Monday, 17 July 2017

Doctor Who - The 13th Doctor













Right, OK just as a different post I figured I would post up my take on the casting of the 13th Doctor in the sci-fi show, Doctor Who as there has already been tremendous controversy over the new choice of the lead part and that is simply because the new Doctor is going to be a woman.  Yes, for the first time in the show's history the Doctor will regenerate into a woman and change genders to show that not only is the Doctor a near immortal being he's also a unisexal one, too.  And it was just yesterday that it was revealed that the actress, Jodie Whittaker will take up the role once the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi finally hands in his TARDIS key at the end of the year's Christmas special.

Now just before I carry on I would just like to say that what I state here ahead is simply my own opinion and you are all of course entitled to your own.

So here it goes....well.....to be honest.... I am OK with the choice of a woman being cast in the role.  Its something that has been pushed for hard over the years for a woman to be cast in the role and well now we've finally got one and I think its maybe something that will hopefully help shake up the format of the show to give it a different perspective.

Now, the trouble is of course that this decision has split the fans right down the middle as there are fans who are for the choice and those, who are firmly opposed to the choice of a woman being cast in the role.  So, from here the show has created its own new divide and it will see some of the die hard fans of the show no longer watch it, whereas of course those fans who are more open minded to the idea of a female doctor will embrace the change.

The casting was of course done at the hands of the show's new incoming executive producer, Chris Chibnall, who had already worked with Jodie Whittaker on his series, Broadchurch, which also stars another previous doctor, David Tenant, so perhaps that's one of the reasons he cast her in the role as she was a familiar actress.  However there was also some speculation of course that an actress was cast to play the part due to pressure from the feminist lobby in order to do so, although to be honest I don't know how much truth is in that one myself. 

So, is it such a bad thing though for the new Doctor to be a woman????  Well, as I said I'm OK with the idea even though of course the Doctor has always previously been a man, it does seem a peculiar that he would suddenly change sex in one of his regenerations.  However the Master has already been played by a woman with Michelle Gomez playing the part of Missy (aka the Master) in the last few series of the show, so why not have the Doctor be one aswell.

Now I know that there will be plenty of fans that see this choice as a real bastardisation of the concept of the character and I can see where they might be coming from with that.  However I think to be fair to the actress, Jodie Whittaker, I don't think we should really judge her until we see her in action in the role.  So, I personally would have to say I think we should give the actress the benefit of the doubt before we judge how good she will be in the role and take it from there.

In fact it has to be said that this choice to change the sex of the role is actually enough for me to re-engage my interest in watching the new series as I have to admit myself I had kind of stopped watching and lost interest in the new series lately.  I personally am more a fan of the original show itself as I always perferred the original companions and characters and I prefer the storylines and scripts of the classic show to the new one, although I have nothing against the new series and it does feature some great episodes and some great doctors and companions.

The only problems I see with the part being played by a woman is that it might mess up some of the running continuity of the show with for example, River Song, who knew the Doctor as a man and was even married to him.  So, with that in mind, did River Song know the Doctor when she was a woman???  Or did she know the Doctor prior to this???  This is because I think (and I could be wrong about this!) didn't River know the Doctor also towards the end of his life life-span???  If so, does this not suggest that she might have known the Doctor also as a woman????  And just how many regenerations of the Doctor will be women in the future???  Who knows???  What we do know is that it will be interesting to see how the producers will tackle those questions in the future (or the past!).

Anyway, so that's my thoughts on the choice of casting the Doctor as a woman, I'm not against the idea and hopefully its not one that will kill the show and will take it into a new and interesting direction.  What we do know is that it has really split the fans down the middle and we are definitely going to see a backlash of sorts arise from this.  But in the end if they can still capture the spirit of the show with a woman cast in the role instead then that's what matters and I say let's give Jodie a chance before we judge her.

Right, so that's it for now and I will return another post soon.

Till the next one its bye for now.


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