14 November 2014
Tonight I went to a lecture for alumni of my former
university history department. With the aim of giving the event some topical
relevance, it was on ‘Making the Union Work, 1707-2014’. Although wine and canapes were provided, we
could tell that it was a serious academic event. There was even a handout, giving an ‘illustrative
chronology’, starting with the union of the crowns in 1603 and proceeding via various
political and cultural landmarks such as the abolition of the Scottish privy
council in 1708 and the publication of the first of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels in 1814. The distinguished professor explained that
this was intended to give us something to look at if our attention wandered
during his lecture.
Somewhere around Adam Smith, I found my attention wandering
and turned over the sheet to read ‘2013 –
Peter Capaldi as Dr Who; the third Scot to play the role, out of 12 – is that
right Helen and Neil? Towards the end of the talk, the DP, making a point about
Scotland’s place in ‘British’ culture duly referred to Peter Capaldi as the third
Scottish Doctor out of 12, at least according to Wikipedia, and turned to us
for corroboration. My other half agreed that this was correct (it wasn’t the
time or place to get into Steven Moffat’s messing with the incarnations) and
mentioned the ‘I’m Scottish, I can complain about things’ line from Peter
Capaldi’s first episode. I was far too
shocked at the Astor Professor of British History using Wikipedia
to be able to comment.*
But it got me thinking about Scottishness in Doctor Who.
I am too young to have seen The Highlanders (though we do have the Target novelisation), but it
seems to be based on the romanticised view of Scottish history purveyed by Sir
Walter Scott. (Distinguished Professor
is not a fan of the Waverley novels.)
It also introduced Jamie McCrimmon, the kilt-wearing companion.
The romanticised view of Scotland was still somewhat in
evidence with gratuitous tartan-wearing in Terror
of the Zygons in which the Brigadier suddenly seems to remember that his
name is Lethbridge-Stewart, and even Nessie makes an appearance (though it
turns out she’s an alien creature).
Tooth and Claw is
rather less self-consciously Scottish.
Although it gives David Tennant a brief opportunity to use his own
accent instead of the Tenth Doctor’s terrible estuary accent, there is rather
less of the tartan, bagpipes and Bonnie Prince Charlie in evidence. They have Kung-fu monks instead for reasons
which still escape me.
Steven Moffat’s Scottish stereotyping has been of a rather
more modern kind. As a Scot himself, he
can get away with writing lines such as ‘you’re
Scottish – fry something!’
*I should point out that Professor in question does not watch Doctor Who, but was the Head of Department whose meeting was once crashed by Derek the Departmental Dalek. It was clearly a traumatic experience.
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