New Doctor vows to regenerate hero stereotype

[TimeLady]

Whittaker, 36, said she hoped her casting would inspire young girls to aim higher.

“There’s the chiselled superhero that we’re used to seeing and we’ve all grown up with but Doctor Who has never been that, which is wonderful. It’s attainable in so many ways,” she told Radio Times. “And now it isn’t only attainable for half of the population. The other half can be the Doctor as well. Girls will no longer just think, ‘Oh, I could be a companion.’ Being the first female Doctor and showing children that their heroes in shows don’t always look the same is a huge honour for me.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-doctor-who-jodie-whittaker-promises-to-regenerate-superhero-stereotype-jsvfhx86h

I will be grumpy if her first words aren't 'Still not ginger!'

Jokes aside, I like her aims and am looking forward to this!

My dd is playing the Doctor in her end of year school play. I'm very pleased we have a female Doctor at last.

I am really looking forward to Jodie as the Doctor. She seems a lovely person, cannot wait for Dr Who to be on. Although that usually means the end of summer, so torn a bit this year!

I can only hope the episodes are well written and exciting and do the first female Dr justice, When Peter Capaldi first took over I feel his Dr was let down at first by the scriptwriters

@FlipinFumin. My leave is almost over and means probably an 8 month wait to see it uninterrupted or watch episodes out of sync if we get signal, I'm gutted lol

I always dislike a doctor at first, but Capaldi (who I've liked in other stuff, so it's not him) I just never warmed to at all - and I agree longtime, I think it was the writing.

I have my fingers crossed for Jody - I hope she gets some good material.

I really would like to be excited about this, but I genuinely don't like the actress. (I'm sure she's a lovely person, I'm talking about the ability/screen persona etc)
Capaldi was my dream Doctor, but was let down by some really crap writing, so it's been a disappointing few years.
Still, the plus side for me of the regeneration quirk of Who is that if I don't warm to her, she'll only be around for a couple of years and someone else can have a go.
Worst case scenario is that she's more awful than my memory of Colin Baker as Six. I'm honestly hoping for more than that, but time will tell.

I just wish the Doctor Who character would return to its roots as being slightly weird, a bit scary, and other-worldly, and we could dump all of the romantic sub-plots and emotional overload.

nauticant, I mostly agree, but I do think the more rounded scripts of New Who have been key to the success of the revival. People do expect a bit more of their SciFi entertainment these days.
But yes, really I think my objections to Jodie Whittaker is she's just a bit boring and normal. I wasn't thrilled about a woman Doctor to begin with, but I definitely would have been more on board with an Olivia Colman casting tbh, because I think she could have carried off the alien otherworldly thing well.

Yes, I think they have undermined themselves by choosing a (relatively) young woman having a conventionally attractive face for telly.

The Stephen Moffat scripts with Peter Capaldi period tried my patience, (and I've watched Dr Who right from the 60s) whereas the Russell T Davies storylines with David Tennant could be really funny and entertaining.

I can't envisage a female Doctor either - yet - but I'm happy to give her a go.

The writing has definitely been the issue since David Tennant left. Overly complicated storylines that were almost impossible to follow for the casual viewer.

In order to overcome that, they ramp up the emotion as high as it will go leaving the story drowned out and effectively irrelevant.

When I do filter that out and get to what's going on I often find it to be incomprehensible (while having no problems coming to grips with stuff like Remembrance of Earth's Past).

I loved Matt Smith, and his first series was marvellous. The grand Moff had a chance to show off all his ideas and clever story telling tricks. Which was fun for a series or two. But it was a case of ever decreasing circles. He just kept repeating the ideas in different outfits and disappeared up his own fundament. I think the same thing happened in Sherlock.
Russell T Davies liked clever stories and made good use of writers like Moffat in the overall series, but his strength was strong characterization.

I agree about Whittaker being conventionally attractive. I do think that's a misstep, because it's not been the case with the previous Doctors. Yes, loads of people swooned over Tennant, but that's largely charisma - looks-wise, he's a bit angular and spiky. Matt Smith is probably the most conventionally handsome, but even he had a real quirk to him with the enormous chin and 'delicate' eyebrows.

Oh, and can I just say the headline to this piece pisses me off. She didn't say that her Doctor was going to regenerate the hero stereotype, she said, quite rightly, that the Doctor has never been that kind of hero. The Doctor being a woman doesn't change that aspect of the character. It's one of the reasons my socially awkward son adores the Doctor.

@FloralBunting.I see where you are coming from with Matt Smith being conventionally handsome and quirky. For me it was Christopher Eccleston tall dark and his personna could just be as dark. I did love his Dr and just a pity he never stayed longer.

I liked Eccleston too.

Funny how the male docs get young attractive female companions but the new doc gets Bradley Walsh.

@ijustwannadance. , Yes just seems strange and hope that there isn't a strong man keeping her right undercurrent. Taron Egerton would get my vote for assistant but that's just me lol

I do like the idea of a crowd in the TARDIS. Some of my favourite eras have been when there was a gang in there rather than a duo.

Sarah Jane excepted. Because she's still bloody awesome. (Honourable mention for Ace, too)

Thinking back to previous Drs, people seem to have forgotten Peter Davison - he was young and quite 'conventionally attractive'. But evidently forgettable.

Anyway... how have we got this far in the thread without a ?

I don't hink any of them have been conventionally attractive. I think that's the appeal. I'm quite looking forward to seeing her and I do hope the writing gets better and more entertaining. I am a bit worried that the show is on a bit of a downward turn in general, with falling viewers. I female Doctor that doesn't revive the brand may be used as an 'excuse' as to why it hasn't worked and we should have stayed with the male Doctors. OTOH, I hope she's fab and we have a variety of male and female doctors. Different ethnicities would be good too!

Yes, I was really punting for Paterson Joseph a few regenerations back. Was most disappointed when he didn't get it.

Peter Davison was young, yes, which I don't mind in the least. And I suppose he was quite handsome, yes. His characterization didn't rest on that at all, though. I suppose it's a little hard for me to gauge as I didn't fancy males at that stage of my life. But tbh, I don't think he was ever billed as the young and handsome lead - he's quite a fusty, paternalistic Doctor. Reading some of the fifth Doctor fanfic that shoehorns smut in with various people and him, it's just creepy as heck because he just wasn't like that at all.
Paul McGann is probably the closest to matinee idol territory really, and he's only ever been an onscreen Doctor twice.
I think it's a mistake to choose someone similar for the first female, because so much is riding on it. If it flops, that'll likely be the last opportunity for a woman in the role for ages.
Besides, it's not so much for me that she's attractive, because that is fairly arbitrary and personal anyway. It's just that she's so vanilla as an actress. I'm genuinely not excited about the specific choice of actor, and that's a bit unencouraging given that this is such an enormous change.

Paterson Joseph! I still shudder when I think of him in Peep Show all those years back. He would have been excellent.

As @FloralBunting said. She is quite vanilla an actress and it should be a stronger personality for the first female DR. Not sure if any of you are Trekkies? But Voyager had the first female captain. Now just my opinion but in the first series poor scripting in my view had her appear weak in the story lines compared to her second in command Chicota, eventually she got more assertive story lines befitting a female leader. I just hope the script writers avoid that pitfall and not tarnish/damage the first female DR.

Maybe she's only had relatively 'vanilla' roles before? (I'm not aware of having seen her in anything tbh, I didn't see broadchurch). Let's hope the writing is good.

It's not as though there haven't been strong women in the recent series - many more or less conventionally attractive (though not bounded by that) but some not.