Oh my Cthulhu! What is the world coming to? A major, august and venerable sci-fi series get a lead that *gasp* does not carry a y-chromosome? (I initially wanted to say something else, but went for the familiy-friendly option).

Jodie Whittaker is the 13th Doctor!

OK, I am a day late to the party, not having had a proper internet connection for the past three days but this also gives me the opportunity to add my two thoughts after reading some (a lot) of the comments around the web  and also after grabbing the headline in The Guardian, concerning the fact that two, lets say less reputable print-products, had nothing better to do then releasing pictures of Jodie Whittaker in the nude, and thus proving again, how primitive their respective audiences are.

Alas, they are not the only ones focusing on the fact the next Doctor will be portraied by an actress, not an actor and being highly sexist about it.

Oh, it’s the death of the franchise… (well, it wasn’t with Star Trek and Captain Janeway).

How can you change a male lead into a female one… (it worked with Starbuck in the Galactica reboot, rather splendidly, I must say)

And so on and so forth…

It all comes down to this: There are still a lot of sci-fi fans out there who have not caught on to the fact that sci-fi is no longer a 90% male hobby and fandom. The times have changed and are changing still. This is not a white male only club, get used to it!

We had female leads in Star Wars since the beginning (Carrie Fisher, always and forever in our hearts) and Star Trek had the first female and African-American lead, and this was 50 years ago! Star Wars was released 40 years ago and both Uhura and Leia have been pillars of the fandom and both their characters and actresses have become legends! Stop whining as soon as a female shows up to take a place in the spotlight! It is not a new thing and you are not being overrun, OK? This world is a diverse place, this fandom is a diverse place, the series which spawned the fandom can be as diverse as the fandom!

Personally, I think Jodie Whittaker is an excellent choice, I loved her in Attack the Block, the movie that also saw the first major role of a certain John Boyega…

Which leads to a personal wish of mine: Finn (a.k.a. FN-2187) has to make a cameo appearance in Doctor Who! Well… Just a dream…

I am really looking foreward to seeing her in action as the 13th Doctor!

Images © BBC, my own screenshots, fair use