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Airings
Doctor, who?
Who might be the next
tenant of the TARDIS? Well, actually, Who
will be the . . . Oh, let’s let
Stephen Blake explain!
Could the
next Doctor be gay?
Sounds like a tabloid
headline, doesn’t it? But could it be true?
Could the
next actor to play the Doctor be gay?
Speculation has surfaced
in recent weeks following David Tennant’s
decision to hang up his multicoloured scarf.
This came shortly after the publication of
Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale –
essentially, a chronicle of a year-long
interview (via email) between
Russell T Davies and
Benjamin Cook.
Much of the press
reaction to the book centred on a suggestion
from Davies that
Russell Tovey would make a suitable
replacement Doctor. Tovey, who came to
prominence as Rudge in
Alan Bennett’s
The History Boys is openly gay.
And, yes, it would be great to have an
openly gay actor playing such a popular and
iconic part.
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Russell Tovey |
But what about the
naysayers?
Ever since the BBC
brought back
Doctor Who in 2005, malcontents and
other bigoted saddos have accused the show’s
outgoing head writer, Davies, of having some
sort of
gay agenda, presumably because he
created
Queer As Folk, the Channel 4 drama
about gay men living and playing in
Manchester!
Their evidence of gay
mis-goings-on in Doctor Who?
Well, every once in a while, there’s a
passing reference to a character’s being
gay, or
– horror of horrors!
– just the
possibility.
It happened in Series 1,
with the introduction of one of the Doctor’s
companions, Captain Jack Harkness – an
“omnisexual” Time Agent from the 51st
century – played by
John
Barrowman, who is himself (more horror
of horrors!) an openly gay man.
It happened again in
Series 2, when Tommy (Rory
Jennings) – the teenager who may
be gay – helped out the Doctor while Rose
was “off her face”; you’ll have to watch it
to see what I mean!
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Rory Jennings |
Then it happened in
Series 3, when we met briefly a couple of
dear old ladies – from the year 5 billion –
who’d been “an item” for many years; and
again when the Doctor made some quip to
Frank – a young man from 1930s New York,
played by
Andrew Garfield – about kissing him
later.
Series 4 wasn’t immune,
either, with a minor Maurice-type
subplot in a story about a unicorn, a giant,
wasp-like alien, Agatha Christie and a joke
about a bottle of ginger beer!
These idiots also cite as
evidence that Davies has cast lots of dishy
young men in the show (not enough for my
mate Steven Dean – see his column
elsewhere in
this issue. Furthermore, now that Steven
Moffat is to take over as head writer for
Series 5 in 2010, they believe that the gay
agenda will be no more.
What?!
The Doctor snogged every
one of his female companions, and most of
them – Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Sarah Jane
Smith and Kylie! (you’ll have to watch it to
see what I mean!) – were in love with him.
What about the tear-jerking end to Series 2,
when Rose was separated from the Doctor for
ever by being banished to a parallel
universe. And then, at the end of Series 4,
she and the human version of the Tenth
Doctor (you’ll have to watch it to see what
I mean!) went off together hand in hand.
Doesn’t look much like a gay agenda to me!
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Gay agenda?
Astrid Peth, one in a long line
of women to snog the Doctor |
Where’s the male
companion falling in love with/snogging/walking
off hand in hand with the Doctor?
Forget all those straight
characters and straight relationships in the
show. Forget the fact that the programme’s
also full of older men, young women and
older women. Ignore the fact that much of
the character profile of the omnisexual Time
Agent Captain Jack was developed by
Steven Moffat – a straight man with a
wife and children.
If this was the gay
agenda, I can’t wait for the straight one,
because, by those standards, it’s going to
be wall-to-wall male companions snogging the
Doctor, falling in love with the Doctor,
walking off into the sunset with the Doctor!
May the
Gods of Ragnarok preserve us!
Who’s
out . . .
Meanwhile, Tennant has
had to pull out of the current Royal
Shakespeare Company treatment of Hamlet
due to a back injury. Tennant will now be in
hospital for surgery instead of taking the
play to London’s West End. Edward Bennett,
understudy and until now unknown, stepped
into his shoes.
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Hamlet’s Edward Bennett
and David Tennant,
with Patrick Stewart |
Tennant has drawn record
audiences to see Shakespeare’s play and
there were fears that his absence would
affect them. But by all accounts Bennett has
wowed theatregoers, too, as this from the
London Times shows:
Understudy? Mr
Bennett was Hamlet in his own right!
Last night’s performance was totally
spellbinding. I can only hope The Powers
That Be sit up and take notice.
There’s concern as to
whether Tennant will be back on the stage
before the end of the run and no word yet as
to whether he’ll be ready to return to
Cardiff in January to complete his final
episodes of
Doctor Who.
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“A fellow of
infinite jest . . .” |
As for that skull, Yorick
– or this part of him – was played by the
real skull of the Polish composer and
pianist
André Tchaikowsky, who died in 1982,
leaving the artefact to the Royal
Shakespeare Company “for use in theatrical
performance”.
Who’s
next . . .?
Apparently, it’s
David Morrissey. He’s certainly
the Next Doctor but is he the next
Doctor? You’ll have to watch it to see what
I mean!
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update:
I can’t believe I said “following David
Tennant’s decision to hang up his
multicoloured scarf”. It’s the sort of
thing lazy journalists say.
Tom Baker
was the only Doctor Who to wear such a
garment, and he left the show nearly 30
years ago!
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