There’s finally a female Doctor in Doctor Who! Here are some things we want to see now that Thirteen is going to grace our screens.
Doctor Who finally has a woman playing the leading role! Although we’ll miss seeing Peter Capaldi play the Doctor, we’re ecstatic about Jodie Whittaker taking over. The first glimpse we got of her in the trailer points to an amazing new era of Doctor Who that’s full of changes, especially since showrunner Steven Moffat is being replaced by Chris Chibnall.
A female Doctor shouldn’t be too different from the Doctor’s iterations in the past — after all, they’re all the same character — but there are a few things we really hope we’ll get to see during Thirteen’s time in the show:
The Doctor being a Scientist
The Doctor may be an adventurer and occasional comedian, but he’s ultimately a scientist, using his intelligence to come up with solutions to seemingly impossible problems. While the Doctor is an unusual character, this trait of his has never really been unique to Doctor Who — his vibrant intellect can be seen in many different male characters in television. He has always been something of a mad-scientist-slash-James-Bond-like character; characteristics that have never overlapped in a woman before.
But with a female Doctor, what was once a common trait becomes a truly unique one. It’s not very often that we get to see a gifted female scientist travel the universe and use her knowledge to save people with the same confidence, efficiency and quirkiness that the Doctor has.
But beyond being incredibly entertaining and awe-inspiring, Thirteen will be a much-needed role model for girls around the world. How many generations of women will be inspired to go into tech and science-related careers because of the Doctor?
Big Speeches
The Doctor is known, of course, for Big Speeches, and Thirteen should be no different. Moments like “Everybody Lives!”, “I believe in her,” and “I. AM. TALKING!” where the Doctor singlehandedly faces a threat and vanquishes it with all his glorious confidence, become the most memorable ones in the show. They’re the moments that renew our faith in humanity, because the Doctor has faith in us. They make us feel fiercely protective of humankind and of Earth, because the Doctor is.
It’s not often that we get to see female characters deliver big speeches on screen, much less a character as powerful as the Doctor. Confidence, assertiveness and protectiveness seem to be mostly reserved to male characters in shows, for some reason. It would be amazing to see Thirteen display these qualities in the same way her predecessors did — with her own personal twist, of course.
Witty retorts to the haters
Doctor Who has always been wonderfully self-aware, especially when it comes to poking fun at what the fandom has been thinking about. And though it’s not the most accurate show when it comes to representing historical events (aliens, and all that), it’s definitely great at shaming evil characters and representing certain problems in society — such as, in Season 10, the Doctor punching a racist in 1814.
With Thirteen, there’s sure to be a lot of underestimation going on when the Doctor meets people from ancient times (or, let’s face it, even modern times.) Watching her put people in their place by proving how amazing she is, is bound to be hilarious — as will be all the times the script will subtly stick it to audience members that still don’t believe the Doctor can be a woman.
How different is Thirteen from Missy?
The Master and Missy have always been the opposite of the Doctor, which made them the perfect antagonists to his story. However, in recent episodes Missy started to become swayed by the Doctor’s way of looking at life — and paid the ultimate price for it.
But if Missy became more like the Doctor, will the Doctor become more like Missy? Although it seems that she won’t be returning to the show, given her death in the finale, it’s certainly not out of the question. It would be interesting to see two female characters of such strength share the screen, either as enemies or as friends, and to see how this new Doctor evolves to be different yet also similar to Missy, as the Doctor and the Master always have been.
The outfit
Not to be superficial, but the Doctor’s outfit is an important part of the show. From ridiculously long scarves and celeries on lapels, to bowties and sunglasses, each outfit is a statement on its own. But whether the Doctor goes for a suit again or not, the outfit will certainly have interesting twists to it. On the one hand, it might be cool for her to go for a skirt or a dress, much like Missy did, but on the other, the Doctor has never really held himself to gender roles, so why should she now?
No matter what Thirteen decides to wear, her new outfit will definitely give us many options for cosplay. Farewell to the same old genderbent Doctor costumes! Now some fans will be bending a female character to a male one, instead of vice versa, and it’ll be exciting to see that diversity in conventions and events all around the world.
A male companion
We haven’t had a man play the main companion to the Doctor since 1984. If the reason for that was that there would be a gender imbalance on screen, and they wanted to involve more female characters, then a female Doctor makes this the perfect moment to introduce a male companion. Whether it’s bringing back characters like Captain Jack (seriously, is that ever going to happen?!) or Nardole, it would be great to see a man take on the wide-eyed role and interact with the new Doctor, subverting the usual dynamic we see on the show.
(And can we finally have an alien companion, or a companion from the past, please? Modern-day humans do get a little boring after 12 years.)
Bill Potts being very happy to meet the Doctor
Speaking of companions, Bill Potts hasn’t been entirely ruled out as an option for Season 11. Whether it’s to return for the whole season, or only for an episode or two, it would be great to see how Bill reacts to a female Doctor, especially since in the finale she hinted at her hopes that the Doctor would regenerate into a woman.
Since Bill clearly is in a relationship of some sort at the moment, it’s unlikely that she would return as a love interest, but Bill is awesome and we would love to see her share the screen with the new Doctor and team up with her for a few more adventures.
Meeting River Song again
River Song is the Doctor’s wife, and although her return to the show would raise even more continuity issues, Doctor Who hasn’t exactly done a good job of that as of late anyway. It’s not entirely impossible that River and the Doctor could meet again somewhere, for some reason. Alex Kingston certainly seems happy that Jodie Whittaker is on board, and would probably love to return to the show and meet Thirteen. Talk about a power couple!
Even if River herself can’t return, it’s always great to see the Doctor reminisce about previous regenerations and his companions during that time. River would certainly be one of the most interesting ones to see her reflect on.
President of the World
One of the funniest recurring plot points of the Doctor is that he’s been elected to the mysterious position of President of the World, which means that once in a while he’s called to Earth to represent the entire planet. Now that Thirteen will be here, that would be particularly awesome to see; she’s bound to be an excellent leader for the planet, and it’ll be great to see humanity rally around her in times of emergency.
And I mean… doesn’t the world need a female president?