'Doctor Who' Is Reaching a Whole New Audience

The long-running BBC series Doctor Who recently completed its first season with Jodie Whittaker as the titular Doctor. Writer Sara Lynn Michener says that having a female Doctor came as a welcome change of pace. "This formula of always having female companions, and always having male Doctors, it just made me think of Doctor Who in a certain way that wasn't very flattering," Michener says in Episode 343 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "It felt less real, because if this alien does in fact have the ability to regenerate in all of these bodies, why are we still seeing this very standard, very heteronormative pairing constantly?" Science fiction author Rajan Khanna also enjoyed Whittaker's performance, and found that this season of Doctor Who was the first one he was able to watch with his girlfriend. "She's tried to get into it previously, and just bounced off of it," he says. "And this season I was like, 'I'm going to watch Doctor Who.