“…Doctor Who represents everything that’s exciting about change…” Jodie Whittaker.
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New head writer and executive producer Chris Chibnall who takes over from Steven Moffat on the next series made the decision to cast the first ever woman in the iconic role.
Roger Bunce
For anyone interested in the changing face of “Doctor Who”, there’s an excellent article on the subject in the “New Statesman” – amazingly well written – he says with a complete lack of bias – despite any family connections that you may suspect.
The author (in case you hadn’t guessed, is my son). When he was just 5-years-old, I took him on a tour of TV Centre. He met Tom Baker in the Green Tea Bar, and was given a jelly baby. He has never entirely recovered. I think they put something in that jelly baby!
Tony Scott
Yes -a very good and perceptive article…
Ian Hillson
Two amusing, if slightly sexist, Twitter comments about the 13th Doctor:
“Following the announcement of the new Doctor Who producers have made sure all the toilet lids are down”
and
“The new Doctor Who will now use public belittling (and some nagging) to destroy the bad guys”.
Barry Bonner, Tim Healy
But will she refer to herself as a “Time Lady”? or … “Time Dame”?
They don’t use our honours system on Gallifrey and only have Lords and Ladies! Or… perhaps she’s married to a Time Lord!
Alasdair Lawrance
Who could also be a woman, these days…..
Roger Bunce
Thinking back, I find myself wondering what “Doctor Who” would have been like, if the central character had been played by Margaret Rutherford? Brilliant! The Doctor as a dotty old lady, whose bumbling eccentricity conceals a razor sharp brain. That would have been a proper female Doctor!
John Howell, Mike Giles
…. or Maggie Smith? Or Miriam Margolyes? Another under-exposed category in this respect would be well represented by Don Warrington.
Roger Bunce
Snap! I was thinking Don Warrington would make an interesting Doctor. Or Burt Kwouk if he was still around. On the dotty old lady front, I suspect that Selina Cadell could make a good Margaret Rutherford substitute.
Bernie Newnham
I have a cliffhanger line for the end of the series –
“Nardoll, I’m pregnant!”
Nick Ware
That’s genius Bernie. Is it possible to copyright it?
Bernie Newnham
Maybe Roger could draw the cartoon and we could send it to “Private Eye”.
Roger Bunce
It should be remembered that the Doctor is hundreds of years old, and would have passed the menopause a long time ago!
Alasdair Lawrance
Ah, but since the Doctor is not yet dead, we can’t tell when a menopause might happen. It may never occur with Time Lords.
John Howell
Perhaps s/he hasn’t even reached puberty.
Roger Bunce
I was trying to justify NOT making jokes about – “Time Lady cannot save the universe today, because it’s her Time of the Month.” etc., – which would be disgracefully sexist, and I would never do such a thing.
Anyway, we don’t even know if Time Lords reproduce sexually – or how long their month is.
And, if there are Time Lords and Time Ladies, I’m going to start fighting for the rights of the Time Peasants! – “Power to the Time Pawns – our Time has come” – “Time Workers demand Time-and-a-half!” etc.
Ian Norman
Since the recent disclosure of salaries revealed a large gender pay gap:
Is the sex change of the Doctor an opportunity to reduce the salary?
By the way, in the past Romana (Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward) was referred to as a Timelord.
Richard Bignell (via Bernie Newnham)
Attached is a photograph of TC6 taken in November 1979 when there was a studio lock out during the production of the “Doctor Who” story, ‘Shada’, with the sets partially erected. Ultimately, the ongoing industrial disputes lead to the cancellation of the production after all the location filming and one of the three studio blocks had been completed.
I was wondering what the multiple panels are that can be seen hanging down from the studio ceiling? Presumably they’re not part of the normal lighting rig?
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Warwick Cross
Just wondering if you’ve spotted this in the Media Grauniad: a story that Tom Baker is to return as Doctor Who to finish lost 1979 episode ‘Shada’. At the time of the walkout, around seven hours of filming had already been done for the ‘Shada’ episode, witten by Douglas Adams, and it was intended to be the celebratory end to the 17th series of Doctor Who.
Apparently, Tom baker appears in new, live-action footage of the Doctor as an old man, to supplement animated versions of the characters and scenes which, together with the existing footage, have been pieced together using the original scripts. New visual effects have been done, using only the techniques that would have been available at the time of the original filming.
Bernie Newnham
It’s mostly animated apart from a couple of shots in the old Tardis set – don’t know here they found that. Mr Baker is eighty something now. Will they use that de-ageing software on him?
Mike Jordan
By a strange coincidence, I am in the middle of the book all about Douglas Adams and just got past the bit about the cancellation of Shada due to the strike.
I was at school with Douglas and one of his acting debuts was in Karal Capek’s “Insect Play” where he played the tramp. This is him on stage!
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The book contains many references to students and masters I knew at school. Also attached is a photo of him working at BBC later.
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Ian Hillson
“…Norton and his team went to painstaking lengths in their efforts to have the animated sequences match the live-action as closely as possible. The cast’s new dialogue was recorded by original sound man Michael McCarthy, using a boom mic to match the acoustics of the TV soundtrack…”
“…The new production is a mixture of digitally-remastered original scenes and animated segments voiced by the same actors, and features Baker both then and now. All new lines are taken from Adams’s original script…”
