Obviously sex is a topic that the classic series tended to mostly lean away from, leading to a lot of people reading The Doctor as an Asexual character. This seemed to start to change with romance being a big part of the TV movie, and then the revival starts to actually discuss those themes a little bit, especially Moffat.
Then, of course, came Torchwood, the adult spin-off that initially tried to distance itself from Doctor Who by, among other things, being more explicit. The infamous āSex Gasā being a cause of ridicule and making many people stop watching the show.
Class also touches on it a bit with multiple main characters getting into relationships and with everything that involves.
And off the top of my head thereās the infamous BBV Zygon film, while not particularly well acted, shot, or written, it does have some very interesting things to say about sex and sexuality.
So yeah, I wanted to create a thread to discuss what Doctor Who and itās expanded materials have to say about the theme of sex. Hopefully staying mature about the subject.
If this is a bit too mature for the forum, moderators are welcome to delete this post or move to members only.
Want to start this off my mentioning Orr, both the Character and the Story.
Orr is a member of Torchwood from The Story Continues range and the first Alien member of Torchwood (ish, depends if you count Ng at that point). Orrās a Sexual Psychomorph, basically a shapeshifter who automatically transforms (physically and to a lesser extent mentally) to become whatever the people around them sexually desire.
One thing I really like about that story is Orrās discussion with Mr Colchester about Colin. When itās just them and Colchester, they end up transforming into Colin (Mr Colchesterās husband), but notably not as he currently looks, but instead how he looked a few years ago.
Itās a small thing, but I think that itās a really interesting moment, both from an in universe perspective with the conversation Orr and Colchester have about it, but also from a meta perspective with what Juno Dawson is saying about sexual attraction and relationships though that interaction.
As I have written in the other thread. I think that the most interesting take on sexuality is the Zygon movie. It does something with gender that I donāt have seen in any other media. I also feel like the production of it is better than most people give it credit for. Is it perfect? Hell no. But I do think that it is good.
But do not fear. The Doctor has since found the error in his beliefs!
I honestly feel like Six has witnessed more births than any other Doctor lol. Itās at least four times, and he has even assisted in some. I think he has a kink now.
I in fact literally just relistened to Summer of Love which is famously the Benny sex pollen episode that gets a lot of hate because of the obvious consent issues present in that trope. However, I donāt think think it fully deserves its reputation, because it does actually have some almost interesting commentary about the trope and does definitely do some interesting things with the characters.
I think I understand why people are jarred by this one - it is very fanfiction made canon feeling, which isnāt necessarily a problem in itself, but I think it dives into a category of trope that isnāt too often explored in DW and its universe. One thing I do appreciate often about Benny as a character too is how sex positive she is, and how she often expresses sexual desire and isnāt punished by the narrative for it, which is common for women in fiction. I just like that sheās allowed to be a little horny and a lot of a disaster all of the time, I find that refreshing.
As for Mr Dr Who themself, theyāre aroace to me forever and any relationships they have with companions are all meaningful to them in some way or another. There is no one single āloveā for the Doctor. They just love everyone
I do think the discussion of how a shapeshifter would view gender, sex, and sexuality is an interesting topic, but yeah I just donāt think Zygon really does it all that well
In contrast, with how The Story Continues does it, itās one of the reasons why Orr is my second favourite member of Torchwood of all time (especially being genderqueer myself)
I do think that the main show can do sex in kind of a weird way sometimes. Like what is Amy supposed to work as? A kissogram? Is that a sex worker? A striper? Something else? I think that it would be better to skip that part.
I think the Zygon Movie does something interesting with showing us how our main character is somewhat attracted to women and then to have her shape change into a man who then has sex with a woman. Really weird, but kind of fascinating.
In the Class book Joyride we also have Ram who has his body taken over by a closeted gay man who then has sex with a man using Ramās body without Ram knowing about it afterwards. No idea what to make of that one honestly. Not a particularly interesting book eitherā¦
Something similar happens to Benny in The Stoneās Lament (?) (yes looks like I am in Benny mode atm haha) - she gets mind swapped with someone who has sex with her body and gets her pregnant which sounds bad and it kind of is, but it is a good story and it has big impacts on the rest of the Benny story forever so itās a kind of load-bearing not ideal event and itās treated as such, which I think makes the biggest amount of difference in these sensitive kinds of topics - ultimately turning around and saying āhey, so maybe that was f*cked up and we shouldnāt do thatā
Not a joke at all! Thought the triggers could be spoilered like the tropes bit, but being able to choose them specifically would probably be better yeah. I use ādoes the dog dieā so I was also thinking about how that site works too.
