When Innes Lloyd took over as Producer of Doctor Who in 1966, he and the Story Editor Gerry Davis made a number of alterations in the way the program was made. One of the most significant changes was an attempt to increase the diversity in casting. Prior to the Lloyd era, through two and a half seasons of the show, only one non-white person was cast in a major role (Zienia Merton in Marco Polo), although actor Zohra Segal would get a few lines in a couple of stories. Gerry Davis, however, made sure that people of color were written into the scripts, and although the stories would certainly not pass any modern diversity tests for television, they were an important step forward for the show in the 1960s. From The Smugglers until The Enemy of the World, in a total of twelve stories, seven will feature a person of color in a prominent role.

Elroy Josephs (Jamaica in The Smugglers)

Elroy Josephs (1939-1997) is the first black actor to have a speaking role in Doctor Who. Coming to the UK from Jamaica and taking up residence in Liverpool, he became renowned as a dancer, developing a style of performance that crossed African-Caribbean movement with European. He became the first black dance tutor at a British University. He was honored during Black History month in 2012 at the International Slavery Museum. Although his casting in Doctor Who was a significant step forward, Brian Hayles unfortunately wrote his character in stereotypical fashion, portraying the character Jamaica as a fearful sailor aboard a pirate ship who gets killed in horrific fashion. Josephs will later appear in such films as Adam Adamant Lives! (1966) and A Private Enterprise (1974).

Earl Cameron (Williams in The Tenth Planet)

Still kicking today at the ripe age of 100, Earl Cameron, a native of Bermuda, appeared as an astronaut in the First Doctor’s last story. He is the oldest surviving actor to have appeared in Doctor Who. Cameron broke the “colour bar” in 1951, when he was cast in a starring role in the film Pool of London. He appeared in many films and several science fiction shows in the 1960s, but was most famously known from his appearance in the James Bond film, Thunderball (1965), soon before he got his Doctor Who gig. His casting as an important and prominent person with scientific knowledge in The Tenth Planet was a huge step forward for Doctor Who. More recently Cameron appeared in the movie Inception (2010). For his services to drama, the Queen awarded him a CBE in 2009.

Paul Anil (Jacko in The Underwater Menace)

The first South Asian actor to be cast in a substantial role in Doctor Who was Paul Anil. He appeared in many television shows in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, including The Avengers and Play for Today. He had a small role in the movie A Passage to India (1984). His role as Jacko, a sailor who, along with his friend Sean, was captured and put to work in the mines by the Atlanteans in The Underwater Menace, was minor but heroic. His is the only character in this list that doesn’t die during the story.

Mark Heath (Ralph Adebayo in The Moonbase)

Hailing from Kingston, Jamaica, Mark Heath (1940- ) played many roles in television during his career, including The Avengers, The Airbase, Mogul, and Crown Court. Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler, as was their custom, wrote an international cast of characters for their story, The Moonbase. Heath’s role was Ralph Adebayo, a geologist from Nigeria who gets partially converted to a Cyberman. He won’t be the first person of color to be cybernized in Doctor Who, and not even the only one in this list.

Sonny Caldinez (Kemel in The Evil of the Daleks)

Sonny Caldinez (1932- ) is a former professional wrestler and actor from Trinidad. He was usually cast in roles requiring a man of strong physique. Caldinez is known for his roles in the films The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and The Fifth Element (1997). Unlike the other actors in this list, Sonny Caldinez will appear more than once in Doctor Who, mostly as an Ice Warrior. His first appearance, however, is his most significant: the Turkish man Kemel in The Evil of the Daleks. Technically, this is not a speaking role, as Kemel is mute, but this is certainly a starring role. As in the case with Toberman (see below), we have here a case of a baddie who turns good. He assists the Doctor in defeating the Daleks, but unfortunately, as is often the case with early roles for people of color, he is killed in the end.

Roy Stewart (Toberman in The Tomb of the Cybermen)

Born in Jamaica, Roy Stewart (1925-2008) ran a gym in North Kensington before embarking on a career as a stuntman and later an actor. Probably his best known role was in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1974) as Quarrel Junior. He also appeared alongside Peter Davison in an episode of The Last Detective. Later in life, Stewart ran a Caribbean club called The Globe. His role in Tomb of the Cybermen is a bit of a cross between the characters Ralph Adebayo and Kemel above. He starts out as a henchman of the baddies in the story, doesn’t talk much, and is partly converted to a Cyberman, but later changes sides and ends up saving the human survivors in a heroic self-sacrifice.

Carmen Monroe (Fariah in The Enemy of the World)

Carmen Monroe (1932- ) has the distinction of being the first woman of color to have a speaking role in Doctor Who. Born in Berbice, Guyana, she came to the UK, where she was a prominent actor in the theater scene. She is co-founder of Talawa, the UK’s leading black theater company. Apart from her stage roles, she appeared also in television and is known primarily for playing the character Shirley in the sitcom Desmond’s. The Queen awarded her an OBE in 2007 for her services to drama. Her character Fariah, Salamander’s food-taster in The Enemy of the World, is intelligent, has agency, and is significant to the plot. But alas, she too gets killed.

Sadly, after Derrick Sherwin took over, the program will revert to its old ways, and it won’t be until the Letts era that there will be another attempt at diversity, though not nearly on the same level. Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis thus stand out among their peers. The often-stereotypical roles they gave to people of color (Jamaica is a borderline “Uncle Tomfoolery” character, and Kemel and Toberman fit the “Scary Black Man” TV trope of the “Gentle Giant” variety), and the tendency to kill off their characters (see the “Black Dude Dies First” TV trope), detract from this effort. But credit should be given to Lloyd for pushing the show forward at a time when no diversity standard was being imposed upon him from higher up. Fifty-odd years later, we find that diversity in casting has improved a bit, and especially in the last couple of years, but Doctor Who stills falls quite short when it comes to diversity among the staff working behind the scenes on the show.

What are your thoughts on the casting of people of color during this period? Did I leave anybody out? Any comments about diversity in Doctor Who today? I’d love to hear from you!

Update 2 Mar 2018: Reference to Zohra Segal in the first paragraph was added, as it was brought to my attention that I had failed to mention her.