The Doctor has always been a roving force for good, loath to use violence unless absolutely necessary and committed to out-thinking opponents rather than overpowering them. Television has a long and infuriating history of reducing women to a handful of archetypes. And if Whittaker’s Doctor has to make a difficult decision that hurts one of her companions, it won’t be nearly as offensive as watching a man override his friend’s wishes because he supposedly knows best. Characters, especially female ones, will no longer be defined solely by whether their relationship to the Doctor is romantic or platonic.
The show will lose the paternalism and sexism that infected many seasons with a woman in the TARDIS, saving a “damsel in distress” can be an act of solidarity. This new setup - which frees the show from the tradition of sending a beautiful young woman out into the stars with a strange old man she’s never met - will, however, be a welcome change from some of the most obnoxious elements of the rebooted series, which came back on the air in 2005 after a 16 year hiatus. A cynical observer might wonder whether the powers-that-be were afraid that a woman Doctor and singular South Asian female sidekick might be one step for devoted, conservative male fans of the show I certainly do. Those elements won’t be radically different this time around, although the showrunners have given Whittaker three sidekicks rather than the usual one two of them are male. This new setup frees the show from the tradition of sending a beautiful young woman out into the stars with a strange old man she’s never met.
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