Jodie Whittaker
On 16 July 2017, Whittaker was announced as the Thirteenth Doctor in the science fiction television series "Doctor Who"; she is the first woman to play the title role. She had previously worked with incoming "Doctor Who" showrunner Chris Chibnall on "Broadchurch". She admitted that she had to "tell a lot of lies" after being cast to keep the information secret and used the codeword "Clooney" when talking about the role. She urged fans not to be afraid of her gender, saying ""Doctor Who" represents everything that's exciting about change. The fans have lived through so many changes, and this is only a new, different one, not a fearful one." Chibnall said that he always wanted a woman for the part and that Whittaker was their first choice.
The Doctor (Doctor Who)
In the following episode, "Deep Breath" (2014), the Twelfth Doctor states that he is over 2,000 years old. However, writer Steven Moffat has said, "He's lying. How could he know, unless he's marking it on a wall? He could be 8,000 years old, he could be a million. He has no clue. The calendar will give him no clues." In the episode "The Girl Who Died" the Doctor is shown to possess a 2000 Year Diary. Moffat later said that he believes the Doctor remembers all 4.5 billion years he spent dying and recreating himself in "Heaven Sent" (2015), and that the confession dial extracts the Doctor's memories of each iteration, feeding them back to him as a means of torture. In a subsequent interview with "SFX", Moffat confirmed, "Technically he's four and a half billion years old."