Yes, Jodie Whittaker is the perfect choice as the 13th incarnation of The Doctor, the Time Lord at the center for the long-running BBC series “Doctor Who.”
Yes, it is long past time that the series selected an actor to play The Doctor who isn’t a male. Most importantly yes, she has been selected for “the right reasons.
”There is hard resistance and soft resistance to change. Together, they form a wall; one is simply more penetrable than the other. The nerd bros flooding the BBC with enraged sexist tweets and emails are hard resistance personified. They also show up right on cue anytime an established arena opens to players who aren’t white and male.
Sadly this is typical of sci-fi fandom especially, a space filled with people frequently marginalized for their love of genre, even now that it has been thoroughly mainstreamed; a space where stories of existences positing that literally anything is possible thrive and inspire; a space filled with stories of female characters who lead rebellions, govern interplanetary alliances and helm starships. Even now the multiple ironies of nerd misogyny are lost on its perpetuators.
But soft resistance, manifesting in the form of well-meaning fans wondering whether the BBC is shoving an actress into the role to placate a fan base that has been clamoring for a female Doctor for the better part of a decade, can be damaging in its own right. Soft resistance casts aspersions upon progress in realms real and virtual; it serves as another barrier to progress.
“Doctor Who” is a fiction, and its hero is an extraterrestrial being with two hearts who travels through space and time in a police box (aka a phone booth), but such a reaction matters.
Questioning whether this forward step is happening for the right reasons is the mealy-mouthed cousin of “It’s not the right time.” It may be the less sinister of the two, though, because instead of leaving people with the frustrating retort of “if not now, when?” we get to reply, “the decision has been made, so deal with it or get off the TARDIS.”Whittaker’s assumption of the role is historic, and it also breaks a sci-fi boundary in the larger sense that the Doctor is a creature of intelligence first and above all. In science fiction and fantasy, women can have brains or brawn, but rarely both in the same package. Female logicians and scientists are usually protected by male characters. When women are endowed with physical power, it’s either explained as being part of a supernatural force or technological upgrade. Think River Tam of “Firefly” or Wonder Woman (though, for a time, Diana of Themyscira served as the Justice League’s secretary.)
When female characters are the muscle, their gender tends to be neutered. Vasquez or Ellen Ripley of “Aliens” are examples of this. The beauty of the Doctor, and Whittaker as the Doctor, is that she gets to embody supreme intelligence, gutsiness and brawn all at once and still (presumably) be female.
The Doctor is a sleuth, a bold, brave, powerful being who can only be shaken by the Universe’s greatest evils, and she — she! — does battle with little more than her wits and a sonic screwdriver. The fights for balance in…
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