Doctor Who and Race: Reflections on the Change of Britain’s Status in the International System

Abstract

This article discusses how the issue of race is treated in the British television science fiction programme Doctor Who (DW) by looking at changes in the international system and the decline of Britain’s role as a global player within it, as well as significant internal changes within Britain that made the portrayal of race, and for that matter gender, more palatable to British audiences and television executives. Thus, as Britain’s role in the international system declined, and as the country became more comfortable with a multicultural society (which traditional ideas of empire and great power status worked against), it became possible to include different racial characters on DW.