It has finally happened: after 54
years, 36 seasons, and 13 Doctors, a woman will at last step behind
the TARDIS console not as a companion, but as The Doctor herself. It
was announced earlier today that the 13th Doctor, who will
take over from Peter Capaldi during the upcoming Christmas special,
will be Broadchurch and
Attack the Block co-star
Jodie Whittaker. The announcement was greeted with celebrations by
large parts (I would like to think the majority) of the Doctor
Who fandom, who have been quite
vocally wanting a female Doctor for years. But it was also
predictably greeted with anger from a certain other, very vocal
minority of the fandom; the same type of people who tend to get angry
whenever a woman or a person of color is cast in an established role
that has traditionally belonged to a white man. Some of these people
cite narrative and continuity reasons why they think that The Doctor
should always be a man, but as typically happens in cases like this,
most of these arguments are basically just fronts for the fact that
they just don't want a woman starring on “their” show, and at
some point their argument is likely to employ the term “social
justice warrior” as an insult. Well, if those people want to stop
watching, and miss out on what will surely be a fascinating and
exciting new era for the long-running series, that's their choice,
and their loss; judging from all the excitement and enthusiasm that
has been very visible throughout the fandom today, Doctor
Who is going to be just fine
without them. As a lifelong Whovian ever since I was a little kid
renting tapes of the Tom Baker era at Blockbuster in the early-90s, I
am 100% percent convinced that going with a female Doctor for number
13 was the right decision. It is time; and no matter what lazy
arguments the no-female-Doctor camp gives, this decision is totally
in line with the show's mythology, and where the series has been
going for years.
For
starters, The Doctor is a very different sort of role from, say,
James Bond, because it is not a case of multiple actors playing the
same exact character; the entire point is that The Doctor regenerates,
and changes into a fundamentally different person who just shares the
same set of memories and core values. Every regeneration has made a
point of choosing a new Doctor with a very different personality and
physical type. This goes all the way back to the first regeneration
when it was decided that it would be a mistake to simply re-cast
William Hartnell's Doctor, because no one else could match him in
that role, and a much better approach would be to cast someone as
unlike Hartnell as possible. With that thought in mind, the prickly,
no-nonsense, elderly professor was replaced by the silly, whimsical,
Chaplinesque adventurer played by Patrick Troughton, and the
precedent was set. Yes, The Doctor retains his/her memories, and at a
basic core level of philosophy and principles they remain the same,
but the whole point of regeneration is that The Doctor can end up
being literally anyone. This wonderfully inspired narrative device
not only creates the fascinating story possibilities of each new
Doctor having to re-learn who they are, but it also provides a
built-in mechanism for the show to be able to reinvent itself. Long
before the concept of rebooting a series existed, Doctor
Who rebooted itself every few
years, as new showrunners and very different Doctors constantly
reinvented the show. This is, above all else, what has allowed the
series to stay fresh for so long, and to continue off and on for 36
seasons without ever getting stale (well, except for that one point
in the '80s when it jumped the shark for a couple years – but even
then, the concept of regeneration and the leeway that it gave new
writers to reinvent the series allowed it to get back on track). So
if reinvention is the whole point, and if The Doctor turning into a
substantially new character with each regeneration is the whole
point, then why on Gallifrey should a female Doctor be off-limits?
Sure,
this is the part where someone will point out that never in the
original series did we see a Time Lord regenerate across gender
lines. But here's the thing: right up until the original series went
off the air, new writers were constantly tinkering with the show's
mythology and rules, adding new elements and bits of lore to expand
the series and keep it fresh and interesting. The Doctor's people
weren't even referred to as the Time Lords until season 6, and the
basic rules of regeneration weren't established until seasons 11 and
14. The canon of this series has never been set in stone, and has
always been something that evolves, especially in areas that the show
hasn't really explored yet. And the original series absolutely never
said that Time Lords can't regenerate
as a different gender; it just isn't anything the show had explored
at that time. Today Time Lords regenerating across gender and
ethnicity is a well-established concept in the new series' canon. It
is something that has been referenced by The Doctor at least as far
back as the beginning of the Matt Smith era, and is something that we
have actually witnessed a couple times by now. The show has obviously
been laying the groundwork for this for years: it seems clear that
they've wanted to cast a female Doctor for some time, but wanted to
set up the narrative framework of how regeneration works with regards
to gender first. This isn't something that new showrunner Chris
Chibnall is doing out of nowhere; Steven Moffat has obviously tried
to do it right, and fit it into the larger mythology. With all of
that groundwork having been done, any narrative argument against a
female Doctor truly doesn't have a leg to stand on, and thus boils
right back down to plain old sexism.
