The British television audience is seeing these weeks how the series Doctor Who shakes up its cast and, consequently, the prejudices of the viewers. First, it was reported that Ncuti Gatwa, the actor who became known in Sex Education, would become the first black Doctor in history, taking over from Jodie Whittaker, who in turn was the first woman to play the role. And, now that three specials have been broadcast to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the science fiction series, the BBC has received more than a hundred complaints about another milestone: the inclusion of the first relevant trans character.
The signing of Yasmin Finney, popular thanks to Heartstopper, had been announced in May but her relevance to the plot was unknown until last weekend, when the last of the three special episodes premiered. Who does Finney play? To Rose, the trans daughter of Donna, the Doctor's companion played by Catherine Tate who returned for the anniversary alongside David Tennant, the most iconic doctor of the new era. The episode was watched by 7.6 million viewers, a good figure, but it caused 144 people to write to the BBC complaining about the addition.
The idea argued by detractors is that Rose is “inappropriate” for family content such as Doctor Who, which since 1963 has offered adventures through the Doctor, the last extraterrestrial of his species with the ability to move through time and space with Tardis, his particular spaceship that looks like a police cabin. Others have even said that this is an “anti-men” maneuver on the part of the creative team, headed by Russell T. Davies at this stage.
In the three episodes there are moments such as, for example, Donna explaining how lucky she is to have Rose as a daughter: “You have a daughter. Suddenly, she grows up and becomes extraordinarily beautiful and you think: Where did she come from? How can I be so lucky?” Donna even talks to the Doctor about her need to understand pronouns when referring to people and, in the construction of Rose's character, the transphobia that a girl like her can suffer from those who make fun of her gender is also shown. , calling her by her birth name.
The complaints, furthermore, should not be surprising. The United Kingdom is in the midst of an offensive by the conservative government led by Rishi Sunak. Minister Kemi Badenoch is considering changing the Equality Act approved in 2010 with the aim of protecting citizens from discrimination based on beliefs, age, disabilities, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. She wants, for legal purposes, a person's sex to be their birth sex, opening the doors in Scotland, England and Wales to discriminate against trans people.
Russell T. Davies, in fact, is clear about his position. He wanted to turn his new stage in Doctor Who into a platform to combat transphobia. “There are newspapers with absolute hate and poison and destruction and violence that I would prefer to see erased from the screen,” he said of the representation of trans people at a conference. And, for those who do not agree with the creative perspective that Davies has adopted, a reflection: he is responsible for Doctor Who still existing in 2023.
The screenwriter, who had written in numerous BBC fictions in the 90s, tried to convince managers to resurrect a title that they had buried, considering that it was ideal to enter the new century. This is how he took charge of Doctor Who in 2005, resetting the series for new generations. He wrote Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant's run before passing the baton to Steven Moffat as showrunner (and Matt Smith as star), and was also the creator of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, two spin-offs.
Now, after creating critically acclaimed series such as Cucumber, Years and years or It's a sin, he wanted to return to the science fiction franchise, whose international rights Disney has, which is why it is broadcast on Disney in Spain.
