I Need Fish Fingers and Custard”: the Irruption and Suppression of Vegan Ethics in Doctor Who
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Chapter 11 “I Need Fish Fingers and Custard”: The Irruption and Suppression of Vegan Ethics in Doctor Who Matthew Cole and Kate Stewart Doctor Who, produced by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), is the world’s longest running television science fiction series, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2013. The original ‘classic’ run of Doctor Who was broadcast in the UK between 1963–1989, before going on hiatus, excepting a 1996 TV movie, although the programme retained a cultural presence through the production of new stories in alternative media formats and in video and DVD releases of the ‘classic’ series. The television series was rebooted in 2005 and has been in continuous production since. Both classic and new series Doctor Who targets a ‘family’ audience, thereby engaging children and their caregivers in a com- munal viewing experience. This is reflected in the Saturday tea-time (approxi- mately 5pm) scheduling of the original programme in the UK and in its current scheduling early on Saturday evenings (around 7pm). It thereby provides an opportunity for the inter-generational reproduction, or critique, of cultural and ethical norms through the stories it tells and especially the behavior of the central characters and their relations with alien ‘others’. The Doctor him- self is a member of an alien species, a Timelord from the planet Gallifrey, who has the technological capacity to travel through time and space. The Doctor appears human, with his alien-ness being marked by his technological prowess, longevity, nonhuman anatomy (such as having two hearts) and a range of character quirks that vary with each incarnation. The Doctor is accom- panied on his adventures by a changing series of companions, who tend to be human, young, female and white, albeit with more diversity of casting in the post-2005 show. The longevity of the programme is attributable to his capac- ity to ‘regenerate’, and therefore be played by a different actor. Thirteen actors have played the part to date in the televised programme: all white British men,1 1 The first 6 actors to play the Doctor used an RP (received pronunciation) accent, associated with a middle or upper class identity and typical on British television until a more recent trend towards regional diversity on screen. The 7th Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, spoke with a mild Scottish accent, while the 9th Christopher Eccleston, retained his Northern English accent. The current Doctor Peter Capaldi speaks with his native Scottish accent. The age of © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/97890043�585�_0�� “I Need Fish Fingers And Custard” 199 despite periodic rumors of a female and/or black iteration of the character.2 A common theme within the show is the Doctor saving humankind from exploitation or extermination by alien Others, in which the horror of the story inheres in the objectification of human beings through enslavement, as con- sumable resources, or as worthless ‘vermin’. As such, Doctor Who frequently explores a science fiction trope of exploding hubristic human ‘superiority’ in the face of technologically and/or intellectually superior alien threats, trace- able to the roots of the genre: In H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (2005), first published in 1898, humans are consumed as food by the invading Martians. In the Doctor Who episode The Runaway Bride (2006), the alien Racnoss declares, “harvest the humans. Reduce them to meat”. A variant on this theme is the Doctor’s more direct critique of the exercise of human ‘superiority’ over and against vulnerable alien others. For example, in the 2007 episode 42 (2007), the Doctor lambasts the human crew of a spaceship for their exploitation of a living sun for fuel: “Humans, you grab whatever’s nearest and bleed it dry”. These narrative devices facilitate the construction of the Doctor as a heroic figure, saving humankind either from an alien peril, or from the consequences of our own moral outrages, over and over again. It thereby facilitates the con- struction of the Doctor as a moral leader, through his critique of the violent, hubristic and exploitative ambitions of both alien Others and humans our- selves. This moral leadership role is acknowledged as central to Doctor Who by Julie Gardner, the Executive Producer of the rebooted show: “Your actions the actor playing the part has varied widely: the two oldest bookend the series to date: Peter Capaldi is the oldest actor to begin working in the role, followed by first Doctor William Hartnell; both in their mid-50s when taking the part. However, the un-numbered ‘War Doctor’, was played by John Hurt while in his 70s (see note 2). Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor, is the youngest to play the role to date, being cast when aged 26. 2 The numbering of the Doctors has been complicated in recent years by the insertion of an un-numbered ‘War Doctor’, played by John Hurt, in two televised episodes and one ‘webisode’ in 2013, into the fictive history of the character. The War Doctor incarnation lived between the 8th and 9th incarnations. For the purposes of this chapter, the War Doctor is discounted in the numbering. Therefore, the numbering of Doctors in the text refers to: 1st (William Hartnell, 1963–1966); 2nd (Patrick Troughton, 1966–1969); 3rd (Jon Pertwee, 1970–1974); 4th (Tom Baker, 1974–1981); 5th (Peter Davison, 1981–1984); 6th (Colin Baker, 1984–1986); 7th (Sylvester McCoy, 1987–1989 and 1996); 8th (Paul McGann, 1996); 9th (Christopher Eccleston, 2005); 10th (David Tenant, 2005–2010); 11th (Matt Smith, 2010–2014); 12th (Peter Capaldi, 2013- date). In addition to their main tenures as the Doctor, most of the actors have reprised the part in later televised ‘multi-Doctor’ episodes and/or in spin-offs or other media. Several other actors have also played or parodied the part in various media..