Doctor Who Series 11: writers initially didn’t know a woman was cast as the Doctor

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The BBC announced all the Doctor Who Series 11 writers on August 23. Along with Chris Chibnall, the writers are Malorie Blackman, Ed Hime, Vinay Patel, Pete McTighe and Joy Wilkinson.

The writers were chosen before Jodie Whittaker was revealed on July 16, 2017 but were not told for whom they were writing or that a woman was cast in the role.

“A lot of drafts of scripts have got ‘he’ in. The writers didn’t know ‒ nobody knew ‒ until the reveal video went out,” stated Chris Chibnall in the October 2018 issue of SFX magazine.

Chibnall also stated that gender does not play a part in informing writing for the Doctor anyway:

“… it’s very hard for me to think of a decision that the Doctor has taken in 55 years that is a gender-based decision or action. I’d really struggle to think of one.”

The issue of gender will come up with historical episodes, however.

“Yeah, I think particularly in the historicals ‒ if we’re doing historicals, which I’m sure we are ‒ obviously that then affects what happens to all these characters when you go to certain periods of history.”

The October issue of SFX magazine hits newsstands today.