Doctor Who gets first openly gay companion

BBC News ^ | 31th March | Lizo Mzimba

[Ennis85]

The new series of Doctor Who will see the Time Lord joined by his first openly gay companion. Bill Potts's sexuality will be revealed pretty much straightaway in her second line of dialogue when the show returns to BBC One on 15 April. "It shouldn't be a big deal in the 21st Century. It's about time isn't it?" Pearl Mackie, who plays Bill, told the BBC. "That representation is important, especially on a mainstream show." She added: "It's important to say people are gay, people are black - there are also aliens in the world as well so watch out for them. "I remember watching TV as a young mixed race girl not seeing many people who looked like me, so I think being able to visually recognise yourself on screen is important." "[Being gay] is not the main thing that defines her character - it's something that's part of her and something that she's very happy and very comfortable with."

Gay and bisexual characters have featured in Doctor Who before, such as Captain Jack and River Song, but this is the first time the Doctor's permanent companion has been openly gay. Although Captain Jack - played by John Barrowman - travelled with the Doctor for a number of episodes, he was not a full-time companion in the traditional sense. Mackie said it had been "kind of insane" to be the centre of attention since she was announced in the role last April, despite not being seen on screen until this Easter. "My Twitter follower count went from 400-and-something to 16,500 in about two hours, so that was pretty mental," said the actress, who is taking over from Jenna Coleman as the Doctor's companion. "But it's been really nice, everyone seems to be really excited."

[wally_bert]

Despite the problems, Inferno is really good, especially the polar opposites Brigadier/Brigade Leader and the Liz Shaws.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

That’s what I was thinking.

[BBell]

Any one watch “Torchwood”? I thought it was pretty good but the faggotry was really a bit too much.

[wally_bert]

I liked it and have the soundtrack.

[MarkL]

This show is utterly DOOMED.

THAT line has been said at the very least, 12 times during the run of the show, every time the actor who played The Doctor was replaced.

Though the show was out of production for several years, the premier episode of Dr. Who was missed by most of the BBC viewing public due to the BBC coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Mark

[tbw2]

The constant homosexuality made Torchwood unwatchable for me. Certainly unacceptable for my son who loves Dr. Who.

[MarkL]

I fell absolutely, head over heels in love with her character in her first appearance in Dr. Who, "The Assylum of the Daleks." I don't know if at that point they had planned for her to become the official companion, but she had terrific chemistry with Matt Smith.

The funny thing is that her character on Dr Who met Queen Victoria in "The Day of the Doctor," the 50th anniversary episode.

Mark

[dljordan]

“The constant homosexuality made Torchwood unwatchable for me. Certainly unacceptable for my son who loves Dr. Who.”

Me too. It was great and then....

[MarkL]

I gave up Doctor Who already because this latest Doctor is such a whiny little bitch anyway. I really expected him to go gay or “pansexual” by now.

I know what you mean... I've never really "taken to him," now that this is his last season on the show. The only highlight of the show, as far as I've seen with this Doctor, was the tension between Him and Clara (Jenna Lee Coleman's character.)

Once she finally left the show, I thought things went downhill. I'm looking forward to see where the show goes with the next Doctor - Probably a female doctor is my guess.

Mark

[MarkL]

It’s been all down hill since Tom Baker left.

I really enjoyed Tom Baker's Doctor after John Pertwee's portrayal, but I really also liked Peter Davidson, and had a chance to meet him at a Dr Who/Hitchhiker's Guide convention in St. Louis in the mid-80s. He was a genuinely nice gentleman with a terrific sense of humor. Thanks to our local PBS station, I was able to watch Peter Davison as both Dr. Who and Tristan in "All Creatures Great and Small" during the same week.

To be honest though, I've also come to really enjoy Peter Eccleston's, David Tennant's, and Matt Smith's Doctors too.

Mark

[MarkL]

Oh, and I also meant to say that John Hurt made an EXCELLENT Doctor!

Mark

[MarkL]

Had to look up pansexual. Too many queer terms to keep up with. Hmm, so he/it will do anything at anytime. No, thanks.

I didn't realize there was a term for that... Captain Jack Harkness embodied the phrase, "The crack of dawn isn't safe with that guy around!"

Mark

[roadcat]

WRONG!

Captain Jack Harkness.

You're right. Darn it, I couldn't stand watching Harkness and his open sexuality with other men on his Doctor Who spinoff show Torchwood, that was the end of watching that for me. An otherwise good show, ruined by openly gay crap. He didn't flaunt it so much on Doctor Who, thank goodness.

[Boomer]

Great. Another show ruined by the sexual deviants who just have to broadcast their deviancy to the world to try and social engineer future generations into thinking being gay is normal.

Nope. Not normal and never will be. Sorry. Sucks to be gay (no pun intended but if it works; ok).

I’d really like to see a huge grassroots effort by the general public pushing back on the networks that allow this gay push onto its viewers. It’s time.

[Kickass Conservative]

Does this mean that the Alien Queen in the Aliens Movie is a cross dresser, Gay or a Post Operative Tranny?

I’m so confused.

[GladesGuru]

Well, isn’t that just Fabulous!

Well, not really.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Especially the last season.

[SuziQ]

Why would anyone even WONDER about the Doctor’s companion’s sexual proclivities? The companions never got up to anything frisky, anyway, from what I remember of the times I watched the show. Granted, it’s been almost 30 years since I watched it, so they may have sexed it up some. Most shows have done this in order to bring in more viewers; never worked for me.

[a fool in paradise]

Cousin Oliver facepalm.

[BillyBoy]

>> Unfortunately, many of the third Doctor episodes are no longer available anywhere. <<

You must be thinking of the first and second Doctor's eras, quite a few of their episodes were "wiped" by the BBC in the 70s (when they switched to color and wrongly assumed nobody would watch the old B&W episodes anymore)

Pertwee's era is completely intact and EVERY episode has been released to DVD by now. About 3-4 of the serials were missing the original color broadcast and were only available in B&W until recently, but the BBC either restored the color negatives or colorized the missing ones for the DVD releases.

Since it looks like I'll be boycotting season 10 of nuWho (shame, Capadi was an interesting choice to succeed Matt Smith), now is probably a good time for me to start watching all the episodes of the Pertwee era. Doctor Who had class back then.