Through all his incarnations, Doctor Who has fought selflessly to ensure the survival of all manner of life forms across the Universe.
But now an international group of academics has branded the heroic Time Lord ‘thunderingly racist’.
The Doctor’s new foes claim that his dismissive attitude towards black companions, his contempt for ‘primitive’ people, and even his passion for cricket are all proof of a reactionary ‘whiteness’ pervading his adventures.
Their concerns are published in a new book, Doctor Who And Race, which says the BBC programme is based in attitudes ‘that continue to subjugate people of colour’.
But fans dismiss such criticisms as ‘groundless’ and ‘ridiculous’.
One of the more bizarre theories is offered by Amit Gupta, an American professor, who argues that Peter Davison’s cricket-loving incarnation of the character in the Eighties was thinly disguised nostalgia for the British Empire. He wrote: ‘[He] portrayed the amateur English cricketer of the late 19th Century when the game was characterised by both racial and class distinctions.
‘Cricket also had a role in maintaining the status of British imperialism through the exercise of soft power as it was successfully inculcated by the colonial elites. Davison’s cricketing Doctor once again saw the BBC using Who to promote a racial and class nostalgia that had already outlived its validity.’
Several of the 23 contributors to the book lament the failure to cast a black or Asian actor as the Doctor. And in earlier series, white actors were cast as other ethnicities. Singled out for criticism is a 1977 storyline, The Talons Of Weng- Chiang, set in Victorian times and featuring the white actor John Bennett as a Chinese villain.
There is also an attack on the ‘second-class’ treatment of black characters such as Martha Jones in more recent episodes. A feminist contributor with the pen name Fire Fly, says the Doctor’s relationship with Martha, who was played by Freema Agyeman, is proof of the ‘white perspective’ of the series.
She singles out a 2007 episode set in Elizabethan London when Martha voices her fears that she might be sold into slavery, only to be told by David Tennant’s Doctor that she should ‘walk about like you own the place. It works for me’.
Fire Fly wonders why the Doctor will depose tyrannical alien regimes but will not challenge human slavery. And she claims the exchange ‘betrays the ignorance of writers about historical racial violence and contemporary white privilege’.
There is further criticism of the introduction and Adolf Hitler as a character last year, which was condemned as ‘comic-book’ and ‘slapstick’, and did nothing to increase understanding of the Holocaust.
The Doctor also dismisses as primitive any civilisation that doesn’t share his belief in scientific progress – which the academic critics say is a very ‘West European’ attitude. In the show’s very first story, William Hartnell’s Doctor compares the disbelief of his new companions when they first enter the Tardis with the Red Indian ‘whose savage mind disbelieved steam trains’.
And the introduction of the ‘savage’ – and scantily-clad – companion Leela in the 1970s is offered as further proof of the Time Lord’s inherent racism since she was treated as being ‘more primitive than us’.
Australian academic Lindy Orthia, who compiled the anthology, concluded: ‘The biggest elephant in the room is the problem privately nursed by many fans of loving a TV show when it is thunderingly racist.’
But fans dismissed her criticisms. Sebastian Clark, editor of Doctor Who Online, said the show ‘embraced rather than divided’. He added: ‘I think the suggestion the show is racist is ridiculous.
Doctor treated Martha Jones no differently from the way he treated any other character.’
And the BBC said: ‘Doctor Who has a strong track record of diverse casting among both regular and guest cast. Freema Agyeman became the first black companion and Noel Clarke starred in a major role for five years [Mickey Smith].
‘Reflecting the diversity of the UK is a duty of the BBC, and casting on Doctor Who is colour-blind. It is always about the best actors for the roles.’
Dr Who, not only racist, but...
Dr Who, not only racist, but...
a cricket fan too...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Dr Who, not only racist, but...
Fixed...But now an international group ofacademics attention seeking ninnies has branded the heroic Time Lord ‘thunderingly racist’.
That would seem to be the appropriate response; I might add "moronic" "idiotic" "mind bogglingly stupid" and "kiss my ass" to the list of appropriate responses....But fans dismiss such criticisms as ‘groundless’ and ‘ridiculous’.
Re: Dr Who, not only racist, but...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Dr Who, not only racist, but...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Dr Who, not only racist, but...
I seriously hope that there was no research grant for this rubbish.
Turns out this work follows on from a 2010 Thesis which you can read online.
Turns out this work follows on from a 2010 Thesis which you can read online.
https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/49358
“In this thesis I examine representations of science in the long-running science fiction television series, ‘Doctor Who’. In particular I analyse the social, cultural, political and economic aspects of this representation to assess its consistency with four goals for the democratisation of science… I then analyse in greater theoretical depth three ways that debates about the democratisation of science manifest within ‘Doctor Who’. I show that the program varies in the degree to which it is consistent with the goals for the democratisation of science.”
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Dr Who, not only racist, but...
http://cpas.anu.edu.au/about-us/people/lindy-orthia
Dr Lindy Orthia
Qualifications
BSc (Hons), PhD
Biography
Lindy lectures in undergraduate science communication. She is the course convenor for SCOM1001 Science and Public Awareness, SCOM2003 Science in Popular Fiction, and SCOM3003 Special Topics in Science Communication. She is also the convenor of the Undergraduate Studies and Honours programs in science communication.
In 2007, Lindy wrote the original curriculum for the Masters course SCOM8027 Science and Public Policy. In the past she was also involved in teaching SCOM2001 Practical Skills for Communicating Science and SCOM3001 Science, Risk and Ethics.
In 2013 Lindy won a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. She was also awarded an ANU Commendation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in recognition of her Colleges of Science Award for Teaching Excellence, which she won in 2012. With $4000 of the College prize money she established the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science Endowment which will fund, in perpetuity, five undergraduate science communication prizes. Lindy won the inaugural ResearchFest Award for Excellence in Tutoring or Demonstrating in 2009, and jointly with Rod Lamberts was nominated for a Vice Chancellor’s Citation for an Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in 2008.
Lindy trained as a biologist. Before joining CPAS her research was in the fields of taxonomy, molecular systematics, ecology and natural resource management. Having studied the practice of biological classification, she came to CPAS to research more theoretical and philosophical aspects of classification at the PhD level, before changing her PhD topic to study science in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. Her PhD was awarded in 2010 with the thesis, Enlightenment was the Choice: Doctor Who and the Democratisation of Science.
Prior to discovering science, Lindy spent much of her time researching, writing and agitating in regard to public policy issues, working in student representative and community organisations. Find out more at lindyorthia.com.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”