“Russell T Davies made Doctor Who Gay”, read headlines in the mid-2000s. With every passing reference to queer folks, or with the tremendous pearl-clutching when Captain Jack Harkness arrived in the TARDIS, there was much outrage or elation at the ‘New Who’ being a little bit gayer…depending on where you fell on the tabloid outrage scale. With Davies back in charge of ‘New-New Who’ just how much more queer can we get?!
Queer, because despite what the tabloids are fond of saying, Who falls under the definition of ‘queer’ more broadly; that rebellious streak of sitting outside mainstream expectations. And ‘more queer’ because with Davies back in charge, and a Queer actor playing the Doctor, if the TARDIS had a flag, it would be be a pride one.
Doctor Who has always been queer. It has always encapsulated the often rebellious, out of sync with the dominant culture, subversive elements of queerness in its morality and world (universe) view. But also in the sense of fun and camp that it embodies. There has always been a queer camp aesthetic to Who in its monsters and the Doctor’s eccentric, over-the-top outfits. It’s camp sci-fi, in a singularly British sense. All of this gives it a queer aesthetic or feeling. After all, before queer stories were readily available, queer viewers found a ‘home’ in stories that weren’t overtly queer, but gave them a feeling of belonging. The idea of the outsiders, whether the Doctor or the companions, being the ones who quietly save the world feels in line with queer experience. So did the Doctor’s chosen family. They pick the world’s misfits and allow them to be themselves. The TARDIS is a queer safe space where you will find a home wherever you are. So no surprise that young queer fans, like Davies himself, were drawn to the world of the Doctor, even if the show’s queerness wasn’t explicit when he was watching it as a child.
Davies brought queer nods on his first trip in the TARDIS, with various non-heterosexual relationships along with the campness of classic Who given a 2005 twist, particularly with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). Ten brought a sense of gender neutrality and gender euphoria to the Doctor. The idea that while yes, still played by a cis white male, there was also an element of subversive queerness to them. Tennant himself has always seemed, again while being cishet himself, comfortable in camp queerness. Ten leans into the ‘Brilliant!’ campness of it all and is allowed to be over the top, not conforming to ideas of ‘masculinity’ just…them. Ten defies gender and attraction expectations in a couple of ways. Firstly, Ten flirts with everyone. They’re an equal opportunities flirt. Be that Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, or anyone else in time and space.
In the first Davies era, we also had gay space cats and a nod to Shakespeare being queer. Was that not enough? Especially when we throw ‘omnisexual’ Captain Jack into the mix? Maybe, arguably, it was “enough” for 2005; a time when queer representation on mainstream family TV was far from what it is now. We certainly didn’t have Heartstopper or Young Royals. Queerness on TV was still limited to the kind of “gay shows” Davies made his name in and a few token characters elsewhere. But skip ahead in space and time to 2024, with Davies back in charge, and does Who live up to our current queer expectations?
Broadly, yes. Remembering too that at its core, Who remains queer in its values, beliefs, even its aesthetic. It’s not simply about counting queer folks on screen. Indeed, as valuable as that is, embracing queerness in belief, approach, and story is more important than a “queer quota” system. Equally, placing a Black queer actor as your leading man sets a clear example of where the rest of the casting will follow.
Returning to Ncuti Gatwa momentarily, Davies put down a pride flag for casting. Starting strong with the 60th Anniversary specials, where he cast Yasmin Finney (of Heartstopper), a trans actor, as Donna Noble’s daughter. Not only that, but Davies made her trans identity part of the plot in the specials, allowing Who to model positive parenting of a trans child. Meanwhile, Ruby has a friend who is trans and mentions girlfriends of female friends. RuPaul’s Drag Race and Broadway star Jinxx Monsoon appears as Maestro and has they/them pronouns. While Jonathan Groff turns up and kisses the Doctor. More of him in a moment.
But first, the Doctor. The Doctor has always had an air of queerness about them—whether it’s their camp attire, or their disregard for human notions of gender and sexuality—the character has always been a little queer, even when played by straight actors. But for the first time, we have a queer actor as the Doctor. Best known for his role in Netflix’s Sex Education, Gatwa is also the first actor of colour to play the role. Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda and raised in Scotland, has expressed his pride in the character he plays on Sex Educations (a gay man), saying: “It matters, I hope, that other little Black boys round the world can be like — ‘Oh, Eric is like this, and it’s cool’.” And Ncuti has certainly embodied cool- and queer- as the Doctor. While the camp element of classic Who was certainly seen in the Doctor’s outfits, Gatwa has dazzled in an array of looks all season, many of which may well have been deemed “too gay” in the past. No such approach for Gatwa in this incarnation of Who. His outfits would not be out of place in an LGBTQ+ magazine photo shoot or indeed a trip to a gay club (a subtle bit of queer coding threaded through there). Throughout, while playing the Doctor, Gatwas also seems incredibly, utterly his (queer) self.
In decades past, even perhaps back in 2005 when Davies took over, the actor playing the Doctor probably wouldn’t have been able to be publicly queer. Or, more accurately still wouldn’t have been cast as the Doctor, such is the fear and pearl-clutching around a BBC ‘family show’. However, in coming back, Davies has leaned into “my (queer) way or the highway”, and Ncuti is out, loud and queer, both on screen as the Doctor and off-screen as himself.
