and no, I don't want to argue about it here).

So, will we be calling this new Doctor Eccytraitor 2(that clip implies that she's going to jump ship as fast as he did).

(Not that I really care--I refuse to watch the show until she's gone).

I refuse to watch the show until she's gone

Quite right too.

The woman is OBVIOUSLY A WITCH and you must preserve your purity from her womanly wiles.

Okay--I know that I never posted this here--you so how the flaming smeg did it get here????

Emily: Are you still smegging moving posts around without telling people where you put them?????

If so all I can say is "Bad,Emily,bad!!!".

Also I don't know how to react to your post--are you being supportive or sarcastic?? I'm really not sure.

Emily: Are you still smegging moving posts around without telling people where you put them?????

If so all I can say is "Bad,Emily,bad!!!".

If you look at Rodney's post on Tuesday you'll see him giving me specific permission to move it to the JODIE! section. I therefore assumed my fellow Nitcentrallers would know where to find it.

Also I don't know how to react to your post--are you being supportive or sarcastic?? I'm really not sure.

Sarcastic.

VERY sarcastic.

I guess I've got to give you that one Emile--even though I don't see anything in my post giving similar permission.

I also see that this Doctor has signed on for another season-- oh joy, another season that I'll never watch.

To explain, my problem here is part of a problem that I've been having for years now.

I'm sick of lazy writers trying to give us improved diversity by changing characters that I've followed my entire life because it's easier than creating a new one to fill the role.

All too often these days you see a character that you've followed for years(most often but not always white and male) into something else(non-white and/or female) just to create diversity.

If you wish to create diversity create a new character-- don't rape our memories by changing them into something else.

On Who you don't even need to do that much--I can name three time ladies who I'd love to see return for a guest shot,and maybe a spin off series of their own.

I can also name at least one evil time lady who could easily fill the role that Missy has been filling.

You would have to overcome her weak earlier appearances--but if it could be done for the Autons--it can be done for ANYONE!!!!!

Also, now that we've had a female Doctor--what next???

Why does the Doctor need to look human--Who has many non-human races???

How about a Doctor who's something really alien-- say a Zygon??? That'd really gain the diversity points for the show--and take you further over the same line that you crossed by changing the Doctor into a woman-- and until it's corrected--I will not be watching the program (although comments here suggest that I'm better off stopping where I am(with the last Smith story).

Sorry if I'm ranting--that's just something that I needed to get off my chest.

How is it that I almost always miss at least one typo until after I've posted, Emile--I obviously mean Emily???

I'm sick of lazy writers trying to give us improved diversity by changing characters that I've followed my entire life because it's easier than creating a new one to fill the role.

But they didn't.

They changed the Doctor's character because the Doctor's character ALWAYS changes every few years.

I'm better off stopping where I am(with the last Smith story).

Blimey, what have you got against Capaldi?

I think he means changing the Doctor from male to female, Emily. Obviously, we've had different character attributes for different Doctors-- which kept the series going.
But John is right in several points, where we now see certain characters (usually from superhero comic books) that had transitioned from white male (which they had been for decades) to black male, because of the times we live in.
Some examples;
Jimmy Olsen in 'Supergirl'.
Perry White in the DC movies.
Iris Allen in 'The Flash'
Kid Flash in 'The Flash'
Nick Fury in the comics and the Marvel movies.
Electro in the second set of Spider-Man movies.
The Kingpin in the Daredevil movie.
Johnny The Human Torch Storm in the latest Fantastic Four movie.
As John said, why not create new characters that are black instead of changing them? Black people deserve their own characters, not reconstituted already-established characters. That's why 'Black Panther' was such a hit and such a great movie-- he finally had a chance to show audiences how cool he was and what he could do.

Thank you,Steve--I'm glad that someone understood at least part of what I was saying.

Other examples include:

Pete Ross and Lana Lang in Smallville

Josie and Melody from Riverdale

Starbuck and Boomer in the Battlestar Galactica reboot

Sue Invisible Girl Storm in the first two Fantastic Four films( odd note:in the first two films she was black, and her brother Johnny was white(played by Chris Evans(better known as Captain America in the MCU) in the third she's white and Johnny is black.)

Alicia Masters( the Things new girlfriend) in the first two FF films)

And these are just ones that come to mind.

how can changing diversity be a sign of a "lazy writer"?

Are you one of these sad fans that yearn for the good old days of wobbly sets and cheap looking monsters?

Doctor Who is unique in that it is designed to be diverse and to change. I have always maintained that I don't think they've ever truly failed in the casting of a Doctor- it was the scripts and/or costume choices that let the show down.

I've enjoyed the season a lot and think that the higher ratings are showing that Chibnall might (shock! horror!) know a little about what he is doing. No amount of bleating fans on youtube or twitter can change that.

Seems to me JEP that, like Kate, you don't have much nice to say about Who so I have to question why you watch it at all.

'Seems to me JEP that, like Kate, you don't have much nice to say about Who so I have to question why you watch it at all.'

Is the new Doctor beyond reproach or criticism? If so, then this is the wrong site to comment about it. We're all here to critique the small mistakes and the big ones, and also comment on the series as a whole, so John is entitled to say what he wants.
Or are you a big believer in censorship if it doesn't match your own opinions?

Not at all. I welcome it. But when your posts are predominantly negative (close to 95% with the remainder waxing lyrical about earlier eras) one has to wonder what keeps you tuning in? Seriously- why would you keep watching a show you no longer enjoyed??

Thank you,Steve--I'm glad that someone understood at least part of what I was saying.

I understood perfectly well what you were saying.

I just think if your favourite character in the universe drastically changes their entire body and personality every few years you're not in a great position to complain if they...drastically change their entire body and personality. Obviously if, after a fair trial (say, their entire first story even if one CAN accurately judge Colin Baker on his first couple of sentences at the end of Androzani) you decide you can't stand 'em then fair enough, but you refused to watch ANY of JODIE! cos she's...A WOMAN? And refused to watch ANY of Capaldi though he's...NOT a woman?

You may well have a point when applying this changing-for-the-sake-of-diversity to Lesser Programmes, I wouldn't know cos I don't watch 'em. Though frankly a) it's way past time this planet diversified past 'straight white male' and b) this 'rape our memories' thing is a really distasteful way to convey your objections.

Is the new Doctor beyond reproach or criticism?

If your criticism is URRRGGGHHH IT'S A GIRL! then, frankly, YES.

If your criticism is that she's too nice, too democratic, occasionally horrifically reminds one of Davison rather than Tennant, disses Leela, doesn't save planets/universes often enough, wears clown trousers with Colin-Baker-style braces and sticks her finger up her nose then bring it on...

Em: yeah it's a bad look that the first woman doctor isn't allowed to be as angry or as forceful as her male incarnations. God Forbid we actually show a woman getting angry! Noo, women are the "nurturerers" as one BBC executive told Letts/D-icks when they tried to cast a female villain in Colony in Space...

Em: yeah it's a bad look that the first woman doctor isn't allowed to be as angry or as forceful as her male incarnations.

We can console ourselves that at least she wipes the floor with that wet rag Davison...

God Forbid we actually show a woman getting angry! Noo, women are the "nurturerers" as one BBC executive told Letts/D-icks when they tried to cast a female villain in Colony in Space..

I think we've evolved slightly beyond that - or at least Chibnall has, he seems acutely aware of gender politics - so he'll know that losing his temper gives a man more authority (so strong! So manly!) whilst losing her temper reduces a woman's authority (so hysterical! Poor foolish female just can't cope!). Still, this was a wonderful chance to show EXACTLY how authoritative (as in, FOREMOST AUTHORITY IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE) a furious woman can be and he really blew it.

Of course, every actor has their weaknesses, maybe JODIE!'s just a bit rubbish at the whole temper tantrum thing? (Like darling Sylvester McCoy only probably with a bit less rolling of 'r's?)

Rodney - Seriously- why would you keep watching a show you no longer enjoyed??

Not sure about JEP, but when I start watching/reading something it's because I enjoy it, then something happens, but I stay with it hoping it will get back to being the thing I enjoyed. Giving up means you've lost hope it will get better.

Emily - so he'll know that losing his temper gives a man more authority whilst losing her temper reduces a woman's authority

Not exactly. If a man loses his temper there's the possibility he may become violent and there could be a fight, most women are weaker than men so they are not seen as much of a threat to a man.

First off--Rodney-if you actually read my comments you would see that I haven't watched any New Who in around five years.

In fact, as a rule I don't even read this section.

The only reason I am now is that when Emily moved your link here from from general discussions, she also moved my reply to it-which forced me to come here to continue.

