Yaz: Um no, it wouldn't be Doctor Who without the Daleks. I say half, because of the alien dudes inside them.
Rachel: I hope you are a Dalek fan! Because they seem unable to write a series without those funny lil (half) robots. Yaz: I think a lot more black people will be watching the show from next year too … I, for one, will be returning to it. So I wonder if it's partly a move to get Gen Z back onboard? Ncuti is so loved by them. But she's a big Sex Education stan, and is very, very excited for Eric as the Doctor. I still watch episodes with my fam, but my TikTok-obsessed 18-year-old sister will pointedly retreat to her room when it's on. It definitely feels to me like a bid to stop the show from becoming less relevant, which is what I think they were also trying to do with Whittaker (who Ncuti's going to be taking over from).
Rachel: It's pretty hard to keep a show that started in 1963 relevant. Why do you think they've decided to cast Ncuti as the Doctor *now*? And at one point they also had Jo Martin playing a version of the Doctor … but not the lead role of the Doctor. This is the first time a black actor hasn't been reduced to playing the (albeit excellent) sidekick - like Freema Agyemen was with Martha, or Noel Clarke was as Mickey - when they could have led the whole thing. Rachel: True, Blink has to be one of the best episodes of television ever made! I've stuck with the series mostly for the nostalgia of it (except for the Peter Capaldi era which I couldn't stand, sorry Peter). Yaz: If you wanna talk absolute nightmare material, we've gotta mention that creepy WWII gas mask child or the weeping angels. I also spent my entire youth terrified of mannequins after that episode where they come to life and shoot everyone - absolute nightmare material. Rachel: Interesting! Eccleston wasn't my cup of tea.
Yaz: Christopher Eccleston was the first I really cared about - my dad tried to convert me with Tom Baker before that but I wasn't having the special effects of that era, even though his long scarf was perfection.