Better writing may have helped Whittaker become a Doctor to remember and defied the misogynists who circled around the news of her casting. But with Chibnall and his writing team often misfiring on all cylinders, her time on the show is destined to instead go down as one of the greatest missed opportunities in recent BBC history.

Of course, despite the recent ratings disaster for one of the BBC’s biggest global brands, there is a glimmer of hope. It was announced in September that Russell T Davies, responsible for the triumphant 2005 reboot, would be returning to oversee proceedings.

It is also likely that the next occupant of the Tardis will be a woman with Lydia West, one of the stars of Davies’s It’s a Sin, a current favourite (she is also Whittaker’s choice). Davies is that rare beast, an intelligent populist, and there is no doubt that this mainstay of British culture will thrive again. Alas, for Whittaker, his intervention has come too late.