Ever since Ncuti Gatwa was named as the latest star of Doctor Who, I’ve been watching compilation videos of Gatwa’s performance in the Netflix series Sex Education and getting more and more convinced that Gatwa will bring a whole new, much-needed energy to Who.
Gatwa has an immediate star quality, absolutely owning the screen in a way that feels immaculately GIFable. I’ve become enthralled by his manic turn as Sex Education’s Eric, a young queer person dealing with crushes, budding sexuality and friendship, along with homophobia. I can’t help imagining Gatwa bringing the same infectious, twinkling energy to the role of the Doctor. And most of all, I can tell that he’s going to have loads of fun with the part—and we need heroes who are having fun, now more than ever.
Our fictional heroes are usually at their best when we can tell they’re enjoying a life of adventure. Lately, we’ve had plenty of heroes who mope and sulk and complain about the burden of heroism, including a parade of gloomy Batmen. What I’m craving right now is heroes who save the world with a smile on their face.
To be sure, part of my jubilation at Gatwa’s casting stems from his status as the first Black actor to star in the series. (Jo Martin recently guest starred as a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor, but she never got to star in her own adventure.) We all deserve to see ourselves as time traveling wizards, and we can’t build a better world in the future unless our children can see varied images of heroism in the present. But I would be thrilled about Gatwa regardless, after seeing the irrepressible energy he brought to playing Eric. It’s easy to envision him cracking jokes with total aplomb, as he dashes along the show’s trademark gunmetal corridors, pursued by some monstrous beastie.
I feel like one of the things Doctor Who needs right now is a massive infusion of joie de vivre—no shade to the current creative team, but after a very upbeat first season, Jodie Whitaker’s Thirteenth Doctor has been seeming increasingly glum and depressed, as she’s struggled to make sense of a series of baffling revelations about her own past.
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Indeed, Doctor Who has survived this long but encompassing a wide variety of tones. But my favorite times in the history of the show have been those when the Doctor seems to be having a grand old time—no pun intended—facing down evil tyrants with a cheeky grin. One of my favorite quotes from the series comes from the 1973 story “The Time Warrior,” in which the Doctor is asked “Are you serious?” The Time Lord responds, “About what I do, yes. Not necessarily about the way I do it.”
Back in 2008, when I first met brilliant TV writer and all-around creator Javi Grillo-Marxuach, I interviewed him about The Middleman, his graphic novel-turned-TV show. And he told me that The Middleman was standing against “the idea that heroism is ultimately tragic, which I think is the dominating trope of most scifi shows that I watch.” He added:
Doctor Who is an example of a show that doesn’t go there that much, a show that doesn’t say being heroic will destroy your life. Doing the right thing will not kill you, will not destroy your friends. A lot of popular culture insists on sort of a pornography of despair.
Meanwhile, I’ve been loving Anson Mount’s performance as Captain Christopher Pike, first in Star Trek: Discovery and now in the spin-off show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. In spite of a grim storyline where Pike is faced with a vision of his own future, Mount has brought what I can only describe as glee to being the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, reveling in the opportunity to boldly go where no one has gone before.
The original Captain Pike, played by Jeffrey Hunter, was a sulky sad sack who did nothing but complain about how much he hated having the best job in the universe. All that adventure and exploration, all the amazing new discoveries and chances to make a real difference, are just a major drag. Hunter’s Pike wants nothing more than to quit Starfleet and ride horses. Or maybe he could go into business as an Orion trader. (Hearing this, Dr. Boyce is startled: “You, an Orion trader, dealing in green animal-women slaves?” And instead of responding that of course he would never dream of becoming a slave trader, Pike replies that this is just one option he’s considering.)
So it’s especially bracing to see Mount’s version having the time of his life. Not only that, but you can tell that this new Pike’s joyful heroism rubs off on the rest of his crew, who all radiate pluck.
There is a great power in standing up for what you believe in, in the face of fear and doubt and misery. But when our heroes can fight joyfully, instead of dourly, it’s even more inspiring because it reminds us that doing the right thing can be enriching and can bring us happiness, even when it comes at a cost. Doctor Who has always been a show that reminds us to take pleasure in saving the day— and I’m very excited to see Ncuti Gatwa continue that tradition.
This article was originally published at Happy Dancing, Charlie Jane Anders’ newsletter, available on Buttondown.
Charlie Jane Anders is the author of Victories Greater Than Death and Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, the first and second books in a new young-adult trilogy, along with the recent short story collection Even Greater Mistakes. She’s also the author of Never Say You Can’t Survive (August 2021), a book about how to use creative writing to get through hard times. Her other books include The City in the Middle of the Night and All the Birds in the Sky. Her fiction and journalism have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate, McSweeney’s, Mother Jones, the Boston Review, Tor.com, Tin House, Teen Vogue, Conjunctions,Wired Magazine, and other places. Her TED Talk, “Go Ahead, Dream About the Future” got 700,000 views in its first week. With Annalee Newitz, she co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.
As someone who grew up with unabashedly heroic figures in film and on TV, I couldn’t agree more. I think there has been a deep, genuine hunger for this kind of character and these kind of stories ever since we started down the anti-hero road to Hell. I deal with real life every day. Give me entertainment that lifts and inspires me (or at least makes me smile) any day. I just watched Errol Flynn in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (for probably the 20th time) and it was still pure, absolute joy.
