The War Between the Land and the Sea shows where TV is failing with disability representation

Doctor Who is back in Russell T Davies’s five-episode spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea. Having previously introduced viewers to Ruth Madeley’s Shirley Bingham, the show has doubled down on disability representation — quite literally. Davies not only brings back Bingham but adds another wheelchair user to UNIT in computer expert Steve Chesney (George Robinson).

Unfortunately, these casting decisions are as far as considerations about disability representation go in The War Between. Following a long history of media that believes representation ends with simply putting disability on-screen, the show, so far, exhibits no interest in disability beyond what can be gleaned at a glance.

To its credit, The War Between does cast two disabled actors in these roles, something that has always been, and remains, uncommon; even in more positive examples of disability representation. Just this month, Wake Up Dead Man dropped onto Netflix with exemplary chronic pain representation in ambulatory wheelchair user Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeney), and yet still cast a non-wheelchair user in the role.

Beyond that, however, in the first four episodes of the new Doctor Who spin-off, Bingham and Chesney have been given little to do but spout sci-fi-isms and partake in UNIT’s roundtable discussions. In one especially revealing scene, one of those discussions is around a literal table – of the illuminated sci-fi variety. While colleagues casually lean over the display, Bingham and Chesney are made to crane over the table’s edge.

Granted, this is a government organisation with all the baggage that entails in an ableist society. But The War Between is keen to be seen as progressive and inclusive, using UNIT as its mouthpiece. Yet, little consideration has been made to show how wheelchair users interact with their environment outside of the odd ramp.

That may all be enough for many to celebrate. But don’t we deserve more in 2025? If The War Between’s writers are sincere about representation, we should acknowledge that wheelchairs are highly personal aids, for characters and their actors – and showing the advancement we've seen in wheelchairs would not only make sense as accommodations but would also look pretty sci-fi to most viewers (including some disabled viewers). Or, get a lower table, I guess.

As we flit between UNIT offices and government buildings, it all could have been a way to demonstrate the vast chasm that exists between our insufficient accessibility accommodations and what it looks like to see needs met.

Instead, Bingham and Chesney never appear outside the office. Both are left behind when the series becomes more action-oriented. Bingham briefly takes control of the office when everyone else leaves, though she is mostly anonymous in episode 3. Chesney simply disappears for that episode and is reduced to a few lines about deepfakes in the next.

A charitable argument could be made that this is a specific reaction to Doctor Who’s history of disability representation. One which has cast wheelchair users as bitter, fraudsters, and villains. Though, that’s a history to which Davies challenged by re-introducing Davros, a wheelchair-using antagonist, as able-bodied in 2023 – something he justified by saying, "There’s a problem with the Davros of old, in that he’s a wheelchair user who is evil."

This is an oversimplification. The trope of villains embittered by disability is overused, but so is overcorrecting to the point of anonymising disabled characters. Disabled people are just that: people, with all the complexity that entails.

It makes Robinson’s casting unfortunate: a reminder of a more sincere and studied exploration of disability in Sex Education’s Isaac Goodwin. In the Netflix series, he’s a character who is integrated into the story with complex motivations (not all of them good) and who develops from a romantic rival – romance being another thing of which disabled people in media are often stripped – into a trusted friend. He does all this without losing the edge and bite that made him a compelling light-antagonist.

The War Between doesn’t sink as low as other uses of disability in recent years, but nor should its "that will do" approach of just putting disability on screen be celebrated. In an ableist world, in which we are encouraged from youth not to stare and to look away from disabled people until we simply don’t want to see disabled people, any good The War Between might have achieved with its representation is undone by how many reasons it gives viewers to keep looking away.

The War Between the Land and the Sea will end on Sunday 21st December. Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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