Jodie Whittaker Names Her Proudest Doctor Who Moment

US BritBox recently debuted the second season of Jimmy McGovern‘s anthology prison drama Time, set in a women’s facility. The new story features three women facing punishment for various offenses with a focus on how the British prison system is set up to fail the women it is supposed to reform.

Viewers throughout three episodes follow the stories of Orla (Jodie Whittaker), a single mom who is suddenly thrown into prison for a minor offense, Abby (Tamara Lawrence) who is serving a life sentence for murder, and Kelsey (Bella Ramsey) who is charged with drug trafficking while facing addiction and pregnancy. 

Den of Geek spoke to Jodie Whittaker about how Orla’s struggles differ wildly from the trials of a Time Lord and about the Doctor Who moment of which she feels proudest.

Whittaker looks back fondly on her era of Doctor Who, as her career moves away from science fiction and towards contemporary dramas. 

“I feel very nostalgic, I talk about it all the time, literally,” Whittaker says. “The memories come up on my phone all the time. It was just an absolute joy. Four years of absolute heaven. I loved everyone I worked with, loved the crew, and I loved living in Wales.” 

Whittaker since her departure has attended several UK, US, and international Doctor Who conventions and fan events. “What is ace about working on Doctor Who is that no one kicks you out the family, I’m always in the Who family and I’ll be someone’s Doctor. Even if I’m not everyone’s, I’m someone’s and so I’ll never not be the Doctor.” 

There are many moments Whittaker could have named as her proudest moment on Doctor Who but she picked the premiere of “The Woman Who Fell To Earth” during New York Comic Con 2017 as her top choice. 

“It’s slightly narcissistic because I think if it’s the single proudest moment, it slightly involves you. I was given the best entrance to a TV series in the world. Falling through a roof to the iconic soundtrack. Standing up to see thousands of people cheering. It was just absolutely brilliant, and I was given a gift there of how to enter the series, and I just think that entire first episode, watching it with fans, watching it with the creatives, who were also really emotional sharing it and knowing that it was just being received. 

“That’s what it’s like to be in this bubble, you can be cast, you can be doing stuff, but it’s not until you hear people in the room and that group breath that happens with viewing, when you have a mass people watching and sharing those moments. That sums up Doctor Who to me: the shared breath that creates joy.”

Whittaker is also excited for the future of the show, having passed the torch on to Ncuti Gatwa, and feels that his era will bring the magic of Doctor Who to new audiences around the world. 

“Can you imagine if you’d never seen it before, and then you get to see Neil Patrick Harris sing ‘Spice Up Your Life’ in ‘The Giggle’?” Whittaker says.” It’s such an inclusive, wonderful moment that you can come into at any point. I’m excited for people to just click on Disney+ and see what Ncuti’s going to do. The joy is what keeps the show going. That’s why Doctor Who has been here for 60 years.”

Time is Whittaker’s second post-Doctor Who role after Paramount+ series One Night. While she was filming One Night in Australia, her agent told her that she was offered the role of Orla in Time. “What appealed to me when I first read the script was that Orla was a single mom in her late 30s, early 40s from Huddersfield, where I’m from,” Whittaker said.” At that moment when I was knee-deep in Australia and doing an Australian accent and playing a role that was very, very far removed from me.” 

Time’s message critiquing the current UK justice system was also an appealing factor for Whittaker. “She goes to prison for a crime and, in my opinion, does not deserve a prison sentence,” Whittaker said. “The domino effect and the cost on society and the government by putting non-violent female offenders in prison in the first place surely is not worth the smack on the hand for what they’ve done. I think that made me rageful as I’m quite a fight-or-flight person.”

The first 10 minutes of Time episode one show Orla’s arrest. “I think a challenging thing for me on this was the fact that I was playing someone who is in an absolute cyclone of fear and lack of control,” Whittaker said. “While playing Orla, I exist on a high level of cortisol the entire time. Emotionally, it was like a tumble dryer all the time. There was just always something. My reaction to Orla’s decisions would sometimes be like watching someone run across a motorway, but I loved her.”

Time Season 2 is streaming now on BritBox in the US and on BBC iPlayer in the UK. Doctor Who is streaming on BBC iPlayer or US Max with new episodes on BBC iPlayer or Disney+ around the world.