Hello, Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica takes the Universe! But, bad news everyone, 'cause guess who! Ha! Except, you lot, you're all whizzing about, it's really very distracting. Could you all just stay still a minute because I AM TALKING! The Pandorica Opens
My favourite series of Doctor Who is The Eleventh Doctor Era, played by Matt Smith. Although I had been a casual viewer since the revival of the show in 2005, 2010's The Eleventh Hour turned me into a lifelong Whovian (although, you could argue that I'd been a Doctor Who fan for several years already by that point, as I was already a lover of the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. Sarah Jane Smith > Tenth Doctor. Fight me.)
Everyone has their own Doctor. For some, it's the first Doctor they ever saw, others, the one they grew up with, or the Doctor who defined the legacy of Doctor Who - think Tom Baker's fourth Doctor with his scarf and grin, or David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, who was a regular feature on so many school playgrounds in the early 2000's.
My Doctor is Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor. She's the one I dream about crashing into my life and offering me all of Time and Space in a little blue box that's bigger on the inside. From 2018 to 2022, she was there for me through one of the best years of my life and the darkest days that followed. During the early days of the 2020 COVID pandemic - the very same day thousands found themselves forced home from work and schools - she offered hope, a reminder to look after each other, and the reassurance that even though things were uncertain, you will get through it as darkness never prevails. That short transmission from the Doctor "self-isolating" A.K.A hiding from Sontarans (or Jodie hiding her wardrobe at home, wearing her full costume and filming on her own phone) gave me and so many others the strength to continue. I still go back to that video when I'm feeling anxious.
Whilst I love the storytelling and themes of the Eleventh Doctor's era, with the Thirteenth Doctor I could finally see myself in the Doctor. The Eleventh and Thirteenth Doctors had such similar personalities: anxious, alien, and angry - all things I felt myself as a child, and continued into adulthood. But as a child I never saw myself as similar to the Doctor, only ever the companion. Maybe it's because I grew up and understood myself better, maybe I was better able to critique media rather than just watch it, or maybe it really was because she was a woman, the first to play the Doctor, but I saw myself in her. I still do. And one day, I hope to grow up to be just like her: The Doctor.