everytime there’s a variant of “this is jack harkness erasure” in that one deadline post i made i wish it was, i really do, we really could do without jack harkness existing actually
i do think applying the ‘disney’s first gay character’ thing to dr who is pretty funny bcos like. who is 'doctor who’s first gay character’ is kind of a matter of opinion
Doctor Who’s first LGBT companion in the TV show was Captain Jack Harkness. however you could make the (imo not unreasonable) argument that as Captain Jack was never a series regular he doesn’t 100% count.
Bill Potts was the first series regular companion to be textually LGBT (lesbian)
however Clara was word of god bisexual tho this was never made all that clear in the text (River is also word of god bi which was more textually explicit but as w Captain Jack, companion status debatable)
the first textually LGBT companion in any medium was Izzy Sinclair from the 8th doctor comics (also lesbian)
tho TARDIS wiki notes that VNA companion Chris Cwej was implied to be bisexual and that P.R.O.B.E (itself dubiously canon) implies that third doctor era companion Liz Shaw is a wlw
in addition, personally i think there’s a very solid argument to be made that 7th doctor era companion Ace McShane was intended as the show’s first attempt at a gay companion - as far as I’m aware only one writer has fessed up to doing this on purpose but there’s some pretty glaring subtext including a whole serial that can be read as an allegory about homophobia (the happiness patrol)
i believe Big Finish recently canonised Ace’s sexuality (yay!) but not too long ago they also made 5th doctor era companion Adric bisexual and he appeared in the show earlier chronologically and i think got confirmed bi first
it’s been TV canon pretty much since the reboot and EU canon since the late 90s that the doctor is bi/pan and obviously the doctor appeared in the show earlier than any of the above characters so arguably is the show’s first gay character
however if you wanna get technical about it, Susan, Ian and Barbara were all introduced in the show before the Doctor and Susan is pretty widely read as some variety of queer by fans by virtue of the fact that she’s a time lord which inherently seems to involve some degree of gender fluidity by human standards
many contenders here!!
I didn’t mention this bcos I haven’t read the book in question and no-one seems to agree on whether it counted as confirmation. But yes if you count it I believe it would make him the first TV character to be confirmed LGBT. That said, arguably he is not a companion
Oh yeah I forgot Oliver! I think he’s big finish’s first gay companion? If so he is a milestone character. (Tho they had previous done an audio featuring Fitz who I think is textually bisexual? But he’s not one of their original characters)
Well if you want to get technical the first doctor who character is the policeman in the opening scene and he doesn’t have a canon sexuality as far as I know (yes he is a recurring character)
Incorrect this was predated by whatever the second doctor and Jamie had going on
DOCTOR WHO — THE LEGEND OF RUBY SUNDAY (S40E07) ››› Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor ››› Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday
