Doctor Who star Varda Sethu( I Came By, Hard Sun) defends the Disney+ series for claims the series has gone “woke.”According to Deadline, the term “woke” has been used negatively for people of color being cast but for the series woke is a good thing for television. Sethu said to Deadline “There’s been a couple of Doctor Woke [references] or whatever, but I think we’re doing the right thing if we’re getting comments like that. Woke means inclusive, progressive, and that you care about people. And, as far as I know, the core of Doctor Who is kindness, love, and doing the right thing.”

Ncuti Gatwa(Sex Education, Masters of The Air)and Varda Sethu are the two people of color being cast that pilot the Tardis for the first time. Sethu said “Ncuti was like, ‘Look at us. We get to be in the Tardis. We’re going to piss off so many people, we are equals in the way that we interact with each other. Russell [T Davies] wanted someone who can push back and not be in awe of this all-powerful being.”

With the new season of Doctor Who getting released, this casting brings up the topic of people of color getting cast in predominantly white television shows. In the world of television, white actors mainly dominate the screen, leaving little to no room for people of color to be represented. Hollywood has been pushing to the limits of this issue and casting people of color to act in these types of shows. But some white audiences label this type of casting as “woke”. Actors have faced racist attacks, death threats, racial slurs, and backlash for getting cast. It has come to a point where if a person of color does get cast on television, the television show is now “woke”.