I haven't kept up with the show since S2, but was there any reason for Mickey/Martha other than "Wait, we have TWO black characters???"

That's what I thought.

I don't think that it's a racial thing, that's not really an issue in british tv. There's a lot of race blind casting in England, even in historical stuff. If it was American, I'd say hells yeah.

There is, but there is also a lot of underlying (and often unaddressed) racism in British society. Whereas UK TV is pretty good at colour-blind casting, we also don't often see mixed-race relationships. While we *have* seen a lot of those on Doctor Who, this for some reason felt a bit "Two black characters! Quick! Pair them up before we have to go back to marrying off white girls to black men!"

was there any reason for Mickey/Martha other than "Wait, we have TWO black characters???"

Well, Rose dated Mickey first, and Donna was engaged to two black guys, so I think not.

Mickey went through a lot of changes in the alternate universe and they never treated him like a goof after that. And he did look good and cool. Still, backstory always welcome, and we'll never get it.

I read complaining that a black woman bought it and that black people were evil in the first End of Time episode, but I really am not feeling the racist casting with the show. RTD et al have been pretty damned even handed with the casting of black folk--Asian slack mostly picked up with Torchwood.

It's gotten to the point where I know if I see a black person do something bad onscreen that I'm going to read complaints about it on the web. But we can't be too good, otherwise we're magical negroes. And for some viewers, we can't even use magic (cf Pirates of the Caribbean 2) without being magical negroes.

It is actually a bit complicated.

I had said somewhere up thread that the Doctor's goodbye to Jack seemed to mean that the Doctor was okay with CoE or at least was letting Jack off the hook.

I think it was RTD saying goodbye to all his peeps, more than anything else. CoE should have a huge impact on the Doctor and Jack, but I can't imagine them bothering with it as much post-regeneration. But I do hope.

I'm just wracking my brains trying to find something else those two have in common other than They Both Know What A TARDIS Is.

Well, Rose dated Mickey first, and Donna was engaged to two black guys, so I think not.

And the doctor that Martha got involved with was white as well.

RTD et al have been pretty damned even handed with the casting of black folk--Asian slack mostly picked up with Torchwood.

There is an incredible lack of South Asian representation in Doctor Who/Torchwood, though. I can't think of a single Indian/Pakistani/Bangledeshi character in the Whoverse. Yet I think I'm right in saying that that's our largest ethnic minority group in the UK. I've just checked Wikipedia, and it's told me that 50% of our non-European population is South Asian. A lot of British TV shows have lots of South Asian characters, accordingly.

I remember some guest characters (the hot doctor from COE comes to mind), but no recurring characters, which is not representative.

So, Torchwood doesn't count?

Wasn't Susie South Asian?

Also, there was an Indian person who did something evil in TW - I think he worked in a hospital. Can't recall the context. (I know - this isn't helping.)

Micky: in love with Rose who was in love with the Doctor.

Martha: In love with the Doctor who was in love with Rose.

Not really an excellent basis for a marriage.

Wasn't Susie South Asian?

yeah, but she also died in the first ep. And was evil.

and that black people were evil in the first End of Time episode

I didn't think they were evil. I thought they were stupid a-la Roger Sterling of Mad Men: you can afford to be stupid.

As for Martha/Micky: yeah, pretty much what Seska said at #11602. And that might be the only thing about the episode we agreed about!

Edit: also, it's extremely hard to find Middle Easterns who aren't playing terrorists or dead bodies in Western TV.

I'm just wracking my brains trying to find something else those two have in common other than They Both Know What A TARDIS Is.

They both walked off with Captain Jack and were supposed to show up in Torchwood together. I don't think it has as much to do with them being black as it does with them being single and off pursuing the same job at the same time.

Indira Varma got a couple episodes of Torchwood as a pre-series team member. From the naming (Suzie Costello) it looks like they cast her race-blind, but I vaguely seem to recall her father being cast South Asian (is that really the term that covers Indian, etc? What covers Polynesia, etc?)