Doctor Who, episode 3:
'A Town Called Mercy'
16/09
BBC ONE
So we see Doctor Who's next transgender character.
A horse named Susan.
"Can I borrow your Horse it is official Business!"
"He is called Joshua! Its from the Bible it means the deliverer!"
"No he isn't, I speak horse, he is called Susan!"
"And he wants you to respect his life choices!"
(Image: BBC).
(Image: BBC).On the surface this may seem like a 'bit of fun'.
But what it does show is how far it has fallen in trans terms from the days of Russell T Davies and his 'Cassandra' (The Last Human) Character, although she was a 'baddie' towards the end we got to know her better. Then there was the briefest of mentions about a Time-Lord known as the 'Corsair' - "She was a bad girl" he says when talking about another time lord's regeneration now confined to an email box captured on a planetoid. But in fairness if he regenerated into a female that's not trans thats a female Time-Lord.
But today, the transreality in this series, has come down to what essentially is a 'one liner' a gag.
"Hahaha a transgender horse ..." moving on. And they didn't even get the pronouns right. Respect HIS life choices? Badly written and clearly the writer has no idea about trans issues as is the case with most writers on the BBC. At least RTD as a gay man is likely to have at least met a transgender person. Or is that a stereotype?
Maybe next time we will see a transgender Amoeba? You never know your luck.
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