Second: Emily, originally planned to watch the Capaldi seasons at a friends house with friends(I sometimes point out things to look for if I watch it first). Things fell through and it ended up on the get-round-to-it list.

Since then--every thing I've read or heard tell me that the Capaldi years are a worse smegging train wreck than the C.B. years were. While I do intend to give them a look--they are not hogh on my priority list(I have several Old Who stories to watch,two of which I've never watched before).

Also, what I'm calling lazy writing is taking long established characters, changing them to make them more diverse , and then treating them as though nothing is different.

In every instance that Steve and I listed the characters are changed, and then used as though there was no difference at all.

What you need to do is create new characters, and do the work to make them part of the story.

This is why I said lazy writing.

Emily, originally planned to watch the Capaldi seasons at a friends house with friends(I sometimes point out things to look for if I watch it first). Things fell through and it ended up on the get-round-to-it list.

Just bear in mind that you could get hit by a bus at ANY MOMENT and you don't want your dying thought to be bitter, bitter regret for those four glorious seasons of Who-y goodness you missed.

every thing I've read or heard tell me that the Capaldi years are a worse smegging train wreck than the C.B. years were.

Boy are YOU in for a pleasant surprise.

Capaldi is a superb Doctor, his first season gave us a wonderfully ruthless alien portrayal of the Doc of the sort no one's had the guts to give us since the Hartnell-rock-caveman days, his second season gave us a highly original ageing-rock-god kinda Doctor and the third season was a real breath of fresh air after the first two.

I don't know why I totally failed to fall in love with the Twelfth Doctor OR his three excellent seasons but stop trusting killjoys like me and go WATCH FOR YOURSELF. (If you feel like skipping In The Forest of the Night then even I won't judge you.)

(I have several Old Who stories to watch,two of which I've never watched before).

Ooh, which two?

Also, what I'm calling lazy writing is taking long established characters, changing them to make them more diverse , and then treating them as though nothing is different.

But JODIE! isn't being treated like that at all.

She IS different from her previous selves to exactly the same degree as they were all different from each other - but her Doctorish-to-the-core nature shines through.

Most of the time having a new, different body isn't a big deal in exactly the same way it hasn't been a big deal the last twelve (or thirteen or WHATEVER) times she's done this, but when appropriate (like the seventeenth century) she's PERFECTLY prepared to make a point about NEVER BEING CONDESCENDED TO DEATH WHEN I WAS A BLOKE.

In every instance that Steve and I listed the characters are changed, and then used as though there was no difference at all.

You have entirely yourselves to blame for watching Lesser Programmes, how many times do I have to explain to people how much happier their lives would be if they just dedicated them to Who?

What you need to do is create new characters, and do the work to make them part of the story.

Literally thousands of new female characters have been created for Doctor Who and many of them were wonderful but pre-JODIE! NONE of 'em were THE DOCTOR. And why the hell should womankind settle for playing the sidekick when we can be the Lonely God instead?

Emily - You have entirely yourselves to blame for watching Lesser Programmes, how many times do I have to explain to people how much happier their lives would be if they just dedicated them to Who?

Especially since the creators of Who make sure to produce multiple new episodes every year!

Oh...

Wait a minute...

Well, that's where the magical time-travel device known as the DVD player comes in...

'You have entirely yourselves to blame for watching Lesser Programmes, how many times do I have to explain to people how much happier their lives would be if they just dedicated them to Who?'

Oh, if only it were that easy!

Karen Gillan writing as a guest columnist for The Hollywood Reporter says that Jodie Whittaker knocked it out of the park in her debut season as the Doctor:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/karen-gillan-why-doctor-who-should-be-a-woman-1169777?fbclid=IwAR0N_WgQE-sN9kx_QWYu-3ctstD2LmejzF_0MHSFaKvy_T6cT_2JVZCfqvw

Everyone likes women who are doing something for them, and very few people like women who are the boss of them.

Oh I dunno, apparently a lot of Tory MPs adored being told what to do by Margaret Thatcher cos she reminded them of Nanny. Or something.

Anyone else find themselves spending hours gazing adoringly at that vertical line down JODIE!'s forehead? (No? Well, in my defence if I keep my eyes firmly fixed on her face I don't have to look at her costume.) And find themselves thinking how great it was that the BBC would allow an unBotoxed leading lady and realised you WOULD have a line or two on your face after MILLENNIA with the fate of the universe on your shoulders?

Well, she's told David Tennant (who's got his own podcast now, presumably the miserable traitor's post-Who career didn't take off as he'd expected, let that be a lesson to him) that the BBC told her to get the line filled in. And she said no.

So yeah, it's fine for the TWELFTH Doctor to have so many lines on his face his Companion practically asks if she can swap him for a younger model but for the Thirteenth to have ONE SINGLE LINE is unacceptable, gosh I wonder if it might possibly have something to do with THEIR GENDERS?

BTW- Jodie is the first Doctor since Tennant to do a commentary track on the DVDs.

When Wesley Crusher of Star Trek: TNG was initially being proposed as a teenage girl called Leslie Crusher, a lot of the pitched storyline ideas involved romance, just because the character would be a girl.

Why are so many elsewhere expecting Thirteen to have romance stories in a way that wouldn't be expected for her male predecessors?

BTW- Jodie is the first Doctor since Tennant to do a commentary track on the DVDs.

Who the •••• do Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi think they ARE!

(Of course, my outrage is perhaps a tad undermined by the fact I just didn't notice but that is entirely beside the point.)

Why are so many elsewhere expecting Thirteen to have romance stories in a way that wouldn't be expected for her male predecessors?

That's not the way I remember it, frankly after Eccy, Tennant, Matt and even Capaldi were falling in lurve right, left and centre I have the feeling we were all dying for JODIE! to bring back a bit of old-fashioned Doctorish asexuality. And she did.

....we were all dying for JODIE! to bring back a bit of old-fashioned Doctorish asexuality. And she did.

And I strongly approve.

I see the "falling in lurve right, left and centre" of her New Who predecessors as a Time Lord symptom of PTSD.

I googled images of Jodi, Emily and depending on the scene, you can see MULTIPLE horizontal lines across her face or crow's feet if she scrunches up her expression.
BBC or not, you can't erase the lines of a real person fighting gravity.
That's what CGI is for!

"BTW- Jodie is the first Doctor since Tennant to do a commentary track on the DVDs."


That is not correct as Matt Smith did the commentary for Hide.

No comments since February! Shocking!
If you go to doctorwhonews.net now you'll see the Doctor in a new coat.
Oh, yeah, and the Judoon are back next season

Never mind. You guys beat me to it in the Season Twelve thread.
Curses!

I didn't notice that was a new coat though...are you sure?

It looks pale pink to me, instead of pale blue to me.

I think that's the lighting.

Admittedly I'm slightly colour-blind.

Definitely looks pink to me, as it does on the cover of the latest magazine.

Oh, great. They've discovered the one way to make the Clown Trousers look worse - a bum bag. Incidentally an incredibly unfeminist move, sure, we all know that pockets are yet another of those things that women are denied but THIS IS THE DOCTOR OF COURSE SHE HAS POCKETS. Numerous bigger-on-the-inside pockets stuffed with junk. Anything else would be a clear sign that she's No True Doctor.

According to the designer in DWM, 'there was a whle Twitterfest of people suggesting she was wearing a bum bag instead of having pockets, and that as I'm a man designing a costume for a woman I'd not put pockets in the coat. She has pockets!' and that the...hideous accessory...was because 'Bum bags haven't been around for a while and we thought we'd bring them back.' Yeah, to be honest, I'd be surprised if you repeated the Matt-Smith-single-handedly-revives-the-tweed-industry triumph...

Chris Chibnall in DWM:

'The inner steel and toughness of Jodie's Doctor is on display a bit more in The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos' - it IS? WHERE? (And that's taking your word for it that JODIE! HAS inner steel and toughness. If she has it's no thanks to your scripts which attempt to portray her as as much of a wimp as that DAVISON creature.)

Didn't think I'd got used to a female Doctor yet - still get a thrill every time 'she' 'her' or 'herself' comes up - but was just reading the Resurrection blurb as a way of passing the last remaining weeks of the SEVERAL DECADES we've been waiting for the novelisation and •••• me if I didn't think, just for a split second, HIS? when it mentioned 'the Doctor and his companions'...

Well, HE does outnumber HER something like 46 to 3, according to the Nitcentral list.

What Nitcentral list?

The section of Doctor Who that lists all the Companions threads.

