# Is Doctor Who Racist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 31, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774 "2013-05-31T06:01:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/21 "2013-05-31T15:08:21Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I’m not familiar enough with OldWho to comment on charges of racism. But NuWho doesn’t strike me as racist as much as vaguely sexist and Moffat’s making it worse. I don’t really see NuWho as being sexist, aside from the continuing cavalcade of cute girls as companions (but at least we get some cute guys too, like Captain Jack and Rory). Another thing I like about Who compared to most American shows is that they’re not afraid to have women who aren’t young and conventionally gorgeous in featured roles. It’s refreshing to see women like Donna and Harriet Jones among all the young hotties–still attractive, but obviously middle aged and not size 0. Again, I don’t watch a lot of American TV, but it seems like the Brits are much more accommodating of different types of people in many roles than the Americans are. It’s nice. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/22 "2013-05-31T15:15:22Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I’m not familiar enough with OldWho to comment on charges of racism. But NuWho doesn’t strike me as racist as much as vaguely sexist and Moffat’s making it worse. We’ve never had a female incarnation of the Doctor. It’s been established that regenerating into a female form is a possibility and assuming that Time Lord sex ratio is approximately 1:1 then the Doctor—on his tenth regeneration—has been bucking the odds: P=0.5[sup]10[/sup]=0.0009765625 The next Doctor should be Billie Piper. Moffat can invent some timey-wimey [del]bull-shit[/del]workaround for the similarity to Rose. And then we can bring back River and get this so-called marriage consummated! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/23 "2013-05-31T15:18:51Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I don’t really see NuWho as being sexist, aside from the continuing cavalcade of cute girls as companions (but at least we get some cute guys too, like Captain Jack and Rory). Another thing I like about Who compared to most American shows is that they’re not afraid to have women who aren’t young and conventionally gorgeous in featured roles. It’s refreshing to see women like Donna and Harriet Jones among all the young hotties–still attractive, but obviously middle aged and not size 0. Again, I don’t watch a lot of American TV, but it seems like the Brits are much more accommodating of different types of people in many roles than the Americans are. It’s nice. Yes. When a story calls for an ugly person, the Brits go right out and find a butt-ugly person. They don’t do the Hollywood Ugly crap. I just want to say, I’m a woman and I don’t really want a female Doctor. I like my Doctor to be a man. BUT I wouldn’t mind, say, another Time Lord who was a female…like Romana in the old days. I put myself in the position of the Companion, like many people, and I’d rather travel around with a guy than a girl, is all. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/24 "2013-05-31T15:23:41Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > The “Chinese” villain in _Talons_ was played by John Bennet, a white British actor. The other Chinese parts (not counting the alien or the dummy) seem to be played by Chinese. . I hadn’t noticed. I guess I just don’t see people like that.😃 David Tennet companion Martha Jones was played by Freema Agyeman, who is black-ish. (What? You all get upset when I said “quadroon”) Although you will notice they had Martha be a medical doctor instead of a shop girl like Rose, an office temp like Donna, some sort of gogo dancer / catalogue model like Amy or a au pair like Clara. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/25 "2013-05-31T15:27:02Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > Seriously?! 😕 At least the poll is trending 92% _No_.Doctor Who is described as “thunderously racist” and guilty of treating non-white characters as “second class” in a collection of academic essays about the show. > > Several of the contributors to the book, Doctor Who and Race, which is set for publication in July, believe the **failure to cast a black or Asian Doctor** demonstrates an integral racism in the series, while others have pointed to an **inappropriately “slapstick” take on Hitler** in a 2011 episode, the early use of white actors in ethnic roles (such as in 1977 adventure The Talons of Weng-Chiang), and the portrayal of primitive cultures as “savages”. > > One American writer, Amit Gupta, even suggests that fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s obsession with **cricket harks back to the "racial and class nostalgia**" of the British Empire. > > [Radio Times | TV, film and entertainment news | Radio Times](http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-05-28/is-doctor-who-racist) According to the people who published the book that started this, there were several essays dealing with the subject, and they ranged from saying yes, to saying no, not at all. The Radio Times only picked one. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/26 "2013-05-31T15:31:27Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I hadn’t noticed. I guess I just don’t see people like that.😃 I notice all the time when white people are cast as ethnic actors and I won’t watch those movies. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is almost ruined completely by Mickey Rooney. Who was it who played Genghis? And Ben Kingsley annoyed me as Gandhi, too. At least he is half Indian - but he doesn’t look very much like it! And Jake what’s his face as a Persian actor in Prince of Persia. Fisher Stevens as Ben Jabituya in Short Circuit. And Avatar the last Airbender. