“For a show that has been, until Jodie Whittaker’s tenure, all about a very clever (Gallifreyan) man in an even cleverer blue box, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Doctor Who is a show that’s for and about men,” says Kayleigh. “Here’s the thing, though: the Doctor would honestly be nothing – he’d be dead a thousand times over – were it not for all the brilliant, bolshie women who surround him.
“I’m talking about the ordinary women who defy expectations to commit truly extraordinary feats. The shop girls, the office temps, the hardworking NHS staff who shun mediocrity and embrace a life of adventure. The Rose Tylers who scatter themselves through time and space to destroy the Daleks. The Martha Joneses who spend a year trekking across an apocalyptic world to change the course of history. The Donna Nobles who sacrifice their most treasured memories in order to save the universe. The… well, you get the point.
“It’s these women, of course, who keep the Doctor from being too alien. They serve as a moral compass, teaching him vital lessons about humanity and morality throughout all of their wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey hijinks together. While he may dazzle them with new worlds, new monsters and new faces, it is they who truly steer the Tardis as it wheezes its way across the universe. And it is their desire to ‘eat life’, to quote Christopher Ecclestone, that keeps the Doctor from spiralling into a pit of ennui, angst and chilly detachment.
“Roll on, then, the 60th anniversary specials. Roll on, too, the return of celebrated showrunner Russell T Davies, along with David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s reprisal of our favourite time-travelling (and, most importantly, strictly platonic) BFFs. Not forgetting the handing over of the reins to Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor and Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday. Allons-y!” Watch the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials on BBC One on Saturday 25 November and Saturday 2 and 9 December
