Season 11 of Doctor Who wasn’t for everyone, with Jodie Whittaker’s first outing as the Thirteenth Doctor pretty much splitting the fandom right down the middle between those who embraced the big changes brought by the first female Time Lord and the new direction taken by showrunner Chris Chibnall and those who, well, didn’t. And among those who couldn’t get into season 11 is classic series actress Anneke Wills.
Speaking at a press screening of the newly-released 1967 story “The Macra Terror,” a lost adventure that’s been recreated with animation, Wills explained that she only got through the first episode before switching it off as it’s not to her tastes. However, she did make clear that she has nothing against Whittaker’s appointment as the Doctor.
“I have to be honest… I think Jodie is lovely… [but] I watched most of the first one and then I let go, because it’s not my Doctor Who. It’s new Doctor Who for the new world and I’m not part of it, really, anymore – except if they ask me to be in it!”
Wills’ history with Doctor Who goes almost all the way back to the beginning. Appearing on the show from 1966-67, she played Polly, a companion to the First (William Hartnell) and Second (Patrick Troughton) Doctors. She hasn’t been involved in the series for some time, but her quip that she might be asked back isn’t totally out of the question. After all, the 2017 Christmas special revisited 1966 story “The Tenth Planet,” where Lily Travers filled in for Wills to play Polly in some reconstructed scenes.
The actress’ thoughts on season 11 match what many felt about the 2018 run of the show, though. While some haters simply had a grudge against the gender-swapping of the lead role, a lot of more reasonable folks simply didn’t gel with the storytelling of the season, even if – like Wills – they supported Whittaker’s casting. Hopefully, Doctor Who season 12 will be less controversial then when it arrives on the BBC in early 2020.
