Doctor Who introduces new gay character, kills them off after 25 seconds

TV fans are no strangers to queer favourites being killed off, but Doctor Who may just have set a new record.

The BBC sci-fi show introduced a new gay character in New Year’s Day special “Resolution,” but they didn’t hang around for long.

Connor Calland played a security guard, named in the show’s credits as Richard, who challenged Dalek-controlled character Lin (Charlotte Ritchie) as she attempted to get into the secure facility he was guarding.

Asked who can unlock a fingerprint-controlled door, the character responded: “Today, just me. Most secure digits in Yorkshire. That’s what I tell my boyfriend, anyway. I probably shouldn’t be telling you that, I’m new at this.”

Unfortunately, fans excited for the nugget of LGBT+ representation were disappointed seconds later, when the character was promptly killed off.

Doctor Who introduced Richard, played by Connor Calland

Some fans linked the brief moment as an example of the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope, noting that Doctor Who has killed several minor LGBT+ characters across the past season.

Doctor Who fans linked the moment to the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope

One Twitter user wrote: “Am I the only that has noticed if you are openly gay in this series of #DoctorWho, you are gonna be dead within ten minutes? The security guard tonight, Frankie in Arachnids and Alfonso in Witchfinders.”

Another added: “The death/injury of another gay character this season! Gotta be a kind of record by now. #DoctorWho”

A third wrote: “i’m just baffled at the handling of LGBT characters in this series of Doctor Who. I wasn’t expecting some huge gay storylines or even great rep.

“But not constantly stating a random character is queer and then to kill them off would have been, I thought, an easy bar to clear.”