My Daughter’s Doctor

My Daughter’s Doctor

As I write this, we are mere minutes away from finding out who will become the sixteenth actor to portray Doctor Who in the Time Lord’s fifteenth incarnation: The 13th Doctor is nigh (not Nighy, although that would be kind of awesome).

my daughter's doctor


I’ve always held to the theory that “your” Doctor isn’t the one you first start watching, it’s the one you see arrive in a regeneration. For Mertmas, he got into Doctor Who during the David Tennant years but it was when Matt Smith arrived that he really took to it and, of course, he then welcomed Capaldi with equal enthusiasm but Smith remains his Doctor, cemented by four visits to the Doctor Who Experience (in London, then Cardiff) before it was revamped (and we visited a fifth time).

At four years old, the littlest Craggling has only a passing interest in “Doctor Who” but she likes to sit and watch an episode or two with her Dad and big brother, but I’m excited to see her see a Doctor’s arrival for herself and imprint on the programme properly.

Now you might be thinking or hoping this is where I firmly nail my colours to the mast and state that I want the new one to be a woman, this time, to really be my daughter’s Doctor but I’m kind of agnostic in the whole casting thing. I’m happy for it to be a woman, or somebody who isn’t white, I really don’t mind. I just want them to be great. I want them to bring the show a new energy and help the new showrunner deliver some of the greatest “Doctor Who” yet. For me, there’s no mandatory ethnicity or gender requirements for the Doctor, they just need to be…well…Doctorish. I’m excited to see who going to be given the chance to find a new spin on playing a curious, kind alien who’s thousands of years old, rattling around the universe in the TARDIS.

I say that I’m totally open to it being anyone, but that’s not strictly true. As long as it’s not Ricky Gervais or James Corden, though, the Craggus family will still be watching and willing the Time Lord – or Lady – to win.

So it’s the old boys’ network which delivers the first female Doctor as Chibnall picks from his “Broadchurch” cast for the latest Doctor. As far as it goes, seems like a good pick. It’ll come down to the writing and the performance to really seal the deal but she was great in the sci-fi setting of “Attack The Block” and I’m excited to see what new energy this will bring to the show.

For the record, the littlest Craggling’s reaction was to wrinkle her nose and ask “why is the Doctor a lady?”

“Why not?” I asked. “It’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

She thought hard for a few moments, then emphatically nodded her head. “Yes.”

The imprinting has begun.

my daughter's doctor
my daughter's doctor


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