---

quote:

* The prospect of a woman Doctor was broached by fans in Doctor Who Appreciation Society as early as 1977-78;
* In 1980, Tom Baker publicly broached the prospect that the next Doctor after him could be a woman (Davison had already been selected at that point), it was a publicity stunt, but it was reported in the media as a viable prospect, taken seriously.
* From 1984-1988, Barbara Benedetti starred as the Doctor in a series of four, roughly half hour unauthorized adventures most of which were comparable to contemporary BBC Who, proof of concept.
* In 1985, Sidney Newman, one of Doctor Who's creators, proposed bringing in a woman to play the Doctor and revitalise the show. A very serious proposal.
* Also in 1985-89, fans were seriously discussing a woman Doctor.
* 1996-1998 - Sharon Horton appeared as the Doctor in three unauthorized stories, including a three part serial, shot low end/no budget, its a further proof of concept.
* 1999's spoof - Curse of Fatal Death ended with Joanna Lumley as the 13th Doctor.
* Big Finish' Doctor Who Unbound, officially licensed, featured a female Doctor in one episode, played by Arabella Weir - David Tennant played a Time Lord in that one.
* Iris Wildthyme in novels and short stories was created as a female version of the Doctor, on occasion claiming credit for the Doctor's canonical adventures.

It's been seriously considered since the 1980s.

---

Are people still griping about that?!?

Christopher H Bidmead said in DWM that he seriously urged JNT to consider a woman and JNT looked at him and said 'But he's called the Doctor.'

Cos, er, presumably women can't be doctors.

I mean, most of the doctors in this country are women and a recent massive study recently proved that they have better outcomes than male doctors (mainly because they're better at listening to their patients) but, y'know, APART from that women obviously can't be doctors.

---

quote:

I think part of the issue some people have with 13th isn't necessarily that she's a woman, but that she's not higher class. So many of the Doctors were portrayed as middle to upper class weird (eccentric) rather than lower to middle weird (weird/odd) that it's an extra ounce of dissonance to the Doctor.

---

I disagree, however stupid and insane the human race is, there is simply no way 'You can't have a working-class Northern-accented Doctor!' could have survived CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON.

Sexism is a way stronger force than classism. Or even racism.

There's a small picture in this month's issue of Doctor Who Magazine of a male cosplayer wearing JODIE's costume.
Somehow, it looks even worse on him than her.

Steve: notice how the main Tom Baker companions were a male army physician, a robot dog, a Tomboy (Sarah Jane could look after herself pretty well and fire a rifle,) a badass warrior and a female version of the Doctor. They’re all female characters that are very acceptable to young boys. On the other hand, Nyssa was girly, Tegan a stroppy woman, Peri was very distracting to look at for a youngster, given the vulgar outfits JNT made her wear and Mel screamed a lot.

I notice that the Beeb are careful to remember the watershed and don't show Thirteen in nothing but a bra although Louise Jameson was upset her costume went see through in "Talons".

JODIE! acquires a doctorate.

So sweet of them to democratically give doctorates to ALL the cast and crew even though Who with its so-utterly-superior-to-the-rest-of-us-in-every-way aristocrat is the exact opposite of democracy.

'I'm not quite ready to hand it over yet' - I should bloody well hope NOT!

Once movie and TV stars started getting doctorates just for being TV and movie stars that did nothing to warrant receiving it, my opinion of such pieces of paper went downhill pretty quickly. To me they're about as valuable as last week's grocery store flyer.
It trivializes people that actually worked hard to legitimately receive one.

Kinney is basically saying that because we are a country we are ruled by Jodie Whittaker.

I know we're nowhere near Whittaker's regeneration scene, but this occurred to me.
The First, Fifth, Sixth, War Doctor, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors all regenerated inside the TARDIS. Notice the pattern? Every single new Doctor since 2005 has changed inside the TARDIS instead of somewhere else.
Hopefully Chibby can come up with a different location for his Doctor and break the (now) unoriginal locale of the Doctor dying in the TARDIS.

I don't know. The TARDIS is pretty much his-her home, so it's understandable that this is where he-she would return to when the time comes to regenerate. And I'm sure all that artron energy would be a big help in those circumstances.

Yeah, now you both mention it, Sexy might be playing a much bigger role in the Doc's continued existence than we've suspected since Tenth Planet/Power of the Daleks. ('I've been renewed. It's part of the TARDIS. Without it, I couldn't survive.') The only times he HASN'T regenerated in the TARDIS he's always required drastic intervention from a) the Time Lords, b) Cho-Je (though honestly, why Pertwee didn't just STAY in the TARDIS and pop out to say Hi to the Brig and Sarah after he'd become Tom is anyone's guess), c) the Watcher, and d) the Sisterhood of Karn. (There was also the telemovie in which we got a bizarre 'I was dead too long this time' which does imply he NEEDED help even if he didn't get it.)

But doesn't that imply that every Timelord/Lady needs a TARDIS to regenerate in? There couldn't be that many TARDIS's available, or that many Timelord's/Lady's that hop around the universe in their own TARDIS's like the Doctor, could there?
I'm just thinking that writing-wise, it's become very unoriginal after it happening SIX times in a row (I'm including Ten regenerating his severed hand, now). The Doctor is due for a change 'out on the field', as it were.

But doesn't that imply that every Timelord/Lady needs a TARDIS to regenerate in?

Well, no. The whole of Gallifrey is probably saturated with artron energy, or baring that they have medical facilities that can assist Timelords during their regenerations. As for Timelords not on Gallifrey, those would very probably have TARDISes available.

I'm just thinking that writing-wise, it's become very unoriginal after it happening SIX times in a row (I'm including Ten regenerating his severed hand, now). The Doctor is due for a change 'out on the field', as it were.

Agreed. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't all regenerate in that stupid standing golden-light-erupting-from-their-arms-and-head manner.

As for Timelords not on Gallifrey, those would very probably have TARDISes available.

River managed to regenerate at least twice without any TARDIS-help, thank you very much. Of course, she is freakishly half-human (or whatever).

The Jacobi and Simm Masters scuttled into a TARDIS to regenerate, though.

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't all regenerate in that stupid standing golden-light-erupting-from-their-arms-and-head manner.

Something that never happened on Classic Who.

[Star Wars-Thirteenth Doctor cartoon in the Doctor Who Club of Victoria fanzine "Sonic Screwdriver"]

Please for the love of Rassilon could a responsible adult take that lightsaber off the Doctor she'll only hurt herself and about a dozen bystanders before adorably apologising.

What the •••• makes them assume JODIE! doesn't know how to handle a sword? It's obviously a transferable skill as that useless wimp Davison AND the newly-regenerated Tennant could handle one brilliantly.

Let's have a story in which she handles a sword then.

Hear, hear! There are certain things every Doctor should do: pretend to be human for a week, share an intimate moment with their TARDIS, produce a jelly baby, win a sword-fight, enjoy their newest Stray saying 'It's bigger on the inside', have a moment of goofy stupidity, display a flash of ice-cold alienness...

Spyfall:

JODIE! definitely looks older. Which obviously isn't a problem per se - gives her a bit of added gravitas and Doctors SHOULD, like US Presidents, age at double the normal human rate due to all that responsibility and I'm sure like Tennant she'll just get more unfairly gorgeous the more she ages - but it's a bit weird that her Strays - well, definitely Ryan and Graham anyway - look exactly the same.

JODIE! using the word 'upgrade' to describe her sex-change is obviously exceedingly gratifying, but it's also quite odd in view of the fact it's the Cybermen's second-favourite word...

'We've tried to ask but she just changes the subject' - JODIE! is (er...was) the most happy, open and nice of Doctors, finally freed from the twin burdens of destroying-her-homeworld and being-a-man-(sort-of). So what's with the obsessive levels of secrecy? Is she ASHAMED of her sex-change? It was practically the first thing she told that train about!

Gods, I hate the Doctor meekly doing what the security guy says. (It was bad enough in Tsungara when the DOCTORS were pulling rank on her.) She surely knows they'll be sitting ducks out there and their bullets will be useless - why doesn't she just bring them inside the forcefield that's mysteriously better than Sexy's? ('Some kit you've got here' - SERIOUSLY, JODIE!? Have a sense of CURIOSITY! Not to mention SUSPICION!)

'I need to warn Barton' - I'm sorry, you need to leave your Fam alone with THE MASTER to tell the guy who sold your favourite planet to alien scum that there's some alien scum around?

The Doctor stands in the doorway, using her own body to shield the rest of the plane from the bomb? That's all very heroic but shouldn't she have just ducked behind a seat and told her chums to do likewise?

