Doctor Who has taken a lot of flack over the years for not being super diverse with its characters. All of the time lords over the years have been white dudes. Sure, they have diverse personalities, but not a ton of diversity in terms of race or gender. While Doctor Who has been called out for diversity issues, its spinoff Class shouldn't have that same problem. The TV show will have lead characters of different genders and races, and this week show creator Patrick Ness revealed the new series will represent the LGBT population as well.
Been asked if Class will have LGBT representation in it. Will a lead character with a boyfriend who he kisses & sleeps with & loves do? We were keeping that secret, but today that secret doesn't seem very important.
The show creator took to Twitter to reveal the news, noting that one of the storylines in the upcoming series will feature one of the male characters falling in love with another boy. We already knew the show would navigate "a life of friends, parents, school work, sex, [and] sorrow." So obviously, we knew there would be a romantic component to the new spinoff, which will be set at the Coal Hill School that's been featured on and off in episodes of Doctor Who throughout the long-running show's history.
Patrick Ness went on to also reveal that of course the character's sexual orientation will be a facet of the character and not a focal point on the series, noting there's a lot of other interesting stuff to look forward to.
There's way more than one character on the show, of course; lots of stories to be told. WITH ALIENS & TERROR & EMOTIONS & STUFF!!
Still, an LGBT character is something worth noting, especially in the world of Doctor Who. It's also simply interesting to know, considering the BBC hasn't given us a ton of information about Class to go off of. We'll take any new information we can get.
In regards to all of those other characters and story arcs, a ton of cast members have already been added to Class, including but not limited to Greg Austin, Fady Elsayed, Sophie Hopkins, Vivian Oparah and Katherine Kelly. In addition, some individuals who are already a part of the Doctor Who universe are expected to appear. A recent report even indicated that we might get an appearance from the current 12th Time Lord (played by Peter Capaldi) at some point during the eight-episode first season of Class.
Class doesn't have a premiere date, yet, but the new series is expected to hit the schedule later in 2016 on the BBC. If you'd like to see what the networks have coming up this summer, check out our TV premiere schedule.
