Gatwa’s friend Doctor Who debut Last year we set new standards for many reasonsbut for one excellent one of many it meant there were fans for the first time ever presented to a doctor played by an openly queer man – and he plays a doctor who isn’t afraid to acknowledge that either.
“You know what? It makes perfect sense to me,” he said diversity recently in a comprehensive story about his casting as the 15th Doctor. “I feel like anyone who has a problem with someone who isn’t a straight white man playing this character isn’t really a fan of the show. You weren’t watching! Because the show is about regeneration and the Doctor is an alien – why would they choose to be that human?”
But while Gatwa is the series’ first openly queer star – and his doctor has already openly addressed his approach to gender and sexuality, from clubbing in kilts to tell his new companion, Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday, about his long, hot summers with Harry Houdini. But for series showrunner Russell T. Davies, this is just the latest in a long line of the series either addressing the Doctor’s relationship with queer identity head-on – particularly in the series’ modern era – or being sufficiently open about the character leads to the interpretation that the fandom had already viewed the character from a queer perspective many years before.
“They weren’t exactly that most straightforward Men in the past,” Davies added. Most contemporary incarnations of the Doctor are characterized by straightforward depictions of romantic relationships, but even then they have all played out and discussed their own concept of queer attraction in fleeting moments, or, perhaps more appropriately for the Doctor, a one person who has eons spent traveling through time and space, an attraction that transcends human understanding of gender. More recently, queer recognition through the character has become more evident – in Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor acknowledge their feelings for one of her companions, Yaz, upon David Tennant’s return as the 14th Doctor I take a moment to thirst for Sir Isaac Newton.
Although this will not be a defining aspect of Gatwa’s Doctor, according to Davies, it is a trend that will continue in the series. “You’re talking about someone who has a lightness and a joy about her that, for me, resonates with queer energy,” Davies added. “It’s very rare that the story is pushed forward forcefully, but you will see moments where it is explored. We don’t give birth to a castrated doctor.”
Ultimately it just means Doctor Who will continue to do what it has always done –reflect the whole wide world and the universe around him in as many ways as possible. “It’s very hard for anyone to stop me from doing these things,” Davies concluded. “You would have to be a pretty brave manager to say to me: ‘Don’t go there’. I’m sure there are people who think that, but I wouldn’t work with them, would I?”
Doctor Who returns on May 10th at 7pm Eastern time on Disney+ and May 11th at 12pm UK time on BBC iPlayer.
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