(no subject)

[selenak]

As always when I'm with the Aged Parents, there is less time to get online, but hey. Family. And I like mine.

I understand it's blog against racism week, among other things. Observations and analysis of the white-by-default castings in many tv shows/movies even if the story or setting demanded more diversity have been made a plenty. So let me praise the current series of Dr. Who. Which keeps using black or Asian actors for both recurring and one spot roles. Mickey, introduced to us as Rose Tyler's boyfriend at the start of season 1/27, is arguably the non-regular who gets the most character development throughout two seasons - "from zero to hero", to quote a soundbite, or, if you like, the Wesley Wyndham-Pryce arc, only without the martyr act. The fact that Mickey is black and that he and Rose were a biracial couple is a non-issue. Central guest characters like Chloe and her mother in Fear Her or half of the crew in Impossible Planet/ Satan's Pit are played by non-Caucasion actors; whether it shows the near or the far future, current Who presents it as racially diverse. And it doesn't stop with the casting. As we hear and see in New Earth, the universal symbol for medical aid is... the green crescent moon, not the red cross. It's just a minor background detail, but it shows the way the writers of this show do not keep to automatic assumptions or default options.

It's one of the many things I really, really appreciate about them.

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

THe other thing I like is Dr Who's use of people with regional accents. There's a lot of Welsh actors in the series in all sorts of parts. I don't know if you have an ear for English accents or not, but they're definitely going wider than normal (filming a lot in Wales probably accounts for some of it)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I think I can tell Northen, Southern and Welsh apart, but definitely nothing more subtle than that....

[cereswunderkind.livejournal.com]

I think we'll have to credit the original Star Trek for introducing colourblind casting to television science fiction.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

There was some really wanky argument over someone else's post about whether "Martha" is a name one would "expect" a black person to have. It is a very old-fashioned name, and I wonder if they'll do something really daring and have not merely a black companion but a black British historical companion.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Martha associations on my part: Martha from Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?", Martha the wife of George Washington she was named after, and Martha the dog of Paul MacCartney whom he wrote his song "Martha" for.

.... there was an argument about whether the name fits her race? Good lord, as Giles would say.

Historical companion: how far back in history would you go with her? Elizabethan? Georgian?

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Well, the historical companions in the past have been Jamie (eighteenth century) and Victoria (nineteenth). They did toy with an Ancient Greek character, Katerina, with Hartnell, but they killed her off very quickly after deciding that the culture barriers would be too strong for the character to work.

[rheanna27.livejournal.com]

I have been hoping strongly that Martha will turn out to be non-contemporary, and preferably from the past. Before the new companion was cast, I had been thinking it would be good to get a different perspective from Rose's early 21st century one. And a black British historical character would be different and original and fresh and really interesting.

One of the things I always liked about Gunn and Fred on Angel was that the issues and problems in the relationship were issues and problems which grew out their characters and the fictional universe they inhabited; the fact that they happened to be of different races wasn't relevant to the story which was being told.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Very true about Fred and Gunn. I think the only two people who brought up the fact they were a biracial couple were Lilah (in her breakup scene with Wesley, saying "come to think of it, she (Fred) prefers black" and Angelus with his Othello-and-Desdemona taunt, but neither the overall narrative nor Fred and Gunn ever saw that as a reason for their problems. Like you said, those arose from their characters and their world.

Okay, you and KDS have convinced me; here's hoping the new companion will be of another era!