The Thirteenth Doctor is here. The Doctor on the long running TV Show Doctor Who, regenerated into a woman. It is the first time in the shows 54 year run that the lead was cast a woman. The casting reveal, which was announced by the BBC earlier this year, had a lot of intense reactions. Some of it extremely positive, some of it extremely negative. Whovians [Doctor Who Fans] are very passionate and tempers and excitement both flared at news that Jodie Whittaker was cast as the 13th Doctor. But we aren’t here to talk about the negative. I’m here to talk to you guys about some positive reactions. Reactions from some of Doctor Who’s youngest fans. And before we get to that, I wanted to take a moment talk about what led me here. I, myself, was one of those the people who feared change. I was very reluctant about the idea of a female Doctor. I can’t pinpoint the reasons. I’m not sure I really understand my reluctance. Perhaps except that the idea of change is hard. I love Doctor Who and change worries me. I loved the dynamic of this hero coming around a whisking young companions away on adventures. Anywhere and everywhere in time and space. The idea of this man who just shows up in his blue box and just shows you everything you didn’t know you were missing was so appealing to me. I romanticized the idea so much that I didn’t think a female Doctor would have the same feeling of wonder for me. But I was wrong. Once I saw Jodie Whittaker announced in the reveal announcement all of that fear just melted away. When I saw her I thought “There she is”. I found myself in awe. A woman like so many had speculated. Now that she was actually here, I wasn’t even freaking out. I wasn’t annoyed by it like I thought I would be. I was excited. She was her own hero. The Doctor is not a man or woman. The Doctor is an idea. The idea of a hero who flies around in his time machine saving the universe, spreading good, a hero with no weapon, flawed and far from perfect, but someone who is ultimately good and kind. And that hero could be anyone. Male of female. Old or young. A hero with so much heart that they need two hearts. Now that hero looked a little more like me. Might even have some of the same experiences as me. I was filled with excitement. Apparently a female Doctor was something I didn’t even know I needed. A few days later my teenage son said to me, “I can’t wait for the 13th Doctor”. This was surprising as he had stated many times that he had outgrown his love for Doctor Who. I asked him why and he said “A girl Doctor sounds so cool, what will she be like? What will she do?”. If my boy was this excited and curious about the Doctor being a girl, I wondered what young girls thought about it. What it meant to them. I began to pour through reaction videos. Seeing how young girls reacted was so rewarding. The look of excitement on their faces made you realize that they have been needing this too. And in some cases even waiting for it. I decided to ask some of my friends to send me their daughter’s thoughts on it. Their daughters are all Doctor Who cosplayers who really care about and understand the show. What I found most interesting in their thoughts was that while I had been reluctant to the idea of a female Doctor, they had been waiting for it. They realized it was possible when the fresh new 11th Doctor touched his hair and mistakenly exclaimed “I’m a girl?!” They had excitement over the possibility that they might get a girl Doctor when they learned that The Master regenerated into Missy.
And so there you have it. Young fans ready to embrace this new Doctor with open arms. Childlike excitement and faith in the show they love.
What do you think about the new Doctor being cast as a woman? Let us know in the comments below!
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