A big announcement from the Doctor Who camp dropped this week! Drag queen Jinkx Monsoon has been cast in an unrevealed “major role” alongside Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor.
Monsoon, a two-time winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is clearly thrilled to be going aboard the TARDIS. Who wouldn’t be?
Unfortunately, predictably, this simple casting decision for a character we don’t even know the name of yet has stirred up the so-called “anti-woke” side of fandom. You could ask “how does Doctor Who even have an ‘anti-woke’ side to its fandom when its first ever episode was brought to you by a Jewish woman, a working-class Jewish man and a gay British-Indian man in 1963?” and I’m right there with ya. But they do unfortunately exist, and BOY do they want you to know that they disagree with LGBTQ+ people being on a TV show about having respect for all humanity.
Graham Linehan unfortunately just has to get a comment in
Self-appointed president of TERFs Graham Linehan—who was actually once banned from Twitter for his toxic transphobia but, sigh, allowed back on after the Elon Musk takeover—was one of those who just had to drop by and spread some of his trademark casual cruelty on the announcement tweet.
I wouldn’t be giving him this amount of oxygen if not for the intriguing comment one of his followers has posted, which is, “I support what you’ve been doing but please don’t fall into this trap of just getting annoyed at shit for the sake of it. Jin[k]x Monsoon is one of the most talented people I’ve ever seen on tv and will light up the screen I guarantee. Do a little research.” Is this another one of those “Are we the baddies?” moments that have popped up in unlikely places recently? We may never know, but I do know that asking Linehan to do any research on anything is a fruitless endeavor.
However, perhaps the most bizarre reaction is that of a Twitter user declaring himself to be the son of Anthony Coburn, the writer of first Doctor Who episode, “An Unearthly Child.” This fan of capslock declares, “The ashes of my father: Doctor Who CO-CREATOR, & ‘TARDIS’ ORIGINATOR, Anthony Coburn, are now oscillating at light-speed in his urn; in OUTRAGE at what generations of progressively MORE corrupted BBC filth, have done with HIS creation. Had he known, he’d have turned-down the job.” This particular Twitter thread gradually gets more unhinged as it goes along and ends with a threat to “prosecute the BBC.” Frankly, it needs to be seen to be believed.
But of course, all this bluster amounts to nothing, because Jinkx Monsoon is here to stay in this franchise whether you like it or not. And they are far from the only LGBTQ+ person who’s going to play a big role in the show going forward.
The upcoming Doctor Who episodes may be the queerest yet
Next up for the Doctor are a series of specials where David Tennant will be accompanied by Donna Noble’s daughter Rose, played by trans actress Yasmin Finney. And after that, we’ll have a new lead in Ncuti Gatwa, the first Black man and the first gay man to play the Doctor. His Fifteenth Doctor will be appearing in at least one of the future specials alongside none other than Neil Patrick Harris, and Harris told Variety last year, “He’ll be the first gay Doctor, which is going to be super cool, a sexier Doctor.”
We’ll also have trans actor Pete MacHale joining the cast, making him the first ever transgender man to be on the show, and iconic lesbian actress Miriam Margolyes is also going to be in there in an as-yet-unannounced role.
Exciting times (and spaces) are ahead! And bigots are not welcome.
(featured image: BBC)
Published: Apr 5, 2023 04:57 pm