Though previous interview quotes have all but confirmed it explicitly, Jodie Whittaker has now formally gone on the record as coming back for a third season of Doctor Who. This comes despite parts of the show’s fandom insisting they had reliable sources that both Whittaker and show-runner Chris Chibnall had quit during filming of the current run / being fired during filming of the current run / secretly filmed a regeneration scene during filming of the current run / all was chaos during filming of the current run (delete as appropriate on any given day).
While a handful of the rumours regarding story elements and castings appear to have been confirmed (and some remain controversial), the stories of an ever-increasing spiral of problems regarding shooting the show in Cardiff grew to unlikely proportions over the summer and if there were any genuine tensions or production problems, the sheer scale of the scuttlebutt seemed unlikely for those who know how television is made. There has been some criticism of the current tone of the show (and even EchoChamber has pointed to elements in episodes such as Orphan 55 which feel as if they were related to production issues0 but that is a wholly different matter to the show being in alleged wholesale meltdown. There’s no doubt that Whittaker’s confirmation is a vote of confidence for all concerned, though it may not put a stop to the ongoing debate over the style the show has adopted during her tenure. For the record, we think Jodie is more than capable of knocking any role out of the dramatic park given the right material.
Chibnall has been notoriously secretive about plans for the show ( under Moffat’s tenure episode-titles were known well in advance with some teasing synopses) but even many verified, long-standing reviewers are now getting advance previews of the episodes ahead of broadcast and episode titles are rarely known until the week before. However Jodie told Entertainment Weekly that she has at least one more season in her and stays away from the overt praise or criticism online, describing both as ‘rabbit-holes’ she doesn’t want to go down.
The current run launched on New Year’s Day and is taking place weekly, broadcast on Sunday evenings with the fifth episode due this coming weekend. It isn’t known at this point when the next series will be broadcast or if the others regulars (Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill and Bradley Walsh) will also be returning en masse.
