How should/will Doctor Who handle Brexit?

[FaxModem1]

So, Brexit has happened, and since the Doctor is a British production, filmed in the UK, with British actors, and funded by the British government, how should they handle it?

[Thanas]

It is a children's show so from that perspective there will be heavy pressure to not have it turn into a horror show if they mention it. So I doubt they will.

[Vendetta]

If they're anything like Charles Stross, writer of the Laundry Files, shake their heads at the fact that if they'd written a story where a referendum result caused the disintegration of the government and the immediate failure of all the candidates who tried to become leader to do so and an attempt to unseat the leader of the opposition three years ago everyone would have called it far too silly.

Brexit, and especially the British government's handling of it, is too fucking stupid to fictionalise effectively.

[Crazedwraith]

I don't see much need to reference it that much. International relationships in Dr Who are different anyway with like UNIT and Valiant and the Doctor being World President.

At most make a joke about like with Scottish independence.

[Tribble]

Conservatives may gradually cut the funding and starve the beast seeing as the show tends to be more on the left. Or at least put pressure on the show to change its attitude. After all, having a show that generally supports multiculturalism and non violence when they are trying to kick all the immigrants out may be counterproductive to their narrative. Don't want a show teaching kids that those nasty minorities and foreigners are humans too, that's just liberal propaganda!

[Lord Revan]

Ultimately Doctor Who isn't about british politics or UK relationship with the rest of Europe so I dout they'll mention it at all, it's simply not part of the story they want to tell.

[Zixinus]

It is not a topic that Dr. Who is really set up to handle, from what I remember of the show's tone. It has aliens invading or visiting or causing a ruckus, or they cast go off-world to places far weirder. I mean, has the EU even been mentioned?

If there is an episode about it, then it should be indirectly and through metaphor, with something more to say than for/anti-Brexit. Like, with a different planet or even a different people/species that go around a similar problem. The people in power have different ideas than the general populace and ignore the general populace or just be incredibly out of touch, the general populace is angry, populace does something unexpected like allow a villain to get power, people in power get a gut-punch and have to learn that they have to be more in-touch with the populace.

[Broomstick]

It is a children's show so from that perspective there will be heavy pressure to not have it turn into a horror show if they mention it. So I doubt they will.

Emphasis added.

Er... have you watched the program? Some episodes are pretty horrifying...

[Zixinus]

Brexit is not horrible. It's depressing. That's worse.

[Vendetta]

It is a children's show so from that perspective there will be heavy pressure to not have it turn into a horror show if they mention it. So I doubt they will.

Emphasis added.

Er... have you watched the program? Some episodes are pretty horrifying...

Yeah, but Boris Johnson doesn't go away if you hide behind the settee.

More's the pity.

[Thanas]

It is a children's show so from that perspective there will be heavy pressure to not have it turn into a horror show if they mention it. So I doubt they will.

Emphasis added.

Er... have you watched the program? Some episodes are pretty horrifying...

Yes I have.

Does not change my point that they will not turn brexit into a horror show.

[SpottedKitty]

a story where a referendum result caused the disintegration of the government and the immediate failure of all the candidates who tried to become leader to do so

Six little words:

"Don't you think they look tired...?"

[The Romulan Republic]

It is a children's show so from that perspective there will be heavy pressure to not have it turn into a horror show if they mention it. So I doubt they will.

Emphasis added.

Er... have you watched the program? Some episodes are pretty horrifying...

Yes I have.

Does not change my point that they will not turn brexit into a horror show.

They did a two-parter a while back which was a thinly-veiled allegory for the immigration debate.

[Bedlam]

Maybe they'll do a another Peladon story, the first one was an allegory about joining the EEC after all.

[Solauren]

They'll ignore it.

Dr. Who is an entertainment show, not political satire.

[mr friendly guy]

If you watch the extra features of classic Who DVDs, they weren't above satire, although it might not be so obvious now. For example in the Sunmakers, the Usurian collector (yes, not very subtle there with the word usury to describe a bunch of extreme capitalists), was based on British politician Denis Healey who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at that time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Healey

Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey,[1] CH, MBE, PC, FRSL (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983.

Healey was satirised in the ITV series Spitting Image, his caricature mainly focused on his famous eyebrows, and the real Healey appeared in the thirteenth and final episode of the programme's first series in 1984. The iconic eyebrows were similarly parodied in the 1977 serial The Sun Makers from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which the antagonist known as the Collector is distinguished by having similarly bushy eyebrows to Healey.

If they are going to have a dig at Brexit, they won't be calling it Brexit. It wouldn't fit in a world where the UN has quite a bit of power, where North Korea is in some sort of alliance with other powers (at least with nuclear weapons availability for fighting alien invasions) and where the public is aware of alien invasions.

Now they could easily do a story where the EU and UK analogues are obvious, at least to people watching now, although not so obvious if we watch 30 years in the future. Someone mentioned the Peladon stories about the planet Peladon (UK) applying to join the Galactic Federation (EEC). I mean, its quite easy to come up with appropriate analogues AND have plausible deniability since "planet applying to join an interstellar union" is a common enough trope in sci fi. I mean we see this in DW, Star Trek, Andromeda etc.

