In last night's Doctor Who episode Lux, the Doctor and his companion Belinda went head to head with a rather... unusual foe in the shape of animated villain Mr Ring-a-Ding (voiced by Alan Cumming).

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But that wasn't the only threat that the TARDIS duo had to face: after arriving in 1950s Miami, the pair also had to deal with segregation and racist attitudes from those they encountered.

This was something that Ncuti Gatwa discussed in the most recent episode of companion series Doctor Who: Unleashed, telling Steffan Powell that there was "so much" in the episode and that it was "so rich".

He explained: "They land in 1950s Miami in the middle of the night, and they know there's something dark happening in the cinema. But they would rather be in the cinema than facing the evils of outside, of 1950s Miami."

Showrunner Russell T Davies went on to explain how he has often been asked how he would deal with the issue of racism when taking Gatwa's Doctor into the past, but people often think more about the more distant past.

"And it's very interesting, I think people imagine that in terms of 1800, 1900, 1700," he said. "But, actually, this is 1950s Miami."

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He added: "I don't want it to become this Doctor's keynote, because historically the Doctor owns the room wherever he is, whether by subversion, or character, or charisma, or style, or genuine authority and power. So it'd be a very great shame to change that for Ncuti's Doctor.

"So it's there. [But] I never want it to be dominant."

And Gatwa concluded: "We've got to address those issues, I think it's good to address them. Just the reality of the situation of which we are in, in the world."

Doctor Who continues next Saturday (26th April) on BBC One, with new episodes available from 8am on Saturdays on BBC iPlayer in the UK. The series will be available on Disney+ outside of the UK.

Dive into our Doctor Who story guide: reviews of every episode since 1963, plus cast & crew listings, production trivia, and exclusive material from the Radio Times archive.

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Authors

Patrick Cremona, RadioTimes.com's senior film writer looking at the camera and smiling
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer

Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.

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