WARNING! Spoilers for Dracula below.
BBC and Netflix’s new Dracula series from Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the minds behind Sherlock, make some interesting changes to Bram Stoker’s original lore.
The series, which functions as three 90 minute episodes, aired on Jan. 4, 2020 on Netflix and premiered Jan. 1, 2020 on BBC One. Dracula stars Claes Bang as the titular role, Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha, John Heffernan as Jonathan Harker, and Morfydd Clark as Mina Murray/Harker. Though the first episode sets up a similar premise to Stoker’s original novel, with Harker arriving at Dracula’s castle intending to be a temporary guest and ending up being the vampire’s prisoner, there are twists and turns that make unique and interesting deviations for a modern twist on the old standard.
One of these major twists was revealed in the first episode’s climax, and involves a gender-swap of a major character who has been a long-standing facet of just about every iteration of the Dracula story. Gatiss and Moffat have been known to gender-swap major roles before, with Moffat even paving the way for the first female Doctor in Doctor Who. But, even though the twist is an interesting take, does it work?
Dracula Gender-Swaps Van Helsing: Does It Work?
The character of Sister Agatha is introduced right away, as part of a duo of nuns who are encouraging Jonathan Harker to give his account of his time spent with Count Dracula in his castle. Harker retains sharp memories of his time in the castle, and fields numerous personal and even invasive questions from the headstrong Sister Agatha. As the episode wears on, Sister Agatha’s knowledge of not only vampires, but the occult is unraveled. This ends up leading to the big reveal of her surname in a rather explosive encounter with Count Dracula himself where he reads, though tasting her blood, that she is Agatha Van Helsing. Van Helsing comes to no harm from Dracula during this encounter, as he only tastes her blood through her taunting him by slicing open her own hand and tossing him the blade to prove a point to the other nuns, but this is where she proves herself to be a worthy adversary for the Count.
Traditionally, Van Helsing has always been a foil for Dracula. In the original novel, Abraham Van Helsing is a highly-educated, scholarly man and a distinguished professor, which seems to be the case with Agatha as well. She wields her education as just another weapon in her arsenal, and is fearless in her quest for knowledge, even when she comes face-to-face with the monster himself. In a sequence where she is hiding with Mina after Dracula invades the convent, she breaks out a journal where she has kept exhaustive notes on vampires and the occult, seeming to trust in her knowledge above all else, even God, though she claims that she has started to believe in God again after Harker’s account with Count Dracula.
Moffat has developed a reputation for making strong female characters who seem forced, and still revolve around their male counterparts. Though he was instrumental in the creation of the first female Doctor in Doctor Who, and canonized the Time Lords being able to change their gender upon regeneration, he has gotten critiques for the writing of female characters. The addition of Van Helsing as a female character to his Dracula series is welcome, as she almost seems to be a doppelgänger to the version most are familiar with, relying on cunning over brute strength, which is an acceptable trait for many female characters. As Van Helsing knew, it was more important to outsmart creatures who are gifted with powers far beyond human comprehension, and studying them would allow one to gain the upper hand. Moffat made the wise decision to make his Van Helsing close enough to her novel counterpart that what has earned him backlash in the past isn’t as immediately apparent.
Next: Netflix’s Dracula Can Redeem Steven Moffat After Sherlock
