Doctor Who: how a female-led project sparked differing levels of criticism
One of the biggest announcements of the year in television recently caused a social media meltdown — Jodie Whittaker will take over from Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who this Christmas as the Doctor. It seems to have divided audiences into those praising the open-minded move forward in the show’s history, and those fearful of further change to the institution with many trolls being downright sexist about the female-led project.
An interview with Whittaker was released with the announcement, highlighting issues that would be raised in the very mixed response as she proclaimed, ‘I want to tell the fans not to be scared by my gender’. This is thick with irony considering the outrage across social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, with many convinced the move was only made out of excessive political correctness and proclaiming they wouldn’t watch the show if it had a female lead. The idea of feminist and equality movements pressuring producers into such a decision could be compared to that of Pearl Mackie becoming Doctor Who’s first openly gay companion, which had been perceived by some to be rushed and forced onscreen but also had similar, extreme responses.
On the other hand, there has been widespread support for Whittaker including that of previous Doctor Who stars, from Tom Baker to Billie Piper. Many consider the decision long overdue and though progressive, not something that should be considered as such so heavily, due to the nature of today’s society and its prominent struggle for equality. Several posts mocking those disliking the news have also gone viral, such as TechnicallyRon on Twitter turning Daily Mail comments into show episode titles. My personal favourite has to be ‘Nobody wants a TARDIS full of bras’.
A strong argument against the complaints is that the concept of a female Time Lord — and therefore Doctor — is not a new one; it has been around for decades. Doctorwho.tv put together an excellent list of evidence, including Tom Baker joking in 1980 that his successor could be a woman and the producer running with it to provoke media interest; Sydney Newman, who was involved in the show’s conception, recommended the idea in 1986; the Eleventh Doctor questioned post-regeneration if he was a girl; most influentially, a female regeneration of the Master, Missy, was introduced in 2014.
I believe the controversy surrounding this decision is a product of our time and follows a string of similar responses to other recent, female-led, high-budget projects, making it difficult to be viewed in a genuine light. One of these is Wonder Woman, praised for being the first female-led superhero film in over a decade, while being ripped to shreds for having protagonist Diana showing ‘too much skin’ and some cinemas showing female-only screenings. The female revamp of Ghostbusters also faced a huge amount of negativity, even months before its release, with low IMDb ratings coming in the vast majority from males. A possible reason for larger scale controversies around these female-led projects could be an innate fear fans have of change to such franchises, especially those as long-running or well-established as Doctor Who and Ghostbusters. Change can make people eager to protect that which they have childhood or lengthy connections with and what they mean to them. However, it is difficult to be so open-minded when outlets like The Sun respond to the announcement by discussing Whittaker’s supposedly ‘saucy screen past’, accompanied by posting nude photos — spoiler alert, some actors occasionally feature in sex scenes! — rather than making any interesting coverage of the news.
So what does this mean for the show, equality and gender stereotypes? I think it is a bold while almost inevitable move, but in a good-natured act to represent society in a better and more diverse way. Doctor Who has ‘always been about exploring the edges of what’s possible’, featuring everything from aliens disguising themselves in human skin suits to trapping main characters in parallel worlds. So is a female Doctor such a stretch of the imagination? Sci-fi must push boundaries as a genre and this will move the show into a new era, allowing it to continue to evolve both itself and the character while remaining relevant and exciting as a long-running format.
As the Doctor is such a renowned character in sci-fi, popular modern television and television history — therefore accumulating a massive global following — a female incarnation will also be a role model for millions of female fans. The Doctor has always celebrated being different, intelligent and questioning everything, while being compassionate to the point of extreme sacrifice and altruism, altogether heroic and important characteristics to be portrayed by a woman in mainstream media. This builds on wonderful characters of diversity the show has already created such as Bill, Captain Jack, Vastra and Jenny, but with such a move in a main role, it proves there is still much to be strived for in the industry.
Despite personally supporting this decision, I do, however, have worries. I haven’t felt the writing has been up to scratch since Steven Moffat became Head Writer and Executive Producer, and now Chris Chibnall is taking over, it is difficult to predict what direction this will take. They have created a brilliant opportunity to improve the storytelling and recruit a new generation of fans and sci-fi enthusiasts, but I feel with dropping viewing figures, this could be a make or break point for the show. They also need to be careful how they handle the transition — especially with the connotations of a man transforming into a woman — and with yet another man leading the writing charge, how strong and well-balanced of a female character will Whittaker’s Doctor be?
We can only hope that the Doctor Who team will utilise this opportunity to its full potential, and allow the wonderful talent of Jodie Whittaker to thrive. But one thing we can be sure of is no matter how much anyone complains, she is the Doctor, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
Edited by Maryam Elahi
