"Doctor Who" boss tells reporters to shut up about female lead backlash; CBS News, July 24, 2017

Andrea Park, CBS News; "Doctor Who" boss tells reporters to shut up about female lead backlash

"["Doctor Who" showrunner Steven] Moffat added that fans "are more excited by the fact that there's going to be a brilliant actress playing the part than the fact that she's a woman. It's been incredibly progressive and enlightened and that's what really happened. I wish every single journalist who is writing the alternative would shut the hell up."

There is at least one person, though, who wishes Doctor Who were still played by a man. 

Peter Davison, who played Doctor Who in the 1980s, told the Press Association, "If I feel any doubts, it's the loss of a role model for boys, who I think Doctor Who is vitally important for. So I feel a bit sad about that, but I understand the argument that you need to open it up ... As a viewer, I kind of like the idea of the Doctor as a boy but then maybe I'm an old fashioned dinosaur – who knows?"

But another Doctor Who, Colin Baker, hit back and said, "They've had 50 years of having a role model. So, sorry Peter, you're talking rubbish there – absolute rubbish. You don't have to be of a gender of someone to be a role model. Can't you be a role model as people?""