Jodie Whittaker Will Take Doctor Who To A Whole New Level, Says David Tennant

There’ve been a broad range of reactions to the casting of Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor, the first woman to play the part in Doctor Who‘s half-century on TV. While there are definitely a number of extreme opinions floating around, Steven Moffat has claimed that most fans love the decision. Even if that’s not entirely true, it would seem that many of the stars of the show are on board with having a female Doctor.

After all, ever since the announcement that Whittaker would be portraying the character, a number of people involved with the sci-fi series, both past and present, have congratulated the actress – including Peter Capaldi, Colin Baker, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. In fact, it’s the latter who’s now spoken up once again on the situation while making a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Touching on how he feels about Jodie landing the role, the actor said he thinks it’s “brilliant” and that she’ll take things to “a whole new level.”

“She’s a mate of mine. A couple of days before it was announced I get this phone call from her and she’s in sort of a tunnel of excitement and panic,” he explained. “But it’s brilliant. I can’t think of someone better to join the gang and be poised to take it to a whole new level. It’s great.”

Sounds like he’s into having a female Doctor and really, that’s not too surprising. As we mentioned above, most of the show’s former stars have thrown their support behind Whittaker and while she still does have her critics, we’re certainly excited to see what she can do in the role. Thankfully, we’ll get our first glimpse of that quite soon, as the actress will make her debut in the Doctor Who Christmas special.

Bringing together the likes of Pearl Mackie, David Bradley and Mark Gatiss, it’ll be on our screens in the latter stages of December and will give us our first look at Whittaker in action, however brief it may be. It’ll also herald Peter Capaldi’s last hurrah along with Steven Moffat’s, who’s poised to hand over the keys to showrunner Chris Chibnall for season 11. To get a taste of what’s to come, be sure to check out the preview below.