I watched doctor who tonight and thought it was a mediocre episode at best. Then I looked on social media. Calls of its “Ncuti Gatwa’s best role on tv for how it addressed racism.”
Hold on….
Firstly, I hadn’t even considered it was about race until people started posting about it.
My perspective is Doctor Who is about acceptance and embracement of all religions, faiths, races and creeds and I’m all for that. My interpretation was that they were outsiders and they didn’t want them involved. The fact in one scene there was green blood suggests they weren’t human so possibly speciesist rather than racist. It hadn’t occurred to me that there were no characters of colour in the cast until after the episode, but i had completly missed the point about it being about race. Maybe I’m neieve for not interpreting it that way, but I do wonder if the intention of leaving it ambiguous if about race or species was done intentionally to try to skirt around the topic?
Either way, on reflection perhaps the fact it’s made me question my own interpretation makes it a better episode than I originally gave it credit for. There are plenty of things raised in the episode, and, as much of this season, loose ends that have not been resolved. Maybe it’s all tying together in some mega final episode. Who knows….
(No pun intended)
