TENNANT TRANS DEBATE: RTD, NCUTI, BBC - GET YOUR TANKS OFF DOCTOR WHO LAWN WITH TOXIC MESSAGING 

I’m not saying this to be nasty but RTD is acting like someone taking a lot of cocaine. I’m a working musician and unfortunately have been around a lot of people who take it and it turns them into nasty egotistical arses. RTD’s recent outbursts and even his promo appearance’s have seemed a bit manic.

Shouldnt it be the parents or guardians of children to decide when a child is old enough to be taught about this kind of stuff ?

What should be escapism for all is being exploited by both the left and the right in this tedious battleground. I think many who consider themselves to be on the left (and may even agree with them to some extent) are getting fed up with the constant heavy-handed preaching from entertainment writers/producers. It used to be that good sci-fi made you think, it never told you what to think.

It started in the Comic Relief special when 14 said he was just a "brilliant woman" in reference to 13. After a stale portrayal of a female Doctor we were straight back to the kid gloves with 13. She's amazing, she's the best. Then the Star Beast solidified this point with the female cast exclaiming it was better when the Doctor was a she, and that he'll never understand. The message here is that men suck and only by changing to and staying as a woman can you be respected. I was utterly shocked. There is no way these people wrote this "positive" episode and managed to get something like this wrong. It's on purpose. The real kicker is that Tennant's own father-in-law once admitted he was worried about a female Doctor because boys might lose a role model.

Thank you Brendan for your brave and sensitive take. (Speaking on this topic really does take bravery.) I liked your comment that "ally" suggests a war; it would be great to escape the chains of this narrative. "Get your political culture war tanks off the Doctor Who turf"--YES, thank you!!!! Doctor Who is being degraded by being used as a political football. It's so sad.

As a straight, white, leftie leaning, 51 year old man… I have felt so alone and abandon by fandom. I stand with you my friend. We won’t get Doctor Who back, but we need Disney Who to stop dragging it, and us, through the mud.

I don't agree with David Tennant in this matter to any degree but I didn't think much of Kemi's response either. Instead of sticking to facts and making a clear argument about why it's important to have common sense around the issue of transgenderism, she basically tried to diminish him with ad hominems, including about him being a white man. How does she get away with racism and sexism ? Imagine if he or anyone else had said the same thing in reverse ? This idea that white men are to be ignored in the West is insidious and dangerous. And it manifests itself in other ways on television and in films because it's noticeable how fewer and fewer white men are getting roles. See Disney's hiring practices as highlighted by James O'Keefe.

Brilliant video, Brendan. Well said!

I feel specifically identity politics should stay out of Who; I don't have a problem with discussion of economics (Oxygen is a brilliant episode) or war or genuine egalitarianism, but identity politics that values people based on what category they fall into is just an awful thing to indoctrinate kids with. I quite like Doctor Who doing politics, e.g. The Sunmakers, but the identitarianism is just horrendous.

....lost all respect for Tennant over the last few years tbh......

I tried to watch some of the Whittaker stuff but it was poor, she was poor. Olivia Coleman might have pulled it off. I tuned back in to see Tennant come back but could never have predicted how bad his stuff would be, I can't even watch the new guy and from clips I've seen that seems to be a good idea! A kid's show pushing all these agendas is insane, good job it comes on after twelve at night now, nobodies watching. Think I'll put on a DVD tonight, from when the Doctor was a mysterious traveller in Time and Space, something with Sarah Jane Smith or Leela...

'doesnt exist' means dead, i think thats why he caught himself amd said i dont wish ill on her but she should shut up.

Excellent! Well said! I agree Dr Who should leave gender ideology well alone. Is David Tennant safeguarding his son? Is the boy receiving "gender" medication? Is that why David Tennant is compelled to preach gender ideology indefinitely - to save himself from guilt? When I discovered Dr Who Twitter I was denounced as a 'BIGOT' by Big Finish authors for agreeing with Gareth Roberts and James Dreyfus. So much for debate and tolerance! There's a real dislike of the unlike, as Ian Chesterton might say.

As usual Brendan, you've given us a measured and reasonable take on a sensitive subject. Talking about the very real consequences of pushing this ideology on children is essential, and certainly not bigoted in any way. There's no reason why we can't be kind and honest at the same time, and unlike David Tennant, think critically and compassionately.

RTD is a bitter old queen who has missed his moment and desperately wants to stay relevant.

Brendan a cracking piece: well said.I am a 53 year old fan of WHO and first watched it aged four at Christmas.I vividly remember watching enthralled as Jon Pertwee fell to the floor and feeling my heart sink only to be fascinated and astonished when he was reborn as Tom.I don’t recall if either man was wearing Y fronts at the time.The magic has been stripped from the show and in its place we have this nihilistic culture of sexual heirarchy introduced by Moffat, Chibnall and Davies- the 3 Stooges.

