Doctor Who News Update

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So, we have a new Doctor.  In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, well firstly congratulations on choosing such a fine place to try and wait this whole year out but secondly let me introduce you to Jodie Whittaker, the woman who be the Doctor.  If you’ve been under that rock for more than a year and have no idea what Doctor Who is let me just congratulate you on bravely clicking this link regardless of your own ignorance, have some knowledge.  

Doctor Who is a British sci-fi TV show from the ‘60s that persisted through into the late ‘80s before going on a 10-year hiatus and re-emerging in 2005.  Since then, the show has slowly increased in popularity, peaking around 2012-2013 during the show’s 50^th anniversary/height of the 2010s’ British Cultural Invasion.  

The premise of the show is about a time-traveling alien named the Doctor who meanders through time and space with some human companions having various adventures.  The show’s cleverest wrinkle has always been that the Doctor will, at times of extreme injury, regenerate into a new person, which is used as an excuse to swap lead actors.  Jodie Whittaker is the 13^th such actor to take up the role and first woman to play the character yet and she’s bringing some interesting changes to the show with her. 

So to understand where Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor might be going we have to get into where she came from and that means discussing the series new showrunner Chris Chibnall.  The role of “showrunner” means that Chibnall will be acting as lead writer for the series as well as producer, replacing Steven Moffat who had previously shepherded the show to its greatest popularity under Matt Smith and seen a sharp decline in that popularity during the Peter Capaldi era.  

I don’t want to turn this into too much of an anti-Moffat rant so let’s just say he’s a divisive figure in the fan base and overall it’s probably past time for a change just on the basis of the show needing a new style of storytelling.  Regardless of how you feel about Moffat’s style of writing and season-long arcs he’s been on the show for 7 years now- anyone would start to get burnt out after that long. 

This is Chris Chibnall

Chris Chibnall’s most prominent work in the UK was on the mystery series Broadchurch, which is where he first worked with Jodie Whittaker as well as David Tennant, 10^th Doctor and the actor who helped put the modern incarnation of Doctor Who on the map.  Broadchurch is very popular in the UK but has never really migrated to the US in similar terms despite an attempt at Americanizing it in 2014 under the name Gracepoint.  Chibnall has also written a number of Doctor Who episodes as well as for the spin-off series Torchwood. 

He’s written for 3 different Doctors of the modern series including a respectable monster episode of the Tennant years called ’42,’ the enjoyable Matt Smith adventure ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship,’ and the fascinating if flawed Capaldi season premiere ‘Magicians Apprentice.’  What I like here is that each of those credits is fairly different and unique, showing a real mastery of a lot of different tones and styles.  Also, he wrote Torchwood episodes about an English countryside hotel full of cannibals and the infamous “Cyberwoman vs. Dinosaur” episode so that has to count for something.   

In addition to Whittaker, Chibnall is also bringing in a trio of new supporting characters with Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole.  The three will be playing Graham, Yasmin, and Ryan though we don’t know much of anything about their characters yet.  The rumor mill has suggested Walsh will be the central companion of the trilogy but so far nothing’s been confirmed.  This new trio, along with Whittaker, feels a lot like the show throwing down its gauntlet in terms of trying to keep up with the times. 

Doctor Who has always been an odd show to grab the national consciousness outside of Britain but I think a big part of the series success in America was tied to the rise of social media fandom and Tumblr in particular.   In recent years I feel like that particular corner of fan culture has tapered off to a degree so I get Doctor Who wanting to do something beyond twee-ness to keep itself on everybody’s mind and if that means emphasizing diversity I’m all for it.  I mean, this will be the first time since 2006 the new series will have a reoccurring black male character- that’s over 10 years, that’s just ridiculous. 

Which ultimately brings us back around to Jodie Whittaker herself and her recently revealed new costume.  She’s most well known for her work on Broadchurch though I suspect most American viewers like myself might only really know her from Attack the Block.  Still, she’s got a fair number of shows under her belt and has proven herself a solid dramatic actor and done a bit of comedy as well.  

Honestly, there’s never been a bad actor in the role of the Doctor yet so I’m not particularly worried on that front.  I also actually really like her recently revealed costume, despite the bizarre pushback it’s gotten from fans.  It’s admittedly dopey but nowhere near as dopey as Sylvester McCoy’s question mark vest or the melted crayon box of a coat Colin Baker was sporting.  Hell, it’s not even as goofy as Matt Smith’s fez/bow tie/Stetson combo of ultimate wackiness. 

Honestly, it reminds me a lot of Tom Baker’s costume- mostly straightforward and practical with a hint of goofiness in 1 key-defining feature, just swap giant scarf for suspenders.  Incidentally, I’m about 90% certain that’s what the rainbow pattern on her shirt actually is- the color pattern off Tom Baker’s scarf.  

I don’t want to come off to “grumpy old man” about this but I do wonder if part of the backlash is because modern series fans are a bit too used to the more stripped down and basic costumes of the modern series.  I mean, the modern series costumes have been: a leather jacket, a suit, a suit, a slightly nicer suit, and black sweats: compared to that lineup rainbow suspenders and a futuristic jacket would probably seem like a radical departure. 

Overall I’d say I’m pretty hopeful for this new era in Doctor Who and that all noises are good but maybe not permanent.  As I just mentioned, Doctor Who in the modern era is a show that’s been on the air for over 10 years at this point.  That’s a sizeable length for any TV series and frankly mammoth for the modern age of television, especially for a show so committed to telling a new story each season instead of a single long-form arc.  I think there’s a temptation to think the new show will last as long as the original but that really ignores the shoestring budget of the original and the way in which TV was produced in the past.  

These days, trends move so fast and immediate viewer gratification has become so important it’s starting to seem like Doctor Who might be a show that’s outlived its moment, especially after the failure of last year’s Class spin-off series.  Time will tell if Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall will be enough of a shot in the arm to bring the series back for the 2020s or if this is one series whose time is finally up.   

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