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Doctor Who's Second On Screen Regeneration Also Changed Races

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Lots of people, online, are predictably outraged that Doctor Who is to have its first black Doctor, as played by Ncuti Gatwa. Even though he is the second black Doctor, the first being Jo Martin, known as The Fugitive Doctor. But why let facts get in the way of a good outrage? Despite the condemnation of the temerity of returning showrunner Russell T Davies to cast a BAFTA-award winning actor in the role (and another Scot to boot) the moment has been prepared for.

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Image: BBC

The first time we saw the Doctor regenerate, from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton, it wasn't called regeneration, but rather rejuvenation. Rather the idea was that the Doctor had just made himself younger. It took the change from Troughton to Jon Pertwee that you had the idea that the Doctor's face was actually changing rather than getting younger, as the Time Lords exiled him on Earth with a new face. It took until 1974 that the word "regeneration" was used for the first time. The serial that saw Pertwee exit the show and Tom Baker enter it, Planet Of The Spiders, also gave us the appearance of another Time Lord, who regenerated on-screen earlier in the story, to reintroduce and reestablish the principle to viewers and lay down the rules for regeneration to come. We saw the transformation from an older white man and Time Lord calling himself K'anpo Rinpoche to that of a younger man of Eastern Asian appearance, previously a telepathic projection of K'anpo, named Cho Je. Though this was, regrettably, achieved by what is now referred to as "yellowface."

Since then, such a thing has happened many times, from both The Master and The General having both race and gender swaps, as well as River Song switching races. It has been well established in Doctor Who continuity that this does and can happen, for almost fifty years now. So for those that are now clutching their pearls, if you really want to object to such "forced woke diverse casting" being "forced" upon a show like Doctor Who, then you may need to take a trip back fifty years or so.

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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