But
here's the bigger point: while it's nice that Moffat's era of Doctor
Who laid the groundwork for a
female Doctor within the canon, that isn't really what matters. What
matters is that it is the right thing to do, for the show's message
and ethos. Doctor Who has
long been a very liberal, forward-thinking, progressive show. While
the classic series had an admittedly uneven track record with its
writing of female characters, and certain eras in the 1960s and '70s
had a tendency to reduce them to damsels in distress, there were a
lot of classic-series writers who were very much on the cutting edge
with feminist themes, and who really tried to bring the show forward
in its portrayals of women in a way that other shows of the era did
not. Companions like Dr. Liz Shaw (who I'm pretty positive was the
namesake for the Prometheus character),
Sarah-Jane Smith, and Ace were all totally badass, self-reliant
feminist leads for their eras. Watching Liz and Sarah-Jane shut down
chauvinistic men was a constant pleasure for the writers, actresses,
and audience, and having the anarchist punk Ace blast holes in
Thatcher's England with her homemade bombs was genuinely subversive.
If the original series was progressive at its best, but unevenly so,
the new series has made a point of being extremely progressive and
inclusive from day one. The show has featured a long line of strong,
complex, well-developed female leads who aren't content merely being
supporting characters, and instead stand right alongside The Doctor
as powerful co-stars. New Doctor Who has
always had a pretty strong LGBT presence as well, with a good handful
of queer side-characters throughout, and two major queer leads: the
pansexual Captain Jack Harkness and the lesbian Bill Potts. The
introduction of Captain Jack in the middle of the show's very first
season was a particularly bold move: at a time when gay/bi/queer male
characters weren't commonly found outside of niche shows like Russell
T. Davies' own Queer as Folk,
Jack challenged the heteronormative stereotypes of what it meant to
be an action hero. While the cast of Doctor Who has
undeniably been mostly white, the show has also had some very strong
characters of color, with the standouts being the excellent Martha
Jones and Bill. However, despite working hard to have a diverse and
inclusive cast, and despite taking stands for feminism and LGBT
equality, there has remained one obvious glass ceiling on the show:
The Doctor himself has remained a white guy. For the show to truly
send the message of inclusion and equality that it really wants to
send, breaking that mold is a powerful thing, and the next logical
step. Again, this is something that the show has clearly been working
towards.
But
again, it is more than just that The Doctor should be female or be a
person of color to send a powerful message; The Doctor should be able
to be female or a person of color because of what The Doctor
symbolizes. The Doctor symbolizes the ideal of what is good and full
of wonder in the universe: the love of exploration and curiosity, and
the unselfish desire to help others and make a positive difference
simply because it is the right thing to do. The type of
unconventional hero who doesn't (generally) use weapons, but
intellect and creativity and the determination that there has to be a
way. And increasingly in our modern world, it is neither right nor
accurate for this ideal to be symbolized solely by white guys all the
time. For The Doctor to mean what The Doctor has always meant, the
character should be able to move beyond that, and be able to reflect
the population the show speaks to. If The Doctor is supposed to be
able to regenerate into any sort of new character, it should mean
just that – anyone. That is why Steven Moffat laid out the
narrative devices for the character to be something other than a white man, and that is why it is so important that it is
happening now. I'm sure this will not mark the last time that The
Doctor is a man; I think it will just mark a point where from now on,
anyone can be a contender to play the character.
Even
beyond being excited about the first female Doctor, I am very
intrigued by the casting all around. With Moffat stepping down as
well as Capaldi, Chibnall will have the opportunity to reinvent the
show in much the same way that Moffat did with the excellent series
5, and casting his Thirteenth Doctor is the first step in that. That
his casting choice is an actress he knows and has worked with on
Broadchurch is a very
good sign. For the first time that I know of, we have a showrunner
bringing in a Doctor with whom they have worked previously on another
project for three seasons: they already have a feel for working with
one another, she is familiar with the artistic process of working on
one of his shows, and he is familiar with her skill set and how to
write for her. They are a team that clearly should be able to hit the
ground running, rather than having an awkward adjustment period where
she grows into the role and he grows into the position as showrunner.
Having not watched Broadchurch I
am admittedly not too familiar with her work, but all signs point to her being a
very good Doctor in the making, especially in conjunction with this showrunner.
Doctor Who has
always been about evolving and changing, and while this is one of the
bigger changes on the show that we have seen in recent times, it is
absolutely the right one. The series and its main character are known
for reinventing themselves, and that has been the key to its
longevity and ongoing relevance. In this tumultuous cultural moment,
the first female Doctor is definitely what the show needs to maintain
this relevance, and keep the show moving in a way that embraces and
expands upon its philosophy. While the show's detractors will surely
complain louder than ever, there simply isn't any reason why we
shouldn't have a female Doctor: the narrative groundwork is there,
and thematically and socially it is a decision with weight and
importance behind it. For every viewer who stops watching because
they can't deal with the idea of a female Doctor, I have no doubt
that more viewers will be brought back to see what exciting things
the show will do in this new era. And I have no doubt that it will do
some very exciting things indeed. This show has always been bigger on
the inside, and now more than ever I can't wait to see what new
layers will be revealed as the show regenerates again, along with The
Doctor.
-
Christopher S. Jordan
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