'You were privileged to witness the Marvellous Apparating Man! Lady. Apparating Lady! Every time' - only twice that we've seen. (Why does it make me so HAPPY when JODIE! accidentally refers to herself as a man (or 'Daddy') when I'm so happy she's a woman? Continuity, I suppose. Not that Davison's Castrovalva imitations gave me anything like this nostalgic buzz.)

'What would you say to the others if they were here? Don't panic. Of course, I'm usually saying it as much to myself as I am to them' - you ARE? Since WHEN!

She kneels really sarcastically. Though frankly that's no excuse for not just knocking the Master out instead of doing sarcastic-kneeling.

'You're not exactly their Aryan archetype' - there's something painful about JODIE! actually noticing skin-colour. I miss her former selves' glorious pig-ignorance of appearances ('You're a beautiful woman, probably' 'How can you think that I'm her dad when we both look exactly the same age?').

'This isn't an accident. Ada Lovelace in Babbage's house? You're clues. You're important' - and now I'm missing Matt's 'Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before'...

'Where there's risk there's hope' 'I am a big fan of being alive' 'Darkness never sustains' 'I know you think I'm mad, but give me five minutes and you'll think I'm the sanest person alive. Okay, that was an overstatement' 'She's wise and unafraid' - ah, that's more like MY Doctor! Chibnall truly GETS her/him -

- 'I'm a pacifist.' 'Snap! Strong position to take during wartime. Two pacifists' - ARE YOU ••••••• CRAZY CHIBBERS! THE HELL S/HE IS! WHAT SORT OF PACIFIST KILLS PEOPLE WITH SATSUMAS!

Rather sexist of JODIE! to define Ada by her relationship to Byron rather than, say, her relationship to COMPUTERS.

Can't believe JODIE! is wasting time asking 'Why were the Kasaavin assassinating spies?' instead of WHAT HAPPENED TO DARLING MISSY?

Can't believe JODIE! just didn't notice her entire species getting wiped out. I'd assume she's less telepathic than, say, 'Feels like there's no one' Eccy but she's just had a telepathic chat with the Master for heaven's sake.

Ooh! What's JODIE! gonna do with her second TARDIS?

I think Thirteen's just come into her own after spending her first year being nice and slightly ineffectual (whilst, of course, utterly adorable and Doctorish and my ABSOLUTE FOURTH FAVOURITE (joint with Troughton)). Her authority and brilliance as she's thrown through history, her grief over Gallifrey's destruction and above all her using the Master's skin-colour to hand him over to the Nazis...we've got ourselves another Tennant not another Davison, praise the gods.

'Darkness never sustains'

I disagree with that one. Darkness always wins in the end, it's called entropy.

You can hardly blame the Doc for being the craaazy over-optimistic type who's managed to block out the memory of Utopia though - WE'D be the first to suffer if s/he decided to put her feet up and just stop saving the future-Toclafane...

WHAT SORT OF PACIFIST KILLS PEOPLE WITH SATSUMAS!

Vegetarian pacifists? ;-)

Actually maybe Chibnall's just claiming the Doctor became a pacifist since her last regeneration? Has JODIE! actually managed to...y'know...KILL anyone yet?

Actually maybe Chibnall's just claiming the Doctor became a pacifist since her last regeneration? Has JODIE! actually managed to...y'know...KILL anyone yet?

Well, she DEFINITELY tried to kill Tzim-Sha, it wasn't her fault that he survived the attempt.

Woo-HOO!

Our JODIE! has promised us a third year!

I KNEW she wouldn't betray n'abandon us!

(Actually come to think of it this was bleedin' obvious from the fact it would have been announced/leaked out if she was regenerating at the end of this season but dammit it's a relief just to know there WILL be another year of Who-y goodness despite the viewing figures...)

The BBC wants to see just how low the ratings can go. Some execs are hoping to see negative ratings.

Why? Don't they remember the Capaldi years?

*Wince*

It's the inevitable price for indulging in tartan-and-bagpipes nostalgia though...

I don't remember much tartan-and-bagpipes in the Capaldi or JODIE! eras...? And they seemed quite successful when wheeled out in Terror of the Zygons.

Fugitive of the Judoon:

'Never been a fan of growing up' - Oh, she is SO the Doctor! Dammit, what did we need ANOTHER one for? Is Ruth actually an enormous insult to darling JODIE!? Because if I have to choose, I CHOOSE JODIE! even though her fashion-sense is looking even worse next to Ruth's gorgeous costume.

JODIE!'s been the Doctor 'since forever'?

'Don't do points. I do points. Points are my thing' - SINCE WHEN? Cos if that was the case the Fam should have been packed off back to Sheffield with Nul Points MONTHS ago.

'And look where that's gotten us' - WTF? JODIE! is No True Doctor but a vile American impostor! RUTH IS THE TRUE THIRTEEN!!

RUTH: Is there even a word for how dumb you are?
DOCTOR: Doctor? - And now JODIE!'s DISSING THE DOCTOR!

'Ryan, I've lived for thousands of years. So long I've lost count' - dammit, why didn't any of her other selves just admit this CENTURIES ago instead of making up random numbers all the time? Was it some sort of male thing, like refusing to ask for directions?

'Come on, quick with the truth. We've got about three minutes, probably less' - tbh I'd've assumed the Doc had a good enough sense of time that she'd be able to count down from 300 seconds.

'This is a place of worship. Show some respect, or I'll overload those guns and make it a bad day for everyone' - show some respect to the genocidal fictional character who said if your daughter got raped you should sell her to the rapist for fifty silver shekels? On pain of getting blown up? I'm going off JODIE!Doc.* Luckily I have a spare. With a MUCH better dress sense...

*OK, actually I'm not but I damned well OUGHT to be.

The Haunting of Villa Diodati:

OK, so sometimes the Thirteenth Doctor totally ignores the necessity for anyone to wear period costume (Witchfinders). And sometimes everyone dresses in period costume (Spyfall). And sometimes the Strays dress up but the Doc doesn't (Nikola Tesla). And sometimes the Strays dress up and the Doc sort of makes half an effort whilst still keeping her grotty coat on. Indoors. When it's soaking wet (Diodati). Great. Glad we got that sorted out.

So many delightful echoes of Classic and Modern Who. Sometimes both at once - Byron trying to seduce the Doctor was pure New Who, her utter disinterest pure Old Who.

'Nah, it goes on a bit, that one. No offence.' - Ahh, so blissfully reminiscent of Eccy's 'Mind you, I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit.'

'She licked it!' - Yup, THAT'S MY DOCTOR! Truly, she is Tennant reborn.

'Oh, I love a good plume' - ••••. Of all the glorious echoes of past Doctors, this is the only one where JODIE! doesn't hold her own. She just doesn't look as good in a plume as when she was Hartnell in Reign of Terror. Of course, nothing and no one looks as good as a plumed Hartnell, with the possible exception of a kitten-clutching Tennant.

'But I'll probably come back for this, though. Strictly for, er, safety purposes. Not because it really suits me or anything' - aaahhh, now she's stealing clothes! *Goes into nostalgic trance involving Spearhead From Space and telemovie and Eleventh Hour*

'May I just say, you are quite lovely in a crisis' - she SO is, isn't she. I think I'm falling more in love with her every episode this year. (Admittedly she had me at PUTTING HER HOOD DOWN AND OMG SHE'S A WOMAN!!!! when she was prancing through that forest in that hoodie, all those years ago...)

'You had ONE JOB' - amazing it's taken millennia for a Doctor to say that to a Companion.

CYBERMAN: You appear courageous, but your vital signs betray a heightened state of anxiety. - Interesting. JODIE! does get scared, she just tries not to show it. I s'pose that fits in with Kerblam!'s 'Customers with your current medical symptoms browsed blood pressure medication.'

'What's the Cyberium?' - SERIOUSLY, Doc? I adore your haphazard wanderings but, like Rory in Girl Who Waited, occasionally I get REALLY ANGRY about your failure to DO A BIT OF BLOODY BASIC RESEARCH every now and then.

Oh, and the other thing that's annoying me a bit this episode: if you weren't so •••• self-righteous you would have been carrying a Cyber-killing gun that you could have whipped out and shot the stupid Cyberman with, saving Byron WITHOUT betraying virtually the whole of future-humanity to their deaths. But hey, I'm sure they were all delighted to die horribly to keep your 'pacifist' conscience clean.

YASMIN: Jack's warning!
DOCTOR: Jack isn't here now, stuck in a house with that. - Are you seriously suggesting that if he WAS he'd tell you to hand the Cyberium over? Cos he wouldn't. (I mean, even leaving the fact HE'S IMMORTAL aside for a moment.)

