Doctor Who: 7 Reasons Jodie Whittaker Will Make A Great 13th Doctor

The first female actor to play the Doctor is the perfect choice.

Jodie Whittaker Doctor Who
BBC

She’s not even stepped foot in the TARDIS proper and the jury is already out as to whether or not Jodie Whittaker will cut the mustard as the Doctor. In that respect the reaction is no different to that experienced by any other actor immediately after they’ve been unveiled as the next Doctor. But with the added significance of becoming the first woman to play the Time Lord, there’s been more intense debate than ever.

After Roger Federer made short work of Marin Cilic in the Wimbledon men’s single final (was he as eager as the rest of us to find out the news?), excited Doctor Who fans watched with baited breath as the new Doctor was revealed in a specially shot film. Teasing us with the camera following the Doctor, it was impossible to tell the actor’s gender until she removed the hood.

Two nights before, the BBC broadcast another video short to announce the announcement. As it turns out all the clues were there, at least as to the gender of the next Doctor, and the seeds had in fact been sown even earlier in some tantalising lines of dialogue in The Doctor Falls:

“Is the future going to be all girl?” says the John Simm Master, to which the Doctor replies “We can only hope.”

The future for the Doctor is actually now in the hands of Chris Chibnall and his new star Jodie Whittaker. But will she make a good Doctor?

7. She Has Worked With Chris Chibnall Before

Jodie Whittaker Doctor Who
ITV

Due to the phenomenal success of ITV’s primetime show, Broadchurch, Jodie Whittaker is one of the most recognisable faces on British TV. She played the role of Beth Latimer in all three series’ of Chris Chibnall’s crime drama. The audience totally bought into her journey from grieving mother to counsellor. Thanks to the realism of both the scripts and Whittaker’s performances, she became easily the most identifiable of characters.

Given the subject nature of Broadchurch, it’s perhaps not surprising that the cast and crew developed strong bonds whilst working on the show. The intensity of a story that is essentially about the social and psychological aftermath of violent crime on families, relationships and community, will have enabled writer Chris Chibnall to know his actors extremely well.

Despite Chibnall’s admiration for the actor, Whittaker was not a shoe-in for the role of the Doctor and gained the part on merit following a stand-out audition. But the fact that she has worked closely with the incoming showrunner before is a bonus, in much the same way as Eccleston (The Second Coming) and Tennant’s (Casanova) prior associations with Russell T Davies contributed to the success of their runs.

Chibnall is expected to make a number of risky changes to the show’s winning formula and this casting decision provides a secure foundation upon which to rebuild the show. With all the talk about the gender of the new Doctor, Whittaker’s casting may well prove to be the safest innovation.

Contributor
Contributor

Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.