Dyspraxia and Doctor Who

In 2007 I was formally diagnosed with Dyspraxia, there was always some suspicion of this but back then learning difficulties weren’t well known. The education system looked at them with bafflement, Dyspraxia is also less well known than others, Autism has become a go to for writers to have a character who is “a bit odd but it’s not their fault” and Dyslexia and Dyscalculia are easily defined as “The Words one” and “the numbers one”. 

Dyspraxia is motor sensory and short term memories, because of this it has taken me longer to learn things than most people, like I didn’t learn to tie my shoelaces until I was 12. There are many other things I’ve yet to learn that most people know like riding a Bicycle.

When I was diagnosed I had failed AS levels, including media studies a subject I was passionate about and which was also helped by Doctor Who. Doctor Who had a companion show called Doctor Who Confidential which was a behind the scenes documentary of how the show was made. I also had the shooting scripts for the first series of the relaunch series, this was great for media studies as very few TV shows let you have a peak behind the curtain. 

After being diagnosed I was put through the now defunct Wynfed Dore programme, which was designed to help people with learning difficulties to cope with them. This was a long process and involved me balancing on a wobbly board and learning basic juggling (before this I couldn’t even catch a ball). I had to do strange exercises everyday (changing every few days), not just that twice a day and I was determined to see this through. 

After I had managed to graduate the programme with a better sense of balance and co-ordination something happened with Doctor Who. We had a new Doctor, a clumsy, Hunchbacked version. Now I had floppy hair covering my face to try and hide the fact to walk around I was looking down at my feet, and so did this new Doctor. To me this Doctor was Dyspraxia. Doctor Who had presented the world with the Pacifist, caring Dyspraxic Superhero. I was sold on this new incarnation, while many disgruntled fans dislike the change from David Tennant to Matt Smith, it didn’t matter to me, this was My Doctor.

The Doctor as well as his apparent coordination issues was clever and funny. He was loved by his friends and he went on great Adventures with his friends the Ponds and later Clara. The show had lost it’s tedious connection to contemporary times which has always baffled me, why would you if you had a time machine that could go to any planet ever go back home. So your parents will do your Laundry? The Tardis surely has a washing machine (I actually know it does because it appears in the Free Comic Book Day comic in the 10th Doctor’s adventure). 

Of course Matt Smith had to leave the role and was replaced by Peter Capaldi, I still loved Doctor Who just not as much. It didn’t help that the character relationship between the Doctor and Clara was made messy. With 11 and Clara there was a romantic tension, the change to the 12th this was dropped sort of. If anything the Doctor had now become Clara’s ex, and not a good one a nightmare one that shows up at 3AM unannounced drunk. This dynamic lasted for a series and after a natural exit for Clara, the character stayed now with this unuttered feeling of Stockholm syndrome. The Toxic relationship fortunately ended and Peter Capaldi’s Doctor got a better companion dynamic with Nardole and Bill Potts. I loved these 2 new companions they where funny and Bill was bubbling over with excitement when she was on the Tardis just like I’d be. This era of course had to end but if anything I was prepared for Doctor Who to change, for the Doctor to change. When it was announced that the new Doctor would be a woman I was excited, they where finally going to address the systemic sexism within the show, being that the show works on the Doctor is brilliant and solves all the problems and the companion finds new ways to get into trouble in history or alien worlds. But then the actual show started again…

Now Jodie Whittaker’s version of the Doctor I have no problem with at all. My biggest problem is that we have the first in canon “Dyspraxic companion”. The character was weirdly summed up by a promotional gif of him giving up and throwing a bike off of a cliff that the Facebook page labelled with “He tries so hard”. 

Ryan’s Dyspraxia is untreated, he has no training about how to function with it but… he functions with it better than I do. I genuinely other than the first Episode can’t think of an example of him having trouble with his coordination or balance and I can’t chalk this up to lack of communication between different writers because 8/11 Episodes where written by Chris Chibnail. So much so I thought his Dyspraxia was dropped from the series, it was almost confirmed up till the episode Ker-Blam where he mentions he “has trouble learning new things”. This Episode also has a one off character who is clumsy and walks with her head down a more obvious Dyspraxic which lead me to question everything about this run. Why have a companion with Dyspraxia if you don’t know what it is and then I realised their intention was revealed in the Rosa Park’s episode (which was co-written by Chibnail) they think learning difficulty means thick. Ryan despite his Grandmother being a huge Civil rights advocate with a T-shirt that says “Spirit of Rosa Parks” and is so outspoken about the subject and time her new Boyfriend and Ryan’s Step-Grandfather is an expert on it and Ryan himself has no idea who Rosa is. Ryan also occasionally freezes up and needs a pep-talk but his Dyspraxia seems intermittent at most (Wikipedia actually says the character's symptons are mild). Ryan is an example of how to let a learning difficulty beat you (in his introductory episode his Grandfather claims he uses his Dyspraxia as an excuse for everything). And that is why I don’t like this new direction of Doctor Who.