Watching "Dr Who" as an American...or seeing yourself from the outside

[anemone]

One fun thing about Dr. Who is you get to hear American-jokes, like this one:
The Doctor: ....I just walked into the highest security office in the United States, parked a big blue box on the rug. You think you can just shoot me?
River stepping out of the TARDIS: They're Americans!But one more serious thing I've noticed--and it's subtle--is that

Comments

[sidheag]

Yes; very different here. (I get myself into trouble regularly by underestimating how much USians don't know/believe/conceive of this, btw - indeed, I'm afraid to attempt to explain the differences for fear of being jumped on by USians who don't believe it and think I am merely displaying white privilege. Ah well.)

I don't know the particular situation, but a Scottish girl in an English village probably feels exotic, stared at - she probably doesn't encounter overt hostility, but does feel out of place in an otherwise rather homogenous society. Consistent?

[geekette8]

I definitely agree that the meaning of race has major differences between the UK and the US, but I don't think I could begin to articulate it.

[iuil]

It's the BBC so there doesn't have to be an apparent reason for a character to be black, just as in Real Life.

[anemone]

I was actually going to say this was true for the whole of British TV and not just Dr. Who, but my only other supporting data point was Red Dwarf (in which a Lister is non-white and to my knowledge the fact he's not white never comes up). Of the other three British TV shows I've seen, Chef! is a sort of counter-example, and Blackadder and Torchwood are at best a neutral ones, so I figured I really couldn't support such a broad claim. :)

[iuil]

You've never seen Balamory so. It's the most diverse place on the planet according to the BBC, despite being set in a tiny village on a Scottish island :D

[buzzy_bee]

I think the main thing with Amy is that she maintained her fairly distinct, if not strong*, Scottish accent despite growing up in an English village. Generally a child who moved to England at, say, 6 (she's a bit older than that in the first episodes) will not keep their accent very long at all. But for some reason Amy kept hers.

* Karen Gillan is from Inverness, so doesn't have a particularly strong accent.

[jetspeaks]

I got the impression it was a matter of pride, whereas most kids would want to fit in.

[jetspeaks]

It's weird to see how your country is perceived OS, isn't it? I get that a lot with Australians in British, American and NZ TV/culture. Not to mention IRL (when I wasn't back in Oz).