This week after Roger Federer won his record 8th Wimbledon title, the BBC announced who would be stepping into the Tardis in the next season of Doctor Who and become the 13th Doctor. Twitter erupted when it was revealed that Jodie Whittaker would be stepping into the role and taking the title of the first female Doctor. After 53 years of male leads, it was a long overdue decision by the BBC.
We logged into our Emotics platform to analyse the thousands of tweets mentioning the new Doctor to not only see what people are talking about, but to understand the key emotions driven by the reaction.
The Insights
The analysis revealed an Adorescore of 41. An Adorescore is a high-level performance indicator of emotion in content measured on a scale of -100 to 100. The higher the score, the more positive the content. Given the level of controversy, this is a positive score showing that the choice of female Doctor was celebrated by many.
This is huge. Little girls watching Doctor Who, just like Wonder Woman, will have heroes to aspire to be. Not just companions. #DoctorWho13
— Julie Benson (@TheJulieBenson) July 16, 2017
High levels of trust and joy were driven by people congratulating Jodie Whittaker on her new role as the Doctor and celebrating the BBC’s choice to have a woman in the iconic role.
Jodie expressed her excitement for making TV history stating, “ It feels completely overwhelming; as a feminist, as a woman, as an actor, as a human, as someone who wants to continually push themselves and challenge themselves, and not be boxed in by what you’re told you can and can’t be. It feels incredible.”
With all the positivity however, there were a few people expressing anger and disgust towards the announcement.
"Doctor Who to regenerate as a woman". Maybe next time as a golden retriever?
— Roger Helmer (@RogerHelmerMEP) July 20, 2017
Some men (it's always men) are feeling fragile right now. Hug them. Tell them it'll all be ok. Remind them that #DoctorWho… isn't real.
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/7LDU37xVM3
— Benjamin Cook (@benjamin_cook) July 16, 2017
Despite a number of people expressing their negativity, the response to the announcement of the first female Doctor has been majorly positive. The levels of trust and joy throughout the data suggest the Doctor Who refresh was a welcome change.
But we’ll let a former Doctor have the last say:
Well I never the BBC really did do the right thing and let the Doctor be in touch with her feminine side. As a father of daughters – result!
— Colin Baker (@SawbonesHex) July 16, 2017
