After 26 seasons and 10 revival seasons spanning a collective 43 years, BBC’s ‘Doctor Who’ has cast its first female Doctor.

English actress Jodie Whittaker is set to step into the TARDIS (the Doctor’s time machine, an acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) and replace the 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, during the 2017 Christmas special.

The announcement garnered many different reactions from celebrities and fans, called Whovians, alike. 

However, some fans were not too keen on the consistently male character being played by a woman, or claiming that the show was pandering to viewers.

Let’s make something very clear: the Doctor is an alien. An alien that is centuries old, mind you. Some of the show’s main plotlines have included stone angels that kill with a glance, space travel missions gone wrong, hunting monsters with Vincent van Gogh and a human and a wasp in a committed romantic relationship. 

Many strange and wonderful things can happen on a single episode of Doctor Who. The casting of Jodie Whittaker is exactly that: surprising, but well-received, and ready to take on everything that the Doctor has come to represent and will represent.