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Doctor Who Fans Are Loving Season 12’s LGBT Relationship

Last night's episode of Doctor Who might not have been as much of a crowd-pleaser as last week's shock-fest, but season 12's sixth outing, "Praxeus," still managed to draw a lot of praise for its LGBT representation. Because, guess what, two gay characters were in love and they both survived to the end of their story. This (tragically and infuriatingly) hardly ever happens.

Doctor Who

Last night’s episode of Doctor Who might not have been as much of a crowd-pleaser as last week’s shock-fest, but season 12’s sixth outing, “Praxeus,” still managed to draw a lot of praise for its LGBT representation. Because, guess what, two gay characters were in love and they both survived to the end of their story. This (tragically and infuriatingly) hardly ever happens.

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The episode saw the TARDIS team befriend ex-cop Jake Willis (Warren Brown) and astronaut Adam Lang (Matthew McNulty), whose marriage is on the rocks due to Jake’s feelings of insecurity over his husband’s successful life. In the end, Jake was able to prove his own worth when he piloted a spaceship into the atmosphere to release a cure for the Praxeus alien virus across the world. It looked like he was going to have to sacrifice his life, but at the last minute, the Doctor came to the rescue. We then left Jake and Adam while they talked of going on their long-delayed honeymoon.

Seeing as there’s been a surprising lack of LGBT+ rep so far in the Thirteenth Doctor era, this episode’s subplot had a big impact on fans, and here are just a few of the positive reactions abuzz on social media.

https://twitter.com/G_Carsley/status/1224084569734905857

Thank you, writers Pete McTighe and Chris Chibnall, for not continuing the “Bury Your Gays” trope.

Even those who didn’t love the rest of “Praxeus” were pleased with the couple’s storyline.

 

Obviously, this episode has likewise resulted in comments from those who feel the show’s being “too PC” or “forcing diversity” again. Many fans have been hitting back against these remarks though and explaining why better rep is so key.

On a slightly lighter note, some are a bit miffed that the first LGBT kiss of this era wasn’t the Doctor and Yaz.

Seriously, though, something as easy as depicting a gay marriage as just as complex and ultimately happy as straight romances usually are on screen meant so much to many people.

https://twitter.com/TheySeeMeYolin/status/1224114528654413824

More of this in future eps, please!

Doctor Who season 12 continues this Sunday, February 9th.

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