The Female Doctor panic, two years on

So true. Also what the hell is the point of the OP dragging this all up again?

I never had an issue with a female Doctor, however, when I first heard the news, I was a bit like barnabaslives in fearing a gimmick.
And of course I was very sad that Capaldi, my absolute favorite, had left.
So, yes, I admit that my first reaction was not in favor.
That said, I think my main problem was/is that I had fallen in love with the Moffat era. I adore Moffat‘s writing.
The sole reason I became a Whovian was that I watched Sherlock and loved it and then decided to check out his other work which sadly included this crap weird sci-fi show my NZ flatmates used to torture me with. And in a rare fit of nostalgia bought the DVDs.
After I had given it a chance, it immediately clicked.
The Moffat era will always be my highlight and hardly and TV Who gives me the same feel (different story with BF, where several things come very close).
Of course it would have been extremely hard for Chibnall to live up to that. I dreaded the change.
In the end, it was not as bad as feared, however,I also never got really enthused about series 11.
Series 10, for me, is the absolute pinnacle of the TV version. Of course everything else would feel like a disappointment.

As for the ambivalent fan reaction to Jodie‘s nomination for the role.
We had a few heated discussions in my fan club back in the day and it was basically this split right down the middle.
Although, nobody ever went into full hate mode.
It was either „Great!“ or „meh“. I was on the „meh“ side.
I am still not really on the „Great“ side.

The reactions on the internet...
I will never be able to understand how a fictional work, like a TV or movie series, be it Star Trek, Star Wars or Who, can become such a pseudo-religion that people are completely forget themselves and go into full Djihad mode. It is a bl##dy TV series! The producer is not going to steal and sacrifice your firstborn. There is such a thing as real life, which gives more than amble opportunity to be upset about real problems. Sadly, it often looks as if some people are unwilling or unable to get a real life.
So I am think my primary reaction to them is pity more than anything else.
I also try to avoid certain websites and YouTube channels to keep myself away from the toxicity.

However.
I had been on the German Who convention this year, and there was a panel by the people of the biggest German podcast.
I left because I wanted to go upstairs to the BF stall and have a chat with Jason.
I later learned from chatting with some other podcasters who stayed in the same hotel as me that they saw when these guys went up on stage, it was like a changing of the guards in the audience. All the cosplayers and fans of the 13th Doctor left the room and the more somber old farts came in. This particular German Whocast appears to be famous for their hate towards Jodie and Chibnall and they also despise cosplayers for some reason. I do not know, I never listened and not planning to. And I was completely oblivious to all this happening around me until the other podcasters told me the story over breakfast at the hotel.
And I had such fun at the convention and thought everybody was nice and welcoming! But I admit that I was mainly chatting with other cosplayers and since I was in costume myself, certain other people might just have avoided me.
So I am happy that my hate avoidance screen is obviously working.

Mark Strickson told our crowd last weekend that JNT was really pushing back then for a female Doctor and the powers that be higher up were 101% dead against it.

I love discussions like these.

Fair enough. But I said nothing about it upsetting someone.

I would have been ticked off if the Doctor to follow Capaldi *wasn't* a woman, for all the set-ups Moffat planted throughout his seasons. If Thirteen had been cast as a male, due to whatever reason, would the next showrunner have continued to drop that bait without ever doing anything with it? So many shows, especially long-running or myth-heavy ones, will tease major changes and then not follow through on them. Which can turn a show I like into a tedious bore. I stopped watching X-Files because of it, and I never started into Lost because I was expecting more of it.

It wasn't a case of me thinking "It's time for a woman to have a go at being the Doctor." It was a case of "Fire Checkov's Gun or stop waving it in my face!"

But the fact is even if Thirteen were male, I'd still be watching the show. I'm as 'into' Doctor Who now as I've ever been Star Wars or Star Trek. I don't think I could stop watching it just because of one decision I don't like, I'd still be looking for the positives. But I'd have been watching with a distinct sense of a rubber band being stretched even tighter, a clock continuing to wind down. "When is it going to finally happen?..."

What still continues to confound me, all this time since, is why people who continued to watch the show when it brought in a (show-stealing!) female Master thought the Doctor switching sexes was a move too far.

That said, Whitaker's Doctor, while a bright and bubbly change of pace, has been erratic in places (setting the baby giant spiders up to die only to bemoan the loss of their mother...) and I wonder how the non-gender-based criticisms of this past season and her persona in it will be addressed in the next one.