I may be an hour late to international asexuality day, but as someone who identifies in this category, I always look out for representation where there is any
The Whoniverse is a super accepting place but I’ve not seen asexuality brought up much, or many characters who Identify as such, the only example I can think of being Beth from the 9DA, ‘Swipe Right’
The way her identity is handled however is just amazing, and it’s treated as being something so normal which was really nice to see
I wanted to know however if there was any other asexual or aromantic representation in the Whoniverse? Maybe if it’s not stated explicitly or it could just be a headcanon, I wanted to create this topic to discuss something personal to me that I’d like to see a bit more of in Doctor Who and it’s expanded media :))
I believe the 9DA set Star-Crossed deals with The Doctor’s asexuality
The Doctor as a character isn’t someone I’ve necessarily considered to be asexual, some incarnations are definitely more on that spectrum than others, but I like to think of the Doctor as such a complex idea that defining them with a sexuality would be pointless
It’s still interesting to consider which ones fall more on the asexual/aromantic spectrum than others tho
I think 5, 6 and 9 are probably the most asexual, maybe 11 too
Agree on all of those, I’d also say the Fugitive Doctor based on the limited characterisation we have of her
As an ace-spec person, I see the Doctor as generally being on the asexual spectrum, but where they are on it, and if they even are on it, as changing from regeneration to regeneration.
2 and 3 are the most home of sexual coded in my mind, mlm that is
Six can be interpreted as asexual/aromantic based on some canon evidence. I used to take notes when I listened to BF and some of them touched on this theme.
In The Marian Conspiracy
Sarah: “Are you married, Doctor?”
Doctor: “Alas, I have yet to attain that happy state.”
Sarah: “Never fear. I know many women who take husbands much greater than them in years. It is not yet too late.”
Doctor: “Well, that’s a comforting thought.” Sarah: “Indeed, there are many advantages to marrying an older man. Their wisdom and experience is so much greater than that of mere boys, I think. And-”
Doctor: “I’m sure you’re right, but I think perhaps Doctors ought not to marry. They should devote their time to the common good, like priests don’t you think?”
Evelyn: “Anyway, what was it that the Queen said that upset you? I thought you conquered her with your bedside manner! She seemed happy enough with you when I left.”
Doctor: “She was. So happy with me, in fact, that she has decided to give me a gift!”
Evelyn: “What’s so bad about that?”
Doctor: “The particular gift she has in mind is a wife!”
Evelyn: (she laughs) “Goodness me! Anyone we know?”
Doctor: “Her lady-in-waiting, Sarah.”
George: “Oh, you’ve a fine prize there, Doctor! All of London knows that Sarah Whiteside is a pretty young thing.”
Doctor: “I don’t care how pretty she is; I am not going to marry her.”
In the One Doctor
SALLY-ANNE: “Yeah. That’s very clever of you to notice that.”
DOCTOR: “Yeah? Well I am very clever.”
SALLY-ANNE: “And very sexy.”
DOCTOR: “And very se- no! No. Let’s not start all that over again.”
CYLINDER: “But still, I must be certain.” [that you are not a Time Lord and Banto Zame is]
DOCTOR: And the Doctor’s a Time Lord, your cylinderness. And a Time Lord would never do this!“ (he gives Sally-Anne a giant smooch) SALLY-ANNE: [swooning] “Oh, Doctor…”
MEL: “Doctor!”
CYLINDER: “You’re right. A Time Lord would never do that.”
(I recall there being a line in this audio where he said he’s “never, ever sexy” or something to that effect when he’s being flirted with, but I didn’t write that down. I might’ve imagined it.
This entire audio is Six trying to deflect this girl’s flirtations.
State of Change
The Tardis gets pummeled by some time distortion thing and Peri, while skinny dipping, gets thrust out of the pool room and washes into the console room where the Doctor is. He converses with her without paying any mind to her nude figure (but he does eventually place his coat around her).
I also know Pertwee, Colin, and I think Sylvester have spoken on how they think the Doctor is asexual[1]. Supposedly Tom and Matt also subscribe to that.
Putting my “asexual headcanon” hat on, I think One, Five, Six, Seven, Twelve, and maybe Eleven come across the most asexual. I agree that the Doctor’s regenerations are too individualistic to paint the entire character with a broad brush. What fits with one iteration might not fit another.
I also very much enjoyed the 9DA set you speak of.
