The Onion

It’s actually racist not to cast a white man if you think about it – which I haven’t, obviously.

Excellent

I give 2 shits what the doctor is I just miss liking the show lol

People complained that there was a black character in the video game God Of War Ragnarok.

They seem to ignore the fact that it's a game series about Greek mythology and that game is suddenly Norse mythology. Guess continuity issues like entirely different cultures are fine as long as we keep it white!

I feel that lore-wise, the doctor changing sex was a bigger test of suspension of disbelief. But they prepped for it by having the Master do it. The Master has previously spent time being a walking corpse, so that is a fairly straight line of baby steps to get there.

Once that's been established, changing race is nothing. And arguably the doctor has shown a not insignificant amount of racial diversity already to prove it's not impossible.

The show just sucks for a variety of other reasons.

I really like the 15th Doctor. Ncuti is doing a great job, and RTD really seems to know what to do with him. I really haven’t heard any complaints other than some people whining that the new season is a bit too “fantasy”, but, like, have you ever seen the show?

You don't watch Dr Who because they cast women and black men as the main character

I don't watch Dr Who because i have hated the piss poor writing since Moffat took over

We are not the same

Yes i am aware RTD is back, he had four episodes to bring me back to the franchise (three with my favourite Doctor) and i only kind of liked one of them.

and that Goblin episode... wtf was that? Dumb... that's what it was

I thought i hated Matt Smith until i saw him in something that wasn't written badly. Capaldi could have been a fantastic doctor if the writing wasn't so shit. I gave up before i got to Whittaker so have no opinion of her tenure

A similar thing is happening with the new Assassins Creed game. Lots of people trying to make every argument against a black male protagonist without just saying they are racist/white supremacist. I’m sure the game is bad, the last several Assassins Creed games were pretty bad. But blaming this one “historical accuracy” or Ubisoft “pushing an agenda” is an intentional (or maybe unintentional) attempt to justify white supremacy.

WOT having racial diversity in a village where the book made a huge deal about the fact that everyone looks the same due to isolation and inbreeding. That I had an issue with. This is stupid. It is well established that the doctor can come back looking like anything.

The real tragedy is he's not a red head.

The character is great. The acting is mostly great. The stories are stupid as fuck.

I stopped watching Dr Who years ago, because the writing was terrible. The Doctor also suffers from Silver Age Superman Syndrome -- they are so overpowered and know everything and are basically infallible. Boring. I don't care what colour or gender they are, just get better writers.

Ahem...

Mocking the minority of people who hold these opinions just gives them more attention than they deserve. No one relevant actually cares that the character is being played by a black actor. As always, the majority of complaining is coming from conservative trolls who take their anti-woke brigade to literally any film or TV series that has cast minorities in leading roles. It's just the same people doing it every time, they are not actually fans of any of these things and were never going to watch them anyway.

There's cases where I will play devil's advocate for such asshats. Some comic-book events feature a black Superman, and that raises questions about whether Kryptonians coincidentally match every ethnic group on Earth, or if they've got some skin colors that aren't an option for humans, or if there's some imprinting transformation wiggle-room when they show up as babies on rocketships. Remember that Supes works with a dude from Mars - cosmically our next-door neighbors - and his ass is green.

And for the constant murmur of Idris Elba maybe playing James Bond, I have to point out the sliding window of ambiguous canon. From Dr. No until Die Another Day, the previous film was definitely the same guy, probably, and beyond that ehhh don't worry about it. It was completely unreasonable that Pierce Brosnan during the handover of Hong Kong could be the same man as Sean Connery during the Cuban missile crisis - but there was no hard cutoff. You could suspend disbelief, movie by movie, and never really think about it. Did a character change? Did some details shift? Retcons happen, why worry. Don't ask what movie Bruce Wayne and his parents were seeing. For forty years, 007 was played by 6'1" commonwealth blokes with light skin and dark hair, and the unspoken through-line is that audiences can be convinced all white actors look alike. Casting anyone else would require acknowledging that the codename can be transferred - or starting a new continuity. (Admittedly less of an issue since the Daniel Craig films pretty solidly cover a new continuity with yet another 6'1" commonwealth bloke with light skin and blond hair.)

But... Doctor fucking Who? They're shapeshifters. Every single Gallifreyan gets a dozen chances (or a dozen ish, evidently) to completely scrobble their appearance while maintaining a continuous personality. Even their fucking accents can change. Any losers sincerely whining about this are being bigots about an aggressively queer and accepting production. Even the original run started with an educational bent and tried to be progressive for the betterment of its audience.

The people this article mocks might as well kvetch about Star Trek being kind of preachy.

I just hope they eventually cast some fully Britishized actor originally out of Hong Kong... one trained in certain things Hong Kong actors are known for. I want a kung fu Doctor. :p

Lucas Bishop

I miss sci-fi stories written by better writers and can't get behind this super special nonsense fantasy.

God I wish even our shows weren't monopolies now of old land holders.

Who cares what an alien looks like other than the people that want it to be relatable for some reason instead of the companion