Doctor Who Opinion: The Doctor and disabilities, a fan’s wish
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 30: (Photo by Harry Engels/Getty Images)
Before I start this article, I want to clear something up. This isn’t aimed to be a political article, or to say that Doctor Who is doing anything wrong. It’s also not meant to say that the show needs to change. It’s simply about the wish and wonder of someone who’s disabled (myself) if they could ever be a companion.
I’ve been watching Doctor Who for years. I’m not the longest fan in the world — in fact, I discovered it pretty late. However, since I started watching it in Matt Smith’s last season, I watch each episode from the Classics and the New Era with a single question in mind.
Could I, someone who’s profoundly disabled, ever be a companion of the Doctor? Now, don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not real. I know no one looking like David Tennant or Peter Capaldi will ever show up on my doorstep telling me to run — not that I ever could.
It doesn’t make me love the show any less — in fact, when they bring someone on with disabilities, I feel a bit validated. I loved seeing a representation of ASL and deafness, as well as someone who suffers from dwarfism. But since there’s never been someone in a wheelchair on the show, I have a nagging sense of what if?
That’s what I want. I want, for one episode, to have the Doctor meet someone who’s in a wheelchair, and when they can’t run, he improvises. The entire episode would be the Doctor improvising to help get away with this person who found that can’t run. And I don’t ask this out of political correctness. I simply want to see what it would be like.
This is my wish as a Doctor Who fan. Not out of any agenda, but just out of a way to see that even I, someone who can’t run, could still keep up with my madman in a box.
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