A new "academic" study Doctor Who and Race, which includes essays from "publish or perish" types from around the globe, claims that the venerable BBC science fiction series is "thunderously racist."  Among the evidence brought forth in this collection of academic essays that is due to be published in July is an "inappropriately slapstick" take on Hitler in a 2011 episode, the failure to cast an Asian or a black actor in the series’ lead role, and the use of white actors in non-white roles in some vintage Whovian sagas such as "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" from 1977.
 
One writer even finds fault with the Fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s obsession with cricket, which American academic Amit Gupta claims harkens back to the "racial and class nostalgia of the British Empire."  Toss in what the authors describe as the portrayal of people from primitive cultures as "savages," and Australian academic Lindy Orthia, who compiled the collection, arrives at the conclusion "The biggest elephant in the room is the problem privately nursed by many fans of loving a TV show when it is thunderously racist."
 
According to the Radio Times, the BBC has defended the series by pointing to "a strong record of diverse casting among both the regular and guest cast."  The BBC specifically pointed to Freema Agyeman’s casting as the Time Lord’s companion in 2007 and Noel Clarke’s recurring role as Mickey Smith.  The BBC did not specifically respond to the fact that there has, so far at least, still not been a black or Asian Doctor.