Is Dr Who on a mission to tick every single box?

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It great to see more diversity and I quite like the female Doctor, but it's starting to feel like they're actually taking the mickey out of themselves (or us?) and playing some sort of game to see how many boxes they can tick.

One of the opening lines tonight "I'm your niece's wife" although it appears not to be relevant to the story.

Captain Jack, who was quite obviously gay

LOL, no he wasn’t. The writers and actor were very clear that he was omnisexual, if anything, but rejected labelling. Jack was into any gender, any species, any time.

If the story was better the clunky references to characters’ sexuality and race would he find. Sadly the niece’s wife stood out like a sort thumb because of the lack of story. There was a a lot I didn’t like last night. The spider story was really thin and wasn’t properly concluded. Why did Yasmin’s dad collect rubbish in their flat? I know there was a lot of rubbish in the city but why store it in his home

Whilst I’m missing the point by owning up to not watching DW a PP mentions CBeebies as becoming like a box ticking execrcise too.

Now, that was completely my first thought, and I live in multi cultural, multi ethnic London, for a very inclusive employer and my DD has a variety of friends of varying different colours. So you’d think I wouldn’t have any grounds for complaint.

What rattles my bars a wee bit is that it really does smack of literal box ticking and where CBeebies is concerned is arguably unrepresentative of the population as a whole where proportional representation is concerned.

HOWEVER I then remembered that at 36 I’m not the CBeebies core audience, that I need to get over myself and my inbuilt biases and criticism and remember that I would rather my young children were exposed to how different we can all be (even if it does feel the point is being sledgehammered at times) as opposed to feeling scared/bewildered/superior to someone in a wheelchair or who is a different colour or who speak with a different accent or is SEN/autistic etc.

(End of massive post).

‘There aren’t enough white straight men on dr who!’

Dearie me, some people.

I think it’s fun and funny. Nice humour. The kids love it. I must have linked the moment the spiders died because there wasn’t much fanfare about it, but it’s great solid family entertainment.

A white woman delivering a lecture to a black man on the significance of Rosa Parks was heavy going

I think the irrelevant sexuality sometimes is a good thing and is often one of the things kids tv does well. As a gay woman, im more than my sexuality!

Often gay characters come with a Gay plot. Eg if i see a lesbian on a programme what comes next is 90% one of the following storylines: coming out, rejection from parents, homophobia or some kind of forbidden love plot.Which are sometimes important stories but sort of means that they are only ever their sexuality.

Being gay isnt the over riding theme of my life. My life is spectacularly mundane, im not fighting homophobia on every street corner. Thus for its nice when a character gets to be gay and having a non gay focused story line.

Its nice when tv programmes eg have a gay couple in the back ground doing normal things, or when they get to be part of a bigger plot.

We all think it’s brilliant. It’s daft, funny but has a few serious bits too, and scary enough for the kids without being too much.

I agree that in our lives we interact with and have relationships all sorts of people, and it’s good that this is being represented on TV. Maybe those that feel it’s box ticking don’t have those kinds of relationships...I know in my old posh area everyone was well off, white and straight which I found very unsettling! I can imagine that my old neighbours would make similar box ticking comments.

This is an interesting read especially for people who think that making political points in Dr Who is a new thing,

www.bfi.org.uk/features/doctorwho/

PaulHollywood
That's a really good and thoughtful post.

I love the idea that white straight people are getting upset because they now feel underrepresented on one (!) TV programme.

It isn't harmful to anyone to include these diverse characters, so why not include them? Why not show as much of modern society as they can? The inclusive remit of the show spans across individual episodes, not just the series arc as a whole, so in each episode you will see a bit of 'box ticking' - but better to tick boxes than leave them unticked altogether.

Also white people will be in a minority in the next 200 years, that's a fact. So yes, your life might look whiter and straighter than a white ruler right now, and you may feel that the show isn't a reflection of the way you live, but it is an accurate reflection of the way society is evolving.

And, like I said, being inclusive isn't harmful to anyone.