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy lots and lots of movies or demand Asian actors in every movie. But it still bothers me when an Asian or black character needs a race upgrade to become white to appeal to the Everyman. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/27 "2013-05-31T15:43:00Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I just want to say, I’m a woman and I don’t really want a female Doctor. I like my Doctor to be a man. BUT I wouldn’t mind, say, another Time Lord who was a female…like Romana in the old days. I agree with this. I’m about as feminist/egalitarian as they come, but I don’t want to see a female Doctor either. Mostly because I don’t trust the writers not to turn her into some kind of buffoon or damsel in distress or leering sex joke. The Doctor is a man. I agree that another female Time Lord would be great (I liked Romana I, not so much Romana II), especially if she could hold her own against the Doctor. But not the Doctor himself. Now seeing the _Master_ regenerate into a woman could have possibilities… > [@](#): > > I put myself in the position of the Companion, like many people, and I’d rather travel around with a guy than a girl, is all. With me, this isn’t an issue. I actually tend to identify more with the Doctor than the companions, so by that logic I should _want_ a female Doctor. But I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/28 "2013-05-31T15:45:10Z")
It’s why I said vaguely. It’s lots of slightly annoying things like Sally Sparrow being so damn awesome and intelligent and then the episode ending with her arm in arm with the slightly sadsack brother of her lost friend (Who married a guy in Hull that refused to stop following her. Romantic.) without any sort of hint that she is attracted to him. It’s Miss Evangelista in the library who is so pretty but so dumb and then in the computer world is so intelligent but so ugly because I guess you can only be one or the other. It’s the fact that from The Doctor Dances on down to River in the computer, it seems that the appropriate way to end any woman’s story, regardless of her character, is for them to be taking care of children and also, hopefully married. It’s Nefertiti ending up with Riddell. It’s quotes like this from Moffat “There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands.” ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/29 "2013-05-31T16:39:18Z")
[Dr Who writer blasts ITV show Primeval for ‘too white’ cast](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-445420/Dr-Who-writer-blasts-ITV-Primeval-white-cast.html) > [@standingwave](#): > > We’ve never had a female incarnation of the Doctor. It’s been established that regenerating into a female form is a possibility and assuming that Time Lord sex ratio is approximately 1:1 then the Doctor—on his tenth regeneration—has been bucking the odds: P=0.5[sup]10[/sup]=0.0009765625 He can regenerate on command, and some other Time Lords can regenerate into any form they choose, but the Doctor hasn’t shown the ability to regenerate into anything other than a seemingly random man. No women, no lizard people, no black people. Just relatively minor changes, like being northern. > [@](#): > > The next Doctor should be Billie Piper. Moffat can invent some timey-wimey [del]bull-shit[/del]workaround for the similarity to Rose. And then we can bring back River and get this so-called marriage consummated! 😛 I saw a discussion on another board where the consensus was that Carey Mulligan would be the perfect female Doctor. But he’s only got one incarnation left, and that was established in oldWho as being the villainous Valeyard. Who was seen, and not female. I assume that’s where John Hurt comes in. I suppose the Doctor’s daughter is still out there somewhere. Might make an appearance. Doesn’t have to be Georgia Moffett, although her only observed regeneration maintained the same physical appearance. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/30 "2013-05-31T16:46:50Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > That’s just a thing about British TV in general - British society, really. There’s no particular expectation that black people will only pair up with black people. Any racial tension present comes out in quite different ways. It’s a little more than that in Dr. Who, I am fairly sure almost every single couple is interracial. Specially secondary one episode characters. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/31 "2013-05-31T16:55:52Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > He can regenerate on command, and some other Time Lords can regenerate into any form they choose, but the Doctor hasn’t shown the ability to regenerate into anything other than a seemingly random man. No women, no lizard people, no black people. Just relatively minor changes, like being northern. Right, but it has been shown that it’s a possibility and doesn’t seem to be under his control. There may be other examples but I’m thinking of when 10 regenerated into 11. The Doctor felt his longer hair and for a brief moment thought he might have been female. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/32 "2013-05-31T17:43:04Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > But he’s only got one incarnation left… Does he only have one left? Somehow I thought when he absorbed River’s regenerations in “Let’s Kill Hitler”, he got whatever she had left. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/33 "2013-05-31T17:52:40Z")
