New Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker has a strong retort for those who've criticised her casting.

Here's the headline: casting the show's first female Doctor might be an inspirational moment for young girls, but that doesn't mean that young male viewers will end up alienated.

Asked if she had a message for young boys who love Doctor Who at a San Diego Comic-Con press conference, Whittaker replied: "That it's OK to look up to women. It's exciting and not to be feared.

"If you lead a show [as a woman], that doesn't mean it's [only] for women, which I think is what always happens."

BBC

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She continued: "It's 2018. It'll be really exciting when women aren't treated as a genre; you know, just as a cast member, it'd be great… Let's not have this conversation in 2020, hopefully.

"This is a show for everyone – and for us three sitting here [Whittaker and her co-stars Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole] didn't always have, when we were growing up, people on television that looked like us. Or for me and Mandip, people who sounded like us.

"As a girl born in the '80s, the Doctor did not look like me. [But] your heroes don't always have to tick the same box."

Whittaker added that she considers the role of the Doctor to be "genderless" but explained that the character's new appearance could impact how other characters treat her in the next series.

BBC

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"The thing about this role, which is why it's so amazing for any actor to play the role, is that essentially gender isn't relevant, and that's completely liberating," she said.

"I have never approached a role thinking 'How would a woman play this role?' – I just am one. I don't think a guy has ever thought, 'How do I play a guy in this scene?' – you just are.

"So essentially my energy, my approach to this, is coming from a very instinctive place, which is genderless to me. The best thing about the Doctor is I'm not playing either [a man or a woman], I'm an alien.

"But what you do notice is, sometimes within episodes, other people's response is different, because they're speaking to a woman, and that's interesting. That's why this role will continue to be layered and fascinating to play, because, I suppose, of everyone else."

BBC / BBC Studios

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Echoing Whittaker's comments, Doctor Who's new showrunner Chris Chibnall added: "The Doctor's still the Doctor. In some situations, I would agree... obviously [in] history, [her gender] might come up... but the Doctor is still that character who can walk into a room and through force of personality, force of charm, force of being amazing... can solve the problem, defuse the problem, make everybody happy [and] get out alive."

Chibnall went on to suggest that casting the show's first female Doctor was "a no-brainer" after 55 years. "I think it was possibly overdue, to be honest. I can only speak to since I've been in the job and it felt really simple and obvious.

"The world was ready, the show was ready, the audience was ready, the fans were ready... there's been lots of mentions of it in the show before, so in terms of canon, you can point to things.

"It was also that there was an amazing list of actresses who could do this part, and we were then lucky enough to get the best person on that list."

The new series of Doctor Who will be comprised of 10 standalone episodes, with no two-parters, and possibly no old monsters, with familiar foes like the Daleks being sidelined in favour of new threats.

Doctor Who will return to BBC One this autumn. Stay tuned to Digital Spy for more news direct from Comic-Con International in San Diego.

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