Doctor Who season 11: Aren’t we getting a tad ahead of ourselves with romance talk?
Let’s begin with this: It’s Doctor Who, one of the most-popular shows in the world. Anytime there is a major change to a franchise, there is going to be to go along with that an avalanche of stories written on the subject. Beyond just that, though, there is also the fact that this is a show that airs primarily in Great Britain, and the British press has a time-honored tradition of being annoyingly aggressive with some of the stories that they put out there. Some of them are untrue, some are salacious, and then there’s the whole fact that a new Doctor being cast equals for some stupid reason them shamelessly posting risqué photos of some of that performer’s past work as though that somehow matters. The whole idea of The Doctor is to be a character children can love as well as adults, and there are the producers trying to sexualize them. Actors should be proud of their work, but outlets shouldn’t be trying to exploit that for traffic.
In some ways, the idea of already talking about potential Doctor romances is unnecessarily sexualizing them, as well. We’ve seen numerous stories over the past few days already about the idea of Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor being the first one to be able to explore a bisexual relationship, and how the show could break a little bit of ground in doing something like that. Could that happen? Sure and it could be exciting, but we think the show’s writers would be steering things in the wrong direction to focus too heavily on this in any form.
For one, we’ve already had more romance with The Doctor as of late than we’re really comfortable with given the whole River Song story that’s played out. The Doctor is an alien, and often they’re not interested in being an overtly romantic figure. There is a playfulness and a flirtatiousness that is often there with the character, but it’s not often spelled out explicitly. The show is better when there’s that element of mystery and something left open to the imagination. That’s how it exists with so many other facets of its existence, so romance really shouldn’t be all that much of an exception to the rule.
Also, romance is something that should come more with time. Start off by allowing viewers to familiarize themselves with Whittaker’s Doctor, and then from there see if there is a romantic partner that could work for her. There are few things that audiences tend to reject more than a romance that is forced upon them that they may not have wanted or there may not be chemistry for.
Patience is a virtue. While the British press may not always agree with that, we do find it to be a fairly true notion.
Do you think that Doctor Who — or at least the British press — needs to slow itself down a little bit when it comes to romance? Sound off in the comments!
Meanwhile, head over to the link here in the event you do want to get some additional news and insight when it comes to the series. (Photo: BBC.)