> [@holmes](#): > > Does he only have one left? Somehow I thought when he absorbed River’s regenerations in “Let’s Kill Hitler”, he got whatever she had left. I’ve always just assumed he had as many left as long as he remained profitable. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/34 "2013-05-31T17:56:37Z")
I think the “only 12 regenerations” thing was imposed by the Time Lords, right? No other Time Lords, no limit on regenerations! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/35 "2013-05-31T18:01:35Z")
Wow, have these researchers ever really watched the show? Doctor Who was one of the earliest show to reject the monster of the week story. Theres been many stories were the Doctor empathized and eventually understood characters that initially seemed evil. The Doctor has always avoided violent conflict whenever possible. I’m not sure how any drama story can be told with conflict between characters. I guess the researchers missed Martha’s season? A very self assured woman, a trained physician, and happened to be black. This show is not racist. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/36 "2013-05-31T18:54:52Z")
Given Doctor Who’s fifty year history, and the vast number of differnt people who have been involved with it over those fifty years, I think it would be nothing short of miraculous if the show didn’t have some incidents of racism or sexism. Remember that when we say “Doctor Who,” we’re not talking just about the slickly produced BBC Wales show that just concluded its seventh season. We’re also talking about decades worth of wobbly sets, shoe-string budgets, and yes, the occasional white actor playing a Chinese man. It costs us nothing to admit that it wasn’t always as forward-thinking as we might like it to have been. That said, the book in question appears to be much more nuanced than the article linked in the OP would indicate. Here’s a response to a similar article in the Daily Mail (which seems to be the ultimate source of the controversy). This is from Philip Sandifer, author of the very interesting Doctor Who blog “Tardis Eruditorium,” who was one of the book’s peer reviewers. [http://www.philipsandifer.com/2013/05/shockingly-daily-mail-is-evil.html](http://www.philipsandifer.com/2013/05/shockingly-daily-mail-is-evil.html) He makes the book sound like one that I would very much like to read. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/37 "2013-05-31T18:57:28Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Given Doctor Who’s fifty year history, and the vast number of differnt people who have been involved with it over those fifty years, I think it would be nothing short of miraculous if the show didn’t have some incidents of racism or sexism. Remember that when we say “Doctor Who,” we’re not talking just about the slickly produced BBC Wales show that just concluded its seventh season. We’re also talking about decades worth of wobbly sets, shoe-string budgets, and yes, the occasional white actor playing a Chinese man. It costs us nothing to admit that it wasn’t always as forward-thinking as we might like it to have been. > > That said, the book in question appears to be much more nuanced than the article linked in the OP would indicate. Here’s a response to a similar article in the Daily Mail (which seems to be the ultimate source of the controversy). This is from Philip Sandifer, author of the very interesting Doctor Who blog “Tardis Eruditorium,” who was one of the book’s peer reviewers. > > [http://www.philipsandifer.com/2013/05/shockingly-daily-mail-is-evil.html](http://www.philipsandifer.com/2013/05/shockingly-daily-mail-is-evil.html) > > He makes the book sound like one that I would very much like to read. You need to post more, you old Trekker librarian! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/38 "2013-05-31T19:03:28Z")
Yes! Nearly every piece on this book that has spread virally over the 'net was based on one (1) article from _The Daily Mail_. Nobody else has actually read the book–if the _Mail_ writer actually did. Or did he skim a bit in search of shocking headlines? I’ve noticed the phenomenon before. A journalist (very often from _The Daily Fail_) will clip a few phrases from an interview–out of context. More supposedly respectable media will run articles, repeating those phrases verbatim. Sometimes the original source is mentioned–more often, not. From **MrAtoz** ’s link: > [@](#): > > Some of you may have had the “luck” of seeing the media shitstorm whipped up around Intellect Books’s forthcoming anthology _Doctor Who and Race_, edited by Lindy Orthia. If not, it’s exactly what you’d expect; the\* Daily Mail\* got a copy and decided to run a typical _Daily Mail_ article in which the bizarre leftist intellectual attack on an upstanding British tradition is exposed to reveal the menace of the… whatever, really. (Obviously the\* Daily Mail\* likes _Doctor Who_ today, since attacking academics is more important than making the BBC look bad. They can always go back to hating _Doctor Who_ later, after all.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/39 "2013-05-31T19:19:43Z")
In one of the Comic Relief specials (Curse of Fatal Death), the Doctor (variously throughout that special, Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant(!), Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant) regenerates into Joanna Lumley, which I thought was brilliant, especially as the companion was Julia Salawha (Sapphie on AbFab). ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774/40 "2013-05-31T19:45:43Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > You need to post more, you old Trekker librarian! Thanks. I admit that I’m mostly a lurker, but I happened to read Sandifer’s piece just yesterday, so linking to it seemed appropriate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-doctor-who-racist/659774.md?page=3)