When the show came back in the mid-Noughties, the opportunity to redress the balance and present man's hairy companions in a positive light was there. But showrunner Russell T Davies proved as lethal as an army of chocolate dogs when he revealed the fate of felines of the future. Firstly, not only were they walking upright, they wore wimples and worked for the health service, too. The race that once brung in dead rabbits, climbed trees and fiercely guarded their territory was now administering injections and checking the colour of urine. Who knew? The other key example is Ardal O'Hanlon's Thomas Brannigan from Series 3's Gridlock, a garrulous ginger tom who dresses as a World War I flying ace in a traffic jam. If that wasn't surreal enough, he's fathered kittens via a human mother. Davies avoided casting a woman as the Doctor due to potential confusion for a young audience. Bestiality, however? Perfectly straightforward.
I am a journalist and comedian who enjoys American movies of the 70s, Amicus horror compendiums, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, Naomi Watts and sitting down. My short fiction has been published as part of the Iris Wildthyme range from Obverse Books.