Thankfully, nobody is asking him to temper who he is. He’s been able to do queer magazine shoots, attend LGBTQ+ award shows, and to simply exist as a queer person. Moreover, Gatwa is proving that being queer does not, of course, have a negative impact on his ability to play the Doctor. Even before being cast in Who, he was largely private about his private life (as he has a right to be). If we look back at previous modern Doctors, aside from tabloid speculation, we knew little about, say, who David Tennant or Matt Smith were dating at the time either, as neither of them chose to speak about it publicly. The same goes for Gatwa, regardless of the gender of his partners. The point is, that whoever Tennant and Smith were dating at the time never impacted their ability to be the Doctor, and neither did it for Gatwa. The difference, as ever, it makes to straight viewers is nothing, but crucially to queer viewers, it makes a huge difference. Knowing that the Doctor, your childhood hero, maybe if you’re now an adult, is queer feels monumental; it feels like being seen. For children growing up with him as their Doctor, who may just be discovering their sexuality, to see someone just like them can make all the difference.
It’s not even really about the characters or the stories. It’s simply that queer people they exist in the world of Doctor Who. Ruby’s mother is a queer woman. It’s not a plot point or any kind of “statement” within the show’s narrative, it’s simply one character detail about her. And that, especially in increasingly fraught political times for LGBTQ+ folks, feels incredibly powerful. The power of TV is that it’s in your living room, and the power of Doctor Who is that it’s for everyone; kids to grandparents. In showing queerness in the fabric of the show, in not only refusing to be quiet about it, but, being subtly loud in just letting queerness exist, Davies is making a powerful statement. Because when you watch Doctor Who, it’s not like sitting down to watch Queer as Folk, which while seismically important, was a queer show for queer people. Who is made for everyone, young and old, gay and straight, and everything in between. That’s why the queerness here matters because it’s showing everyone queerness is here and not something to be erased, or made a big deal of. It shows the queer folks that they’re included, and the bigots that they won’t be bowed down to; that queerness is in the fabric of the universe, and of Doctor Who, and it won’t be erased.
Davies did a brilliant job of “incidental queerness” across the series, that is, the kinds of characters who “just happen” to be queer. For example, Maestro didn’t necessarily need to be nonbinary to tell that story, but casting a nonbinary actor allowed for some meaningful representation with that character and a terrific performance by a talented actor. Having Ruby’s mum be queer adds to the richness of the world. However, the Bridgerton-inspired episode Rogue firmly plants what tabloids might call Davies’ “Queer Agenda” front and centre.
In that episode, The Doctor meets the mysterious character Rogue, played by Jonathan Groff. They flirt, fight, and as part of a ruse to trap the Chuldur who they are pursuing, they dance, the Doctor proposes, and they kiss. The Doctor kisses another man on screen for the first time since Captain Jack in season one of Davies’ inaugural series. But this is different. While the Captain Jack kiss was a statement—Jack kisses everyone and the Doctor didn’t object—that was a very 2005. This kiss is a very 2024 statement of purpose. The Doctor has a romantic kiss with someone he’s flirted with, is interested in and…at the end of the episode, leaves a door open to return to. Is this the last of Rogue? Of a Doctor’s love interest? It’s certainly not the first time in 60 years the Doctor has had a love interest. After all, there’s River Song to consider in recent history. Or even in a similar whirlwind historical romance, Ten and Madame du Pompadour (And indeed, if the jokes are true, Ten and Elizabeth I). This is the first queer romance, however brief, the Doctor has been allowed to have. To see the Doctor share a romantic kiss with a man on TV; for it not be a joke, to see it be sincere, and maybe something that will be returned to is thrilling. Could the Doctor one day have a boyfriend? To have seen that as a young queer child, even a young queer adult would have meant the world. Even as a queer adult, the hope that the Doctor really is as queer, well, as folk, is something special.
Something special also is the allyship Who has offered during Davies’ first season back. Firstly, in supporting Ncuti to be public about his sexuality and embraced as such. Secondly, Davies has never been shy about sharing his opinions on politics, gay rights, or both, and he remains candid and outspoken in interviews. But a truly LGBTQ+ hero of the Who reboot has been David Tennant and his loud allyship. He’s always been a strong ally, supporting LGBTQ+ folks back in his original Who days and beyond and when in the public eye for his role in the 60th-anniversary specials, he frequently used that platform to speak about LGBTQ+ rights and specifically trans rights. That the team at the heart of Who, from the showrunner to the current Doctor to a previous beloved Doctor, loudly calls for LGBTQ+ rights and support, at the heart of BBC family show offers a lot of hope.
There is so much power in these stories on screen, but there is also power to back up those stories with evidence of conviction of those involved in creating them. That is the message of this era of Who. Queer stories, queer characters, but also a team that stands firmly behind LGBTQ+ people, and that feels like the most important part of further queering Doctor Who.
By Dr Emily Garside
Emily Garside is the author of Queer Aliens and Gay Folks: How Russell T Davies changed TV (Calon) available here.
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