'Yeah. Cos sometimes this team structure isn't flat. It's mountainous, with me at the summit in the stratosphere, alone, left to choose' - well DUH, JODIE! Why did you ever claim it was flat? Were you lying to yourself or just to them?

'Sometimes even I can't win' - does JODIE! think of herself as almost always winning, then? Whilst not as useless - sorry, as inspiring-others-to-do-all-the-work - as Eccy, her villains tend to be pretty second-rate - spiders, PTING, bits of cloth - she can't cope with more than ONE Dalek or Cyberman at a time, and she managed to lose Gallifrey to a Master who usually can't organise a ••••-up in a brewery, not to mention five other planets to Tim sodding Shaw. (Obviously it doesn't make me worship her any the less. Tom had a bad day and wiped out half the universe. These things happen.)

Despite despising the word 'Mrs' with all my heart, have to admit - I ADORE all this 'Mrs Doctor' stuff.

'May I just say, you are quite lovely in a crisis' - she SO is, isn't she. I think I'm falling more in love with her every episode this year.

What I loved was her reply: 'No, you may not!', said in a tone that made it absolutely clear that she was light years out of his league.

"Oh, you're so adorable!... and so out of your league!"

Jodie Whittaker is having a Smoke:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FNLALZ-uG0

Jodie Whittaker has a Roar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3KnQ43zR_w

CHIBNALL! has graced us with a short story about JODIE!'s first thoughts as she was falling after she regenerated.
Hopefully EMILY! will like it...

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=read-the-first-thoughts-of-the-thirteenth-doctor#_

I think the Doc is still coming to terms with losing Mister Happy...

Jodie Whittaker supports Geeky T-Shirt Day 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAFH-NPsEuw&feature=emb_title

Jodie with different colour hair:
https://tinyurl.com/yde2r8dj

Jodie’s poem:
https://tinyurl.com/ydacbe5v

Don't give up the day-job, Doc.

Learn to code, Jodie. ;-)

A shot of Jodie during her recent chat with David Tennant and Matt Smith (as posted the general Doctors section):
https://tinyurl.com/y6vhfmcp

A pre-Doctor Jodie at the 2013 Empire Awards:

https://tinyurl.com/yb8p8723

Gods, you do NOT look at THAT pic and shriek 'THAT'S MY THIRTEEN!!'

Kudos to Chibbers.

The Thirteenth Doctor in braces:
https://tinyurl.com/y9tlxxqb

English confusion. (British vs. US)

In the US braces are what we call those metal gadgets designed to straighten teeth.

What Jodie was wearing in that pic we'd call suspenders.

Still I do prefer seeing the rainbow stripes going up and down rather than a single stripe across her chest.

And to continue the confusion:

In the UK 'suspenders' are what hold up stockings.

Sonic Screwdriver says JODIE! needs to be "a bit more feminine"

*Sigh*

I wish she'd be a bit more masculine, frankly, not that most Doctors are particularly masculine but after thousands/billions of years stuck as a bloke...

The good news is that my brother has finally accepted JODIE! as his Lord and Saviour. Or at least acknowledged her as the Thirteenth Doctor, something he's been refusing to do for several years on the grounds that she's a woman (no, really). I FINALLY forced him to watch Fugitive of the Judoon (not only is it The Best, I also figured that he'd be so upset over Ruth he might actually find it easier to swallow JODIE!) and it worked! Admittedly his Not We wife didn't understand what the hell was going on (fair enough, We didn't either) and they both seemed weirdly obsessed by JODIE!'s allegedly thick neck. But he finally admitted that she's the Doctor on the grounds that she's really good. Even if he did request some Tom Baker the next time I forced him to watch anything.

Well, at least the Doctor has learnt from her four-and-a-half-billion-year mistake in Heaven Sent, and USES THE SODDING SPADE.

'I've never been anything like you. Trust me, I'd remember. Especially that shirt.' - Did JODIE! of the 'I have •••• now. •••• are cool' t-shirt REALLY just diss Ruth's frankly FANTASTIC shirt?

'In my time, Gallifrey doesn't exist. It's gone. Forever. And if you don't know that, you're in my past. So, you are only serving at the glory of ash and bone' - that's a rather odd (not to mention mean) thing to say. Since when has the Doctor gone around telling everyone s/he meets that they're serving at the glory of ash and bone cos one day their planet won't exist any more? (Also, what does she MEAN, 'forever'? Gallifrey's come back once, it can do so again...at least, it probably COULD have done if she'd bothered to resurrect her species before the Master turned 'em into Cyberman and Mr Noble Self-Sacrifice blew 'em all to smithereens...)

JODIE! gives Gat a mind-melding 'Contact!' but not Ruth?

'Ruth was me' - why the hell would JODIE! come straight out and admit that to her Strays when she tells 'em less than the BLACK AND WHITE Doctors did?!

JODIE! interview

'If you bump into a Whovian, it genuinely makes both of your days. There’s something emotional, poetic and very humbling about being in the show, because you’re a tiny little jigsaw piece of something that is so precious to so many people.’ Can she see herself playing the Doctor for a while? ‘I haven’t even looked at another role since the Doctor, apart from doing Who Do You Think You Are? earlier this year. To even question an end point [of Doctor Who] would be too upsetting' - ah, that's adorable. And also a blessed relief. All those poor pathetic MEN who crawled away after a mere three years were making me feel REALLY nervous about the fact Season Thirteen is JODIE!'s third season...

Jodie Whittaker at the 2017 BFI Film Festival:
https://imgur.com/a/hDDxf23

Nice pic.

Nice, but...unDoctorish.

Even in the Troughton/Pertwee cross-dressing days, the Doctor never wore heels like THAT.

Yeah, very hard to run up and down corridors in this sort of footware.

Maybe, but it might make the Doctor a bit more sympathetic about all those companions who twisted their ankles

She doesn't NEED to be sympathetic, the Strays seem to have dropped this annoying habit...

There's a rumor that Jodie's agent is telling her to leave Who before it's too late.

If true, how long until said agent is mauled to death by a clowder of cats? ;-)

If JODIE! is anything like her Doctor (which she is, Chibnall specifically designed the Thirteenth Doctor for her) then we won't need to worry, NOTHING gets between the Doctor and her/his planet-saving vocation.

Though as being-shut-in-a-panic-room-forever is apparently such a humane way to deal with a problem, I wouldn't be averse to doing that to JODIE!'s agent, just to be on the safe side...

•••• •••• •••• •••• ••••.

The clowder of cats obviously got to the agent too late.

••••.

I take it you heard the news then Emily

You know, I always thought I was so lucky falling for the Doctor instead of being one of those tragic people who loves Nyssa or Amy who don't have swappable heads to keep things fresh (as River once said of shagging an Auton) but what it ACTUALLY means is the love of my life sodding DIES every few years and it SUCKS.

It's not confirmed, and I refuse to believe it until it is...
..I deny this reality!

JOGIE has buggered off!?

Why can't these NuWho Doctors stay longer than three years?

Tbf Tim her three seasons will have been spread over 4 calendar years once they’ve shown season 13, it’s not her fault that there was a gap.

Old Who Doctors averaged a little more than 3 season each, too. 26 seasons / 7 doctors = 3.7 seasons per doctor. Doctors 10-13 average about 3.0 seasons per doctor.

Yeah, but the classic Who seasons had way more stories!

I deny this reality!

Hear hear!

DON'T LEAVE ME JODIE!

Will her Emily name be Traitor-ker now?

Looks like Tom Baker's title as longest running Doctor stands.

Will her Emily name be Traitor-ker now?

No, I'm working on forgiving her in a Christ-like act of benevolence as three years may eventually be viewed as just about acceptable providing you're only my fourth-favourite Doctor. And it's not like this was her life's ambition since she was three unlike A CERTAIN DAVID TENNANT I COULD MENTION.

Whereas actively attempting to sabotage Who when it returns in glory after TSLABYOD by walking out when we haven't even finished sobbing with joy over EPISODE ONE...now THAT'S treachery.

Looks like Tom Baker's title as longest running Doctor stands.

OF COURSE Tom deserves the title but that's no reason to rejoice, JODIE! could have given us six-and-a-half seasons, dammit...

I doubt anyone will play Doctor Who longer than Tom Baker. 6 seasons is one of those records that will stand for a long like. Like FDR being President of the US for 4 terms.

(However, if they hire me to play Doctor Who, I promise to play him as long as they will let me.)