Who's Views covered this a few days ago and the trolls invaded the comments section. I suggested Tennant should follow the likes of Glenda Jackson and give up the day job and go into politics, but the trolls felt he can be an actor and express their opinion, completely missing the point that he is using his public persona to push his politics and influence his many fans. He is a fully paid up member of the cult, I have lost any respect I had for him.

It’s a source of great regret that in a country in which families rely on food banks to eat and the sick and most vulnerable are targeted for cuts to their income RTD targets….ordinary decent fans for his Political point scoring.As a small child I realised that the Doctor was a hero for the underdog not a champion for the übermensch of Identity Politics.Has RTD unlearned the meaning of Doctor WHO? The best WHO stories answer the question-Dr Who? The Doctor is the man who makes a stand, draws the line regardless of the odds and fights the good fight. This Gatwa nonsense is NOT Doctor WHO.

Well said, get the tanks off the Dr Who property. We would say in the USA get off my (the doctor) yard. You In the UK say garden not front yard.

Well said Brendan!

Wonderfully put.

The Doctor/Rose story arc was IMMENSE and will always be a classic. David has his own beliefs which he has been fairly vocal about. The two shouldn't be mixed up or weaponised by a rabid section of society who don't seem to practice the rules they preach.

100% well said

RTD and a lot modern poeple in the media come across as rich privileged poeple that look down the audience.

Spot on.

Well said, I fully agree

This has just occurred to me, but as a counter to people who blame the fall of Doctor Who on "leftism" (rather than "intersectional feminism" which is neoliberal identitarianism) can I point out all the best Doctor Who was made under Harold Wilson.

Maybe it would be a good idea, psychologically, for men who think they are women to first accept that they are men who think they are women?

I’m the B in LGBTQ and I’ve got an 18 year old daughter (15 year old son as well) and my daughter has a great many friends who I simply have decided to use the pronoun they or whatever name they want to be called (if I can remember it because some of them have changed it more than once now). I’m as respectful of the choices of these teens/young adults as I can be but I’m also well aware that they have all changed their minds on who they are, as we all did growing up, several times. The difference between the children now and when we were their age is we didn’t have all of this confusion presented to us by the media. We figured it out on our own. It has never been a bad thing to show children or anyone that we should be accepting, adapting and respectful of the choices others make or the differences of others. It is however wrong to expect a great number of people on a whole to upturn their lives, beloved tv characters and programs and simply be ok with and suddenly comfortable with change all of the sudden. Most people don’t do well with change and it’s particularly bad when you metaphorically change to the point where we all knew the color of the sky as blue and now if you don’t accept the new definition of blue as purple immediately you’re somehow evil. Simply because some people wish for acceptance doesn’t mean that the correct way to get it is by demonizing or “canceling” those with alternative beliefs, views or values (particularly when it comes to children). If we want to be woke about Doctor Who, in the most modern terms, The Doctor is a Demi romantic, Demi sexual, bi-gendered, bisexual. That is based on the way he has been depicted up until this new Doctor. He also has traditionally had complex feelings regarding the closeness with humans being regarded as friends. They all leave. Thus far his known relationships have been with his own kind (aka other Time Lords), a clone of him who was essentially mortal going off to live a romantic relationship with a human, but, because he could now age with her, River Song who might be considered quasi Time Lord due to the circumstances of her birth and that’s all. Currently, one might argue RTD and Disney have disregarded the Doctor’s sexual identity and self identity as we know it. That’s extremely disrespectful to the Demi community who generally identify on the asexual spectrum. That’s hypocritical wokeness.

Well said Brendan 👏

I just love how they always spout "Doctor Who has always been political", as if you could flip on any random episode of classic Who and find an entire cast filled with gay and trans people, as you see over-represented in the current show. Or when they talk about the Green/environmental issues, as if most people weren't comfortable with that level of environmental content by the time Captain Planet hit the air in 1990, lol

It is entertainment for children and teens, and indoctrination about trans is not what should be in a children's or teens' program. Celebrities should not be virtue signaling in a dangerous way. Producers and show runners should not be using an intellectual franchise as a platform for their social advocates.

You should go on Queen's Speech about this! Excellent. (I don't believe in 'trans kids'.) Great passion! You look younger.

Longtimr lefty here, from America. I hate all this identity, performative politics b.s. It's suffocating entertainment _and_ politics.

Sadly Doctor Who has become a victim of the "culture wars" without doubt.

music please?

You know me - I try to be reasonable but you’re right to correct that

You really don’t understand deadnaming do you?