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Criticisms that Doctor Who has become too “woke” prove the series is doing the right thing by being inclusive, its new star Varada Sethu has said.
Sethu plays the Doctor’s latest travelling companion, Belinda Chandra, in new episodes airing next month. With Ncuti Gatwa returning as the Doctor, the pairing marks the first time a Tardis team will comprise solely people of colour.
Speaking about the milestone, Sethu told the Radio Times: “Ncuti was like, ‘Look at us. We get to be in the Tardis. We’re going to piss off so many people.’”
At a time when representative casting in sci-fi and fantasy is prompting toxicity online, the actor, who recently appeared in the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor, said she had been encouraged by fans’ response to her joining the show.
“There’s been a couple of Doctor Woke [references] or whatever, but I just think we’re doing the right thing if we’re getting comments like that,” Sethu said.
“Woke just means inclusive, progressive and that you care about people. And, as far as I know, the core of Doctor Who is kindness, love and doing the right thing.”
Doctor Who celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2023, when some viewers criticised its introduction of transgender and non-binary characters, as well as a scene in which David Tennant’s Doctor realises he has a crush on Sir Isaac Newton.
Sethu, who was born in India and moved to the north-east of England at a young age, has also appeared in Jurassic World Dominion, Annika and Strike Back.
The 32-year-old made her first appearance in Doctor Who last year, playing an entirely different character in the episode Boom.
She told Radio Times that, after filming that episode, the Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies said he “kept seeing me and Ncuti on screen and thinking, ‘God, those two have such great chemistry’.”
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She added: “We really are equals in the way that we interact with each other. Russell wanted someone who can push back and not be in awe of this all-powerful being.”
Sethu said the new Doctor Who episodes were “bright and energetic”, with one – The Interstellar Song Contest – including a cameo from the TV personality Rylan Clark.
She also spoke of the “whiplash”-inducing experience of taking on one of the most coveted and high-pressure roles on British television.
“I was dropped into [filming] within two weeks of being told I had it. So a lot of the confusion and stress that [Belinda is] going through is the confusion and stress that I was going through,” she said.