Colin also implies aromantic ↩︎
I headcanon the Doctor as Aceflux (and also aroflux) as their sexuality does seem to be always fluctuating between regenerations
Surprised nobody’s really talked about 4 when City of Death literally has this line:
DOCTOR: Ah. Well, you’re a beautiful woman, probably
Which I’m pretty sure is Adams playing with the concept of the Doctor being asexual.
As an aro/ace person myself, is nice for my favourite character in media to be aligned with my sexuality (50% of the time)
Douglas Adams my beloved
My personal headcanon (which sometimes doesn’t perfectly fit in with canon, but can if I try hard enough) is that the Doctor is always both asexual and aromantic, but in their different incarnations their feelings towards sex and romance change. So some of the time they are aroace and sex/romance-repulsed, but in other incarnations they are still aroace, lacking specifically the feelings of sexual and romantic attraction, but may enjoy relationships of one or both of these natures, and use them to express the strong affection they have for certain others, where the actual attraction they feel is more queerplatonic. I’m thinking specifically about 8 and the way he kisses his friends such as Fitz and Grace which I’ve always read through an aro lens. I use this headcanon to cope with the fact that new who essentially changed the character who had for such a long time been amazing aroace representation and made them supposedly allo, because of course you can still be in relationships while being ace and/or aro.
The first Big Finish UNIT story I listened to was ‘Narcissus’ and I felt Ozgood read very ace. In the sets they try to do a will they won’t they with Josh Carter but I still think of her as ace. I haven’t listened to all of them so I don’t know if they develop anything to completely contradict my headcanon.
In my mind, i think there’s some lingering yearn in every Doctor for The Master
In my mind He and most time lords are on the ballpark of demiromantic asexual
[rubs my grubby little aroace hands together] time to trawl my blog for ace dr whomst posts:
Joan gave a short, bitter, laugh. “You haven’t learned how to love.”
“A fish can’t learn to -”
“Walk?”
“Not that. A better metaphor. Whatever it is, I’m incapable of it.”
-Human Nature (VNA)
She dragged herself up the last few feet and collapsed on the ledge beside him. ‘Can you get that through your head, right?’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘This was not some moony little teenage crush. This is a real live want-to-throw-him-on-the-floor-and-shag-him-till-bits-break-off kind of problem. All right?’
They made it up the last twenty feet of the cliff and staggered back to the tent they’d set up earlier. Sam sat down, groaning as her muscles complained, and started struggling out of her boots.
‘So why didn’t you?’ said Paul.
‘Why didn’t I what?’ said Sam, locked in battle with her shoelaces.
‘Break bits off him.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Sam. ‘It wouldn’t be right. It’d be like snogging your uncle. Anyway, he never shows any interest at all in that kind of stuff.’
-Seeing I (EDA)
His unnatural sexual orientation, and his imposition of that attitude upon the asexual being of the Doctor, were typical of his attitude to life.
-The Turing Test (EDA)
‘I thought he was sleeping with Daria.’
The Doctor laughed. ‘He might be. But that proves nothing about him, since you would also like to.’ He glanced up. ‘I don’t recommend it, by the way.’
‘You’ve tried?’ I asked dryly.
‘We – I --’ He shrugged. It’s not something that interests me.’
‘Sex?’
‘Yes. It’s a missing piece in my life.’
-The Turing Test (EDA)
+a whole other bunch of aro/ace/nb dr who quotes from this blog
I know there’s a sizable group of Who fans on Tumblr who strongly disagree with this, but I personally headcanon Turlough as ace. (I used to think he was definitely aroace just based on the TV episodes, but then they did give him a few love interests in the audios/books so now my headcanon is that he’s asexual and alloromantic.)
As the certified and unofficial number one Turlough fan I absolutely think he’s asexual, or at least somewhere on that spectrum
Going with a slightly controversial one to say I headcanon John Hart as ace. I think he’s the kind of person to mistake lack of attraction for all the attraction. I know lots of people who identified as bi or pan before realising they’re ace, and while I do think that by coming from the 51st century John would probably know the difference and have no trouble identifying as ace, it’s likely that most modern day people would assume he’s bi or pan.
Based on what you’ve said it’s definitely a solid idea, but the story Peach Blossom Heights from The Sins of Captain John series disproves that I think
I really can’t go into much detail here but a LOT of stuff happens in that episode…
A LOT