Doctor Who: 10 Crazy Internet Reactions To The 13th Doctor

Chris Chibnall decided to cast a woman in the role not because he thought he should, but because he could. Back in February he said of the casting “nothing is ruled out, but I don’t want the casting to be a gimmick and that’s all I can say.” After the announcement the incoming showrunner revealed that it was always his intention that the Thirteenth Doctor would be played by a female actor.

Some have argued that Chibnall’s earlier comment was a deliberate misdirection to help keep the audition process secret. But more likely, he had already narrowed down his shortlist because of creative decisions about where he wanted to take the character and the kind of stories he wanted to tell.

The idea that Chibnall’s primary concern is political or moral is a huge assumption and places unnecessary expectations on Jodie Whittaker as a trailblazer for woman instead of an actor doing her job. That said, equality and diversity are surely not bad things to promote and all television drama is unavoidably political when it comes to how societies past, present and future are portrayed.

Changing the gender of the Doctor is not a necessary step in ensuring Doctor Who is politically correct. It all depends how the stories are told. The adventures of a male Doctor could be just as PC or even more so than those of a female Doctor (assuming those categories even apply to a Time Lord, which is itself debatable given the Doctor’s comments about gender fluidity to Bill).