Jodie Whitaker played the female lead in Attack the Block, which I strongly recommend. Check it out if you want to get an idea of her acting chops.
I loved her in that. She was brilliant.
To be fair, she might be a good Doctor Who, but as a traditionalist I would have preferred a male actor in the role. Nothing sexist about it, I watch Supergirl and really enjoy it, even if it is pretty much a gender reversed version of Smallville where Cat Grant = Perry White, Winn = Chloe, Lena Luthor = Lex Luthor, Lilian Luthor = Lionel Luthor and Kara = Clark etc.
One thing did annoy me with regards to the casting. Had the new showrunner said that he chose her because she was the best person for the role, then fine, but he said he always wanted a woman to play it. Surely that is discrimination? It is just as bad as saying you only considered men for the role. Then of course you have all the feminists tweeting 'YES' in block capitals and running round punching their fists in the air like it was them that cast her and not Chris Chibnall! Worst of all is all the people who scream that 'it is about time Doctor Who was a woman' and that 'It needed something because it had got stale'. I would point out that...
The lead actor
The companion
The Sonic Screwdriver
The Opening titles
The TARDIS interior
The Theme Music and...
The Production team
changes every few years, not to mention that every story basically takes place in a different time and place. Add all that up and you have the least stale TV show in history!
Compare that to something like Friends or Smallville, the basic core cast stays the same, theme music stays the same, they use the same sets and it is set in the same place and time. By comparisson these programs would be the stalest ever compared to Doctor Who.
And don't even get me started on the 'it's about time' comment. Why exactly? Because he has been a man for over 50 years? Does that mean when I am 54 I am going to have to have gender reassignment surgery because 54 years is enough time as a man and it is about time I tried life as a woman? Let's not forget that it has only been in the last few years that they made comments (and eventually showed on screen) that Time Lords could change gender.
It really does smack a little bit like something to boost interest in the show and get people curious about it again. The show has received a lot of criticism in recent years, maybe this is their way of trying to grab as many headlines as possible. It is also a good way of avoiding criticism of another kind, because if they had cast another white male, like my personal choice, Kris Marshall, then the media (female media in particular) would have groaned and moaned that again minorities and females had been overlooked and that yet again the Doctor was another white male. Well why shouldn't he be? Is it so wrong to be a leading white male in a TV series these days?
From a more personal perspective it is nice that my daughter and I can 'share' a hero. She isn't even two yet but I am hoping she grows to love the show as much as me. I really do wish Jodie Whittaker all the best and hope she does a good job, I also hope she is written well. Don't write her as a woman, write her as THE DOCTOR and all will be fine.
In fact if you take her from the promo and plonk her into any Sylvester McCoy episode and have Ace and Mel played by men, then would it be much different?
I only hope they don't stick in phrases like 'women do it better' etc all the time with a knowing wink and a nod and dumb down all the male villians just to try and make her look smarter. She will need good strong villians to come up against.
I will look forward to the new series to see what happens and how the writers handle it, I do feel that if the storylines play up the female aspect instead of the alien aspect, it could get a bit grating.
Finally, it will be very interesting in future years when they get ready to announce a new Doctor. You will have a re-igniting of the 'battle of the sexes' with boys, girls, women and men sitting on the edge of their seats, hoping that the Doctor will be on 'their' side so they can ensure they have the bragging rights as to the gender of the new Doctor for as long as they are in the role.