‘Hello, I’m the Doctor’ claimed actress Jo Martin in Sunday night’s newest episode of Doctor Who, and from this moment forward, a tirade of angry Whovians descended towards the twitter battleground. The reason? I argue that this is because Jo Martin is a black woman. For some context, since October 2018, Jodie Whittaker has played the thirteenth incarnation of the famous role and she is also the first woman to ever inhabit the role. 

Doctor Who ran originally from 1963 to 1989, and then was picked up again in 2005. Thirty-nine years into the show, surely it was time for a female doctor, right? Well apparently, not. For a character always differentiated by its ability to be able to change their whole body into an entirely different one, for many viewers, a female body was a step too far, with one person tweeting ‘Time LORD. I repeat the Doctor is a time LORD not a time LADY.’ 

This vitriol towards the now “too PC” time-travel show returned this week upon the reveal of Jo Martin. Another capital-letter-loving, tweeter said; ‘When Is Doctor Who Gunna Go Back To Proper Action-Packed Episodes Rather Than Full of PC Gone Wrong and Trying To Teach Us Things.’ Now, there is nothing wrong with disliking parts of the show. As the writers and key actors are constantly changing, it is unlikely a person could like all parts of the show equally. I am a huge fan but skipped a lot of the Capaldi era because I just didn’t love the writing. Absolutely fine. Saying you don’t like the new Doctor Who is perfectly acceptable, as long as it is not for seemingly sexist or racist reasons which, unfortunately, it often seems to be. 

The Daily Mail responded to the episode, reporting that the show had become a ‘tiresome ordeal of political correctness for some viewers.’ Here, the term “political correctness” is thrown in, an apparent favourite of Who haters; with one viewer accusing the BBC of pushing ‘PC propaganda’. Political correctness, PC for short, is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as believing that ‘language and actions that could be offensive to others, especially those relating to sex and race, should be avoided’. 

In general, Doctor Who has always, at least to an extent, strived for this. The Doctors themselves have always strived for justice over violence, and prioritised preservation of life and equality for all the people they came across. Captain Jack (John Barrowman) entered the show in the first season and made it his mission to seemingly flirt with everyone and anyone, kissing both The Doctor and Rose (Billie Piper) on the lip’s goodbye. In terms of racial diversity; Rose’s boyfriend Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) appeared in the show on/off for five years, as well as the doctor’s second companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). When William Shakespeare asks where she’s from, calling her an ‘an Ethiop girl, a swarth, a Queen of Afric?’ Tennant’s Doctor sarcastically responds to her outrage; ‘it’s political correctness gone mad!’ This was in 2007, and so it is shocking that a whole thirteen years later, some viewers seem even less inclined to accept the Doctor Who’s open-minded character. The show has always sided with the outsider, but it seems that for some, the inclusion of diverse people was fine as long as they never discussed discrimination, and remained secondary to the white, straight leads. 

Now, as three of the newest series’ recurring leads are minorities, the Doctor and her companions Yaz Khan (Mandip Gill) and Ryan Sinlair (Tosin Cole), it seems to be proving too much for some of the more old-fashioned fans of the show. What critics of the show seem to miss is two things. Firstly, that the show has to change with the times. As a show which represents modern life (with added space and time travelling), it is the shows’ responsibility to include not just characters but storylines that demonstrate the diversity of the British population. 

Secondly, a major thing older critics forget is that Doctor Who was designed for and primarily aimed at, children. The importance of representation in entertainment for children is huge in order to feel comfortable in themselves. As a queer woman, seeing open lesbian companion Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) as a child would have shown me a positive, non-stereotypical gay character that I didn’t see on television until my mid-teens. For children today, seeing people who look like them talk about themselves whilst fighting bad guys will help them see themselves in a positive light. There is no danger in Doctor Who, or any series, becoming more inclusive and diverse. In short, it makes sense that the Doctor today does not in any way represent the Doctor that the baby-boomer generation remembers, because it isn’t theirs anymore. 

Jo Martin was a brilliant Doctor in the short amount of time we saw her. For the “fans” upset that her presence was ‘changing the cannon because of PC wokeness’, they can rest assured that this is not the first time a stranger has declared themselves the Doctor. The 2008 Christmas special featured David Morrissey pitching up and claiming to be the time-traveller alongside the series’ actual Doctor; David Tennant. The writers sorted it then, and they undoubtedly will now. I argue that it is cowardly to hide behind non-existent excuses as to why the new series is ‘too PC’ in order to push bigoted opinions. It’s 2020, if you can watch aliens, you can watch women and people of colour. If not, watch something else and let the Doctor and her friends keep fighting the good fight.