In providing further evidence to the theory that its current production team is more focused on ‘owning’ their perceived enemies than actual storytelling, Doctor Who actor Hera Hoffer, better known by the stage name Jinkx Monsoon, has declared that should anyone stop watching the series’ due to its new and overtly-progressive direction, they would do well to “not let the door hit you on the way out!”
Monsoon, who guest-starred in the second episode of Series 14, The Devil’s Chord, as the villainous child of the Toymaker and manifestation of music the Maestro, offered this tired anti-fan refrain while speaking to Slate‘s Isabelle Kliger ahead of their episode’s May 10th premiere.
Making reference to the actor’s identity as a transgender drag queen, Kliger at one point asked Monsoon as to “What kind of response to Maestro are you expecting from the traditional Doctor Who fans?”. to which the former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant asserted, “Russell T. Davies brought Doctor Who to everyone. He brought it back because he was passionate about it. To the people who have issues: The show that you love was created by a queer person. Get over it!”
“A lot of people are going to really love this, and I think this season is going to create a lot of new Doctor Who fans,” the actor continued. “And if we lose some of the transphobic ones, don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”
Continuing in their thoughts, Monsoon added, “There’s a lot of toxicity around the gender and the trans conversation. In the ’70s, it was the conversation of queerness, the gay conversation. We overcame it once and we’ll overcome it again. To the people who are upset about it, boohoo, cry your fucking tears. It’s not your world exclusively. We all live here, so get over yourself!
“I know a lot of people might not even watch this season of Doctor Who because it’s taking such a decisively queer step,” the actor concluded. “However, if they watch it, I think they’ll see that we’re just actors playing characters. And if they don’t watch it, then who needs ’em? I truly believe that for every fan we lose to transphobia, we’re going to have two to three more coming in because they’re excited for trans representation.”
Unfortunately for Monsoon, as tends to happen time and time again in response to such combative declarations from those who seek to ‘push out’ the old fans of a given entertainment franchise, rather than being shamed into watching, said critics chose to actually take the actor’s advice and not tune in to the series’ premiere.
As such, the first two episodes of Doctor Who‘s latest series debuted to staggeringly low numbers, pulling in just 2.6 million viewers for its first adventure, Space Babies, and 2.2 million for The Devil’s Chord (BBC iPlayer numbers have yet to be reported, but are likely to contribute not-insignificantly to the episodes’ final ratings).
In an example of just how far interest in the series has fallen, by comparison, current lead Ncuti Gatwa’s first full episode as the 15th Doctor (and the last Doctor Who adventure prior to the debut of Series 14) the 60th anniversary special The Church on Ruby Road, managed to pull in a total of roughly 4.73 million viewers.
The next new episode of Doctor Who, Boom, is currently set to crash land out of the time stream on May 18th.