No, Ncuti Gatwa’s ‘Doctor Who’ hasn’t been axed because of ‘wokery’
Oh look, more culture war nonsense from The Sun, a tabloid newspaper and one of Britain’s many great shames. Not satisfied with attacking Prince Harry, it’s now set its sights on Doctor Who, claiming the show has been canceled because of “wokery.” What do they mean by “wokery”? Well, last year was the first season of the show to feature a Black Doctor in the lead role, so it’s pretty obvious what’s going on.
The Sun claims that “the recent series suffered abysmal ratings with fans outraged by the BBC shoehorning wokery into storylines.” This is not true. Doctor Who was the BBC’s top drama for under-35s last year and one of the most-watched shows on BBC iPlayer. Fans were not outraged. In the actual Doctor Who fandom, which I am a part of, fans enjoyed seeing the Doctor interact with diverse people and share a same-sex kiss.
A mysterious insider told The Sun, “Ncuti doesn’t want to be tied to the series beyond this and plans to relocate to Los Angeles with several Hollywood projects standing by for him. His team also see a lot of fan backlash from the series, and don’t want the perception of him still being The Doctor to get in the way of any future work.”
They do not point to this “fan backlash.” If anyone is attacking Gatwa, they’re probably not genuine fans—they’re more like those at The Sun, stirring up racism and homophobia for no reason. Gatwa knows this and has spoken up about it. “I wouldn’t be the only Black lead that’s taken over a sci-fi franchise that would have received that sort of treatment,” he told Vanity Fair last year. “Unfortunately, those are voices that exist in sci-fi fandoms—but they’re not the only voices.”
He went on, “I just remember feeling a lot of warmth and love, being embraced into a big nerd family … I don’t want to invalidate the very real thing that is racism, homophobia. I don’t act as if they don’t exist or they don’t affect me. They do. But I try to pay it no mind and look at the many, many positives that came from joining the Whoniverse.” It sure doesn’t sound like he’s planning on quitting!
The Sun’s insider also claimed, “People warned some episodes were getting too caught up on an agenda rather than telling a story and those people got shouted down, ignored.” Oh? What agenda would this be? The promotion of characters of color? The same-sex relationships? Doctor Who has addressed these topics for decades now, despite the constant attacks from the “woke”-obsessed British media who consider the promotion of any agenda beyond “straight, white, male” an outrage. The Sun’s source does not name these “people” who complained because they likely do not exist—at least not outside the most depressing parts of the internet.
The first same-sex kiss on Doctor Who was in 2005, and the first Black main character (Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones) came in 2007. It’s a bit late to complain now.
Meanwhile, the BBC released a statement to The Mirror to respond to The Sun’s blatant lies. “This story is incorrect, Doctor Who has not been shelved,” they said. “As we have previously stated, the decision on season 3 will be made after season 2 airs. The deal with Disney+ was for 26 episodes—and exactly half of those still have to transmit. And as for the rest, we never comment on the Doctor and future storylines.”
Is there a slight possibility that Ncuti Gatwa could leave after the next season or the one after that? Sure, he’s a busy man, and no one would begrudge him going to work in Hollywood. But that wouldn’t mean the show would be axed entirely—another actor would take over the role of the Doctor, as is tradition. That next person could be a woman, a trans man, Black, Asian—that’s the beauty of this show. The Doctor can be anyone now.
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