Doctor Who season 11: Jodie Whittaker’s philosophy on the role

Just how big is Jodie Whittaker’s role as The Doctor on Doctor Who season 11? Well, her name is turning up in publications that you would not regularly associate with the science-fiction institution. One of the biggest ones is Rolling Stone, as this week they published a piece about her as one of the 10 Women You Need to Know.

Obviously, the headlines are already out there all over the world of her as the first female Doctor. It’s a tremendous achievement, and one that obviously has generated a great deal of discussion. Yet, her philosophy on playing the role itself is one that is rather separate from her gender — though she tells the magazine the significance of the achievement is not lost on her:

“A moment like this of being the first woman cast as something … It makes you really think about your sex, whereas actually what you want to do is play a part where your gender is irrelevant. I am a woman, so I don’t need to play that. And so for me, this was the most freeing experience because there’s no right or wrong way to do it. The rules went out the window.'”

Also, what makes her playing The Doctor all the more interesting is that her gender really doesn’t play much of a role in the proceedings at all. It’s a genderless character, an alien with multiple hearts that is mostly concerned with saving the universe. We don’t think that The Doctor is prioritizing anything pertaining to gender in the slightest. Anyone who may think that may just be doing so as a matter of projection as to what they like about the character/what they hate about a preconceived notion that they have in their head. Without seeing the show itself, there is no real way to criticize the casting one way or another. If the series does falter, we have a hard time thinking that it is going to have anything to do with Jodie being a woman in the slightest. There are so many other things that can happen, good and bad, for a television series beyond the casting of one character.

When is filming kicking off?

If you did not hear, it looks as though we could see production starting in early 2018 with the premiere expected to come later on in the fall on the BBC. It’s certainly possible that the network could split the season with the 2018 Christmas Special in between, but at the moment that’s just mere speculation. The network tends to be rather secretive on their plans for the majority of the time they are in development. A little bit later on down the road, you will start to see them unveil what they’ve really got planned.

While you wait for more news…

Why not check out some of what’s already out there already? One great source to check out is the link here, given that it’s where you can see some of our first discussion regarding the new Companion for the season. (Photo: BBC.)