Doctor Who: The British Obsession & Disappointing Reaction

When a new Doctor is announced in Britain, it’s a big deal. I made a passing comment to one of my US NerdSpan colleagues about how much press speculation there had been leading up to the reveal of the 13^th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), followed by a mix of positive reactions and complete outrage. He was intrigued by the apparent scale of the whole thing. That got me thinking about why Doctor Who is so mixed in with British culture that almost everyone has an opinion on it, even if they’ve not watched it for 30 years.

We should probably address something before we go too far. The Doctor will be played by a woman. Shock! Horror! Actually, I can say that Jodie Whittaker has been excellent in everything I’ve seen her in and I’m sure she will be great as the Doctor. Michelle Gomez as Missy was fantastic so I’m hopeful that Jodie Whittaker can manage something similar. We don’t know how she will play it and who the companions will be. We don’t even know the final costume as that’s not been decided yet. If you’re concerned about it, I’d urge you to give it a few episodes to see how it goes. Personally, I’m excited by it.

The announcement of “13” had been casually floated by the BBC amid a hive of press excitement. There always is when it’s time for a new Doctor. This time, the BBC had made a decent job of keeping it secret. Normally they throw in some huge names to put people off the scent. In the papers you’ll read that the new Doctor could be played by Tom Hardy, Christian Bale, some actor called David Tennant who starred as Casanova in a Russel T. Davies BBC series, or maybe Daniel Craig. This time, the actor Kris Marshal’s name had been mentioned a lot, plus some vague mutterings that perhaps it could be a woman.

The time was possibly right for a change. The question of whether a woman could play the Doctor was often asked in interviews. Russel T Davies had talked about it, thinking it was a bad idea although the (now deceased) singer Amy Winehouse would be a brilliant Doctor almost 10 years ago. Even then, you could see the way they’d throw in some strange names to put people off the scent. Steven Moffat said “you cast a person, you don’t cast the gender” in 2014. Peter Davison said “I have a slight problem with that because it’s not as if genders are interchangeable on Gallifrey” and that “it’s not as if you would have a female James Bond”. Sylvester McCoy said it would be politically correct but ruin the dynamics between the doctor and the assistant. “I’m a feminist and recognise there are still glass ceilings in place for many women, but where would we draw the line? A Mr Marple instead of Miss Marple?” he wondered. As one of the few big programmes where a male or female could play the character – as Michelle Gomez proved – it was surely time to try.

The reveal of the 13^th Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, was somewhat low key compared to the worldwide feature special to announce Peter Capaldi. Tucked away on Sunday afternoon “sometime after the Wimbledon Men’s Final finished”, which could be anywhere between 4pm and 3 days later, was going to be a reveal trailer. Luckily for Who fans, Roger Federer won in straight sets. Speeches were made, the trophy was presented, and then the trailer started…

…and then the country reacted, but more of that later. I’ll be generous and say comments were mixed.

So why is the casting of the new Doctor such a big deal in Britain?

Doctor Who started in late November 1963 on the BBC. The first episode was overshadowed by news of the assassination of JFK so the BBC repeated it just before the second episode aired. The theme tune, written by Ron Grainer and performed by Delia Derbyshire, was perfect. That eerie, whooping, howling noise with strange swirling graphics had surely come from the future. As a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (which also made most of the sound effects including the sonic screwdriver and TARDIS dematerialistion noise) Delia Derbyshire was not given a co-writing credit as she was behind the scenes staff.

The Doctor was played by William Hartnell until 1966, when ill health forced his retirement from the role. One of the producers had an idea that as an alien, perhaps the Doctor could transform. They’d have saved the future writers some effort if they’d have given him 48 regenerations, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Doctor Who led to the turn of phrase “watching from behind the sofa” or “hiding behind the sofa” as children hid from terrifying aliens such as the Daleks and Cybermen. They also came up with the Autons that looked exactly like shop mannequins that could come to life. Yes children, everyday objects can be scary too. Popularity grew and Doctor Who became a long running and hugely successful family TV series. Being on the BBC at a time when there weren’t many channels helped if cross from being Sci Fi to mainstream entertainment with the almost British eccentric Doctor saving the universe. It’s the only reason why anyone knows what a Police Box is.

There was a slight wobble when Jon Pertwee era was filmed in colour, so budget savings left him earthbound for a while, but it bounced back and continued into the 80s – the final decade of original Doctor Who on TV. Star Wars had come out and Star Trek had moved into feature films. Popular US TV started to arrive on British screens. Action adventures like The A-Team and Knight Rider ran for a few years. Even some short lived TV in the form of Manimal and Street Hawk appeared. Automan looked like Tron, and in the 80s that was pretty cool. The Doctor was starting to look a bit too dated and, for want of a better word, quaint. He had an enemy called Kandy Man – if you don’t have Basset’s Liquorice Allsorts where you live, it’s a sweet and Kandy Man was dangerously close to their “Bertie Bassett” mascot. After legal action, the BBC agreed to never use it again (lucky for us). Towards the end, the Doctor had a cool (sort of) companion in the form of Ace, but things didn’t work out and finally in 1989, Doctor Who was cancelled. There was an attempt to test the popularity in 1996 with a British, US and Canadian collaboration on a TV movie starring Paul McGann, but it didn’t catch on.

The Doctor couldn’t be key down forever and returned to the BBC in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston taking over the role. That theme tune was back. It was a big orchestra this time but it sounded as good as ever. A new generation of young viewers sat with their parents watching a much loved programme from their childhood. We were watching Doctor Who again, and it was great. Much of the Doctor quirkiness had been stripped away as he charged around in a battered leather jacket. Although later actors revived some of the quirkiness – fezzes are cool – the Doctor has to stay relevant.

The BBC is under slight pressure at the moment. There are legal/illegal loopholes but if you watch a TV in Britain you’re supposed to pay a licence fee of £147 a year. That pays for BBC TV, Radio, independent unbiased News coverage and other programming such as Doctor Who. Some programmes are sold overseas for a profit (including things like Doctor Who and Top Gear) but it’s essentially the British public funding it. To put it in context, a basic Netflix package is £72. If you Google “BBC Bias” you’ll see that a very vocal group think the BBC is too left wing. Other people think it’s too right wing. They can’t win. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky satellite broadcasting has bought most of the live sport, movies and big US imports such as Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. The BBC has gone from a broadcasting giant that could produce risky TV such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus to have constant mass appeal. If it puts a foot wrong, the papers are ready to whip up some “is this what we pay our licence for” non-story. Doctor Who had low viewing figures a few months ago. The BBC attributed it to people now streaming things on catch-up services rather than watching TV in a traditional way, but what makes the better story?

When Jodie Whittaker was announced there were many excited tweets. Sadly, not as many as I may have liked to see. Trolls, angry men and a few angry women took to the Internet too with comments about political correctness, demands to the boycott of the BBC until the Doctor was rightfully played by a man and saying it was impossible for him to change gender (*ahem*, remember Missy? Did you watch the last few series?). Soon, two of the sleaziest British gutter press outlets had posted naked photos of Jodie Whittaker from previous roles. Perhaps slightly adjusting their misogynistic balance, they also ran a story with naked pics of previous Doctors including Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith. The BBC reveal trailer is currently sitting on YouTube 10,000 thumbs up and 6000 thumbs down. I’m disappointed by that reaction. I don’t know if it’s fear of change or chauvinism, but I’d like to think that most of the down votes aren’t from Doctor Who fans and will have got their rage out before the new Doctor appears in an episode. If you accepted the excellent work from Michelle Gomez, Jodie Whittaker deserves a chance to see what she can do with the Doctor.

Related posts: