Exactly. You know what else it's time to show that the Time Lords, and specifically the Doctor, aren't obsessed with or hung up on? Race. Great, we've got another lily white Doctor. They could've killed two birds with one stone and made the Doctor a female of color, but nope. Safe and white. Maybe next time. They also need to ditch the "British alien" aspect of the show and start giving us Doctors played by actors from other countries who speak with their native accents. It's fucking ridiculous that an alien from a race of people who can "be anyone" has only been white, British people. Time for the Doctor to be played by Pakistani, Australian, American, Russian, Nigerian, Chinese, Indian, French, Native American, etc, etc actors of both genders, speaking in their native accents and have that Doctor show a respect and love for those cultures as he has for British culture. Currently the Doctor goes on and on about the wonders of all kinds of space cultures, but ignores the wonders and vast diversity of cultures here on Earth. It's long past time for the Doctor to be a truly global character, portrayed by actors who represent ALL races and nationalities, not just white Britons.
There is nothing, anywhere, that says the Doctor has to have a British or UK accent or be all in love with British culture. All he needs to be is a shapeshifting alien in a box with a sonic screwdriver resolving conflicts in time and space. Frankly they should've just rebooted the show and started with a non white, non British, female actress in order to show that this new Doctor could indeed "be anyone". And yes, I'm dead serious. I have no time for "I want change.....but no further than this". Be truly bold or fuck off.
On the upside, it's good to see Jodie Whitaker who played Peggy Bell from Return To Cranford again. There she played a woman who's love interest was Tom Hiddleston. I still think of him as "the guy from Return To Cranford" since that was my first exposure to him. My first thought upon seeing 13's reveal was "Hey, it's the lady from Return to Cranford"! The sappy romantic in me loves this vid, but sadly, it's also a reminder of how repressed women were in this time.
I enjoyed her there and will most likely enjoy her as the Doctor. She's not some noob actress, so I don't know why they're "introducing" her to us as the Doctor. Is this a British thing? Because here in the states, you only get that for your first screen role, after that, it's just your name and character in the credits. It wasn't "Introducing Henry Cavil as Superman", because it wasn't his first screen role.
To Starsuperion: correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm guessing you support equal rights for women, equal pay for women, and have zero problem with strong female protagonists in leading roles. I'm guessing your objection to the casting of a female Doctor is due to the 50 year real world history of the Doctor being male, in addition to the in-universe 2000 year old Doctor having always been a male. On Classic Who the Time Lords seemed to have genders and if you were male, you regenerated into a male (ala The Doctor and Master) and if you were female you regenerated into a female (ala Romana). I'm also going to assume that you'd be upset, but less so, if the female replacing the Doctor had been another female Time Lord, say his daughter, Susan, Romana or a new character? Because it would've been easy to do that. "The Doctor" is a title. Nothing more. There is nothing, nothing at all anywhere, that says "The Doctor" has to be the same being we've been watching for the past 50 years.
So if you answered "yes" to all of those, and I'm guessing you did, then no, you're not a "sexist" in the way some here are trying to portray you. There's a difference between thinking women don't deserve equal rights, or lesser pay for the same job, or are just all out inferior to men and thinking "Hey, I kinda like the old way this t.v. show did things." One is a way of life that ultimately deprives others of their rights, the other one a trivial preference about a pretend person on tv. Part of the problem was using the "SJW" label. Once you use that, well people's brains shut off and they go into defensive mode. And in the case of some people, for good reason.
Some people take that insult personally because they're out in the world, giving their time at homeless shelters, women's shelters, helping Big Brother / Big Sister programs, drug rehab programs, or working tirelessly to get legislation passed or politicians elected who can bring about the sort of changes they believe will make things better for the wide variety of groups that don't enjoy the same privileges of society that others enjoy. And they don't like that passion or hard work being trivialized, or their motives questioned. That's understandable. But those are not the people for whom the term was invented. The term was invented for a specific group of people. The ones who do nothing about the injustices in the world but talk and berate others. Who are all talk and no action. I've seen the religious version of these folks too many times in my life and I have no kind words for that group as they do nothing more than hamper the efforts of those out in the trenches doing the actual work of changing the world. Having been here for a long time and being familiar with many of the posters who were giving you shit, I know them to be a passionate group who are actually getting out and changing the world, instead of just being some slob typing about it on the internet, so it's understandable that they'd react so strongly.
I'm sure you'll disagree with me that the Doctor should be portrayed by all nationalities and both genders, but I won't castigate you for preferring a more traditional approach to a fictional character.
It's just a t.v. show after all.
