Dear BBC, This Caption Change About Alex Kingston Being Jodie Whittaker’s Wife Sucks
For a second, my heart was aflutter with joy when I saw a picture of the 13th Doctor herself, Jodie Whittaker, and my personal favorite, Alex Kingston, together at SDCC with a caption “The Doctor and her wife.” My bisexual heart melted, and for a second, there was peace in the universe, but then, as I attempted to retweet it, the image was gone and replaced with a much less interesting caption of “Jodie Whittaker meets the Doctor’s wife, Alex Kingston at #SDCC #DoctorWho.”
Before:
After:
Jodie Whittaker meets the Doctor’s wife, Alex Kingston at #SDCC #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/9XDwbzKkhR
— #DoctorWho @ SDCC (@DoctorWho_BBCA) July 20, 2018
Um, what?
It is not like this is a spoiler. River is not likely to exist outside of the library after the events of “The Husbands of River Song,” and it’s just the two women at an event together. Plus, River Song is the Doctor’s wife, no matter who is the Doctor, and that was exciting to see recognized on their social media page. Doctor Who has a huge LGBTQIA+ fanbase, and we already know River herself has had multiple partners of different genders and a “second wife.”
Literally 2 seconds ago this tweet was “the Doctor and her wife” and you deleted it and changed it. What homophobia is this? I went from happier than I’ve ever been to REEEEEEAL skeptical https://t.co/vL0DmweAUn
— Klaudia Amenábar || seeking FT jobs, check pinned (@kaludiasays) July 20, 2018
‘The Doctor and her wife’ would have been the *good* caption for this @DoctorWho_BBCA. 👀
Anyway, yes, I’m very excited for the new season of Doctor Who, y’all! Jodie’s fantastic! 💞 https://t.co/RvDX31qHYD
— Myriame ◇ Pilgrim ✨ (@MllePilgrim) July 20, 2018
this used to say the doctor and her wife but they changed it rip im sad now https://t.co/Lp2KRfOMEy
— em misses dnp 🌻 (@cloudy_lester) July 20, 2018
I’m still happy about the picture, because it has already launched a thousand fanfiction ideas for me about how to bring River back, but I really hope that if she is brought back in some way, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about her being the 13th Doctor’s wife as well, solidifying that the Doctor is queer—something we’ve pretty much known forever, but let’s just canonize it already.
Let them be wives! The universe demands it!
So shout out to the person who did the first caption for giving the people what they wanted. We hear you.
What do you think Whovians are you game for a proper 13/River reunion?
[We reached out for comment to the Doctor Who social media team asking about why the change was made, will update the story if new information comes.]
(via, image: Doctor Who Official Twitter)
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