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Doctor Who: A British Alien? pp 83–115Cite as

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“Lots of Planets Have a North!”: Scottishness, Welshness and Northernness in Doctor Who

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Abstract

This chapter examines Doctor Who’s treatment of Scottish and Welsh nationalities, as well as considering northern English identity. Serials of “classic” Doctor Who (1963–1989) set in Scotland and Wales projected a sense of backwardness and lack of agency on the part of Scottish and Welsh characters, thereby reflecting a non-egalitarian unionism. By contrast, new-series Doctor Who (2005–present) tends to give its Scottish and Welsh characters a greater sense of agency and modernity, thereby presenting a more edgy unionism-of-equals. The chapter also traces a mild improvement in the show’s projection of northern England in terms of more conflictual storylines, the portrayal of a northern-accented Doctor and a northern English companion, Clara Oswald.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Linda Colley , “Does Britishness Still Matter in the 21st Century—And How Much/How Well do the Politicians Care?”, in Britishness: Perspectives on the British Question, eds. Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 22.

  2. 2.

    In Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom’s smallest nation, British identity tends to be counterposed to Irish identity and is connected to the division between unionists, who tend to be Protestant, and nationalists, who tend to be Catholic. Northern Irish identity in Doctor Who will be briefly considered towards the end of the chapter.

  3. 3.

    Tanja Nathanael , “Rose is England”, in Who Travels with the Doctor? eds. Gillian I. Leitch and Sherry Ginn (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), 79–90.

  4. 4.

    For example, Rose is the only companion to have adventures with the Doctor in England, Scotland and Wales, and she is closely connected to the Union Jack , the flag of the United Kingdom, in “The Empty Child”/“The Doctor Dances” (2005) and “The Idiot’s Lantern” (2006). If she were representing England she would be aligned with England’s own flag, the Saint George’s Cross.

  5. 5.

    The Treaty of Union came into force on May 1, 1707 and was incorporated into English and Scottish law by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The two Parliaments thereby dissolved themselves to create the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Subsequently, the new state changed again, to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by virtue of the Treaty of Union 1800. In 1922, it became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland when the Irish Free State acquired dominion status, becoming the Republic of Ireland in 1937.

  6. 6.

    Linda Colley , Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992), 5–6. Colley explains that for poor and less literate Britons, Scotland, Wales and England remained potent rallying calls and that even among the more politically educated it was common to think in terms of dual nationalities rather than a single British nationality. Colley, Britons, 373.

  7. 7.

    This sense was reflected in Doctor Who’s celebration of British identity in “The Empty Child”/“The Doctor Dances” (2005) and “Victory of the Daleks” (2010).

  8. 8.

    Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright, “Introduction: The Britishness Question”, in Britishness: Perspectives on the British Question, eds. Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 2–4.

  9. 9.

    Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 6–7.

  10. 10.

    Jon Cook , “Relocating Britishness and the Break-Up of Britain”, in Relocating Britishness, eds. Steven Caunce, Ewa Mazierska, Susan Sydney-Smith and John K. Walton (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2004), 17–37.

  11. 11.

    Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright, “Introduction: The Britishness Question”, in Britishness: Perspectives on the British Question, eds. Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 1.

  12. 12.

    David Marquand, “Bursting with Skeletons: Britishness after Empire ”, in Britishness: Perspectives on the British Question, eds. Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 14.

  13. 13.

    Liam Connell , “Modes of Marginality: Scottish Literature and the Uses of Postcolonial Theory”, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 23 (2003): 26–39.

  14. 14.

    Ellen-Raïssa Jackson , “Dislocating the Nation: Political Devolution and Cultural Identity on Stage and Screen”, in Scotland in Theory: Reflections on Culture and Literature, eds. Eleanor Bell and Gavin Millar (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2004), 108.

  15. 15.

    Chris Williams , “Problematizing Wales: An Exploration in Historiography and Postcoloniality”, in Postcolonial Wales, eds. Jane Aaron and Chris Williams (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2005), 3–27.

  16. 16.

    This chapter’s analysis of the classic series focuses on serials set in Scotland and Wales. Occasionally, however, Welsh characters in serials set in England have been depicted as backward, grasping and self-seeking—for example, Driver Evans in “The Web of Fear” (1968) and Mullins in “Spearhead from Space” (1970). By contrast see n. 20 below.

  17. 17.

    Jackson, “Dislocating the Nation”, 15.

  18. 18.

    Colin McArthur , Brigadoon, Braveheart and the Scots: Distortions of Scotland in Hollywood Cinema (London: I.B. Tauris, 2003), 18.

  19. 19.

    This forms a contrast with the Doctor’s foray into northern England in “The Mark of the Rani” (1984), which I consider later in this chapter.

  20. 20.

    It may be significant in this regard that by contrast in “Fury from the Deep” (1968), the chief executive of a public-sector sea gas company, Megan Jones, is a Welsh woman. The story is set in England in the present day or near future and Jones is the only Welsh character.

  21. 21.

    Murray Leith and Daniel Soule , Political Discourse and National Identity in Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), Chap. 8.

  22. 22.

    Too much should not be made of Doctor Who perpetrating Celtic stereotypes as regards second sight: in “The Daemons” (1971) the irreproachably English Miss Hawthorne has magical powers as a white witch.

  23. 23.

    Lorna Jowett , Dancing with the Doctor: Dimensions of Gender in the Doctor Who Universe (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017), 25–27.

  24. 24.

    A regrettable exception is “Countrycide” (2006), where the Torchwood team encounter a cannibalistic Welsh village, suggesting a difference between urban and rural Wales.

  25. 25.

