Jodie Shepherd Popular Books

Jodie Shepherd Biography & Facts

The Thirteenth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She is played by Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to portray the character, in three series as well as five specials. Within the series's narrative, the Doctor is a millennia-old, alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, with somewhat unknown origins, who travels in time and space in their TARDIS, frequently with companions. At the end of life, the Doctor regenerates; as a result, the physical appearance and personality of the Doctor change. Whittaker's incarnation is a light-hearted adventurer with a passion for building things, placing a high value on friendships and striving for non-violent solutions. Preceded in regeneration by the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), she is followed by the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant). This incarnation's first companions were the trio of dyspraxic part-time warehouse worker Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole), his step-grandfather and retired bus driver Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh), and probationary police officer Yasmin "Yaz" Khan (Mandip Gill), all of whom she met shortly after her regeneration; after splitting up with the first two, she travels with Yaz and food bank volunteer Dan Lewis (John Bishop). She also had one-episode reunions with former companions Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), and Ace (Sophie Aldred). Casting In January 2016, Steven Moffat announced that he would leave the show after the tenth series; he was set to be replaced by new showrunner, Chris Chibnall. Peter Capaldi confirmed a year later that the tenth series would be his last as well. Following this news, several media reports and bookmakers had speculated as to who would replace Capaldi as the Thirteenth Doctor. Bookmakers' favourites included Ben Whishaw, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kris Marshall, and Tilda Swinton. Casting a woman The concept of a female Doctor was first mentioned in 1981, when Tom Baker suggested his successor might be female, after announcing the end of his tenure as the Fourth Doctor. Producer, John Nathan-Turner, later discussed the possibility of casting a woman as the Sixth Doctor to replace the departing Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, claiming it was feasible, but not something he was considering at the moment. In October 1986, during the transmission of Colin Baker's final season as the Sixth Doctor, series creator, Sydney Newman, wrote to BBC Controller, Michael Grade, with a suggestion that "at a later stage, Doctor Who should be metamorphosed into a woman". Dawn French, Joanna Lumley, and Frances de la Tour, were suggested by Newman in 1986 for the role, but were dismissed by the BBC. Lumley later appeared as a satirical version of the Thirteenth Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief special, The Curse of Fatal Death. Arabella Weir also played an alternative Third Doctor in the Doctor Who Unbound Big Finish episode, Exile. Neither portrayal is typically considered to be within the show's main continuity. Producer, Jane Tranter, also considered casting Judi Dench as the Ninth Doctor. The concept of Time Lords changing sex upon regeneration was seeded throughout Moffat's tenure as showrunner. Just after regenerating, the Eleventh Doctor exclaims "I'm a girl?". In the 2011 episode, "The Doctor's Wife", the Doctor recalls a Time Lord acquaintance known as the Corsair, who had at least two female incarnations. In the 2013 short, "The Night of the Doctor", the Sisterhood of Karn offer a dying Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) control over his inevitable regeneration, with "man or woman" being touted as possibilities. The first on-screen cross-gender regeneration was shown in the 2015 episode, "Hell Bent", in which a white male Gallifreyan general (Ken Bones) regenerates into a black woman (T'Nia Miller), who states that her previous incarnation was the only time she had been a man. The most notable Time Lord to have appeared in both male and female forms prior to Whittaker's casting is the Doctor's nemesis, the Master, portrayed from 2014 to 2017 by Scottish actress, Michelle Gomez. This version of the character was known as Missy, short for "Mistress". The tenth series finale, "World Enough and Time" / "The Doctor Falls", addresses cross-gender regeneration several times; the Doctor tells his companion Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) that Missy was "his first man-crush", and adds that he is only "fairly sure" he himself was male at the time, although the remark may have been flippant. Two years prior to the announcement of Whittaker's casting, fans and scholars discussed the possibility of a female Doctor and analysed the benefits of such a regeneration. Casting Whittaker When referring to whether the new Doctor would be a woman, incoming Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall originally was quoted in February 2017, as saying, "Nothing is ruled out but I don't want the casting to be a gimmick and that's all I can say". On 14 July 2017, the BBC announced that the portrayer of the Thirteenth Doctor would be revealed after the 2017 Wimbledon Championships men's finals on 16 July 2017. Whittaker was introduced as the Thirteenth Doctor on 16 July and subsequently made her debut in the 2017 Christmas special "Twice Upon a Time" and starring in the eleventh series. On Whittaker's casting, Chibnall said, "I always knew I wanted the Thirteenth Doctor to be a woman and we're thrilled to have secured our number one choice. Her audition for The Doctor simply blew us all away." Later on in his statement, Chibnall called Whittaker "an in-demand, funny, inspiring, super-smart force of nature" and said that she "will bring loads of wit, strength and warmth to the role." In an interview with Tenth Doctor actor and Broadchurch co-star David Tennant, Whittaker said she was never a fan of Doctor Who and had lost interest in watching it when she got the role, saying: "I watched a bit during my audition process but quickly decided it's not for me. [Chibnall] said to me, 'you're not playing the Doctor, you're playing the truth of the scene and the Doctor will come out of that'... so, that's what I did." In November 2018, BBC confirmed that the twelfth series, Whittaker's second series, began production in November 2018. The series premiere aired on 1 January 2020. Whittaker continued on in the role for the thirteenth series. Whittaker and Chibnall stated they would exit the show following the thirteenth series and three specials, which aired through 2022. Chibnall said "Jodie and I made a 'three series and out' pact with each other at the start of this once-in-a-lifetime blast. So now our shift is done, and we're handing back the Tardis keys. Jodie's magnificent, iconic Doctor has exceeded all our high expectations." She was succeeded by Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. Characterisation Interviewed by Radio Times, Chibnall described the Thirteenth Doctor as "absolutely the Doctor, but there's a new calibra.... Discover the Jodie Shepherd popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jodie Shepherd books.