Capture: Doctor Who Star Jodie Whittaker Tackles Online Child Safety

Now that her run on Doctor Who is over, you were probably wondering what Jodie Whittaker has been up to. Well, she’s currently in Australia filming a thriller called One Night for Paramount Plus. That’s about three women who reunite when one of them writes a book about the event that shattered their friendship. Meanwhile, Whittaker has also appeared in Capture, a 15-minute short film produced by the Financial Times. Yes, the newspaper. It’s a satirical Public Service Message-style short film about child online safety.

Capture marks the first production Whittaker has appeared in since she left Doctor Who. Granted, “The Power of the Doctor” finished production, and Whittaker played the Doctor again in Juno Dawson‘s audio drama podcast serial Doctor Who: Redacted, which reasserted The Doctor’s LGBTQ status. That, for now, was the last time she played The Doctor barring a guest spot on a special or when she agrees to star in some Big Finish audios a few years from now.

Capture is like a Doctor Who Story

Capture was written by Nina Segal and directed by Juliet Riddell. Whittaker and Paul Ready play a middle-class couple who are horrified that he has carelessly signed away permission for their son to a private company to a private company. He didn’t even know what he signed their son over to. Naturally, she freaks out, and they rush to find where their son has been taken. The police won’t help, nor will the school, so they track down the private company and confront them directly to get their son back. Then things get weird. The story has a satirical Science Fiction bent about a real issue about how parents don’t know what their kids get up to online and the potential harm they could face. Whittaker plays the straight man to Ready’s befuddlement, and the chillingly calm customer service rep, played by Shaniqua Okwok, exposes them to the increasingly Kafkaesque but real horrors of parents letting the internet babysit their children. It’s practically Doctor Who in its satire. You really should watch it. Here it is.

Honestly, the FT is terrible at promoting their surprisingly good and informative short films, often made with major British talent. We only found out about Capture from the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. Both the magazine and we have just done the FT YouTube channel’s job for them.