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After more than 800 episodes, the Doctor will finally be female.
The BBC announced over the weekend that a female actor will play the titular character in the upcoming season of Dr. Who.: British actress Jodie Whittaker will take on the iconic role, replacing Peter Capaldi, who will exit the show after the 2017 Christmas special. It’s a big deal because, up until this point, all the Doctors have been men.
“It feels completely overwhelming; as a feminist, as a woman, as an actor, as a human, as someone who wants to continually push themselves and challenge themselves, and not be boxed in by what you’re told you can and can’t be,” Whittaker said in a BBC Q&A.
For those unfamiliar with Dr. Who, it’s a long-running sci-fi series that centers on a Time Lord, the Doctor, whose spirit, memories, and soul are regenerated into different bodies every few years. (This explains why the show has been running for more than 50 years: Time Lords can live way longer than us mere mortals.) The Doctor has been reincarnated 12 times since the show began—always into men. Until now, of course.
“I always knew I wanted the Thirteenth Doctor to be a woman, and we’re thrilled to have secured our number one choice. Her audition for the Doctor simply blew us all away,” Doctor Who‘s executive producer and new head writer, Chris Chibnall, said. “Jodie is an in-demand, funny, inspiring, supersmart force of nature and will bring loads of wit, strength, and warmth to the role. The Thirteenth Doctor is on her way.”
Whittaker tells BBC that she’s “excited” to join a family that’s “been around longer” than her (the first season aired in 1963), and she hopes fans are just as jazzed about this switch-up.
“I want to tell the fans not to be scared by my gender,” Whittaker said. “Because this is a really exciting time, and Doctor Who represents everything that’s exciting about change. The fans have lived through so many changes, and this is only a new, different one, not a fearful one.”
If these social media reactions—including some from Doctor Who alums—are any indication, we don’t think Whittaker has anything to worry about.
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