    For criticism that Torchwood ’s approach to homosexuality does not go far enough, see Sherry McGinn, “Sexual Relations and Sexual Identity Issues: Brave New Worlds or More of the Old One?”, in Illuminating Torchwood , ed. Andrew Ireland (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010).

  26. 26.

    Stephen Lacey, “‘When You See Cardiff on Film, it Looks Like LA’ (John Barrowman): Space, Genre and Realism in Torchwood ”, in Torchwood Declassified, ed. Rebecca Williams (London: I.B. Tauris, 2013), 137–153, 141.

  27. 27.

    Willy Maley and Sarah Neely , “Almost Afraid to Know Itself: Macbeth and Cinematic Scotland”, in Scotland in Theory: Reflections on Culture and Literature, eds. Eleanor Bell and Gavin Millar (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2004), 101.

  28. 28.

    David McCrone , The Sociology of Nationalism (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), 32–34.

  29. 29.

    Eleanor Bell , “Postmodernism, Nationalism and the Question of Tradition”, in Scotland in Theory: Reflections on Culture and Literature, eds. Eleanor Bell and Gavin Millar (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2004), 85.

  30. 30.

    Iain MacRury and Michael Ruskin, The Inner World of Doctor Who: Psychoanalytical Reflections in Time and Space (London: Karnac Books, 2014), 171.

  31. 31.

    Kate Flynn , “A Country Made from Metal? The ‘Britishness’ of Human-Machine Marriage in Series 31”, in Doctor Who in Time and Space, ed. Gillian I. Leitch (Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2013).

  32. 32.

    As regards Amy’s gender , Anne McManus Scriven argues that Scottish literature is phallocentric in that the word “Scottish” has usually signified maleness. Perhaps the same was true of Doctor Who until the introduction of Amy. See Anne McManus Scriven, “The Muted Scotswoman and Oliphant’s Kirsteen”, in Scotland in Theory: Reflections on Culture and Literature, eds. Eleanor Bell and Gavin Millar (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2004), 167–181.

  33. 33.

    Leith and Soule, Political Discourse, Chaps. 7–8 attribute a growing everyday awareness of Scottish national identity to devolution. They observe that with devolution, all political parties in Scotland, not just the Scottish National Party , focused more on the sense of nation and nationhood, Scottishness and belonging.

  34. 34.

    Maley and Neely, “Almost Afraid to Know Itself”, 101–102.

  35. 35.

    Paul Mason , “I do not want to be English—and any attempt to create an English identity will fail”, The Guardian, May 10, 2015.

  36. 36.

    A referendum in North East England in 2004 rejected the government’s proposal of a regional assembly by 78% to 22%.

  37. 37.

    Katie Wales, Northern English: A Social and Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 27–28.

  38. 38.

    Hunter Davies, George Stephenson: The Remarkable Life of the Founder of the Railways (London: The History Press, 2004).

  39. 39.

    Mirror, April 14, 2015.

  40. 40.

    It does not follow that the ninth Doctor was signalled as working class . In this regard, a distinction might usefully be drawn between upper class (with its overtones of heredity and tradition) and ruling class (which can and does co-opt a small working-class contingent). Piers Britton insightfully observes that whilst the Doctor’s accent belied a ruling-class identity, his actions and attitudes serve to recuperate it. See Piers D. Britton, TARDISbound (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), 37.

  41. 41.

    John Paul Green , “The Regeneration Game: Doctor Who and the Changing Faces of Heroism”, in Impossible Things, Impossible Worlds: Cultural Perspectives on Doctor Who, Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures , eds. Ross Garner, Melissa Beattie and Una McCormack (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), 3–24.

  42. 42.

    Barbara Selznick , “The Changing Brand of Doctor Who’s Britishness”, in Ruminations, Peregrinations and Regenerations: A Critical Approach to Doctor Who, ed. Chris Hansen (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), 81.

  43. 43.

    David Layton , The Humanism of Doctor Who (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012), 24.

  44. 44.

    Piers D. Britton, TARDISbound, 99–100.

  45. 45.

    Matt Hills , Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-First Century (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010), 154.

  46. 46.

    James Chapman , Inside the TARDIS : The Worlds of Doctor Who, 2nd ed. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2013), 191.

  47. 47.

    A more progressive stance would have easily been possible, and is apparent in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas, in which a companion to the Eighth Doctor, Lucie Miller (played by Sheridan Smith) is also from Blackpool. The Doctor and Lucie have adventures both in Blackpool itself and in the Lake District, also in North-West England (“The Zygon Who Fell to Earth” (2008), “Death in Blackpool” (2009)).

  48. 48.

    Williams, “Problematizing Wales”, 3–27, 14–15.

  49. 49.

    The Sarah Jane Adventures episode “Death of the Doctor” (2010) reveals that this is a union which proves fruitful in raising some highly internationalised descendants.

  50. 50.

    See “Day of the Moon” (2011), “Let’s Kill Hitler” (2011).

  51. 51.

    “Hell Bent” pointedly draws attention to the Doctor’s and Clara’s difference in identities. Having forgotten Clara following a memory-wipe, the Doctor exclaims to her “You’re English!” and Clara retorts “You’re not!”.

  52. 52.

    Williams, “Problematizing Wales”, 15.

  53. 53.

    One might even argue that there is actually something very British about Britain muddling through with British subjects in Scotland and Wales not considering themselves British.

  54. 54.

    Bhikhu Parekh, “Being British”, in Britishness: Perspectives on the British Question, eds. Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 37.

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  1. Westminster Law School, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Danny Nicol

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Nicol, D. (2018). “Lots of Planets Have a North!”: Scottishness, Welshness and Northernness in Doctor Who . In: Doctor Who: A British Alien?. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65834-6_3

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