BBC has announced a brand new Doctor Who podcast, and it’s set to be extremely queer.
Over the years, viewers of the beloved series have asked creators for more LGBTQ+ representation.
Fortunately for long-time queer fans, trans author Juno Dawson and trans activist Charlie Craggs are set to deliver “very gay and very trans” content in the new 10-episode podcast, Doctor Who: Redacted.
Craggs, Lois Chimimba and Holly Quin-Ankrah have been tapped to play Cleo Proctor, Abby McPhail, and Shawna Thompson – three university drop-outs that run The Blue Box Files podcast.
In an interview with BBC, Craggs described her lead role as a “huge step” for the trans community.
“There are no words to express how huge it is, and how grateful I am, being a trans actress playing the lead role in something so special, but more so how significant the fact that my character is trans, and the lead role, too,” she said.
Dawson echoed similar sentiments to Craggs before describing the long-running series as her “first love.”
“It’s an absolute thrill to add to the ever-expanding mythology in podcast form for the first time ever,” she told the BBC. “What a total privilege to write for something so beloved, and put my own little flag on the landscape.”
Luckily fans won’t have to wait too long for the show’s inaugural episode.
I was expecting this to break on Monday, but that’s time travel for you, I guess.
DOCTOR WHO: REDACTED – coming April 17 to @BBCSounds https://t.co/YwXMv5LwK7
— Juno Dawson (@junodawson) April 8, 2022
On Twitter, the producer of the series, Ella Watts, revealed that the show would premiere on 17 April.
“The cat is FINALLY out of the bag: I produced and directed a very gay, very trans OFFICIAL [Doctor Who] fiction podcast… and it comes out next Sunday,” she tweeted.
The synopsis for Doctor Who: Redacted is as follows: “The trio speculate over Abby’s favourite conspiracy theory – intent on finding out the truth behind the mysterious ‘Blue Box’ that keeps cropping up across history. What if this random police public call box was actually an alien ship?
“They don’t know who the Doctor is, or if aliens are real, but soon find themselves caught in a supernatural conspiracy as they learn that everyone who’s ever met the Doctor is disappearing and being forgotten.”
The show is also set to entangle past and current storylines and will feature an array of familiar faces – including Kate Stewart, Madame Vastra, Petronella Osgood, Rani Chandra and Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor.
News of a queer-led Doctor Who series comes a week before the franchise’s highly anticipated Easter special.
In a recent interview with Radio Times, Mandip Gill – who plays Yaz – revealed that the episode would feature more queer interactions between her character and the Doctor.
“That’s where I think the heart [of the special] is, the understanding, the emotion that [showrunner Chris Chibnall] is so good at writing,” she said.
Latest
