# Doctor Who -- 1651 England how ethnically diverse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908 "2015-10-27T21:51:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/41 "2015-11-03T15:07:42Z")
Idris Elba could be cast as Desdemona and he’d probably make it believable. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/42 "2015-11-03T15:30:34Z")
Idris Elba for the next Doctor! ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/43 "2015-11-03T15:51:14Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > It’s not a history lesson. Which, ironically, Doctor Who originally set out to be! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/44 "2015-11-03T16:06:41Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Idris Elba for the next Doctor! I think he was actually offered the role, but turned it down. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/45 "2015-11-03T16:39:14Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Exactly. This thread reminds me of the [Heimdall is black](http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109754-Black-Thor-Actor-Talks-About-Racist-Comic-Book-Fans) controversy from the Thor movies. > > “Doctor Who” is a fantasy TV show about an effectively immortal alien who periodically changes his entire outer appearance & personality and travels around all of time & space in a blue box that’s about 4’ x 4’ on the outside but infinitely large on the inside, and routinely combats a race of genocidal nazi alien slugs who go around in personalized, pepper-pot armored tanks. > > The episode in question here deals with a viking girl who was accidentally made immortal, and the specific scene involves another alien with a vaguely leonine appearance who opens up a wormhole portal above an 18th century village and allows still more aliens to shoot energy beams into the multi-racial crowd below. > > Yet somehow, the “unrealistic” element that everyone is focused on is the appearance of some non-caucasians among the background extras?? Well sure. It’s called buying into the premise. You are already watching the show because you are willing to accept a time traveling alien outwitting aliens throughout time. But part of the premise is that when he visits Earth in the past it is in fact our Earth and our past. If there is something anachronistic not due to part of the plot it works against the premise and stretches the suspension of disbelief. It’s easier to accept a Dalek in Elizabethan London than it would be to see Shakespeare wearing a wristwatch. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/46 "2015-11-03T19:26:23Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Well sure. It’s called buying into the premise. You are already watching the show because you are willing to accept a time traveling alien outwitting aliens throughout time. But part of the premise is that when he visits Earth in the past it is in fact our Earth and our past. If there is something anachronistic not due to part of the plot it works against the premise and stretches the suspension of disbelief. It’s easier to accept a Dalek in Elizabethan London than it would be to see Shakespeare wearing a wristwatch. Well, it’s possible Shakespeare could have worn a wristwatch. “The concept of the wristwatch goes back to the production of the very earliest watches in the 16th century. Elizabeth I of England received a wristwatch from Robert Dudley in 1571, described as an arm watch” Except they were marketed at women during his lifetime. > **[History of watches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_watches#Wristwatches)** > > The history of watches began in 16th-century Europe, where watches evolved from portable spring-driven clocks, which first appeared in the 15th century. > The watch was developed by inventors and engineers from the 16th century to the mid-20th century as a mechanical device, powered by winding a mainspring which turned gears and then moved the hands; it kept time with a rotating balance wheel. In the 1960s the invention of the quartz watch which ran on electricity and kept time with a vibrating... ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/47 "2015-11-03T20:29:22Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > Well, it’s possible Shakespeare could have worn a wristwatch. “The concept of the wristwatch goes back to the production of the very earliest watches in the 16th century. Elizabeth I of England received a wristwatch from Robert Dudley in 1571, described as an arm watch” Except they were marketed at women during his lifetime. > [History of watches - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_watches#Wristwatches) Digital? ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/48 "2015-11-04T03:13:02Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Digital? Umm, all I saw in your post was wristwatch (nothing about it being a digital one). Unfortunately I am not a Capaldi fan so usually binge watch 3-4 episodes at a time just to keep up and I haven’t gotten to the last 2 EPs yet. But I have gotten used to seeing anachronisms on Doctor Who and shrugging them off. Tank and electric guitar in the Middle Ages… ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/49 "2015-11-04T04:47:08Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > Umm, all I saw in your post was wristwatch (nothing about it being a digital one). Unfortunately I am not a Capaldi fan so usually binge watch 3-4 episodes at a time just to keep up and I haven’t gotten to the last 2 EPs yet. > > But I have gotten used to seeing anachronisms on Doctor Who and shrugging them off. Tank and electric guitar in the Middle Ages… Intentional anachronisms central to the premise and plot. That’s kind of my point. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908/50 "2015-11-05T00:11:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Th ethnic mix of the crowd is exactly the same ethnic mix of any crowd in Doctor Who - it can be ancient Rome, modern-day Liverpool or New New York in the year fifteen billion, you’ll see exactly the same faces, namely, those of the same random people who’d show up at a casting agency in Cardiff. Although you see fewer cat people in ancient Rome than in New New York. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-1651-england-how-ethnically-diverse/735908.md?page=2)