Dr Who

I'm a little disappointed that Doctor Who is being played by another white actor. I was hoping that the new Doctor would be played by Nadiya Hussain. Think about it a female, non white, Hijab wearing Doctor Who. That would really make the patriarchy shake.

We're Dr Who viewers as a family.

My dd 12 was really happy and excited.
My ds 10 was initially shocked but then happy. He likes Rae from Star Wars as a main character so he thinks JW will be good.
DH is happy because he saw her in a film "attack the block" and she was apparently really 'kick-ass'
I'm just happy for a change.

I think people will soon forget she's a woman. She's a good actress and will be a great doctor I'm sure.
The moaning misogynistic Whovians will soon get over it.

So true Rythym

Winterval is coming...

Very glad.

The other day I was buying a present for my friend's new baby (fluffy cuddly toy). Wanted a gift bag too. Just not a blue one. The sales assistant notices I'm looking and points out the blue "baby boy" ones, so I say I don't want a blue one.

She rips into a tirade of
"She's making life difficult"
"It's PC gone mad!"
"It's like Dr Who, a woman can't be a TimeLord"
"It's gone too far they want their photo in the paper over everything"

It's going to be the new Europe bans bendy bananas.

Nope. It's ridiculous! Over 50 years and 13 regenerations and still not ginger! Haha joking aside I'm glad Jodie has had such positive responses and the people who don't like it don't have to watch it!

Matt Smith was fine and had my 2 favourite episodes (Vincent and The Doctor's Wife) but they started the whole "timey-wimey" stuff with every one's time lines being all over the place and the constant going backwards or forwards (or sideways or upsides down) and what felt like an overload of the war to end all wars/ the end of the universe scenarios. And it just made no sense.

Clara overstayed her welcome as did her tedious boyfriend. It was a pity so much of Capaldi's tenure was wasted mooning over her.

I'm cynical about the timing. Personally I think that the producers have done it as a last-ditch effort to save the show and had they really and truly wanted the Doctor to be female the best time, storywise would have been after David Tennant. Storylines were strong, every thing had been wrapped up tight and then they picked Matt Smith, who I found in his first season to be as charming as a dead slug. Recently? Capaldi has turned a lot of people off, the writing has been mediocre to try and put a positive spin on it and JW is going to have to be 3 times as good as any of the male actors and have amazing scripts to work with, which, sadly I can't see happening.
FWIW, I was disappointed with Missy.

That's just my opinion though.

Oh I really hope not Fiona!
I thought the last series was much better than most of the recent previous ones: Felt more "back to basics" with good, entertaining episodes that worked well as standalone stories (or 1/2 of a two-parter). I got a bit fed up of previous series and episodes devoted to the development of long, soapy story arcs (like the one where Clara took the whole episode to die). The story telling and plots of the last series were really good I thought.
Shame that Bill went, as I really liked her.

A while ago someone posted one here about the 'glass cliff' phenomenon wherein women are given leadership positions in failing companies - if the company continues to fail, its blamed on the fact she's a woman, if it survives and thrives its taken back off her and given to a man.

The cynic in me is seeing something similar here. Viewing figures have been way down but now if the show fails and gets cancelled it will be blamed on the actress, not the poor writing of the past few series.

Do they even have male & female in the same way humans do??

Apparently not, but as I said above, it's only been mentioned recently.

I am pleased, but still a little that it has taken this long considering how long women have been working as Doctors.

My teen DD was a tad confused and asked why because the character is a man. Ffs. I told her the character is a Doctor.

I can't see the issue at all. The Doctor is a Timelord, not human. Do they even have male & female in the same way humans do??

I'm really happy with the choice of the new Doctor.

She is, by all accounts an excellent actor and she's really enthusiastic about the concept. I just hope she's allowed time to settle into the role and carries on Capaldi's fabulous efforts to continue the magic for young people with ANs, because he's been utterly amazing.

Have only seen Jodie in one thing (Perrier's Bounty) so not sure about her. Is she quirky enough for the role?
Personally, would have loved to see Miranda Richardson or Shirley Henderson in the role, those too would be perfect.

I feel much as I always do with Doctor Who, I am always a bit attached to the old one, sad to seem them go. They almost never cast my personal top picks both this time and the last time I wanted a older actress because a) I always like the cantankerous old doctors and b) it would be nice to see an older woman in an actiony sci-fi thingie. You almost never see females in the obi-wan/Gandalf wise old mentor role. I thought Maggie Smith was fecking ace in Harry Potter for this reason. And actually although she is a bit too big Maggie Smith would kill it as the doctor!

Nevertheless I'll rally round as a fan whomever they pick and I'm sure I'll like Jodie Whittaker. I always seem to like the Doctor no matter who is playing him (now her!). Now they just need to get some more female writers and perhaps a female show runner someday, so I think we should look on it as a new beginning and not an end.

Politics aside I just like good stories, the new Ghostbusters was a little flat though the 4 female leads were the best part of it. I absolutely loved the force awakens, speaking as a long term Star Wars fan my only complaint about it was not enough General Leia! If the new Doctor Who series isn't great it will have knack all to do with casting the Doctor as a woman, at worst it will be because they cast the wrong woman, but there is no reason to suggest they haven't, and Jodie should have the same chance as anyone else, in fact she already has more under her belt than Matt Smith had as an actor so if anything I am slightly more confident in her than I was with Matt Smith and I ended up loving him.

Anyway my question is should she go the eccleston route and rely 100% on acting to convey the eccentricity of the doctor or should she have a few key wardrobe flourishes a la bakers scarf or smiths bow tie? And if so what?

Been "done" before.

Yep, they've done it already.
OK, they didn't mention it for the previous 50 years, but it's not the first time in the show's history revelations like this have come from nowhere.
They had to fiction themselves out of the "only 12 regenerations" trap they set for themselves years ago.

That's easy, he's an alien that can regenerate a whole body which is different from the previous one. It's been mentioned for a while now that timelord regenerated bodies can be male or female. The other time lord, The Master/Missy, has been a woman for a while now without excessive fuss.

I think she might have a good crack at it, but I think calling it a triumph for feminism is probably a bit much. I'll be interested to see how they explain him suddenly taking on a female form though.

Does anyone else remember some time ago in the older Dr Who series that there was a rumour that the Dr would be a woman and the outcry was so bad they changed their minds? I remember this but no one else does and not being a fan I can't remember the specifics.

I think they have been testing the waters for some time. Obviously the BBC wanted to do it, but wouldn't want to ruin their viewing figures.
On the Doctor Who facebook pages I am on, there are some very vocal women who say the show is ruined for them, so it's not all "the usual suspects".

I'm a big Dr Who fan and I'm very excited, especially seeing as I haven't seen Broadchurch so I have no idea what to expect.

Funnily enough everyone I've spoken to who also likes Dr Who thought the same - and also hadn't seen Broadchurch.

I love Doctor Who and will wait and see how the new Doctor fares. I'm not excited about it being any kind of feminist victory though.

Does anyone else remember some time ago in the older Dr Who series that there was a rumour that the Dr would be a woman and the outcry was so bad they changed their minds? I remember this but no one else does and not being a fan I can't remember the specifics.

Thrilled.

But woman, it's Doctor Who, not Dr! Tsk, Tsk

I'm a member of the Gallifrey base forum and some of the sexist comments on there are disgusting. I'm really pleased they've cast a woman and I think she's going to be great. And I would have had no problem with them casting a man again either.

I wouldn't have minded Michelle Gomez being the Doctor though, I know she's Missy but they could have worked around it.