The premise: The Doctor is a Time Lord, able to zap through time and space on his Tardis vehicle (which looks like a 1960s British police box from the outside). He has a tragic back story which might be new to this series: he is the only surviving member of his species. They were all wiped out by the evil ("Exterminate!") Daleks, but he destroyed their species in retaliation (until they return).
The Doctor is in the habit of saying "It's hopeless! There's no escape! There's nothing I can do -- we're all going to die!" Or "the universe will collapse at any moment! There's no way to stop it!" Or 'we're stuck forever on this parallel world where Britain has a president instead of a prime minister, and they've invented helicopters but not airplanes!" Then, after the commercial break: "I've figured it out! All we have to do is recalibrate the time coordinator and push it backwards through the space-time continnum!"
I'm reminded of the old Star Trek series, where Captain Kirk says "The odds against us getting out of this jam are a million to one!" Then he does it easily, and starts deciding what to wear for his promotion to Admiral.
The companion: In the first episode, the Doctor meets Rose Tyler, a working-class shop girl from 21st century London, and invites her to join him. Rose has a tragic back story, too: her father was killed in a traffic accident while she was a baby. Somehow the Doctor's missions often put them in parallel worlds where he's still alive (but she can't see him, or time/space will collapse), or back in time to the moment of the accident (but she can't rescue him, or flying gargoyles will destroy the world).
I don't know if the Doctor fell in love with his previous female companions, or this is a new innovation, but he and Rose are definitely falling in love. It's a slow burn romance -- we're halfway through Season 2, and they haven't kissed yet. Of course, Rose has a boyfriend, and the Doctor is busy falling in love with the lady alien or distant-future babe of the week (even Madame de Pompadour, when he tries to prevent distant-future cyborgs from stealing her brain).
Occasionally they pick up a second companion, a guy, but the Doctor resents the competition and quickly boots him.
The Guys: While they are in 21st century Utah, investigating an underground museum of alien artifacts, they pick up "boy genius" Adam Mitchell (Bruno Langley). He is fired in the next episode, when the Doctor catches him transmitting technology from the year 200,000 to his Mum's answering machine back home. Langley also played Todd Grimshaw, the first gay character on the long-running soap Coronation Street, from 2001 to 2003. He is heterosexual in real life.
Next, the Doctor and Rose end up in blitz-besieged World War II London, where alien technology has transformed a dead boy into an "empty boy," wandering around and asking "Are you my Mummy?" If he touches you, you turn into an "empty boy," too. During this adventure, they hook up with Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman, left and below), a loveable rogue time-traveler, and openly bisexual, flirting with men and women. Rose is shocked by this -- apparently LGBT people do not exist in 21st century London -- but the Doctor points out that Jack is from the 51st century, when "anything goes."
Harkness left at the end of Season 1 to star in the spin-off Torchwood. At least he kisses the Doctor goodbye.
Barrowman is gay in real life, and married to architect Scott Gill. He "accidentally" posted a nude photo of his husband, penis and all, to Facebook.
Eventually Rose's comic-relief boyfriend Mickey (Noel Clarke, left and below) gets tired of her having all of the adventures, and talks his way into tagging along. The Doctor thinks that he's a goofball, but eventually learns to appreciate his spunky attitude. Mickey, by the way, is the first nonwhite companion (after 60 years?).
Gay Subtext: In the two-part "Age of Iron" (2006), the Doctor, Mickey, and Rose are trapped in a parallel world where the Big Bad is planning to replace all humans with mechanical Cybermen. Mickey joins a resistance movement led by Ricky, his counterpart in that world, and Jake (Andrew Hayden-Smith), his...um...well, are they coworkers or boyfriends? When Ricky is killed, Jake becomes somewhat more grief-stricken than one would expect from a good buddy. Then Mickey steps in, and the two hug and do the hand-on-shoulder thing a lot. Finally he decides to stay in the parallel world -- with Jake? But also with his Gran, who is alive here. The episode fade-out shows Jake and Mickey in their van, planning to fight the cybermen and party in Paris. (They return in the season finale to help the Doctor save the universe again.)
A deleted scene reveals that Ricky and Jake were canonical boyfriends. Can't have viewers knowing for sure, can we?
Andrew Hayden-Smith, by the way, is gay in real life. He came out in Attitude Magazine in February 2005, a year before his appearances on Doctor Who.
LGBT Representation: A lot of hints and nudge-nudge-wink-wink asides. This was just after Parliament repealed Britain's infamous "don't mention that type" law, so maybe the writers were still a bit skittish. Still, the Doctor Who wiki reveals that they continue to hint around through the end of the series, never actually Saying the Word. This is still a heteronormative universe, where Rose can believably be shocked that men who kiss men exist.
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