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The new Doctor reacts to her gender shift


Doctor Who broke casting barriers last month when it announced that the role of the Time Lord will be going to a woman, actress Jodie Whittaker. How will The Doctor react to being a woman? And how will others react to her?


YouTuber OnlyLeigh—who collaborates with famed YouTube series How It Should Have Ended—answers these questions in her video, “New New New New Doctor.” Here we see the Doctor navigate her new state, starting with her disappointment over the color of her hair. (“I’m still not ginger!”)

Doctor Thirteen gets input from Missy, a Dalek, and her former companion Bill. The response from Missy and the Dalek are as funny you’d expect. But it’s Bill who brings the drop-dead hilarity. This video is a must-watch for fans of the ever-evolving 54-year-old BBC show.

While you’re at it, check out OnlyLeigh’s other videos, which include A Stranger Things Christmas and Gravity (Done in 60 Seconds).

Via Scify.com

Jenna Coleman has been asked to return for the Doctor Who Christmas special

RadioTimes.com understands that the former companion has been given the option to make a comeback this December

Ever since it was announced that Pearl Mackie and Mark Gatiss were returning to Doctor Who for Peter Capaldi’s final episode this Christmas, many fans have wondered if we’ll be seeing other familiar faces join the Twelfth Doctor for his last journey.

Most specifically, Whovians have mused about whether Capaldi’s former companion Jenna Coleman could be making an appearance, with rumours swirling for months that the Clara Oswald star could be popping into the series for a last goodbye.

Well now it looks like there is a chance her character could make a comeback.

RadioTimes.com understands that Coleman has been asked to appear in the festive special, and while there’s no official word on whether she has taken up the offer there’s certainly a decent possibility that she’d be up for one last Yuletide adventure.

After all, the appearance wouldn’t necessarily have to be a long one – her predecessor as companion, Karen Gillan, came back for a one-line cameo in Matt Smith’s last story as the Doctor in 2013, so perhaps Coleman could have a similarly brief role. And given her character’s importance to Capaldi’s years on the show, it would be a fitting send-off for the Twelfth Doctor.

On the other hand, there’s her commitment to ITV’s Victoria, which will also air a special on Christmas Day after a full series begins this autumn. While an appearance in both shows is eminently possible, it might be that Coleman will choose not to compete with a series in which she plays the lead role.

As usual, only time (and relative dimension in space) will tell.

Via Radio Times

Jodie Whittaker wanted to say sorry to Phoebe Waller-Bridge for those Doctor Who rumours

While the vast majority of the world failed to predict that Doctor Who’s next lead Time Lord would be Jodie Whittaker, a fair few people did get one thing right about Peter Capaldi’s successor – they were pretty sure it was going to be a woman, with Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the frame for weeks as bookies’ odds shortened.

Now, of course, we know that Waller-Bridge wasn’t destined to be the Thirteenth Doctor after all, and Whittaker has revealed that she felt awful about all the media attention that followed her.

“It was just amazing that Phoebe Waller-Bridge had all that and she dealt with it all so amazingly and gracefully,” Whittaker told Dermot O’Leary on BBC Radio 2.

“And at no point could I just text her and go, ‘I’m so sorry’ – because I was under the radar the entire time until the last few days.”

As Whittaker explained, she didn’t even tell close family members about the role – which must have led to some awkward dinner table conversations later on…

“I told my husband, that doesn’t count does it, and I told my Mum,” Whittaker recalled. “And then my Dad was FURIOUS!

“It was a full military operation, I basically whispered for three months. It was getting really tedious that even in my own kitchen I was still talking like that. If the window was open I’d get like, ‘what have I said, what have I said?!'”

Oh well – now that the veil has lifted, we’re sure Whittaker can square things with Han Solo star Waller-Bridge and swap sci-fi tips.

Via Radio Times by Huw Fullerton

Matt Smith sang Doctor Who theme for Jodie Whittaker on voicemail

Matt Smith has revealed that he sang the Doctor Who theme tune to Jodie Whittaker in a voicemail message before she was announced as the new Time Lord.

Smith, who played the 11th Doctor in the BBC series from 2010 until 2013, has also said he knew that Whittaker would be playing the 13th iteration of the character just three days before it was announced.

In a video posted on Twitter from a panel at Boston Comic Con, Smith said: “When I found out about Jodie, I rang her, and she didn’t pick up the phone.

“It was before the announcement so I just left a message, going do-do-do-do…”

Smith sang part of the Doctor Who soundtrack for the audience, before adding: “And I just did the whole song so she must have been going, ‘What the hell is going on?’. I said, ‘it’s Matt – call me.'”

He said he can relate to the pressure that Whittaker might be under following the announcement last month.

Smith said: “I remember that feeling of being, I don’t know, judged before you’d done anything.

“And only in the world of Doctor Who does that happen. Once you’re part of the family, you’re in, but then it’s like you’re an alien.”

Smith said that people would shout at him to not “break” Doctor Who, adding that in England there is a “a lot of hysteria that surrounds” the announcement of a new Doctor.

“It makes like the Six O’Clock News, and all the big news shows. It’s a very strange feeling.”

He said he discovered that Whittaker would be the new Doctor “only three days before” after asking BBC insiders for the information.

“I was like, ‘you have to tell me, who is it, I have a right to know!’ It’s essentially me.”

Broadchurch star Whittaker, who is taking over from Peter Capaldi, is the first woman to be taking on the role of the Doctor.

Via York Press

Victor Pemberton – Doctor Who writer and inventor of the sonic screwdriver has died aged 85

Pemberton was one of a select few to have written for and appeared in Doctor Who.

In 1967, he appeared in Patrick Troughton story 'The Moonbase' as the scientist Jules Faure, who ended up being converted into a Cyberman.

Shortly afterward, Pemberton was hired as assistant to Doctor Who's story editor Peter Bryant, script-editing classic serial, 'The Tomb of the Cybermen'.

He was responsible for writing one of the story's most famous scenes, in which the Doctor (Troughton) comforts his companion Victoria (Deborah Watling).

Pemberton would later return to the series as a freelancer writer, scripting the 1968 story, 'Fury from the Deep'.

Now lost save for a few film clips and audio recordings, 'Fury' is famous for Pemberton's invention of the sonic screwdriver, with the gadget remaining a part of Doctor Who to this day.


Outside of Doctor Who, Pemberton wrote for such series as Timeslip in 1971 and Ace of Wands in 1972. He returned to Who in 1976 to pen the audio adventure Doctor Who and the Pescatons, starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.

Pemberton grew up in Islington, London, and lived for many years in Essex. In later life, he lived in Spain, where he wrote a number of novels.

His life partner was the British actor, producer and writer David Spenser, who himself died in 2013.

Via Digital Spy by Morgan Jeffery