Doctor Who is “THUNDERINGLY RACIST”


An upcoming anthology titled Doctor Who and Race includes 23 essays discussing the way race is portrayed on the classic BBC show. The writers accuse the show of having outdated attitudes that are “thunderingly racist”.

Many of the writers point to lack of casting a black or Asian actor as the main character. They also accuse the Time Lord as being dismissive of black companions and of portraying primitive cultures as “savages”.

Earlier episodes are criticized for having white actors portraying ethnic roles. The main example given is John Bennet playing a Chinese villain in the story-line The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Sadly, this was a common casting move in older cinema and TV.

American professor and author Amit Gupta, believes that Peter Davison’s cricket loving character was nostalgic towards the ‘racial and class’ differences of British imperialism.

The Doctor is accused of having a colonialist mindset shown by him dismissing cultures who have different beliefs than him as primitive, especially those with varying views on scientific progress.

Also, last year the show introduced Adolf Hitler as a character, which the book states was used as ‘slapstick’ and doing nothing to actually educate viewers on the horrors of the Holocaust.


The Author, Lindy Orthia, said ”The biggest elephant in the room is the problem privately nursed by many fans of loving a TV show when it is thunderingly racist.”

In response, BBC released the following statement “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,” and ”Reflecting the diversity of the UK is a duty of the BBC, and casting on Doctor Who is color-blind. It is always about the best actors for the roles.”

Shows have to be seen through a filter of the times they were shown. It is expected that the pervading racism of the 60’s, when the show began, would show itself throughout the casting and themes of early episodes. It would be unrealistic to think it wouldn’t.

As the series matured and progressed the expectations should be held higher. I would take the BBC’s statement more serious if I believed the show employed a diverse group of writers, producers and others behind the camera, but I have seen no proof of this. I laugh at the idea of color-blind casting, because if BBC cast someone non-white or female in the role, people would riot and claim reverse racism.

Racial critiques should not be taken as an attack. Too often majority geek culture alienates other fans by not allowing altering views, especially on the topic of race. Many critiques may be from true fans, who are pointing out a problem to improve a series they love.

I myself am not a fan of Doctor Who; I have nothing against it, the show just never appealed to me. This may be because I never connected to it or felt like it spoke to me or those like me. I have absolutely always seen it as a show about some white British dude who has nothing to do with my life. Showing more sensitivity towards race and/or further diversifying the cast would open the show up to a whole new demographic of fans who could share fan’s love of Doctor Who.

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Jay Deitcher, LMSW(@mrdeitcher) embraces the term MUTANT and proudly represents his MUTANT brothers and sisters.  He is an educator on comic history and runs successful Free Comic Book Day events yearly.  You can see a listing of his incredible articles and his highly energetic videos at JayDeitcher.com.