Good news: Doctor Who cast its first female Doctor to replace Peter Capaldi. Bad news: We’re probably going to have to wait quite a while to see her in action.
Doctor Who recently made television history by casting Jodie Whittaker as the next Doctor in the long-running sci-fi series. She’ll replace outgoing Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi, and is the first woman to ever take on the role of the famous Time Lord. It’s kind of a big deal. And Whovians the world over are rightfully excited to see what she’ll do in the part. The only problem? We might have to wait a while to see her in action properly.
Whittaker will make her official debut during upcoming Christmas special, “Twice Upon a Time.” But though it’s very exciting, we probably won’t see much of Thirteen there beyond a moment or two. Maybe we’ll hear a couple of lines if we’re lucky. But to really get a sense of her Doctor, we’ll have to wait we get a proper full season with Thirteen.
Unfortunately, it looks like that’s probably going to take a bit longer than we hoped. Because it looks as though season 11 won’t hit our screens until fall of 2018.
This news comes from a recent Doctor Who Magazine interview with outgoing showrunner Steven Moffat. In it, he spoke in some detail about his time running the iconic sci-fi series. He also dropped a few also dropped a few tidbits about the transition between his show and Chibnall’s version. And Moffat specifically mentions that he consciously stuck with Who through season 10 to make sure that Chibnall could take the show over later without a huge gap in between.
“The alternative might have been to have had no Doctor Who at all between Christmas 2015 and the autumn of 2018,” Moffat explained. Which, to be honest, sounds incredibly dreadful. It’s also pretty much close-to-official confirmation that fall 2018 is when we should expect to see more Who.
Most of the reason for this appears to be scheduling and set-up. Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall will be taking over Doctor Who next year. And he’ll not only be bringing along a new Doctor in Whittaker, but a new companion too. (Pearl Mackie confirmed she’s not returning for season 11 at San Diego Comic-Con.) Plus, new writers and other behind-the-scenes types. Turning over the production team behind a show like Doctor Who can’t be easy.
So the wait is understandable, if less than ideal. It’s not even that weird. (Capaldi’s first season aired in the fall of 2014, too.) We’re all just really looking forward to Whittaker’s debut, is the thing. A lot. So it makes waiting harder. Even when we have to.
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