[Hillary]

Conservatives may gradually cut the funding and starve the beast seeing as the show tends to be more on the left. Or at least put pressure on the show to change its attitude. After all, having a show that generally supports multiculturalism and non violence when they are trying to kick all the immigrants out may be counterproductive to their narrative. Don't want a show teaching kids that those nasty minorities and foreigners are humans too, that's just liberal propaganda!

The Government doesn't get to choose which shows the BBC funds.

[Crazedwraith]

Conservatives may gradually cut the funding and starve the beast seeing as the show tends to be more on the left. Or at least put pressure on the show to change its attitude. After all, having a show that generally supports multiculturalism and non violence when they are trying to kick all the immigrants out may be counterproductive to their narrative. Don't want a show teaching kids that those nasty minorities and foreigners are humans too, that's just liberal propaganda!

The Government doesn't get to choose which shows the BBC funds.

Not directly but they do get control the license fee, iirc.

[The Romulan Republic]

They'll ignore it.

Dr. Who is an entertainment show, not political satire.

As though those two things are mutually exclusive...

Star Trek is also an "entertainment show". Its also pointedly and overtly (if often clumsily) political at times.

[SolarpunkFan]

Under the consideration that DW is a show intended for children, don't mention it.

Let the children enjoy their years of innocence while they can, they'll have plenty of opportunities for getting shit upon by life later.

[The Romulan Republic]

Under the consideration that DW is a show intended for children, don't mention it.

Let the children enjoy their years of innocence while they can, they'll have plenty of opportunities for getting shit upon by life later.

There are certainly some things that are not appropriate for a children's show, but we're not talking about graphic violence or explicit sexuality or something here. And I'm not at all sure its a virtue to keep children completely ignorant of current events, then suddenly expect them to be functioning participants in democracy when they get old enough.

Keep in mind, Who was created in part as a historical educational show, IIRC. Its long grown beyond that, of course, but I don't think having some actual substance is contradictory to the show's mandate, as it were.

[Hillary]

Conservatives may gradually cut the funding and starve the beast seeing as the show tends to be more on the left. Or at least put pressure on the show to change its attitude. After all, having a show that generally supports multiculturalism and non violence when they are trying to kick all the immigrants out may be counterproductive to their narrative. Don't want a show teaching kids that those nasty minorities and foreigners are humans too, that's just liberal propaganda!

The Government doesn't get to choose which shows the BBC funds.

Not directly but they do get control the license fee, iirc.

They do have the final say over the TV Licence Fee and renew the Royal Charter, but they have no say in how individual budgets for shows are set or the day-to-day running (which was the suggestion made by Tribble).

They are obliged not to show an overall bias in programming, but DW is way down the list of shows that have a 'left' bias.

[SolarpunkFan]

There are certainly some things that are not appropriate for a children's show, but we're not talking about graphic violence or explicit sexuality or something here. And I'm not at all sure its a virtue to keep children completely ignorant of current events, then suddenly expect them to be functioning participants in democracy when they get old enough.

Keep in mind, Who was created in part as a historical educational show, IIRC. Its long grown beyond that, of course, but I don't think having some actual substance is contradictory to the show's mandate, as it were.

Good point. I didn't know DW was intended to provide some facts about history BTW.

[The Romulan Republic]

There are certainly some things that are not appropriate for a children's show, but we're not talking about graphic violence or explicit sexuality or something here. And I'm not at all sure its a virtue to keep children completely ignorant of current events, then suddenly expect them to be functioning participants in democracy when they get old enough.

Keep in mind, Who was created in part as a historical educational show, IIRC. Its long grown beyond that, of course, but I don't think having some actual substance is contradictory to the show's mandate, as it were.

Good point. I didn't know DW was intended to provide some facts about history BTW.

To quote Wikipedia (fair disclaimer: the last bit is marked "citation needed"):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Doctor_Who

Doctor Who was originally intended to be an educational series, with the TARDIS taking the form of an object from that particular episode's time period (a column in Ancient Greece, a sarcophagus in Egypt, etc.). When the show's budget was calculated, however, it was discovered that it was prohibitively expensive to re-dress the TARDIS model for each episode; instead, the TARDIS's "Chameleon Circuit" was said to be malfunctioning, giving the prop its characteristic 'police-box' appearance.

And a lot of the early episodes were more historically-based, before the show veered more and more into SF monster stories.

Now, granted, there's a difference between depicting history and discussing current controversies. But history shapes those current controversies, and the depiction of history is often highly politically polarized (God help them if they ever try to set an episode during the American Civil War, for example). So discussing something like Brexit, in a sense, could be seen as the show getting back to its roots.

[FaxModem1]

Now, granted, there's a difference between depicting history and discussing current controversies. But history shapes those current controversies, and the depiction of history is often highly politically polarized (God help them if they ever try to set an episode during the American Civil War, for example). So discussing something like Brexit, in a sense, could be seen as the show getting back to its roots.

I often think Doctor Who chickened out very early in it's run, and after The Aztecs, always included a monster because it was easier for them to write then making a historical story interesting. To the point that it became a crutch of the show, it is one of the reasons why I'm disappointed in the new series for never trying to do a straight historical. But then, after seeing Kill the Moon and the trees episode, maybe I should be thankful.