Doctor Who gets trigger warnings added on BritBox over racially insensitive older episodes
New streaming service BritBox has added trigger warnings to some old episodes of Doctor Who that viewers may find racially insensitive.
The problematic episodes include the Tom Baker 1977 six-part series 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang', in which a white actor plays a Chinese character and makes multiple racial slurs.
After BritBox's decision to continue showing these episodes was questioned by some fans, the episodes now come with a warning, which reads: "Contains stereotypes that some may find offensive."
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The storyline for the episodes in question saw the 51st century criminal Magnus Greel, played by Michael Spice, pose as an ancient Chinese god in an attempt to find his missing time machine.
It also saw actor John Bennett play a Chinese magician named Li H’sen Chang.
Speaking of the episodes earlier this month, screenwriter and spokeswoman for British East Asians in Screen and Theatre Emma Ko told The Times they were "really hard to watch because yellowface is so unacceptable now".
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In reference to a particular slur that was used in the storyline, she added: "It is so hard to hear that word and not feel immediately a trigger reaction of how wrong it is."
On Saturday (March 13), a discussion on the representation of ethnicity was held at the BFI, with 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' being the main subject.
Doctor Who airs on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US.
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