Former Doctor Who companion Karen Gillan has touched base once again on the topic of Jodie Whittaker being cast as the Thirteenth Doctor.
While chatting to Den of Geek recently, the actress revealed that she and the cast and crew used to have discussions about a female Doctor during her time on the hit sci-fi series. However, she doesn’t recall if any comments ever got back to showrunner Steven Moffat.
“I’m not sure we ever had a direct discussion with him about that. But it was something people talked about regularly. It would pop up every so often, and people had their own opinion on whether that would work or not. But I think nobody ever suggested or said that to Steven Moffat. But I am just so glad they have gone in that direction, because the fact that we’re even having a discussion as to whether a woman can play the role or not tells me that there’s still something wrong here. Because of course a woman can play the role; it’s not defined by gender, and we’re definitely about to find that out, I think.”
Gillan then revealed how she imagines her character, Amy Pond, would react to meeting the Thirteenth Doctor. While the Guardians of the Galaxy star is a huge supporter of Whittaker’s casting, Gillan thinks Amy would be a bit more mixed about the gender switch.
“Oh, Amy would be very confused by that. She’d have to remake all of those little dolls! Yeah, I think she would kind of dig it though. I think that she respects the Doctor a lot, and maybe she’d think it was kind of cool.”
She definitely has a point here about Amy being left “very confused” by the change. While she was aware of regeneration, unlike many companions, Amy never encountered more than one incarnation of the Doctor. Matt Smith’s number eleven meant the world to her – as Gillan reminds us, she even made Doctor dolls as a kid – so it would surely be difficult for Pond to adjust to such a very different version of the titular hero. However, she’d no doubt be won over by the new Time Lord in the end.
Just like Doctor Who fans as a whole will be, when Whittaker takes over the role full time next year, after a brief cameo in the upcoming Christmas special.