The showrunner of “Doctor Who” doesn’t get the big deal about having a gay companion
Steven Moffat, the showrunner of long-running British science fiction series Doctor Who, has chastised “the fuss” being made over the sexuality of the Doctor’s new companion.
It was revealed last week that during the upcoming 10th season of the revived version of Doctor Who, the Doctor’s new companion was going to be openly gay. Played by Pearl Mackie, the new companion is called Bill Potts, and she looks like a boss.
The move comes after it was announced that Peter Capaldi, who is currently playing the 12th iteration of the iconic sci-fi character, along with showrunner Steven Moffat were to step down from the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbJqNa0_Oz0?feature=oembed
Now, after a special press conference held after the premiere of the opening episode of Season 10 of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat has called the press coverage of the announcement about Bill Potts’ sexuality “nonsense.”
Speaking about the intense press coverage after the news was revealed, Moffat said that he, along with Pearl and the rest of the cast and crew didn’t think “there was going to be all that fuss.”
Indeed, he said, “In a way, there kind of shouldn’t be.”
"That's kind of nonsense," Moffat added. "Just to be clear, I've been saying this a lot today, we're not expecting any round of any applause or pat on the back for that. That is the minimum amount of representation that she has on television, and the correct response will be 'What took you so long?...' We didn't expect all the fuss, so the fuss stops now."
Of course, as Buzzfeed UK point out, since it’s return to our screens back in 2005, Doctor Who has never shied away from including LGBTQ characters, including Captain Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, and River Song.
In fact, as Mashable reports, Steven Moffat said that journalists had a duty to make sure that they didn’t make a big deal out of Bill Potts’ sexuality, and urged them to not give her any special treatment.
“It is important that we don’t make a big fuss about this in a children’s show, which communicates directly with children,” he explained. “We don’t want young kids, who regard themselves as boring and normal and happen to fancy their own gender … we don’t want them feel as if they are some of kind of special case, as that’s frightening.
“And it’s not your job, journalists, to frighten children.”
Meanwhile, you can catch the 10th season of Doctor Who when it returns to BBC America on April 15th.
