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

Apparently for some fans this casting decision is the final nail in the coffin for Doctor Who. Likening the move to the female Ghostbusters remake the expectation is that it too will be a flop. But the reasons behind the Ghostbusters failure are far more complex than gender changes. In our nostalgia fuelled age, Hollywood remakes have proliferated even though they almost never match the success of the original in terms of quality and of course innovation. Remakes once seen as safe bets for production companies are falling out of favour with audiences because of the realisation that they can rarely match the experience of the original.

The fallout from Ghostbusters ought to be a salutary lesson to the BBC as it seeks to reboot Doctor Who. There is a risk that should Doctor Who see a substantial drop in ratings then Jodie Whittaker might similarly take an unfair share of the blame. Certainly those who oppose a female Doctor on principle will have already prepared a ‘we told you so’ narrative, and the BBC needs to avoid legitimising such views by refusing to let the Doctor’s gender become a scapegoat.

Chris Chibnall has intimated that he will be taking Doctor Who into a whole new direction, and it may turn out that the casting of Jodie Whittaker is the safest innovation. To succeed the show cannot simply recreate the successes of its past, whether from the seventies or the noughties. Fortunately when it comes to Doctor Who there are relatively few non-negotiables and the show has been continuously reinventing itself for over 50 years.