Coming back from a mid-season break of 16 months, Season 10 of the British Sci-fi television show Doctor Who aims to stay culturally and politically relevant. Still featuring Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor, Season 10 introduces a new companion named Bill Potts played by the talented Pearl Mackie. Since its reboot in 2005, Doctor Who has sought to be culturally in tune with the times in order to captivate new audiences while using the same premise that was used at the show’s start in 1964. While improved technology and story lines have kept up the significance of Doctor Who, diverse representation has been absent. All the Doctors since the reboot have been white males and only one companion, until Bill Potts, was a person of color. More so, only two companions in the history of the show have been part of the LGBTQIA community. However Bill Potts’ character expands the show by being unapologetically gay, black, and female. These aspects of her character are woven into her interactions and dialogue as seamlessly as in her identity. Bill’s identity and subschemas, as described in Cynthia Fuchs Epstein’s “Great Divides,” impact her experiences in space more than any other past companion. Travelling through both time and space means that Bill’s relationship between her identity and her surroundings changes as dramatically and frequently as their adventures change. Jean-Louis Baudry’s “Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus” also explains how these subschemas work to allow viewers to identify with Bill to determine how she, and viewers, would fit into the worlds presented on screen. Bill Pott’s character in Season 10 of Doctor Who redefines the role of women in Sci-Fi by acknowledging the intersection of her gender, race, and sexuality which allows more viewers to see themselves represented on prime time television.
About the presenterSarah Elizabeth Gilbert
Sarah Beth Gilbert currently teaches high school English and Film in Jersey City, NJ. She graduated from Villanova University in 2021 with a Masters in Literature and Gender and Women’s studies where she studied the intersection of feminist and queer theories with Sci-fi. During her free time she catches up on film and tv, roller skates, and continues her research on adaptive and non-normative depictions of gender and sexuality in media.