Sylvester McCoy has defended the political aspects of storytelling associated with Doctor Who. Known for his portrayal as the Seventh Doctor between 1987 and 1989, McCoy recently reprised his role as the Time Lord in The Power of the Doctor, the Jodie Whittaker finale in 2022.
The 80-year-old actor, while in attendance at a BFI screening of the remastered The Happiness Patrol, opened up on the importance of political storytelling in the franchise, suggesting the series “talked to young people” and as a result, had “always been political.”
For his full explanation, read below (courtesy of a story from ScreenRant).
“In the ’60s, I got hooked on Doctor Who, and the reason why was because of the politics in it, subtly put there. The ’60s, they started to swing, they started to change… it was a kind of a revolution, a peaceful and wonderful revolution going on, and Doctor Who was the only decent thing on [the BBC] at the time that had anything that talked to young people like me in a political way. So it’s always been political, as far as I’m concerned.”
The Happiness Patrol, a serial from 1988, is considered one of the more politically-influenced stories of the McCoy generation, introducing fans to Helen A, a character styled after Margaret Thatcher, who featured in a story strongly inspired by the Miner’s Strikes of the 1980s.
Similarly, Matt Smith stepped in to defend Doctor Who from critics of the series – particularly focused on the racial backlash facing Ncuti Gatwa as the first black actor to play the Fifteenth Doctor, and LGBTQ themes. You can read the full story here.
