0 Comments
Russell T Davies, boss of the BBC’s show Doctor Who, has said that he has no time for complaints from ‘online warriors’ who say the show has gotten too ‘woke.’
The head of Doctor Who, a long-running sci-fi show on the BBC, has said that he has ‘no time’ for complaints from ‘online warriors’ who accuse the show of being too ‘woke.’
Russell T Davies was speaking on BBC Radio 2. Doctor Who returned to screens last week, with Ncuti Gatwa reprising his role as the leading character, The Doctor, while Varada Sethu joined as his new companion. It’s the first time the show has featured all non-white actors.
‘Someone always brings up matters of diversity,’ said Russell. ‘And there are online warriors accusing us of diversity and wokeness and involving messages and issues. I have no time for this. What you might call diversity, I just call an open door.’
The comments came as part of Radio 2’s ‘Doctor Who: 20 Secrets from 20 Years’. Russell was asked if he consciously includes social themes into his scripts, to which he replied: ‘That’s life, and I think it’s the only way to write.’
Gatwa told the Radio Times that the new cast represents ‘progress, in terms of how we reflect the societies we live in.’
‘That’s something incredible that media can do, and that’s what it’s doing,’ he said.
Doctor Who has been on television for a long, long time. It was first broadcast in 1963. Since then, The Doctor has changed gender and ethnicity as part of the show’s ‘regeneration’ process.
In fact, since the series was rebooted in 2005, it has often championed LGBTQ+ issues and celebrated diversity.
The fan base is relatively eclectic and mostly welcoming, though there are some older viewers who are likely to be the ones grumbling of any perceived ‘wokeness.’
The BBC accepted a deal with Disney to provide extra funding in 2022. There were hopes to make the programme a giant, international franchise. While it is still popular, it seems Doctor Who has been unable to cement itself as a long-term brand with a guaranteed future.
