What kind of pensioned-off Time Lord am I?

Having really looked forward to seeing the arrival of the timely proof that the Doctor has been in touch with his feminine side all along, when the regeneration into a female Doctor finally does happen, I have as yet failed to watch it!

It is weird but sadly predictable that it has never been allowed to happen before.

Isn’t it odd that, in extremis, when a Gallifreyan changes every particle in his body in order to cheat death he has thus far left just one bit unchanged?

John Nathan Turner, my late lamented friend who produced the show back in the 80’s, used to regularly flirt with an eager media by hinting at such an event, regarded by many back then as an appalling prospect.

And interestingly, in my experience, women were more opposed to the gender switch than men.

JNT as he was always known even posted fake information on the noticeboard in his office appearing to schedule such an heretical (to some) development.

And it has now come to pass – and I still haven’t had time to admire my future self as portrayed by Jodie Whittaker (an actress I already admired) other than in the trailers. I propose to remedy that this weekend.

The teasers shown to us before the show went out have delighted this antediluvian by indicating the natural exuberant freshness and joy that I am hearing she is showing as number 13 (or 14 or 15 depending which fan canon you espouse).

And I have been so disappointed in some of my acquaintance who have publicly mourned the loss of a role model for young boys.

We will leave aside the obvious corollary to that notion – that girls have had no role model during the male dominance of the last half century, so isn’t it their turn? – for the very simple reason, for heaven’s sake, that role models do not have to be gender specific.

I have regarded many women as role models and people become role models for the rest of us because of the way they live their lives not because of a particular arrangement of their chromosomes. I wish Jodie well and welcome her to the surgery!

And as I have worked with him and found him a lovely fella, I applaud the choice of Bradley Walsh as one of her companions.