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18
26/7/05
6:57 pm
Page 18
Drum: SCENES
“ Of course it [ his ‘socio-political-economic
worldview’ ] would be different but perhaps
not so different it couldn’t simply be ignored.
A black 35-year-old man could have been
raised his entire life in the UK. He could
have attended Eton, Fettes and Cambridge,
and then joined MI6. He could be rightwing, drive an Aston Martin, wear tailored
suits, live in Chelsea, be a member of a
London club, have had a string of girlfriends after the tragic death of his wife an
unspecified number of years ago, have no
discernible taste in culture and yet know
all about it, be dry, arrogant and charming,
but essentially soulless. He could save the
world on demand every few years. All we
have in the films of Bond’s socio-politicaleconomic worldview is this kind of thing –
it’s not exactly gone into in tremendous
detail, has it?”
Doctor Who fans seem to fall into the same
pattern of debate – a majority who simply
state that ‘The Doctor is white’ and generate
any number of convoluted and impossibly
obscure plot-related reasons why this is an
unalterable fact, and a minority who support
the idea and are able to respond using their
equally encyclopaedic knowledge of the Doctor
Who universe in their defence.
The Doctor is a character who, instead of
dying, endlessly ‘regenerates’, taking on an
entirely new physical form each time. He may
alter in height, age, eye and hair colour but –
thus far – he has always been white. There is
nothing in the character’s history to suggest
that he has to be white, and evidence exists to
suggest that he could take on any number of
different forms. Yet, for every fan who is open
to the idea of a black – or even a female –
doctor, there is one like the following:
“Nope. Stupid idea. Both black and female
Doctors are a stupid idea. The Doctor is a
white male. Is it really hard to understand
that? Just stupid PC nonsense.”
The ‘It’s political correctness gone mad’
argument is a predictable and inevitable one,
but one that I think starts to give an indication
of what lies at the root of people’s unease with
the idea of giving much-loved characters like
The Doctor and James Bond a black face.
The fans could argue until they are blue in the
face about this or that obscure plot point, which
means that their heroes could or could not be
black. The question is why are those opposed
to the idea so inclined to consult their mental
encyclopaedia of trivia to shoot the idea down?
To me, the answer seems to lie in the characteristics of Bond and The Doctor. Bond is suave,
sophisticated and glib; The Doctor is witty,
eccentric and quirky. Perhaps the Great British
public struggles to accept the possibility of black
characters who display these stereotypically
‘white’ personality traits.
Or do they? Another black actor once linked
with the Bond role is Adrian Lester, most
recently on our screens as Mickey Stone, the
suave, sophisticated, glib leader of a group of
confidence tricksters in the BBC series Hustle.
He is not as conventionally heroic as Bond, but
viewers have not been choking on their
spaghetti bolognese in shock at seeing a black
man in such a role. There is clearly something
specific to characters like Bond and The Doctor
that inspires a particularly possessive reaction
in many fans.
Rather, I propose, than being perceived as being
exclusively ‘white’, the characteristics associated
with Bond and The Doctor are felt to be uniquely
British. They have come to represent a particular