Now that the dust has settled with the BBC’s reveal of Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor, let’s get acquainted. Do I think she’ll be a good Doctor?

Putting my cards on the table

I’ve always considered the Doctor to be male. Ever since I was little I’ve followed his adventures from being an avuncular figure, to a daredevil type, to a crazy, fun intense chap and so on. The Doctor has always been a man and I’ve never once thought that he should be anything different. Every regeneration I wonder what he’ll be like this time… Now its 2017 we are in the Year of the SJW. Social Justice Warriors make me cringe. I’m a feminist inasmuch as I believe all genders are equal. I don’t want my gender to be better than another’s. I don’t want my gender to be used as a weapon. And I certainly don’t want identity politics to come into my favourite show.

SJWs are spoiling entertainment franchises I have grown up loving. Marvel and DC comics have nosedived in characterisation in recent years replacing proactive, males who overcome life’s struggles with one dimensional, entitled Mary Sue girls. The latest Star Wars film, The Last Jedi was a confused mess of male-bashing, poor plotting and more Mary Sue showcasing. Strong female characters have been in all these franchises for years but succumbing to gender politics has led to shoehorning in of more women but as poorly drawn characters. In my view this is worse than tokenism. However, I digress.

Actor or actress?

The term ‘actor’ is gender neutral but generally refers to male performers. Actresses of course are female actors but thanks to the SJW crowd the term is gradually becoming offensive (apparently) to women. They prefer ‘female actor’ which to me just adds syllables and semantic clumsiness and doesn’t serve either gender well. When I use the term ‘actress’, I don’t use it pejoratively, just descriptively.

Will Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor suffer the same fate? Will the Doctor now become a Mary Sue? Famously the role is said to be actor proof. But no-one has said it was writer-proof… Now, I have to make the clear distinction between the character and the actor/actress. I judge an

Jodie Auckland Whittaker (born 17 June 1982) is an English actress. She came to prominence in her 2006 feature film debut Venus, for which she received British Independent Film Award and Satellite Award nominations. She was later praised for her roles in the cult science fiction film Attack the Block (2011), the Black Mirror episode “The Entire History of You” (2011), and as grieving mother Beth Latimer in Broadchurch.

On 16 July 2017, the BBC announced that Whittaker would become the thirteenth and first female incarnation of The Doctor[1] in the British TV series Doctor Who. She formally assumed the role from Peter Capaldi in the 2017 Christmas special episode “Twice Upon a Time” when Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor regenerated into Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor.

References
Featured actor photograph copyright © Getty Images/(BBC)