With the upcoming premiere of Doctor Who: Flux quickly approaching, many fans are mourning the loss of Jodie Whittaker, the actress who brought the Thirteenth Doctor to life and will soon be departing the series after the completion of its thirteenth season. As with the departure of every Doctor, there has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth—and apparently, the decision to leave wasn’t such an easy one for Whittaker to make either.
According to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Whittaker had made a pact with showrunner Chris Chibnall to do three seasons of the show before bowing out and handing the baton to a new set of creatives. Three seasons seems reasonable, and has been the standard for every Doctor of the modern Who era, with the exception of Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, who only received a single season in 2005—but with emotions running high during the production of the show’s thirteenth season, the star revealed that she was tempted to stay longer and extend her role as the Thirteenth Doctor just a bit longer:
"There was a point where I was definitely like, 'Uhh, I don't know...We started this [season] and I was like, 'I don't know if I'm going to be able to commit to this decision.' Wonderfully, going into it, it didn't feel like either of us were being held to our own conversation. It was still very much, between me and him, a very active conversation. But at the point when you're filming and you go, 'Right, what are we doing?,' there was just something about it that was like, 'I think it is the right time.' I know at some point there will be another Doctor, and I feel I can wholeheartedly give them this, through tears, and go, 'Aww, mate, you lucky f***er, you are being given an absolute pearl.'”
Regardless of that fact, Whittaker wants audiences to know that she didn’t just phone in her final season, and that they should expect the adventures to be just as spectacular and epic as ever before:
“I want people to know that I really did fully throw myself into it and give it all I've got so that I've not shortchanged anyone...What's been really vital to me is that I saw this journey out, side by side, with my sister from another mister. The joy I have had going into work every day with Mandip [Gill], and [having] Yaz and the Doctor still on this crazy adventure together, has been wonderful.”
Doctor Who: Flux also stars Mandip Gill and John Bishop, and will premiere on Halloween night, October 31.