Doctor Who Cited In BBC Report Warning Of “Clunky” Diversity
A new BBC commissioned report has highlighted how modern casting decisions can trigger audience backlash around its flagship shows such as Doctor Who.
In particular, the independent review cites Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary special “Wild Blue Yonder“. According to the report, “The controversy over Doctor Who concerned a mixed race (Indian white) actor, Nathaniel Curtis, playing the part of Sir Isaac Newton, a white historical figure”
The authors note that some audience complaints focused on perceived double standards around historical casting. “Some complainants argued that it would cause offence if a white person were to portray a black historical figure and it is certainly hard to imagine a modern equivalent to Sir Lawrence Olivier ‘blacking up’ to play Othello.”
While the authors defend colour-blind casting in principle, the report warns more broadly that measuring diversity largely at programme level can lead to inauthentic portrayal, noting that “in some cases, this can look clunky, particularly in scripted programmes” when diversity does not arise naturally from the story or setting.
In the context of Doctor Who’s use of a real historical figure, the authors caution that depicting a past in which people of colour appear to have enjoyed equal access to power risks “the unintended consequence of erasing the past exclusion and oppression of ethnic minorities and breeding complacency about their former opportunities”
At the same time, the review argues against demanding strict realism from a show that focuses on fantastical elements. “In Doctor Who, if we can ask viewers to believe that the central character is an extra terrestrial being who can regenerate into a range of different actors and travels in a time machine through the space time continuum, a mixed race Sir Isaac Newton seems much less of a stretch,” the report says.
Although that argument may ring hollow for some long time fans. After all, Doctor Who was originally conceived as a family programme with a strong educational remit, using historical settings and recognisable real figures to spark interest in history as much as science fiction.
