News Corp columnist Des Houghton has voiced his offence at a scene in last week’s Doctor Who episode ‘Deep Breath’.
The story featured a kiss between character’s Madame Vastra and her companion Jenny.
In an opinion piece Houghton asked if it was acceptable to promote inter-species lesbianism on prime time television?
Houghton also noted that British TV regulator OFCOM had received complaints about the on-screen kiss with fans complaining that the BBC has a “blatant gay agenda”.
UPDATE: The ABC has confirmed that no complaints were received in Australia following the screening of the episode. The UK regulator OFCOM received six complaints but did not launch an investigation as none of their standards had been breached.
Madame Vastra, a member of the fictional lizard race the Silurians and her companion Jenny, a human living in Victorian London have featured in the show for several years and have always been depicted as being in a relationship, but last week’s episode was the first time they had kissed on screen.
The pair, played by Neve McIntosh and Catrin Stewart, locked lips as they held their breath to hide from killer robots. In the UK six people lodged complaints saying the kiss was “gratuitous” and “unnecessary”.
Houghton writes that he finds the idea of a lizard woman being in a relationship with a human confusing and off putting. The opinion writer also complained that Peter Capaldi, the actor in the role is too old for the part.
Finally Houghton takes a swipe at fans of the show calling them – tragics with empty lives.
It’s hard to take Des Houghton’s rant seriously but here’s some questions?
- Six people complained to OFCON in the United Kingdom, while a total of 7.3 million people watched the show. Is a concern held by 0.0000008% of the audience really worth talking about?
- If fictional inter-species relationships are a big concern do you also worry about the appropriateness of Kermit the Frog dating Miss Piggy? That seems to have been going on for quite a while now. Also Noddy seems quite fond of Tessie Bear. Mr Spock in Star Trek has a Vulcan father and Human mother, is Mr Spock’s appearance on television questionable?
- Are you only offended when fictional inter-species relationships are gay? After all you did tweet that this column is about the BBC and ABC pushing a gay agenda.
- The BBC’s commissioning editor Ben Stephenson, highlighted that there was a lack of gay characters on television, firmly putting the issue on ‘the agenda’, why exactly do you think there shouldn’t be more gay characters on television?
- The character of The Doctor is over 2000 years old, who did you think was an age appropriate actor? Capaldi’s 56 years old, sure he’s the oldest actor in the role, but only by a smidge, the role was originally played by William Hartnell who was 55 when the show began. Third Doctor Jon Pertwee was 50 when he took on the role.
- Do you think we should be worried that if we allow same sex marriage (we know you consider them to be a sham) and then we discover a lost lizard race living under the planet… gay people may want to marry gay lizard people?
We’ll hold our breath while you think about it.
Graeme Watson
UPDATE: Additional information added regarding ABC complaints 10:00 Monday September 1st 2014.
