25/06/2019
One of the top Doctor Who podcasts is “Radio Free Skaro”. Each week, the indepth webcast investigates the history, culture and politics behind the UK’s longest running science fiction franchises, and one which has always boasted a diverse following. Indeed, a programme which once prompted the far right wing party the BNP to complain that it was too “radical” when black assistant Martha Jones joined the team in the TARDIS, is surely up there in the community’s good books. This week, Radio Free Skaro has taken a rare stance in acknowledging problematic comments made by one Doctor Who scriptwriter. Gareth Roberts is a gay man, and something of a poster boy for bear culture. He has written several acclaimed stories for Doctor Who, including the Tenth Doctor adventure “The Unicorn and the Wasp” which contained a secret gay romance, and contributed to an audio reconstruction of the famous lost story “Shada” featuring the Fourth Doctor. However, Mr Roberts has also caused some controversies in his liberal use of twitter, and his outspoken thoughts on the wider LGBT communities. Mr Roberts made tweets in 2017 criticised by some BAME campaigners as having racist overtones. In 2019 Mr Roberts came out as critical of the trans movement, using some language that led to other scriptwriters refusing to work with him. This makes him something of an unusual figure. Most LGBT politics watchers agree that in general, gay men have been more relaxed about trans issues than some branches of the feminist movement. Either way, the Radio Free Skaro podcast notes the concern from some LGBT people about the writer. They say: “our latest Miniscope section features writer Gareth Roberts. We concentrated on Roberts writing contributions for both parts of the Miniscope, but we would be remiss to ignore the controversy surrounding Roberts’ views on trans people. As such, if you feel you shouldn’t listen, we completely understand.”