She's on her third season and since the previous two Doctors had three season contracts, it stands to reason hers is to. To say nothing of the "standard three seasons" for a Doctor is an idea that has been around since the classic era dating back to Patrick Troughton. Indeed, an interpretation of this was used as justification for dropping Colin Baker. There are very legitimate reasons to believe this is Whittaker's final season which have nothing to do with sexism and everything to do with established precedent.
Actually the "standard three seasons" dates to Peter Davison, who did three because, as he said, Pat advised him to just do three. Then the BBC used that to ditch Colin, and the show ended after McCoy's third (he was staying for a fourth) and that was the "standard" set.
They used the tardis and traveled forward 12 months to see the shows viewing figures. It was was a Joke....a joke! lol
Hasn't Davison also said if that they'd had more stories like some of the ones in his second and third seasons he'd have stayed and that he made the decision to leave after 3 cos of stories like time flight? An in some of the post Companion Chronicles interviews Fraser Hines had said that Troughton had family pressure to move after 3 years. Talk about wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.
It needs to be pointed out the modern era has conformed to the "precedent" by chance, though. Moffat almost talked Tennant into doing a fourth series, and Chibnall thought he had Capaldi for a fourth series right up until he didn't. Smith, on the other hand, left as soon as he could; as cool as I think his idea for a 2014 season with him and Tennant would have been, I wonder if he was entirely serious in pitching that idea to Moffat. Yeah. I don't understand all of the details, but Davison had to make the decision really early on, with a lot of stories still ahead of him. When he found he was enjoying the work more and the stories were better he had second thoughts, but by then it was already far too late. Well, it wasn't, but JNT would have had to be a different person, and the BBC would have had to pay Colin Baker not to appear. It was just easier to let Davison go and bring Colin Baker on board than change plans and retain Davison. The filming schedule in the 60s was grueling, and Tat Wood describes the filming in 1969 in About Time 2 as something Troughton, Hines, and Padbury endured to fill the week between their weekend partying and carousing. So it was probably some of both -- the filming took a toll, and there were issues at home as a consequence of Doctor Who.
Considering the durations of Jon Pertwee (five seasons), Tom Baker (seven seasons), and Colin Baker (two seasons), I'd say that there's no such thing as a "standard" from the classic era.
The story as I remember it, Peter Davison decided three seasons was enough for him based on the fact Troughton only did three, with Troughton being the first Doctor to leave the role voluntarily. Then Michael Grade tried twisting this "Standard" as a means of firing Colin Baker by claiming he had in fact done three seasons, since The Twin Dilemma was in fact part of season 21. Regardless, if you look at all twelve of the previous Doctors, then only three (Pertwee, T Baker and Tennant) stayed longer than three years, meaning my point still stands that thinking there's a possibility Whittaker could be leaving now that she's in her third season not sexist and is in fact in line with her predecessors, given only 1/4 stayed longer than three years.
I had though that Pertwee only did 3 years but looking at wiki this morning he's credited as 4 going Jan 70 through till June 74.
It also varies as to whether you count seasons or calendar years. (Colin did three calendar years, but only two seasons. Jon did four calendar, five seasons. Then You've got the anomaly in the other direction of Sylv doing three seasons and a movie over 9 calendar years...)
I disagree. However, even if I bought into the concept of "precedent", the application of said precedent feels different now because of the toxicity that has permeated the fandom since Jodie's debut.
The Mirror are now saying Jodie will do a couple of specials in 2022 with the 14th Doctor arriving in 2023. Does seem a trifle shitty that she isn't on the cover of the annual. Taking it with a large pinch of salt I guess that makes a certain amount of sense, a new Doctor for the 60th anniversary. Or it could be misdirection given there's also been rumours of a mid season regeneration. (Fast forward to 2027 and we're still arguing about when Jodie's leaving ) Jodie going and Chibnall staying is not remotely my preference of course.
Nor mine, but have the Beeb even come close to identifying a new showrunner? It's pretty much a poison pill among those who actually care about the show and its history. Maybe we could harness the imagination of a young child, like the Dalek battle computer, linking it to a database of the show's history?
Loath though I am to believe a tabloid, I can actually see some logic here. If reports from a month or so back that this season will consist of eight episodes plus New Year's special, that means there will be two less episodes than usual. With two additional specials throughout 2022, that could get Whittaker to the episode count she was originally contracted for and then as you say, they can kick off the 60th anniversary with a new Doctor.
I'd rather they kick off the 60th anniversary with the regeneration, that way Jodie can still be a part of it. Even if it's just a regeneration special told on New Year's Day. I hope to get some multi-Doctor action in the anniversary year. I love multi-Doctor stories, and while I understand that they don't want to make such a thing seem commonplace (I realize that, technically, we've gotten two in the last three seasons, however I'm talking about former Doctor actors returning, not recast as David Bradley was or an unknown Doctor as "Ruth" was), I'd rather see more multi-Doctor action than yet another tired excuse to bring back the Daleks again and again and again.
So If I'm following this correctly we'll have had one eight episode season and three specials between March 2020 and November 2023. Gotta love that work ethic.
BBC budgetary reasons as usual. I'm gonna keep saying this even though a lot of you disagree. Sell the show to someone with more money. Sell it to someone who will milk it. Give us a Doctor Who movie, spin off series such as the 8th Doctor, 1st Doctor when he was younger, Madame Vastra etc
BBC did want a young First Doctor series, specifically a series about him and the Master at the Time Lord Academy. When they made the request of RTD, his reaction was "oh hell no!" and pitched SJA instead. Personally, I'm happy with how things turned out in that regard.