Jody Whittaker as "The Doctor"

Jody Whittaker looks to have a bright future as the newest actor to play the famous Time Lord.

What’s going to happen in the first episode of Series 11 of Doctor Who has been the subject of great debate in fandom, especially Doctor Who fandom, especially since this is the first time The Doctor has been a woman, played by Jodie Whittaker. It’s all been a tip-top secret, and the security has been tight as drumheads.

So naturally, now that a clip has leaked, the whole world knows, and purist fanboys’ heads everywhere simultaneously explode. Which is unfortunate, because there’s a lot to like with Whittaker’s performance.

A certain Jake Lewis posted a certain clip on Twitter. That’s how we found out about it. We traced it back to his source, which was a clip posted on YouTube by a little known Doctor Who fan channel called MDE, and we got the video and turned it right way round.

[We have determined that the footage is not just illegal to leak, it’s also illegal to show, so unfortunately the footage is no longer available for viewing.]

Here is Jodie Whittaker as the newly regenerated Doctor, in her new body for not half an hour, trying to get control of a new emergent situation, set on what appears to be an abandoned train. If there were any doubts at all that she could pull this off, this clip should lay them to rest.

We are deeply suspicious: if the BBC wanted to create excitement about the new series, what’s the best possible way to create that buzz? Our first thought would have been leaking footage, just like this. Whatever the reason it came about, the video is spreading like wildfire, though it’s being ordered pulled from YouTube by the BBC wherever it appears. You, however, have had the privilege of seeing it here, first, on the SCIFI.radio station home page.

While we’re on it, we also have a couple of images of the new Sonic Screwdriver (you knew she’d have to have one). This new Sonic is extremely organic in design, unlike every other Sonic that’s gone before it. It has a core that lights up, and that looks like a piece of either quartz or selenite jammed in the front end (probably quartz; pretty though it is, selenite also dissolves in water). It’s also possible that this Sonic was sculpted around two or three pieces of quartz as a core, and then shined up with Rub’N’Buff to give it that metallic sheen. It’s not a given, but if we were going to make a one-of-a-kind design like this based on crystals, that’s how we’d go about it.

 

Jody Whittaker’s new Sonic Screwdriver, taken from a shot from the first episode of Series 11.

Before we go, here’s a really nice set of drawings of the new Sonic by George Sheard. Too bad they only show the one side.

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SCIFI Radio Staff

SCIFI Radio Staff

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