Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: Audio Drama, bbc, big finish, doctor who, Doctor Who Redacted, jodie whittaker

Doctor Who: Redacted Shocker: Producer Ella Watts Replaced for S02

Doctor Who: Redacted is getting a second season, but the LGBTQ women-focused show has replaced the LGBTQ woman who created & produced it.

A second series of the successful Doctor Who spinoff podcast Doctor Who: Redacted is reportedly being produced. Unfortunately, the producer of the first series Ella Watts has been replaced by the BBC, seemingly without explanation. She reported this in a tweet on Thursday:

"It looks like there's a 'Doctor Who: Redacted' season 2 in the works. Sadly, I won't be working on it. Whilst I was clear I wanted to remain on the project, I was replaced by the BBC without explanation or an application process. I believe I'll be replaced by James Goss as producer. If 'Redacted' s2 is anything like his previous work, it'll be fantastic, and I wish him the best," Watts wrote in the tweet. "'Doctor Who' means different things to different people. As a fan and a queer woman, to be part of bringing a queer women-fronted show to the Whoniverse was an immensely proud moment in my life. From pitching it in 2018, to bringing Juno on board in 2019, then producing, casting, script-editing, writing on & directing it – it's been incredible. I'm sorry I've not been given the opportunity to see it through. This isn't the first time in podcasting that women have been replaced by men following successful first seasons. I'm heartbroken it happened here. I don't know more. I hope production goes well. I can't wait to listen!"

Doctor Who: Redacted premiered on BBC Radio 4 in the summer of 2022, months before Jodie Whittaker's final Doctor Who Special, "The Power of the Doctor," was broadcast on television. The podcast drama featured Whittaker's last time as The Doctor as she had completed filming on the special months before and recorded the podcast drama afterward.

Doctor Who: Redacted featured Charlie Craggs, Lois Chimimba, and Holly Quin-Ankrah as Cleo, Abby, and Shawna, three LGBTQ best friends and university dropouts who make a truly terrible conspiracy podcast together. Their favourite conspiracy? The one about the random blue box actually being an alien spaceship. Of course, it's obviously not. Right…?

James Goss is a prolific writer and producer of many Doctor Who audio dramas at Big Finish Productions, whose work is known for its wit and inventiveness. However, this is a terrible look for the BBC. For the BBC to replace the female LGBTQ producer of a drama featuring LGBTQ women as the leads with a man feels like, at its worst, unthinking institutional sexism. At "best," it feels like the BBC didn't consider how the optics would look on the move.

Doctor Who: Redacted is still available for streaming and download worldwide.

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