# Racial dynamics in Nu Doctor Who **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284 "2015-01-19T14:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/61 "2015-01-20T18:57:49Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Also, does every planet in every time period they visit have to have the same racial demographics of Earth? Why not a planet of all black people or all Asian looking people (wouldn’t be Asia obviously)? It’s not entirely clear because we only see a small part of it, but the planet The Doctor and Donna are on at the beginning of “Turn Left,” where Donna is parasitized by the time bug and changes her destiny, seems to be entirely based on Chinese culture. At least the huge city they’re in is, it seemed to be all Asians, and there were pagoda-style skyscrapers in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/62 "2015-01-20T20:08:32Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Torchwood. Ianto and Gwen are Welsh not Asian. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/63 "2015-01-20T21:16:24Z")
I noticed it too, but I think it’s a combination of two things: 1. trying to cast color-blindly and/or deliberately progressively 2. enjoying tragic stories more than happily ever after. The problem is that the combination makes it look like mixed-race relationships are doomed (don’t forget Tosh/Owen! it’s not just a black/white thing) when it’s actually that ALL (ok, Rory & Amy, most…) relationships are doomed. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/64 "2015-01-20T21:28:44Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Yeah, but Amy and Rory were Scottish. That’s barely white. Pale blue. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/65 "2015-01-20T21:41:14Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Yeah, you are right. > > Owen is into casual pickups. > Jack is bisexual/omni. > Gwen is hetrosexual/bicurious/straying > Ianto is Jack-o-sexual 🙂 > Toshi is technically a necrophilliac after > > Owen becomes undead Tosh also has a lesbian encounter but maybe it doesn’t count because she was really an alien. > [@Namkcalb](#): > > Ianto and Gwen are Welsh not Asian. I think the Torchwood comment was referring to Tosh. Who, IMO, was one of the most abused/misused characters on the show. The way Tosh was treated really made me hate Gwen. I’ve thought that the ratio of interracial relationships seemed rather high on Doctor Who but then I thought, maybe that’s just more common in Britain. It wasn’t just in main characters either, I seem to recall a few background characters being in mixed race relationships. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/66 "2015-01-20T21:59:14Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Definitely not racist. This Doctor can barely tell humans apart except for a couple that he cares about. He certainly doesn’t care about human skin tone. The P.E. thing was a shortcut to show his disdain for someone he instantly clashed with. Their personalities don’t mix and it was made worse by the Clara relationship. Moreover, Twelfth had difficulty telling young Clara from old Clara. The clash with Danny partly Danny’s fault, though still mostly Twelve’s. But it was understandable. Like Ten and Eleven, Twelve considers causing harm–even emotional harm–to his primary companion to be a capital crime. But Rose and Mickey’s relationship predated Ten’s time with Rose, and likewise Rory and Amy’s, so the Doctor saw those as something he should try to protect. (Very hard for Ten, as he was as much in love with Rose as Mickey was.) But as Twelve’s relationship with Clara predated Danny’s, he felt the need to make sure he was good enough for her, and his emotional cluelessness caused that to come out in unfortunate ways. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/67 "2015-01-20T22:11:42Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Moreover, Twelfth had difficulty telling young Clara from old Clara. I suspect Eleven saw Amy as Amelia, too. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/68 "2015-01-20T22:29:25Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I suspect Eleven saw Amy as Amelia, too. That one’s more complex. He didn’t recognize 20-year-old Amy as the kid he’d met a few minutes (by his reckoning) earlier until she told him. I think Eleven simultaneously did and did not see them as the same person. But Eleven was also quite protective in Amy specificially and also of Amy and Rory relationship. In “Asylum of the Daleks,” he clearly considers getting them to reconcile to be as important (though not as urgent) as escaping the planet. And though Eleven loved Rory for his own sake, God help Rory if Eleven had found that he was the one responsible for breaking Amy’s heart. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/69 "2015-01-21T07:13:50Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > And at that point, did the Doctor know he was a soldier? I’m sure he could not imagine a former soldier teaching maths. Either I’m being whooshed, or you haven’t seen some of the really old stuff. The Brigadier was (semi-)retired and teaching maths at the boarding school where the Fifth Doctor picked up Turlough. The role was originally meant to be the return of Ian Chesterton, who was a science teacher and one of the original companions, but William Russell was unavailable for filming. Summary of the story: [Coming Soon](http://drwhoguide.com/who_6f.htm) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/70 "2015-01-22T00:32:55Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Yeah, but Amy and Rory were Scottish. That’s barely white. No, Rory’s English. That’s why I left them off my list of M/F, same species couplings. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/71 "2015-01-22T09:50:43Z")
Hardly any of the relationships in the show work out, just like in most dramas. I really do think you’re reading too much into this. Black/white intermarriages really aren’t a big deal here these days. Black African immigrant might be for the immigrant aspect (or white immigrant too, actually), but Black British? Nah. They’re pretty common, especially in London and Cardiff where a lot of the action in both Torchwood and Dr Who is set. It’d be less common in a small Scottish village, where Amy and Rory come from. ---
**Author:** ![Huvudtvatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Huvudtvatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huvudtvatt)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/72 "2015-01-22T12:32:14Z")
Russell T Davis talked about this in a radio interview on the BBC last week. Apparently he had gone from attempting colorblind casting, and thinking “wouldn’t it be nice if we had a black character?” to thinking that “we absolutely have to have a black character”. He also talked about how the black characters tended to end up in secondary, supporting roles if he didn’t specifically write the main characters as black. He confirms that Mickey wasn’t written as a black character, that was something that was decided during casting. [Podcast in mp3 format](http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio3/r3arts/r3arts_20150115-2300a.mp3) (Davis comes in at the 27 minute mark). ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/73 "2015-01-23T02:52:38Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Actually, you know what’s really funny about the racial dynamics of Nu Who? No Asians. If they’re really trying to be inclusive, there should be twice as many Asian characters as black ones, at least. Your location says Australia, so you’re gonna have to clarify what you mean by “Asians”. Do you mean the UK usage of “Asians” aka people from India/Pakistan or of such decent? Or do you mean US usage of “Asians” aka people formerly called Oriental until that somehow frustratingly became some huge no no a few short years ago? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284/74 "2015-01-23T03:03:09Z")
Three decades is “a few short years ago?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-dynamics-in-nu-doctor-who/710284.md?page=3)