“Is the future going to be all girl?”

What does it feel like to be the first woman Doctor?

"It feels completely overwhelming, as a feminist, as a woman, as an actor, as a human, as someone who wants to continually push themselves and challenge themselves, and not be boxed in by what you’re told you can and can’t be. It feels incredible."

-  Jodie Whittaker

And so, without an excessive amount of inappropriate fan-boy fallout*, the first woman Doctor: 34-year-old English** actor Jodie Whittaker. Whittaker fits nicely into the profile of Doctor Who leads since the 2005 reboot: she's an experienced professional with a solid portfolio of work, but her acting profile isn't extremely high, which makes her an affordable casting choice for the show.*** (As per previous discussion of budgets, salaries and so on.)

That being said, I hope that her wage packet is comparable to her predecessors, given the manner in which the BBC is currently struggling with gender pay gap problems. In one of this season's episodes, the Doctor commented that the Time Lords are "billions of years beyond your petty obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes" - BBC management would do well to follow their example.

As fans adjust to the change, it's fair to say that Ms. Whittaker will have to accept some changes as well.  Apparently in the past she has been happy to go unrecognized by people on the street, preferring a low profile in public - ah, well, I have some bad news for you there, Jodie...  

Similarly, she'll need to prepare herself to answer questions about life in the TARDIS that have little to do with her craft as an actor.  I recall interviews with Liam Neeson regarding his work as Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace in which he was so obviously baffled by questions about lightsabers and the Force, rather than character development and acting decisions.

Whittaker has worked with two previous Doctors:  she shared the stage with Christopher Eccleston in a theatrical production of Antigone in 2012, in which she played the title role, and more recently appeared with David Tennant on Broadchurch.  When asked for his opinion on Whittaker's casting during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show, Tennant commented:

“You know, sure, Jodie is from a different gender than anyone who has gone before, but that will be irrelevant almost immediately once she takes the part.  It’s about finding the right performer at the right time, and that’s Jodie, without a doubt.”

He's completely correct - Whittaker's gender should be irrelevant, she should be judged on the quality of her work rather than her sex. However, I suspect it's going to be challenging for people to avoid commenting on her status as the first female Doctor when discussing her performance  - I think of this as the Obama Effect.  Hopefully she'll be able to make her mark based on more than just being the first woman in the role.

But let's not diminish that milestone.  The last couple of years have been very positive for the genre in terms of strong female leads: Rey in The Force Awakens, Jyn Erso in Rogue One, the massively successful Wonder Woman movie, and now a female Doctor. To quote an exchange from the final episode of this season:

The Master: “Is the future going to be all girl?”

The Doctor: ”We can only hope.”

- Sid

* I somehow doubt that many of the naysayers are fan-girls, although you never know.

** I bet we'll have to wait a LOT longer for the lead in Doctor Who not to be from the British Isles.  It's been surprising enough that two of the last three were Scottish.

*** I've also seen photos of Whittaker that demonstrate a slightly maniacal grin, which seems to have become one of the prerequisites for the part.

"Happy birthday to you...."

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Curiousity rover on Mars - and, with apologies, a belated anniversary greeting to its older brother Opportunity, still operating after thirteen and a half years of travelling the Martian surface.  Best wishes from your organic brothers and sisters on Earth!  It's a commonly known fact that you play "Happy Birthday" for your anniversaries - I wish there was cake, too*.

 - Sid

* Candles would be a nice touch, but a bit of a challenge given the atmospheric conditions:  the Martian atmosphere is only 0.13% oxygen, as opposed to 21% here on Earth.

"More heads, more deads!"

 

You know, it was just a fluke that I decided to switch on the TV.

Karli and I were sitting on the couch, we'd been chatting, she was looking at texts on her iPad, and I idly decided to turn on our new 65 inch 4K set from LG, if for no other reason than to admire the picture. (And it is very nice.)*

As you might expect, I jumped to the Space Channel, and to my astonishment, they were broadcasting A SCIENCE FICTION SHARK MOVIE!!!!!

