Dear old Doctor Who was depressed. The annoying pandemic caused production delays, panicked rewritings and shortened series. Ratings fell, there was no noise and critical kicks were administered. But not all is lost on the BBC franchise. In addition to the upcoming return of showrunner Russell T. Davis, there is another ray of light – and it comes in the form of a podcast led by transgender people.
Written by Juneau Dawson, Doctor Who: Redacted started with a special Easter program, Legend of the Sea Devils, and was described by producer / director Ella Watts as “very gay, very trance” and sitting “left” on the main show. The 10-part BBC Sounds audio drama follows three best friends who create “The Blue Box Files”, a paranormal conspiracy podcast about a specific police box that appears in history. Their ridiculous theories suddenly become too real when they are sucked into their own adventure with action-packed aliens.
The friends dropped out of university and now live in different cities in the UK, but remain connected through a hobby podcast. The leader of the band (and the drama) is a trans woman, Cleo, who works as a theater worker, lives in a property in south London and saves for surgery. She is played by transgender activist Charlie Krags, a stage thief in his first acting role, who describes her casting as “a huge step for the trans community.” I am so honored to be a part of something so sacred to so many people.
Juneau Dawson always meant for Crags to play her protagonist. “She’s such a force,” Dawson said. “The” trans activist “label can be a club to beat trans people with. It’s a dehumanizing term, but Charlie uses his voice so cleverly – with humor and honesty. When it came to casting, I told Ella, “Look, we can either audition for Charlie Crags, or find a translator and tell her to play Charlie Krags.” The BBC had some nerves to hire someone. untrained, but I’m glad we stuck to our weapons. “
The founder of the podcast-within-a-podcast is a dedicated boxspotter and a regular believer, Abby (Lois Chimimba of Vigil), who is bisexual and takes care of her sick mother full-time in Glasgow. The cast is complemented by the skeptical Sean (Holly Queen-Ankra of Grange Hill), a proud lesbian who studies computer technology at her local college in Sheffield.
Interestingly, this regional diversity is the first for Dawson. “Since I’m from Bradford myself, I love listening to regional highlights on the BBC,” she said. “I love this Doctor Who has lived his life in Cardiff, Sheffield and Liverpool in recent years. This regionalism is not enough in the BBC drama, which is often somewhat out of place. So before I even thought about their gender or sexual identity, it was important to me that they were from different parts of the UK. Sean was mentioned in the script as a black woman or a mixed race woman from the north, while Abby would always be from Glasgow, one of my favorite cities.
Juneau Dawson: “Doctor Who Always LGBTQ + People” Photo: Simone Padovani / Awakening / Getty Images
The “Three Losers”, as they self-destruct, discover that everyone who has ever met the Doctor disappears, and their very existence is forgotten. They are “edited by reality.” Is there an allegorical meaning here? “Somewhat,” Dawson says. “The idea of silencing or deleting feels part of the online language today. But I would say to the listener: this is Doctor Who, don’t read much in it. It’s more of a threat looming over the world. “
Ironically, the Blue Box files are so unsuccessful that our heroines are the last names on the hit list, making Cleo, Abby and Sean the only hope in the world. They must race against time to uncover the truth and prevent the “danger of the end of the world.”
As the drama unfolds, they are joined by celebrities – well, voices – mostly the 13th Doctor herself (Jody Whitaker). Also starring in their spin-off roles in Doctor Who are Rani Chandra (Angeli Mohindra) from The Adventures of Sarah Jane and Kate Stewart from UNIT (Gemma Redgrave), Petronella Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) and Madame Vastra (Dun Makican).
In addition to the Lord of Allies’ allies, some well-known monsters appear. “It was such a thrill to play with these favorite characters,” Dawson said. “It’s like borrowing someone else’s toy box. As long as you return the toys in excellent condition, you can just go crazy. I was in the next room while Jody was recording my dialogue and I admitted that I was crying. I never cry! I never thought that in a million years I would be able to see the Doctor reading the dialogue I had written about them.
But the podcast isn’t just dotted with cameos, it also nods to past and present Who storylines. Tardis’ companions Martha, Ryan, Graham and Yaz are being checked by name. Previous details from the TV story, such as the ingenious diet company Adipose Industries, are doing the same, and this time an entire hospital is being teleported to the moon by talking space rhinos.
