Diversity

 

***WARNING****  You may need your “Safe Space” for this one if you’re hypersensitive and “offend” easily.

(from Screen Rant/DWM):

The new companion, a woman named Bill who’s played by Pearl Mackie, has already been introduced to fans. Moffat recently revealed a little more information about the character, including whether she’ll be in the 2016 Christmas special, and why it was important to him and the producers that she not be played by a white actress.

So all that crap about her acting, her chemistry with Peter, etc was all crap! It’s Political Correctness and her skin color that got her the job!

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I guess not. 😦

Moffat’s statements came from Doctor Who Magazine, which recently published its 500th issue. In it, Moffat discussed both when Bill will make her first appearance as the Doctor’s companion on the show and what time period she hails from. According to Moffat:

    “How we first encounter her, and how we first encounter the Doctor next year, is very unusual for us. We’ll introduce her in the first episode of 2017, and she’ll run throughout that series.”

This confirms that Bill won’t appear in the 2016 Christmas special, which isn’t exactly unusual; most of the Christmas specials have featured one-off companions, or at least companions who weren’t actively with the Doctor either at that point or in the next season.

Doctor Who Pearl Mackie as Bill Doctor Who: Steven Moffat Talks Season 10 Companion & Casting Diversity

Moffat also addressed when Bill is from. Many fans believed that she was from the 80s given how she was dressed in her introduction video. According to Moffat, though, this isn’t the case:

    “She’s from now, yeah. I know there are rumours about her being from the 1980s, but she isn’t. She’s just wearing what young people are wearing now. I know that, because Pearl chose her outfit herself.”

Bill is also the first companion of color on the show since Martha Jones, who was the Doctor’s companion in the 2007 season. While Moffat previously believed that opening the role up to anyone would be best for the show, he eventually decided that the casting team needed to be more selective and target the actors that they really wanted for the show. The team felt that the main roles of the show were dominated by white actors, even though the supporting cast remained diverse; with the casting of Bill, they set out to change this:

    “We decided that the new companion was going to be non-white, and that was an absolute decision, because we need to do better on that.

So much for “casting the best actor for the role”. That wasn’t even on the table. So, the pretense is now gone. Time to cast the 13th Doctor as Woman (or maybe the 13th as Black and then 14th as a Woman and the 15th as Transgendered or “openly Gay”…No Straight White Males allowed ) just because they want to, not because they were the best actor for the job at the time.

We just have to. I don’t mean that we’ve done terribly – our guest casts are among the most diverse on television, but I feel as though I could have done better overall.”

Social Justice Warrior Quota fulfilled. He feels better about screwing all the White actors in Britain. Very “tolerance” and “diverse”.

Doctor Who: Steven Moffat Talks Season 10 Companion & Casting Diversity

He also admits that the role of the Doctor could be open for more diversity in the future as well

AKA FEMALE DOCTOR  Just because it makes their “diversity” guilt sing.

, and reveals that the part has been offered to a black actor in the past:

    “Absolutely it would [be refreshing if the next Doctor wasn’t white]. Two non-white leads in Doctor Who would be amazing. In fact, a lot of people would barely notice … I certainly don’t think there’s ever been a problem with making the Doctor black, which is why it should happen one day. I mean, we’ve tried. The part has been offered to a black actor. But for various reasons, it didn’t work out.”

A Black MALE actor, that is. But Male Actors aren’t “diverse” enough these days are they?

With its focus on travelling through space and time, Moffat claims that Doctor Who “has no excuse” for not including diverse casting choices.

So let’s start a Quota system, just to be “fair”.

The rhubarb about casting “the right person” or the “best actor” no longer applies. Let’s just be “diverse” instead.

As such, it will still be interesting to see what Mackie brings to the role of Bill and how the character adds to the story of the Doctor when she finally makes it to the screen.

Hopefully, she can act and is not just a token of “diversity”.