I’ve been listening to Big Finish’s 9th Doctor audio adventures with Chris Eccletston and one of the things it reminded me of was how much he generally had that sense of fun – even with the subtext Time War survivor’s guilt and loneliness, he always managed to communicate his childlike joy about what the universe is showing him. Brilliant though the other new doctors are in their own way, I don’t think any of them have quite had as much unambiguous happiness.
Couldn’t agree more. I would argue this was a major factor in the success of the MCU — fun, quippy superheroes who actually seemed to enjoy the work they were doing. As much as I’ve appreciated some of the big, heavy, dark movies like Eternals (yes, I loved Eternals), NWH, and MoM, I’m excited to see some jauntier, more colorful storylines again. (Also, DC, take note: this should be part and parcel of Superman’s personality. Leave the angry brooding to Batman.)
I desperately hope you are right about our new Doctor. Just a few years ago I’d have had no concerns at all about a black Doctor. Seeing the mess they made of the first female Doctor has made me more cynical. It’s not just the actor, it’s the writers and Who’s writers have been doing a piss poor job for years now.
I agree completely, except for one thing. Gatwa will be the third black actor to play the Doctor in canon.
In “Death of the Doctor” (an episode from 2010 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, written by RTD), the character of Clyde, played by black actor Daniel Anthony, swapped his consciousness with the Eleventh Doctor for a time. Matt Smith was even in the episode, and answered Clyde’s question about whether he was always white with “I can be anything.” So the first black actor playing the Doctor happened over a decade ago, even if it was in a spinoff and not a full regeneration.
This isn’t to take anything away from Gatwa being the first black lead actor, or the energy he will bring to the show. This will be awesome.
I whole-heartedly agree! It’s so easy for writers and authors to write about desperate despairing situations that it’s easy to lose site of the wonder and joy that can be in these stories!! With everything going on in the world today, I would love a wave of unapologetic, untarnished optimism!
The article makes an excellent point. I’ve been getting grumpy for years about the tendency for fantasy and to some extent SF novels and series to be unrelievedly dark, competing to have the hero with the most agonizing past traumas, living in the bleakest, most miserable societies and dealing with the most horrible events, such that “saving the day” is as hollow a victory as possible.
I know it’s wrapped up in the anxiety-inducing features of our own society. And I know it’s (still) a reaction to a perception that past fantasy was maybe too easy. But come on, that was decades ago! And for that matter, fantasy was never all that cheerful–anyone remember Thomas Covenant in the 70s? At this point, I’m getting really sick of grimdark. It’s not a shock any more, it’s not refreshing any more, could we do something else already?
Even the swashbuckling fencer stories are getting infected with it–look at the Greatcoats series by Sebastian de Castell: Great swashbuckling swordfights, big finales with crowning moments of awesome . . . but the entire rest of the time it’s angst, angst, angst and depression, depression, depression. In the fourth book I noticed that although the main character at this point had saved the country several times against ridiculous odds, had literally killed a god who had already successfully assassinated all the existing gods at the time, was the second-best swordfighter known to exist, was known to sometimes lose his temper, and was the queen’s right hand man . . . despite all this, every single person who talked to him through most of the book was rude, insulting, condescending and dismissive. Including his friends. One would think by this time the treacherous nobles, no matter what they actually thought, would give someone that dangerous some surface courtesy, but no, because the story imperative of the main character feeling bad about himself, and making the whole thing dark and depressing, was more important than realism.
Which brings me to another pet peeve–often it seems like people do unrelenting dark and grim and vicious, with the incredibly traumatic backgrounds, and back it with a claim of realism. Dark and grim are NOT THE SAME as realistic. Real people are cheerful a lot of the time. Real people are often nice to each other. Most real people have backgrounds that are imperfect but not amazingly horrible. Real heroic people are flawed human beings but not particularly more screwed up than anyone else; often they’re quite nice. The reasons to go heavy grimdark are mainly narrative reasons . . . which is fine, except I’m really sick of that kind of narrative.
Actually one of the things that has really annoyed me about the revived series of Doctor Who is how much it does actually say that doing the right thing will exact a terrible cost, and that your friends will be put through the wringer if not outright killed. I’m glad that the series finally retconned away the idea that the Doctor killed their own species off (including billions of Gallifreyan children), but almost all of the new series’ companions up until this last lot have gone through utter hell. I thought Jodie Whittaker injected some much needed fun into the show with Series 11, but sure enough, right out of the gate in Series 12, her world gets destroyed again. At least her companions have mostly gotten through her tenure unscathed, though one of their spouses was murdered.
So yeah, Ncuti, please bring the fun back.
I’m not much of a Dr Who fan, but I do agree that much of current SF media is dark and gloomy. One of the things that always heartened me about SF as a genre was the opportunity for hope and a better future. Of late, we seem to have lost that.
Thus I find myself reading trashy fantasy adventure where the hero (gender irrelevant) picks up girls (still waiting for a good one where they pick up boys… opportunity there!). It’s disheartening. So much good modern SF to read, and I resort to trash?
It’s the hope and fun and pluck that I miss! Come back “Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers” (where the boys pick each other up!) I miss you!
Okay, I may have to watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds now.
“Kill your man and catch up when you can.”–from The Three Musketeers, film version.
This is the kind of spirit we miss sometimes.
The “green animal-women slaves” line implies (to me at least) that the Roddenberry future wasn’t always the magic Utopia he eventually sold it as. See also: “I can’t get used to having a woman on the bridge.”
Anyway, Charlie Jane is right: we need more fun heroes. I only ever enjoy Dr. Who when the current Doctor is obviously having fun.
Remember when Roddenberry was writing The Cage a woman in the bridge was a strange idea for the audience.