‘Doctor Who’ season 10 episode 9: Mark Gatiss admits protesting against black actor’s casting as Victorian soldier

Bayo Gbadamosi plays Victorian soldier Vincey in "Doctor Who" season 10 episode 9 "Empress of Mars" BBC.co.uk

The casting of a black actor in “Doctor Who” was problematic, according to one writer of the show. There was a Victorian army soldier stationed in Mars in season 10 episode 9 titled “Empress of Mars,” and this was apparently an issue for Mark Gatiss.

Spoilers included below for the most recent “Doctor Who” episode, “Empress of Mars.” It aired Saturday in the UK on the BBC, Sunday in Australia on the ABC.

In the episode, the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), companions Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) and Nardole (Matt Lucas) travelled to Mars in 1881 to investigate how the words “God save the Queen” appeared on the planet. The text was visible from Earth in present day. The trio then discovered the Mars was occupied by British soldiers.

Gatiss, who wrote the episode, has admitted he was uneasy when he learnt that the show cast a “brilliant young black actor” (named Vincey and played by Bayo Gbadamosi) as a Victorian soldier simply because “there weren’t any black soldiers in Victoria’s army.” He thought BBC just wanted to add more representation in the show.

He sent a “very difficult” email to a colleague to explain why the actor shouldn’t be cast, according to the Telegraph. However, he accepted the decision after discovering there was indeed one black soldier who served in Victoria’s army in the 1800s.

“But obviously, we try all the time to be more representational, and to make everything less homogeneously white,” he said in front of Oxford University students while discussing the latest episode. “But then the argument is ‘It’s Doctor Who,’ so everything is already a strange and different world where from the time the show came back, Russell T Davies [former showrunner] is very particular about making sure the show had colourblind casting.”

He continued, “I thought that was a very interesting dilemma in terms of there are shows where you can be immediately more diverse and so you should be, and also times when it’s slightly more problematic.” Unsure about Gbadamosi’s casting, Gatiss researched the issue and came across the story of Jimmy Durham, a Sudanese boy rescued from the River Nile in 1886.

Gatiss said he was so fascinated about Durham’s story. He told the audience how the boy was brought up by soldiers of The Duham Light Infantry regiment and given the name James Francies Durham, after one of the men who cared for him. When the boy reached the age of 14, he enlisted into the regiment as a bandsman.

“And he became what was called a listed officer, by special dispensation of Queen Victoria,” he said. “He retired to the North East, married a white girl, and his descendants still live there. It’s an amazing story.”

This season of “Doctor Who” appears to be the bravest yet in tackling racism. In its third episode, the Doctor and Bill discussed racism early on after finding themselves in 1814 London. Bill, who is the revived show’s second main companion who is black (next to Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman in the third season) noticed that there were actually more people of colour in the UK than portrayed in films, which the Doctor attributed to the industry practice of “whitewashing.”

Meanwhile, Capaldi’s successor has been cast, according to Davies. However, he declined to give any clues as to the next actor’s gender or age.