Saturday 18 November 2023

Davros Controversy


As much as people seemed to really enjoy Destination Skaro on CiN last night, RTD2's subsequent comments on the b-t-s programme have unleashed (pun intended) quite a controversy. The writer has claimed that this is what Davros now looks like, and will always look like, as you can't have an evil figure represented by someone in a wheelchair, with facial disfigurement. I can see where he is coming from, especially in the context of a charity event which includes raising funds for the disabled, but I totally disagree with him in any wider sense.

First of all, who says being disabled made Davros evil? I believe most fans accept that he was always this way, long before the incident which damaged his body.
Davies is also "cancelling" those Dalek stories from Genesis to The Witch's Familiar in which Davros has featured, two of which just featured in the top ten favourite stories in DWM.
If Davros was never wounded, then those stories either never happened, or they get shunted into some alternate timeline.
I've simply never approved of 'cancel culture'. How can we learn from past mistakes if we stick our heads in the sand and try to pretend bad things never happened?
Use it to educate, not simply overwrite it.

Another argument against RTD2 is the hypocrisy of the man. He objects to Davros, but is content to feature a victim of radioactive fallout as evil. Or are the Daleks to be played as normal human beings from now on? The victims of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl are all still game?
By his reckoning, a disabled actor is no longer permitted to play a villainous role. Can't play Dracula. Can't be a Bond villain. Can't be Captain Hook... 
I'll be interested to see what Nabil Shaban has to say to this, or any of the hundreds of other actors with disabilities for that matter. An able-bodied man knows what's best for you. 
I'll leave the last word to the disabled persons and parents of disabled children who have already spoken out against Davies, asking what right he has to decide what they should or should not find offensive. It's his patronising attitude which they find offensive. 

1 comment:

  1. Couldn’t agree with you more. Thank you for your usual well-reasoned sense. What a loss of an iconic character. I assume we’ll lose the Cybermen next if we’re following ‘2023 logic’… :(

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