Former ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner Russell T. Davies is confident Jodie Whittaker is going to be a great success as the first woman in the role because he keeps meeting fans who are thrilled about the change.
Russell was responsible for bringing the sci-fi series back to BBC One in 2005 after 16 years off air and he resided over the programme’s most popular period when David Tennant portrayed the Tenth Doctor opposite companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).
His replacement Steven Moffat is now handing over the reins to new boss Chris Chibnall and the ‘Broadchurch’ creator has made history by casting Jodie, 35, as the Thirteenth Doctor.
Although there have been some reservations about a Time Lady taking control of the TARDIS, 54-year-old Russell is sure the change will take the programme in an exciting and completely new direction.
In an interview with dedicated Whovian Frank Skinner – who starred as the character Perkins in the 2014 episode ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’ opposite Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi – for his Absolute Radio podcast, he said: "It’s so exciting! I am on a book tour for this ‘Doctor Who’ book, so the other night there were 200 fans with no doubts about it. I am really tired of the objections. It’s outrageous to me, you meet these fans and they are very very happy that this is happening. Maybe 10 people online with different aliases are spouting saying you’ve ruining the programme and it’s all that gets reported."
Russell – who has just released a poetry book with James Goss inspired by ‘Doctor Who’ entitled ‘Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse’ – also opened up on how he feels about the folk lore and continuity he established in the series during his tenure from 2005 until 2010 being altered by Moffat.
The Welsh screenwriter insists he likes everything that his successor did in the Whoniverse and he accepts that each new boss will have their own ideas, even though he was slightly surprised that the events of the Time War and his finale ‘The End of Time’ were changed so much in the 50th anniversary special of ‘The Day of the Doctor’.
Russell said: "When you leave ‘Doctor Who’, you have to take a deep breath and think it’s all up for grabs now, it’s all there to be rewritten … It was interesting, I love that episode. It wasn’t so much the Time Lords disappearing, it was all the Daleks shooting themselves. It was like, ‘Couldn’t any of them missed that?’ "
Jodie will make her first appearance in the 2017 Christmas special when Capaldi’s Doctor regenerates.
Russell T. Davies excited for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Who debut