6 seasons is one of those records that will stand for a long like

SEVEN seasons! I meant that JODIE! could have given us MANY MORE HAPPY YEARS whilst STILL not knocking Tom off his pedestal...

I doubt anyone will play Doctor Who longer than Tom Baker. 6 seasons is one of those records that will stand for a long like. Like FDR being President of the US for 4 terms.

Yes, but in the case of FDR, the reason his record will stand is because the U.S. Constitution was changed, after his death, that limited the President to just two terms.

As far as I know, no such rule exists that limits the time an actor can play the Doctor.

I guess market forces are a factor in them not wanting to stay in the same role too long. Though if they actually had one season per year again it would seem like they stayed longer.

David Tennant effectively did 4 seasons if you include his specials. And Matt Smith did do four years, just that his seasons were split and he only had one non Christmas special. And Capaldi did 3 seasons but that includes a gap. So really the actors are prepared to give the time to the show, just that the show doesn’t seem to have the material to give them.

Jodie all in black at an event:
https://imgur.com/a/SiMF8tE

Revolution:

Come on. She's THE DOCTOR. Admittedly not one of the really successful ones (from the point of view of saving humanity/Time Lordity/so much as one giant spider, not, OBVIOUSLY, from the point of view of having me worship and adore her) but - DECADES in prison? JUDOON prison? Trying to chew through the bars? Come ON Doc.

'How did you manage to smuggle that in here?' 'You really want me to answer that?' - On the one hand I ADORE JODIE!'s disgusted crunched-up face. She simply has no competition for Best Doctor At Scrunching Up Face. On the other hand she really shouldn't have been able to grasp what Captain Jack was hinting at. She's an Old-Who-style Doctor blissfully unaware of such things, notwithstanding her last self's odd preoccupation with proctologists and sewers.

'I was in prison for being me...right at the point when I wasn't sure what that meant. Ah, it's been a tough few decades' - I thought JODIE! got reconciled considerably faster than the rest of us to all that Timeless Child nonsense ('You think you've broken me? You'll have to try harder than that. You've given me a gift. Of myself. You think that could destroy me? You think that makes me lesser? It makes me more. I contain multitudes more than I ever thought or knew. You want me to be scared of it because you're scared of everything. But I am so much more than you.')? Shouldn't she have been spending her decades in prison mourning Gallifrey rather than having an identity-crisis? (I mean, if THE DOCTOR is prone to identity-crises then straight after her/his first (proper, televised) regeneration would have been the time.)

Oh gods, she's back in costume. Why couldn't she have been like Turlough, wandering the universe wearing a remembrance of her hideous imprisonment...

'I'm sorry' - don't grovel to the Fam! So soon after FINALLY telling 'em who's boss! ('Yeah. Cos sometimes this team structure isn't flat. It's mountainous, with me at the summit in the stratosphere, alone, left to choose.' Not that THAT worked out terribly well, to be honest.)

'So, it looks like a Dalek, but it can't be a Dalek...unless it is a Dalek' - why the hell can't it be a Dalek? This isn't the Eccy/early Tennant era when the Doc might actually have some reason to believe, however naively, that the metal meanies had been completely wiped out by himself/Rose...

Look, I don't expect - or want - JODIE! to still be in love with Rose after all these years and regenerations but for her to show precisely zero reaction when her name comes up actually hurts...Rose was almost certainly the greatest love of her lives, after all.

'While I was locked away, all I kept thinking was, if I'm not who I thought I was, then who am I?' - aaaaaand again... you cared more about a minor identity crisis than about blowing up Gallifrey (again)? And it takes meeting Daleks to get you over it ('All that time in a cell wondering who I am. I'm the Doctor. I'm the one who stops the Daleks') even though you'd ALREADY reached that conclusion when you were Capaldi ('See, all those years ago, when I began, I was just running. I called myself the Doctor but it was just a name. And then I went to Skaro. And then I met you lot and I understood who I was! The Doctor was not the Daleks!')

HARKNESS: Whoa, whoa, are you okay with this?
DOCTOR: I couldn't stop them even if I wanted to - Jeez, you shouldn't keep pets if you're not prepared to train them properly! (Unless they're cats, OBVIOUSLY.)

'You're gonna have to trust me on this, Yaz. When have I ever let you down before?' - You can't say that after she was rendered violently hysterical by you letting her down!

'I could always use the TARDIS to go back, arrive an hour after you guys, change the timeline. Then we'd have more time together' - or...you could decide to save your home planet rather than buy a few more months with Graham and Ryan? Just a thought.

'While I was locked away, all I kept thinking was, if I'm not who I thought I was, then who am I?' - aaaaaand again... you cared more about a minor identity crisis than about blowing up Gallifrey (again)?

I think she was actually wondering where the first child in the chain came from, what is her actual origin. I think she's going to investigate that during the next season.

I admire your optimism but come ON, that time the Doc (to quote About Time) lost Gallifrey down the back of the sofa - did he spend so much as two minutes looking for it? He did not.

Jodie sexy in a chair:
https://imgur.com/a/KJk4RN8

Good grief.

Though it might be rather fun if Thirteen's hair got wilder and wilder, the way Twelve's did...

Sexy???

I suppose if she were going for a desperate, horny, older woman hitting a bar looking for a one-night stand she succeeded, but sexy? I'd need a lot more drinks.

No intention of jumping on the sexy/not sexy discussion, but it rather reminds me of this:
https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/blown-away-man/

Jodie Whittaker Reads Fan Comments including from one of her predecessors:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUB5lE6-Mbg

Posted on October 25 2018, 24 days after her full debut as The Woman Who Fell To Earth.

Isn't she just TOTALLY ADORABLE!

She cannot possibly be preparing to betray n'abandon us...

The two 13s:
https://imgur.com/a/fIUN1E4

The Sun 'newspaper' is reporting that the Radio Times has been informed by insiders that the rumour of Jodie leaving is "total nonsense".

OH MY GOD WOULDN'T THAT BE MARVELLOUS ALL HAIL THE SUN!

(Don't quote me on that last bit.)

Brunette Jodie:
https://imgur.com/a/9Wh5dGV

Are you...SURE that's our JODIE!?

Yep it is her and so is this:
https://imgur.com/a/XfyYPPU

Ah, THAT'S definitely our Thirteen, the hair's the right colour and the t-shirt's no stupider than her usual costume...

Brunette Jodie looks like Tina Fey.

No, Tina Fey looks like Brunette Jodie. Timelords came first.

The Doctor smiles for World Happiness Day:
https://imgur.com/a/gSbNerQ

Courtesy of the Doctor Who facebook page

Awww, even with her terrible-ear-mutilations (did she drill HOLES in it in that charity shop?) clearly visible, JODIE! and her scrunched-up nose still make me VERY HAPPY.

World Down Syndrome Day for Jodie:
https://imgur.com/a/XbQeh2V

Jodie is Minnie Mouse:
https://imgur.com/a/2koYeMa

Nonsense, that - mercifully - looks nothing LIKE our Doctor.

Jodie driving:
https://imgur.com/a/Ze4UX71

"Drop the taco and get in the car!"

;-)

...?

It comes from a stupid car commercial where Brie Larson made the ridiculous statement to another woman.

Stylish artwork of Jodie as the Doctor:
https://imgur.com/a/6pKaRGD

13 and a small dino:
https://twitter.com/ViiiJohannes/status/1386430038145261573/photo/1

That woman DESPERATELY needs a cat.

Yes, cats are delicious little morsels to feed to your pet dino.

You did NOT just say that.

Have you perhaps...been possessed by Rodney? You know, like in Gallifrey 2: Spirit, maybe you took a dip in a fish-tank together and one thing led to another...

Relax. That dino is obviously a plant eater. Cats are safe from it and from my dark sense of humor.

You, on the other hand, are very far from safe now I know you're an OOCHIE-MURDERING FIEND.

An artwork of Jodie as the Doctor:
https://imgur.com/a/SCnZ4VP

The Doctor has black roots? O.o

One of the mysteries of regeneration.

Another artwork of Jodie as the Doctor:
https://imgur.com/a/b30w5ll

Jodie gives a thumb up:
https://imgur.com/a/oZ3Xrgu

Adorable...if not particularly Doctorish...could Chibnall not spare us JUST ONE PICTURE from the series that's allegedly being filmed...?

Jodie looking through a magnifying glass:
https://imgur.com/a/3xseQI6

Awww, that's SO Doctorish!

DAMMIT WHERE'S MY SEASON THIRTEEN?!

You realise this will be the first season to match a Doctor's number since Hartnell's first.

