Davies (who we might hear more about later!) would have a big hit with Queer as Folk, a story featuring a gay Doctor Who fan as one of its lead characters. Just 10 years later, a writer called Russell T.
#DOCTOR GAY VIDEOS SERIES#
No sooner had Doctor Who started to make progress towards LGBTQ+ representation than it was all over! The series was taken off the air in 1989, and so missed out on the proliferation of LGBTQ+ subjects on TV over the next decade. Sheila Hancock as Helen A and Ronald Fraser as Joseph C in The Happiness Patrol (1988). Many fans have identified LGBTQ+ themes in 1988’s The Happiness Patrol, which they reckon took pot-shots at Section 28 (a British government policy banning the promotion of gay themes in schools), the persecution of gay men by the police, and then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher herself! These low-key allegories were hammered home by what might be politely described as a less than subtle production design, which saw all the female characters sporting bright pink wigs. There were developments in the stories as well, and more gay overtones had started to appear by the end of the 1980s. New producer John Nathan-Turner had injected the show with a flamboyant flash of showbiz glitz, and this occasionally camp new sensibility only increased its appeal to the LGBTQ+ community. Glitz and glamourīy the time the 1980s came around, things were starting to change. John Lee as Alydon, a Thal, in the Daleks (1963). This strong sense of justice, doing what’s right, and treating everyone in the universe the same has been the driving force of the series, even at times when specifically LGBTQ+ storylines and character were missing, and is a big part of what has made people from all kinds of communities fall in love with the Doctor. They had been mercilessly persecuted by the Daleks just for being different, and the Doctor wasn’t having that. In one of the Doctor’s very first TV adventures, we saw him do everything he could to help the Thals. But even so, the series had one amazing attribute – the Doctor! He was the sort of character who made everyone feel included, no matter who they were or where they came from. Things continued in much the same way for two decades, and Doctor Who seemed to be stuck in this 1960s-style timewarp. Waris Hussein, who directed the first episode, spoke to Doctor Who: The Fan Show about how it felt to be gay and working at the BBC at that time. They may have felt they had to keep that part of their lives to themselves, and it would have been unthinkable to include overtly gay characters, themes and references in their work on the show. Even though there were lots of people of different sexualities working on Doctor Who over the years, social attitudes were very harsh.
The UK was a very different place in 1963, when Doctor Who first started – in fact, it was illegal for two men to even be in a relationship in England and Wales until 1967 (the law didn’t apply to women). The Doctor is a hero for everyone, and to mark LGBT History Month in the UK, we’ve taken a look back at some of the important inclusivity milestones in the history of the series.