It’s brilliant

I think they actually should tick a box and have a dim-witted, dull-humoured brexiteer ranting about there being too many blacks on tv- ‘it’s not the like the good old days,’ ‘having a female dr is unbelievable’ and ‘it’s pc gawn mad’ etc etc.

Last time I looked it wasn't possible to determine the ethnicity or sexual orientation of people on the internet unless they explicitly say what it is.

I didn't even notice the niece's wife bit last night! At least it's not as shoehorned in as last series, where Bill had to mention she liked girls twice every episode. But I'd rather it be like this then never seeing gay people on TV (except for in occasional worthy dramas about how miserable it is being gay). It's bloody awesome that the Doctor is a woman now. We need more disabled characters on TV though, that are just part of the story without the disability being the sold purpose of their inclusion, iyswim.

I'm hoping it picks up a bit.

Like PP said it's not so much fun feels quite lecturey.

The RosaParks episode was a bit odd > for teh USA market? Why couldn't they have done something from UK history it's a UK prog after all and we have plenty of inspirational people in history / recent history! Instead we got a clunky lecture about USA history? It just felt a bit odd, forced.

Then yesterday we got ENVIRONMENTALISM with the capitals. Chucking stuff away to lnadfill is bad hmmkay?

On the sexuality thing I have still not got over them finishing the lesbian lizard woman and her wife they were brilliant characters.

I want more running down corridors + cybermen + daleks + silly asides + ridiculous villains + so on can you tell I grew up with tom baker

Also ALSO the special effects seem a bit shit? Which is also weird.

Last time I looked it wasn't possible to determine the ethnicity or sexual orientation of people on the internet unless they explicitly say what it is

Umm That’s correct. And?

I think it’s ideal for what it is, it’s bbc light entertainment not the RSC.
How many people, after the Rosa Parks episodes said they had no idea that was segregation was like? Literally loads. And it the episode skimmed over the surface of a hell of a lot. And it aided the character development between the step grandad and grandson - the boy is in needs of roots and the step-grandad is his last link to his gran who was a massive fan of Rosa Park.
In last nights episode the grandson was offended when his bio dad said he was his last “real” family - he’s started to realise family is the people that are there which is a general dr who theme.
Also I just assumed the baddies we’ve seen so far will be part of the long story arc.
I do dislike the short trousers and boots dr who wears, makes me feel like she doesn’t have proper socks on. I love that they’ve avoided anything remotely sexy though.

There are people out there on the internet outraged that Marvel are going to put out a female-led superhero film. Proper frothing. Bloody women are getting everything these days, nothing left for men etc etc. 1 sodding film, and no mention of the three million preceding films that were male-led.

Thank you @mateysmum

Some people want to live in denial. Being subtle does not make the issue disappear. Subtle does not often offend and it's the reason why this thread was started. This series has no subtlety about diversity and people are having a problem. Some people can't handle more than one issue that is not disguised in the back ground.

I think it’s a problem with the clunky writing rather than anything. If there was any sort of characterisation it would feel completely different.

@everybodysang I agree.

I'm enjoying this series, mainly because my youngest DC kept running out of the room when the spiders came on.

If the story was better the clunky references to characters’ sexuality and race would he find. Sadly the niece’s wife stood out like a sort thumb because of the lack of story. There was a a lot I didn’t like last night. The spider story was really thin and wasn’t properly concluded. Why did Yasmin’s dad collect rubbish in their flat? I know there was a lot of rubbish in the city but why store it in his home confused

Not sure where he found the rubbish, but he thought there was a conspiracy where it was being dumped illegally and was collecting it as evidence. He was right, but I don't know what he was planning on doing about it. Perhaps try to persuade his police officer daughter to take it on, not understanding that she would not be able to do any more than he could...

I thought it was also the way the spider ended up in the neighbour's flat - he brought it in with the rubbish and it found it's way into the flat as she smelled like the lab where it was hatched.

I thought it was great that Yaz lived in Park Hill Flats. A very interesting decision for anyone who knows Sheffield.

I liked how every time some one referred to yaz' mum, she came back with:"Nadia."

Aside from that, 9 yr old ds loves it and that's the target audience. I'm allowed to watch The WAlking dead and Game of Thrones.