Ish.

Admittedly, Three Headed Shark Attack didn't qualify for recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences due to its direct-to-video release in 2015 - in case you didn't know, a film must show for seven consecutive days in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County to be considered for an Oscar - but that's not the point.  My ongoing complaint with Space's odd prediliction for shark movies is that they haven't qualified as science fiction, either.

However, the presence of a three-headed mutant garbage-eating Great White does sneak this production over the line into SF, however unfortunate that may be for the reputation of the genre at large.  As such, I have to give kudos to Space for finally, FINALLY addressing this ongoing issue in their programming.  Presumably they started with Two Headed Shark Attack, and followed up with the sequel, Five Headed Shark Attack.

And Laurie, I hope that you enjoyed all three of them.

 - Sid

* No money was received from LG for this unsolicited testimonial, although should someone there read this posting and decide to cut me a cheque, I'm good with that, too.

"I could never resist a countdown."

 

"Is this Neil Armstrong?"

Bill Potts, God Save the Queen, Doctor Who

My girlfriend Karli has been watching this year's season of Doctor Who with me, which is a wonderful thing for her to do.  I honestly feel that it's a labour of love, because Doctor Who is not always as approachable as it could be.  (Which is an odd comment to make about a mass market televison series, but it's generally agreed that Doctor Who may not be for everyone.)

The down side of this shared experience is that, due to scheduling issues caused by work, social obligations, grocery shopping, laundry, and all the other things that make up life as a couple, we're down a few episodes - the final episode of the season has already been broadcast*, and we've just recently watched Episode 9, God Save the Queen.

As you might expect from a program that's over 50 years old, there are Doctor Who scripts that rely heavily on nostalgia - in this storyline, they revisit the Ice Warriors of Mars, who made their first appearance on Doctor Who in 1967. Unfortunately, that's not enough to save the episode. This is one of those disappointing outings by the Doctor that has an intriguing premise, but which fails to follow through to an innovative and interesting conclusion.

The BBC production department versus...

I was also a bit disappointed by the BBC's set design for Mission Control at NASA. The episode begins with a NASA ground crew anxiously awaiting the video stream from a Mars probe. It's okay, but compared to something like the sets for The Martian, the BBC version comes off a poor second.

...The Martian's set designers versus...

But let's be fair, The Martian had a budget of $108M USD, compared to the £800,000 to £1M per episode** of Doctor Who, although obviously you need a lot more money to hire Matt Damon than Peter Capaldi.*** (No offense, Peter.)

On the other hand, NASA has an annual budget of $19.5 BILLION USD, and I don't know if the real thing is all that impressive.****

....the United States Government.

 Ah, but the actual NASA version is already just sitting there, no production costs involved - maybe the Doctor Who principals should have just flown over to Florida and shot a few minutes of video there, which would only have cost the BBC some equipment rentals and a couple of tickets on British Airways.  And I almost guarantee that they wouldn't need to hire extras - I'm willing to bet that there are more than a few people at NASA who would be happy to make a free cameo appearance in a Doctor Who episode.

- Sid

* And frankly, the BBC's YouTube™ channel makes absolutely no allowance for people who aren't up to date - have they not heard of PVR? Damn it, you could at least make the thumbnail frames free of spoilers!!

** Probably. I was unable to find a hard statement online regarding the Doctor Who budget, but there seems to be a general consensus of about £13M per season, give or take.

*** $25M USD for Mr. Damon's turn at Mark Watney, versus about £17,000 an episode for Mr. Capaldi's work as the Doctor.  And now you know why everyone wants to work in Hollywood.

(Actually, even with the conversion rate on the pound, that doesn't seem like a ton of money for being the last Time Lord.  By comparison, the stars on The Big Bang Theory pull in a million bucks an episode.)

**** To be fair, the Jet Propulsion Lab version looks a bit cooler (or least their photographer is clever enough to kill the room lights:

And finally, the original Saturn mission control - old school cool, but let's be honest, the gigantic screens were NOT part of the original setup: