Who cares that the new Doctor is female?

Jodie Whittaker: what an inspired choice for the new Doctor. Not only is she a very fine actress, whether she’s playing stricken with grief, as she did in Broadchurch, or a comedically exasperated trainee nurse stressed out by aliens and chavs in the wonderful little film Attack the Block. She also exudes that quality every good Doctor needs: the everyman touch. Or everyperson touch. The sense that while this creature might be a Time Lord with two hearts and a police-box time machine, he — now she — is nonetheless like us. Special but connectable. Otherworldly but worldly. Whittaker can do that. I think she’ll be brilliant.

But my joy at seeing an actress I admire land a coveted role has been dampened by the crazy reaction to the news. You’d be forgiven for thinking that making the thirteenth Doctor a woman is on a par with women getting the vote.