6. Jodie Whittaker (2018-2022)
The camera follows a figure in a masculine great coat, hooded top, and heavy boots, walking through a wood. The mystery character turns, and lifts the hood – to reveal not a man but a woman. Jodie Whittaker’s debut as the 13th Doctor, and the first woman to play the role, was probably the show’s most sensational “reveal”, or intro to the incoming Time Lord. Its play on androgynous attire was deliberate, costume designer Ray Holman tells BBC Culture – Whittaker “was never going to be the first woman doctor who would suddenly start wearing a dress”. She and Holman devised an image distinct from all previous Docs: a hooded coat of fine fabric in pale grey, and a pink T-shirt with rainbow stripes, the rainbow said to reference a Coldplay album cover (possibly 2015’s A Headful of Dreams): “Jodie wanted her costumes to reflect all the colours of the sky,” says Holman.
If her pale floaty coat seemed in opposition to Capaldi’s dark Crombie, she also had a dark blue coat, to signify her going into an alternative universe. And she wore braces, sturdy boots and cropped, wide trousers in petrol blue that were properly boyish – a look “men and women, and kids were recreating”, says Holman. Her Doctor also dressed in dinner jackets and bow ties – a nod to predecessor, Matt Smith (whose costumes Holman also designed), and his intellectual Doctor vibe.
At the start of her tenure, Whittaker said she found the prospect of the role “overwhelming, as a feminist”. But going into the second series, in 2019, she reflected: “Being a woman is who I am… And with this part, being a woman has less relevance than any other part I’ve played, except for that monumental historical moment of being the first woman Doctor.”
Three hour-long Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials will air in November, streaming on Disney+ internationally and on BBC iPlayer in the UK. The specials will be followed by a new season which airs in 2024. Earlier seasons of the rebooted Doctor Who are available on Max in the US and on BBC iPlayer in the UK.
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