Doctor Who fans post support for Sacha Dhawan after casting criticism
After the actor posted a negative comment he’d received about his role in the series, thousands of Whovians have taken to Twitter to express their love for his portrayal of the Master.
It says something about Doctor Who that even the series’ villains are beloved by fans – and a new campaign in support of current Master actor Sacha Dhawan shows that even the Doctor’s greatest foe is held close to the heart(s) of Whovians.
Fans began posting on the hashtag #SachaOurMaster after the actor shared a negative comment about his casting as the first actor of colour to play the long-running villain, with thousands of Doctor Who viewers from around the world offering support and sharing their memories of his time in the role.
Many took the time to highlight Dhawan’s energetic performance and chemistry with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor as highlights of his short time in the role so far, while others noted his new take on the character had reignited their interest in the Master.
Still others said that he was their favourite Master in the character’s 49-year-existence, even beating out critically-acclaimed incarnations from Roger Delgado and Michelle Gomez.
And interestingly, this isn’t the first grassroots hashtag campaign involving Doctor Who to crop up on social media recently.
In fact, the #SachaOurMaster hashtag appears to be something of a follow-up to a similar show of support for Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, with many #JodieOurDoctor tributes similarly appearing on Twitter over the last few weeks to defend Whittaker’s performance from online critics.
This hashtag itself was a response to viewers who criticised Whittaker's Doctor under the hashtag #NotMyDoctor, the call-and-response stretching back for quite a while.
At time of writing thousands of tweets had the #SachaOurMaster hashtag trending in the UK, which is quite a feat considering that Doctor Who hasn’t been on TV since early March.
Clearly, a lot of fans feel pretty strongly about this particularly Masterful performance. Fingers crossed that they still have a few years to enjoy Dhawan in action.
UPDATE: We certainly know one person all the support has meant a lot to.
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Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