Not that Dawson wanted the podcast to be entirely for purists. “I didn’t want it to be too hard for the fans,” she said. “The reason Doctor Who has been working for almost 60 years is that he has always kept the door open for new fans. Especially with every new doctor there is an invitation to come in and join the party. But there are Easter eggs and little callbacks. The girls have a podcast that investigates the legend of the Doctor, so it makes sense to look for clues. At the same time, he tells his own story. You don’t have to have seen a lot of Doctor Who to understand Edited. “
The high-stakes story is skillfully intertwined with the trio’s personal life. Abbey may have a control boyfriend (“baby man”) lurking in the background, but she and Sean have a sweet romantic plot. Although the class clown Cleo insists she’s “only here for insolence, darling,” we learn that her mother kicked her out when she was in her teens, but she is now seriously ill and trying to reconcile. “It’s hard not to have feelings for Cleo’s character,” Krags said. “You have to be some kind of sociopath not to sympathize with what he’s going through with his mother.
Dawson agrees: “I wanted to emphasize that Cleo had a difficult old life, but like Charlie, she developed thick skin to hide her pain. That’s something Russell T. Davis did especially well. If you make people’s lives feel real and layered, then somehow science fiction also feels more real. There’s something delicious about seeing the Yeti on the subway or Dalek passing through Tower Bridge. This is exceptional, mixed with the ordinary. I wanted the characters to feel like your neighbors. ”
Many of the Doctor’s companions were oppressed or marginalized, even if outwardly they were not strange.
She herself wrote the script for four of the 10 episodes, with the rest attributed to new writers – again with a strong emphasis on diversity and regionalism. With Redacted, best-selling author Dawson became the first outspoken trans-lead author of the Doctor Who franchise.
For the rest of her life, Whovian, who calls the show her “first love,” is a big deal. “When I watched Bonnie Langford [who played companion Mel] as a child, I decided I wanted to be her, ”she says. “And then Sophie Aldred appeared as Ace, an even stronger character who killed Dalex with a baseball bat. Long before I knew I was a girl, I knew I was Mel and Ace. The show had a huge impact on me, so it’s a privilege for me to put my own little flag on the landscape. “
Whitaker is enthusiastic about working with Dawson and Crags, saying “their energy is an ace.” What has been edited is indeed irresistibly sparkling. The characters are fed protein shakes and oatmeal lattes. The episodes last up to 20 minutes. The dark conspiracy plot is backed up by a script that sounded like Drag Race jargon and jokes about alien penises in jars. Harry Styles has been hailed as an “honorary lesbian”. The “Live, Laugh, Love” culture and the boomers who leave voice messages are ridiculously ridiculed. It’s like a sci-fi remix of Feel Good by May Martin. Or it’s a sin, as the aliens also say “La!”
As such, a storm descends. “I was nervous because the fans are so passionate,” says Dawson. “I myself have been this condemning fan. But the people were incredibly positive. This also applies to the queer and trans community. Many of the messages I receive online are from people who say, “I feel seen.”
Dr. Who has long flirted with gay overtones. After its restart in 2005, the strange characters include Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Madame Vastra’s wife, Jenny Flint, but only five years ago the franchise introduced its first LGBTQ + full-time companion, Bill Potts (played by Pearl). Poppies). She was quickly followed by Whitaker as the Doctor’s first female incarnation – she recently revealed her feelings for Comrade Yaz (Mandip Gill).
The show received the PinkNews Awards 2017 award for its “long-standing LGBT affiliation.” Now that the Redacted cast and crew of various strange women are saving the universe, this is another step forward.
“Doctor Who has always liked LGBTQ + people,” says Dawson. “There is something so enduring in the idea that if you live a little boring life, this man in the blue box can take you on an adventure in time and space. Many of the Doctor’s supporters were oppressed or marginalized, even if outwardly they were not strange. So taking that subtext and making it text means a lot. We no longer need to make it a metaphor. We can have three strange women in front and in the center. “
Doctor Who: Redacted is available on BBC Sounds, with new episodes every Sunday.
Add Comment