Doctor Who’s season 11 premiere will mark the first time in the show’s 55-year history that the Doctor character will be played by a woman, Jodie Whittaker. This move adds Doctor Who to an influx of sci-fi and fantasy franchises that have already put women at the helm. But this new woman Doctor is expected to have a trait that many of those other heroines don’t have: a sense of humor.
How Doctor Who could change the way women are portrayed in sci-fi
The Doctor’s greatest power? Her sense of humor.
In film and television, the scarcity of women superheroes is stark. In 2014, the last time good data was available, only 14 percent of mainstream sci-fi films had women protagonists. And that makes the new Doctor’s role even more impactful. Whittaker’s Doctor is not only expected to be a great, witty hero traveling through space like her male predecessors, but she could also push the boundaries of what a woman hero can be.
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