In ‘Rosa,’ an episode where the Doctor and her friends travel back in time to meet Rosa Parks, the Doctor’s Black companion Ryan experiences mid-century US segregation. This ‘very special episode purposed to acknowledge cultural and social differences for one time only’ was also haphazardly applied to the new companions. 'Doctor Who' Is Copping Heat For Being "Overwhelmingly Written By Men" While the Doctor has always been a morally ambiguous figure, making the only explicitly criminal version of the character a Black woman invokes harmful stereotypes around Blackness and criminality. Martin’s iteration of the character was revealed to be from a past the Doctor had forgotten - they were part of a suicide squad that committed terrorist acts on the Doctor’s home planet. This “hidden” incarnation of the Doctor he introduced was portrayed by Black British actor, Jo Martin. Chibnall even undermined Whittaker’s significance as the first woman incarnation of the Doctor within the show, creating a character arch that revealed the Doctor had actually been a woman before - but the audience hadn’t seen it. Neither Whittaker nor Chibnal engaged with the Doctor’s new gender beyond tokenism that gestured to its significance without ever exploring it. The Tokenism and Racism of the 13th Doctor’s Era In combination with Chibnall’s monster-of-the-week approach, the 13th Doctor’s era lacked the depth Whittaker’s historical casting deserved. Whittaker’s performance as the Doctor was constantly fidgety, rambling and flitting about like a primary school teacher with too much caffeine on board in what constantly felt like a weak impersonation of the character, rather than a genuine interpretation. Whittaker and Chibnall seemed to rely on her casting that they believed, with Chibnall’s authorship, would carry her from scene to scene without really engaging with the actual character - possibly not the best approach for playing a 1000-year-old alien with six decades of TV lore behind them.
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