‘Doctor Who’ fans are loving the first female doctor — and so are critics

BBC

• “Doctor Who” premiered Sunday night with its first female
  lead in the show’s 55-year history.
• When Whittaker was cast, some fans of the series were upset
  that the Doctor, traditionally male, was cast as a woman. 
• Fans and critics are praising Jodie Whittaker’s performance,
  as well as the series for reinventing itself.

On Sunday night, Jodie Whittaker made history as the first woman
to ever play the iconic role of the Doctor on “Doctor Who.”

Whittaker’s casting for season 11 of the BBC series was initially
met with
backlash from a portion of the “Doctor Who” fandom who felt
that the role was not meant for a woman. 

But Sunday night’s episode, “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” is
getting high praise from “Who” fans as well as critics for its
clever reinvention of the series given its new lead. 

Critics agree that the show feels different from the other
seasons, but in a great and necessary way, and that Whittaker was
well cast. Caroline Seide of the
AV Club wrote that it’s “like watching a trapeze artist
perform without a net, it’s both thrilling and slightly
terrifying to watch Doctor Who launch itself into this brand new
era.”

And Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff
wrote, “I was also struck by how Whittaker’s gleefully
altruistic spin on the Doctor immediately felt more akin to
Tennant’s version than that of her immediate predecessor, Peter
Capaldi.”

And here’s what the fans were saying on Twitter throughout the
night: