It's grim up Doctor Who's North

By Danny Nicol

University of Westminster

Doctor Who is not just science fiction: it is also a television programme which seeks to represent the British nation.  In this regard, in November 2017 the British Broadcasting Corporation announced that it would arrange big-screen viewings of the Doctor Who Christmas special in advance of Christmas Day.  These would be held exclusively in towns in the North of England: Hartlepool, Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Middlesbrough, Salford, Durham and Bradford, tickets to be allocated by ballot, with some preference being accorded to local people.

Clara and the Doctor follow the no-nonsense Mrs Gillyflower
in  Yorkshire-set "The Crimson Horror" (2013)

The concession to Northern England reflects the fact that the North is neglected compared to Southern England.  This in turn was reflected in the majority of voters in most Northern towns registering their dissatisfaction by voting “Leave” in the EU referendum of 2016.  This was seen as a cry of community outrage against disparities of wealth and power.  There is endless talk by government of building “economic powerhouses” in the North, but not much seems to materialise.

Yet the “concession” of an early viewing of the Christmas special seems rather tokenistic.  It is, after all, a lottery: only a small proportion of local Doctor Who fans will benefit.  Moreover the prize is double-edged, forfeiting the traditional element of surprise on Christmas Day.

There are surely more substantial ways of making Doctor Who more inclusive in terms of its representation of Northern England.

One, as argued in the blog before, would be to have the new Doctor play the role in her own accent.  Jodie Whittaker hails from Skelmanthorpe in Yorkshire, in the North of England, and has already played several prestigious roles in her own accent.  It is to be hoped that, like Christopher Eccleston, she plays the Doctor with a Northern accent.

Christmas jollities: tensions at the Yuletide table for
 Clara and family

Another way would be to have Northern companions, but to take their Northernness seriously by locating their back-stories far more markedly in the North.  The failure to do so is seen in Clara Oswald’s (Jenna Coleman’s) tenure of the role of companion.  Clara came from Blackpool, yet worked as nanny then teacher exclusively in London.  Even when she invites her family to a rather strained Christmas dinner in “The Time of the Doctor” (2013), this proves a peripheral element of the story, detached from a Northern setting.

Three Time Lords in the North East: the Rani,
 the Master and the Doctor in "The Mark of the Rani" (1985)

A third way would be to set more Doctor Who adventures in the North.  So far only two Doctor Who stories have been set in the North of England in the show’s long history.  “The Mark of the Rani” (1985) was set in North East England, with its actors failing rather lamentably with the region’s difficult accent (The film I, Daniel Blake (2016), set in Newcastle, made the better choice of using local actors).  “The Crimson Horror” (2013) was set in Yorkshire.  Depressingly, in both instances, the TARDIS had veered off course: the Doctor meant to transport his companion to a Southern English setting.  Even in the latest series the programme relocated the Doctor to a university in Bristol, another southern city, albeit in England's south west rather than the south east.  If Doctor Who is to represent Britain properly, this will require a determined effort to shift a critical mass of Doctor Who escapades from the show’s southern comfort-zone.