Let's hope the Fourteenth Doctor doesn't get a similar honour.

Let's hope the Fourteenth Doctor doesn't get a similar honour.

Agreed! Let's have lots more Jodie!

Jodie looking through a magnifying glass

I'm now imagining a scene similar to the movie Top Secret when the Peter Cushing Doctor was holding a magnifying glass to his eye.

;-)

Jodie with headphones:
https://imgur.com/a/Rpjih3s

The Doctor recording her latest album, Tunes And Rhythmic Dissonances In Song.

;-)

Started my rewatch of The New Avengers with Comic Relief Thirteenth Doctor Joanna Lumley as Purdey.


No doubt there is a parallel world in which Jodie had played Purdey in The New Avengers.

Happy Birthday Jodie, this June 17 2021.
Coincidentally now rewatching her in Kerblam! which is where this picture comes from.

https://imgur.com/a/Cmrlpxi

Happy Birthday Jodie from the Doctor Who facebook page.

https://imgur.com/a/JdMLpo0

Just rewatched her in Kerblam! and now rewatching her in Orphan 55.
Also earlier rewatched her at the end of Twice Upon A Time.

Facebook Memories reminded me that it is four years since I saw Jodie in the short film Dust which I watched not long after she was revealed as the new Doctor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDop0Je7svk&t=1s

SHE'S LEAVING ME SHE'S LEAVING ME DAMMIT SHE'S LEAVING ME.

Dammit JODIE! you were supposed to be tougher than all those male wimps who left me after three seasons...

Another one bites the dust, and Tom Baker's record of longest serving Doctor stands.

Sad to see her go.

More sad to see how many 'fans' are happy to dance on her grave already, there's a horrible streak of bile on certain Gallifrey Base threads right now.

How disgusting.

(Alright so I've been dancing on Colin's grave for thirty-five years but that's not the POINT...)

I’m sad to see them both go unlike SOME posters around here too…..

I like change. I like seeing things get shaken up. The anticipation and reactions are part of being a Who fan.

I sometimes feel like every Doctor except 3 and 4 ran into Troughton in a carpark though.

Yeah, Troughton's ghost should just shut the hell up now.

Troughton's ghost should just shut the hell up now.

Where's Melinda Gordon* when you need her?


*Obligatory Emily Explanation: Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) was the main character of the TV series, Ghost Whisperer. She could see and talk to ghosts, and was able to convince them to cross over once said ghost had sorted out whatever issue had kept them earthbound.

Jodie with an umbrella:
https://imgur.com/a/cvW34ov

Adorable! Although 13 wouldn't look all that odd if she had Colin's rainbow umbrella!

Funnily enough, I DID find myself thinking of Colin when I saw the Doctor in THAT...can one call it a 'dress'...?

My first thought was that she had been trapped on a desert island and been forced to make an outfit out of black plastic garbage bags. ;-)

An otherwise nice picture, that just needed a different outfit.

Artwork of 13 in Resolution:
https://imgur.com/a/ZbSZpqP

Jodie in white and by the TARDIS:
https://imgur.com/a/u1wbYTE

She's over. She's done filming. She's barely even got STARTED dammit. I still haven't stopped surprisedly-grinning every time the Doc's referred to as 'she'. What the hell is the MATTER with all the Doctors who aren't Tom Baker. (Or, to be fair, Colin Baker, HE had the decency to get dragged out kicking and screaming.)

And why do the miserable traitors look so HAPPY?

"I don't want (her) to go!"
Curse covid for curtailing her curtain-call!

[as John Cleese] This Time Lord is no more. She's expired and gone to meet her maker. She's pushing up the daisies. She's joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-Time Lord.

Stuff n'nonsense! What are all you (er...we) losers whinging about! We have TWO MORE GLORIOUS YEARS of JODIE!ish happiness to look forward to!!

Jodie in her very recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show:
https://imgur.com/a/2mUXLAA

In context of not knowing who her successor is despite filming her regeneration, Jodie says that she didn't meet Capaldi until way after the previous regeneration:
“They are never going to tell me who it is. We filmed some scenes, but the new Doctor wasn’t there. I wasn’t there for Peter (Capaldi), and I only met him months later when I passed him in the street!”

Jodie in Marchlands, a mini-series from 2011:
https://imgur.com/a/EUxjWy9

Jodie talks Flux:
https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=jodie-whittaker-talks-doctor-who-flux-series-13-thirteenth-doctor&cm_mmc=ExactTarget-_-email-_-DW165_Newsletter_29102021-_-email&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=DW165_Newsletter_29102021

Dammit WHY IS SHE LEAVING US

JODIE! considered changing her mind about leaving...

Well clearly the work schedule is too hard.

I mean three seasons of 10 episodes each spread out over four years would exhaust the strongest of people.

The slavedrivers at the BBC are clearly working her to regeneration.

Maybe they should lighten up the schedule to something like 5 episodes every two years?

;-)

I for one welcome our new

SPOILERS FOR VILLAGE OF ANGELS

Weeping Angel Doctor.

This can't be how they kill her off, surely?

KILL? She's now officially UNKILLABLE! You can't kill a stone! It's WONDERFUL news! Plus, she just looks so much BETTER with wings than with clown trousers and grotty anorak and 'I have •••• now. •••• are cool' t-shirt...

Ok, so she's unkillable... but - assuming she has the same restrictions as other Angels - we can't watch her having adventures (or doing anything) because that'll quantum lock her.

Hang on... does she now have the Angels speed? Is that how she gets out of this?

assuming she has the same restrictions as other Angels - we can't watch her having adventures (or doing anything) because that'll quantum lock her.

Nonsense, we've been watching Angels move around for - bloody hell - fourteen years, now...

You've gotta bear in mind that...we aren't canon. We do not exist.

I think, therefore I am.

You just keep telling yourself that...

Oh, JODIE!'s responsible for the male crime-wave, according to a Tory MP...

It's a fair cop.

Well, all those fragile male egos being shattered like that... they were bound to snap, and go on a crime-spree. Poor little dears.

So when the Doctor next regenerates into a male all male crime in the UK will stop?

I suspect they'll all have been scarred for life, SCARRED FOR LIFE I TELL YOU!

SPOILERS FOR SURVIVORS OF THE SWARM:

'My friends are never lost' - JODIE! you're ADORABLE but Sarah felt pretty lost after you ditched her for thirty years, for starters...

TECTEUN: You won't be told, will you?
DOCTOR: It's a defining trait. - THAT'S MY DOCTOR!

Since when does the Doctor go round talking about 'primal forces of evil' (Well, OK, there was Troughton in, like, 1967...)

'Then why couldn't I find it? Where are we now? Because I looked far and wide across the universe, and there was nothing' - end-of-universe PRIORITIES, Doctor!

'You denied me my life!' - again, since when has the Doc cared more about her own life than EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE'S?

'How much was lost? How many lives? How many people have I been? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?' - how many times Doc, deal with UNIVERSAL DESTRUCTION first and obsess over your backstory later!

'Listen to me. I'm gonna save my friends. I'm gonna save that universe. And I'm gonna destroy Division. So hold on to that hat, because you, me, and the end of the universe - it's personal now. And I'm gonna win' - About •••• TIME Doc!

The Vanquishers:

Did JODIE! just...lick her lips in a Sontaran-like manner? Gods, what other mannerisms is she about to adopt from her enemies?

Oh, I forgot, she'll be DEAD in THREE EPISODES so who cares.

'Oi, I'm the most stable person I know' - blimey, does JODIE! actually BELIEVE that? Were the Fam secretly raving lunatics? Or is she doing her previous selves' LYING thing?

'I approach everything with caution. Or abandon. One of the two' - DARLING Doctor!

'I always wanted a little shop right on the corner, lots of footfall, well stocked. I'd have a shop exactly like this. Well, not exactly. I'd make some changes' - Jeez, Tennant's little-shop obsession has metastasized...

'I've got such a crush on her!' - This isn't the Moffat Era, JODIE!, get a GRIP!

The Doctor's perfectly happy to support the dawg committing genocide - had she no thought of DARLING STRAX?

Why don't you try to reboot the universe, JODIE!? Say, with Tecteun's 'seed vault. Genetic traces from the previous universe to import into the next'? And why don't you just OPEN THE BLOODY WATCH?

Jodie with a pile of books:
https://imgur.com/a/AGFwO2S

Don't be ridiculous, she looks nothing like our Doctor!

Whatever you do, don't show Emily any pictures of Jodie from 'St Trinian's' (also featuring, among others, Miss Evangelista, Bliss from LINDA, Agatha Christie and the Siren... but not the 10th Doctor who only shows up for the sequel).

