Complaints filed over gay kiss in “Dr Who.” The BBC isn’t listening to them.
The long-running sci-fi TV series Doctor Who made history in its 14th season by featuring an explicitly romantic same-sex kiss between its male hero, The Doctor (played by Ncuti Gatwa), and a male bounty hunter, Rogue (played by gay actor Jonathan Groff). The episode, entitled “Rogue,” took place in an early 19th-century setting reminiscent of the romantic historical fiction series Bridgerton. It featured the two men flirting, dancing, arguing, and kissing in ways that suggest The Doctor’s own attraction to men.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) received at least two complaints about the episode, citing its “inappropriate sexual innuendo” and a concern about the quickness of The Doctor’s romantic connection to Rogue. The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) disregarded the complaints, calling the innuendo mild and the quickness necessary for the episode’s 44-minute length.
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In a statement, the ECU said, “The ECU considered the sexual innuendo to be towards the mildest end of the spectrum and in any case likely to go over the heads of children,” Deadline reported.
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“The development of the relationship served the needs of a fast-moving plot and was unlikely to strike viewers of any age as a model for interpersonal relationships outside this particular fictional context,” the ECU added.
In the episode, the time- and dimension-hopping Doctor and the bounty hunter find themselves in 1813 England, both hunting a murderous member of the Chuldur, a shape-shifting alien species of bird-people. The Doctor eventually realizes that the species loves the romantic drama of the TV series Bridgerton, and so he and Rogue cause a public scandal by dancing together at an aristocratic ball, having a romantic argument in public, and then running off together.
Near the end of the episode, Rogue must decide whether to separate from The Doctor to successfully trap the murderous Chuldur. In the climax, Rogue and The Doctor share a passionate kiss, and Rogue gives The Doctor a ring which he then puts on as a reminder of their bond.
The kiss isn’t the first same-sex kiss in the series. In a 2005 episode, pansexual Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) briefly kisses The Doctor (then played by Christopher Eccleston), but the brief and surprising kiss had no deeper romantic or sexual implications for The Doctor. Past episodes have shown same-sex kisses between supporting characters, but never has an episode hinted that The Doctor may be gay or bisexual.
The current series of Doctor Who was written by pioneering gay TV creator Russell T. Davies, who wrote the groundbreaking gay late 20th century TV series Queer as Folk; the interconnected queer TV series Cucumber, Banana, and Tofu; the very gay 2012 historical drama A Very English Scandal, and the heart-rending 2021 AIDS TV miniseries It’s a Sin.
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