Fajrdrako gets upset enough to write a letter...

[fajrdrako]

Written and posted today, to the CBC:

Audience Relations, CBC,
P.O. Box 500 Station A,
Toronto, ON M5W 1E6

Dear Sir,

When the CBC television aired the show Torchwood last year, I was delighted, as a fan of fantasy and SF television. I enjoyed Torchwood immensely and I thank you for co-producing and airing it.

However, I did not like it that the programmes were cut, which became clear on comparison with the Torchwood DVDs. I could understand if what was cut was aerial views of the landscape or scenes without substance, but I was appalled when I realized exactly which scenes were gone. For example, near the beginning of the first episode, the hero muses aloud about having been pregnant, and a male character kisses another man. Both these scenes were excised, though they contributed significantly to the development of each character. Bad enough that the show was cut to fit advertising, but that looks like blatant censorship. I have always admired the CBC for its honesty and courage in programming – what happened there?

But it gets worse. A friend of mine telephoned the CBC to complain about the very same thing, and was told that such scenes were cut to 'reflect community standards'.

Not my community, and not my standards! This is sheer homophobia.

In a nation where people gays can marry and are given the same rights as other Canadians, it is absurd to cut these scenes. This censorship is discriminatory and reflects an archaic, prejudiced attitude that is completely out of place in the twenty-first century.

Torchwood was a progressive and intelligent show, and I had admired the CBC for co-producing it. No longer. I do not want to think that programming decisions at the CBC are made by bigots.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I've been sparring with the Beeb over another series: see my LJ. I don't like to see a favourite literary character (one of the few genuinely attractive boys in 19C fiction) being vilified as a rapist… The writer's response in the Radio Times was pretty feeble.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The response was feeble because they don't have a leg to stand on! Taking pot-shots at Templars has become an international pastime. Along with the publication of Hot Studly Vampire Templar Romance.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

This was re: Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I lost track...? Reading non-chronologically.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

See:
The Beeb doesn't do nuance any more (http://silverwhistle.livejournal.com/100991.html) and follow-up Vice & Virtue (http://silverwhistle.livejournal.com/101549.html). I will not stand by and let poor Alec have his reputation besmirched: he can do it perfectly well for himself when he wants to, as a conscious pose, but he's a brave and loyal young lad who deserves better.