Yeah, don't do that. Just...don't.

I am hoping to see her in St Trinian's in the not so so distant future but as per the request I won't be posting any pictures of her from there.

Eve of the Daleks:

Gods I'm gonna miss JODIE!'s arm's-length sonicking...

Why isn't the Doc wondering why Sexy's got a sudden New Year's Day fixation?

'I can use my sonic to bounce our life signals off the walls, sort of sonic ventriloquism. It's my party trick' - since WHEN!

SARAH: But we failed to do this the last five times. And this time we have even less time. What makes you think that this is going to work?
DOCTOR: Because something seems impossible. We try, it doesn't work, we try again. We learn, we improve, we fail again, but better, we make friends, we learn to trust, we help each other. We get it wrong again. We improve together, then ultimately succeed. Because this is what being alive is. And it's better than the alternative. So come on, you brilliant humans. We go again and we win. Deal? - THAT'S MY DOCTOR!

'You won't win. You never win.' - DARLING JODIE!. Though they kinda sometimes do.

DAN: She likes you.
DOCTOR: I like her, too.
DAN: No, I mean... she likes you.
DOCTOR: I don't understand what you're saying, Dan.
DAN: I think you do. But for some reason you pretend to me, and to her, that you don't. - Well thank the gods ONE New Who Doctor has the decency not to shag their Strays.

From BBC Doctor Who:
"Just like time, people aren't set in stone..."

https://imgur.com/a/jNfOxEp

That's pretty rich coming from the woman who's just SPOILERed into a SPOILERing SPOILER.

And DAMMIT why didn't she just wear that ragged Capaldi costume for all three seasons...

why didn't she just wear that ragged Capaldi costume for all three seasons

Because Yaz wanted to "get [her] out of those clothes" *wink wink*

Bloody Yaz.

(Mind you, even SHE was saying 'That's what you're going with?' when she saw JODIE! in costume...)

Jodie in her first role in The Afternoon Play episode The Last Will and Testament of Billy Two-Sheds in 2006.

https://imgur.com/a/4WG1mYJ

I haven't seen the episode myself as I got this picture by chance and I looked up The Afternoon Play which is an anthology series which also has appearances by Colin Baker, Peter Capaldi, Samuel Anderson and Big Finish Master Alex Macqueen.

Jodie attending the premiere of her movie Get Santa (2014):
https://imgur.com/a/SYZ1WOf

Nice pics, Matthew.

JODIE!'s...PREGNANT.

A pregnant Doctor is just WEIRD.

Well, to be honest, a pregnant ANYONE is just weird to ME.

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/17/14/426B6D4400000578-0-image-a-36_1500297726635.jpg

She also has a 7-year-old daughter.

Which means I'm about 14 years younger than Jodie and 19 years older than her daughter.

Jodie in this stylish dress by a white background:
https://imgur.com/a/B5rRA2N

She looks like a 1920's flapper.

Jodie lovely poses with her hands:
https://imgur.com/a/HTkAAHc

Jodie in foreground and background:
https://imgur.com/a/7sBwxZt

It is EXTRAORDINARY how little JODIE! manages to look like the Doctor when she's not...BEING the Doctor.

Legend of the Sea Devils:

'Way too much' the woman who used to wear THAT COAT has the cheek to tell Dan.

'Rule One, don't wander off' - such a refreshing chance from her previous selves' Rule One...

YASMIN: Oh, you're like a kid sometimes.
DOCTOR: Thanks! What, only sometimes? - Awww, she truly is the same person as Tom 'No point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes' Baker...

'I'm going to find out what he's up to, and then I'll dazzle you with a beautiful bit of improvisation' - ahhh, she is truly the same person as Matt 'It's a thing in progress. Respect the thing!' Smith...

'I love being at the bottom of the ocean' - so why do you hardly ever go to the bottom of the ocean then?

'Not a bad date, am I' - weeeell...given that your first date with Rose involved taking her to see her planet blow up...

'You're not the same as the other Land Crawlers' - no she's not WORSHIP HER!

'Wasn't going to mention that. It was a long time ago. I was a different man back then' - however long she was in Judoon prison, surely being Capaldi-in-that-restaurant wasn't THAT long ago!

'If it was going to be anyone, it'd be you.' - Um...why? Yaz is nice but she's no Rose Tyler.

'Yaz, I can't fix myself to anything, anywhere or anyone. I've never been able to. That's what my life is' - oh I dunno, there was those 450 years on Gallifrey, 900 years on Trenzalore, four-and-a-half-billion years inside that Confession Dial...

'If it was going to be anyone, it'd be you.' - Um...why? Yaz is nice but she's no Rose Tyler.

At least this time the Doctor has taken time to get to know the girl first - rather than just fancying the cute blonde at first sight and tying to impress her with a trip to the future that nearly gets her killed (and being to cheap to buy chips)

*Wince* When you put it like that...

Of course, Rose sort of GLOWED* so it was understandable the Doc fell for her, especially as she was about the first person he'd seen since blowing up his home planet and regenerating.**

*OK, I did spend a full four years on a RTG-high that meant EVERYTHING glowed, even Torchwood, but that's not the POINT.

**Yeah, OK, so Day had him NOT blowing up his home planet and the Ninth Doctor audios had a ton of stuff pre-Rose but that's not the POINT.

This makes me wonder what if Jodie had been 9 instead:
https://imgur.com/a/qAQ15Km

We would have gotten an "young female" Doctor from the start and she'd propably be flirting with both Mickey and Rose.

JODIE! interview.

I hadn't realised the Doctor and Yaz had the same voice. Surely this will cause endless problems for their inevitable Big Finish audios?

Well, that has happened since the very start when Ian and Onesie had the same voice.

Also they might end up inventing new Companions.

Well, that has happened since the very start when Ian and Onesie had the same voice.

The HELL they did!

Alright, they do THESE days, what with William Russell playing both of 'em - at least in those audios they haven't blasphemously recast Hartnell...* but I never noticed it in the original series.

Also they might end up inventing new Companions.

Yeah, good luck claiming YAZ ever left the Doc's side to study graphology for long enough for JODIE! to acquire new Strays...

*Alright, it's not SO blasphemous when they're using David Bradley from Twice Upon a Time but it's EXTREMELY blasphemous when it comes to that latest abomination from The Outlaws whose name I'm not gonna bother remembering cos he's screamingly obviously NOT THE FIRST DOCTOR.

I remember that in my native language they dubbed Ian too highpitched to make his voice distinct from the Doctor. But part of this may be that 1) I don’t really actively watch the series 2) I sometimes have sensory overload 3) I wouldn’t even recognize any doctor or companion voices from each other because I’m not too familiar with them and most of them I don’t really remember what they sound like expecially those I haven’t watched.

Anyways Turloughs voice startled me as it sounds a bit alien-y and high pitched and teenagey, and I’m pretty sure Ben also has an high pitched voice like that, propably more than any Classic Who doctor. But with the 3 era, with Benton, Yates, the brig, third doctor, and master, two of them would have sounded the same?

You can try watching blindfolded.

Victoria went to study graphilogy and the Doctor got Zoe out of it. Yaz, maybe she and the doctor had to get separated. Maybe 13 dropped Yaz and went on a few adventures to then pick up Yaz again, and in some of them she had another fam from 50000 bc Traken or something.

Big Finish has managed to squeeze in like a whole season of 5/Peri/Erimem.

Jodie laughs:
https://imgur.com/a/4jPorKc

Jodie on a ship and this was taken long before Legend of the Sea Devils when 13 was on another ship:
https://imgur.com/a/OS5xA3U

All blue Jodie:
https://imgur.com/a/8gMUuLz

Jodie and Mandip at Comic Con:
https://imgur.com/a/oS04HVm

Jodie in Attack The Block:
https://imgur.com/a/kTYEYNC

Stephen Fry and Jodie in the movie St. Trinian's, released in December 2007.
Just over 12 years later they would be reunited in Spyfall Part One on New Year's Day 2020:
tinyurl.com/y43ce7yb

Jodie is the Doctor and this is why:
https://imgur.com/a/5e7bzA7

'Sorting out fair play across the universe...well, whatever's left of the universe by the time I've finished with it...'

Jodie in what seems a very recent photoshoot:
https://imgur.com/a/ZXgkXtk

An artwork of 13 by Lee Binding:
https://imgur.com/a/kVNUclb

BBC America provides quotes of 13 as The Woman Who Fell To Earth:
https://imgur.com/a/9C3beis