10 Things I WILL Admit About Doctor Who (unless I disagree with WhoCulture)

“One of these days I have to get that temporal grace thing working.”

It’s kind of amazing how this season has slowly reunited Whovians across the sociopolitical divide…in how much they hate it. Unless all they care about is the gay black Doctor and other misuses of “representation” to cover terrible storytelling, I’ve seen longtime Who fans drop away from the series, including Harbo Wholmes, one of the channels I use for the Daily Video. It’s clear to see that only the most dedicated of brand loyalist or the activist who probably never watched the show anyway are the only ones still watching besides reaction channels chronicling the downfall of our favorite Time Lord.

I’d save this since I’m already doing a Doctor Who themed article every week for the next few weeks but why wait? I’m doing a bit of my own reacting, to WhoCulture‘s “10 Things NOBODY Wants To Admit About Doctor Who”. While I haven’t read their review of  “The Reality War”, the last straw in a terrible season to many holdout fans, I would be surprised if the WhatCulture network channel dedicated to Doctor Who is going to just give up on new/neo Who and stick to the older material, before Chibnall and Davies’s second run started chasing so many fans away. In this video, with Elle Littlechild as the selected presenter among the team to read Marc Donaldson’s article, they go over ten things about the long running series they think are just too silly and even a few they think the show would be better off getting rid of or never having done in the first place.

This isn’t a “Versus” article because I actually agree with some of what’s presents. Some…but not all. There’s a few we’re going to have to agree to disagree with, and one where I think they’re completely wrong. However, some I do agree has been a problem. I’ll show you the video, or you can read the article version that means scrolling through multiple pages so they can increase their ad revenue, and then respond to their list.

Okay, you’ve seen their thoughts. Let’s go over each of the 10 items.

In place of numbers, I’m using Doctors.

The Time Lords Are NOT Boring Really

“Doctor Who isn’t really an epic myth of gods and monsters, it’s a show about someone with a magic police box, passing through, helping out where they can.” Have you watched the new series? There’s a reason I call 10 the “God Doctor”. Martha literally walked the Earth preaching the Doctor as savior if everyone got together and believed in him! HE FOUGHT SATAN! And that’s just 10. Outside of Eccleston, who fought the entire Dalek fleet almost on his own until Rose opened the TARDIS and became a temporary goddess, all the Doctors have been fighting for all the stakes. That’s been one of my issues with New Who, and this video came out after the latest Doctor had fought a barber shop owner who collected stories so his giant robo spider could go god slaying because he didn’t get his name in the credits of mythology. If anything I wish the show would go back to a man in a magic police box helping people. Doctor Who has been a victim of Epic Storytelling for awhile now.

That said, the Time Lords do build for the Doctor’s backstory. Call it mythology if you will, but the Time Lords have brought about some of the Doctor’s more interesting enemies. The Master, who wants to rule the universe, The Rani, who wants to blow up the universe and study the pieces FOR SCIENCE!!!!, The Meddling Monk, who thinks he can fix history, and others. Otherwise the Time Lords as a whole are less threat (“Trial Of A Time Lord” aside) and more of a recurring antagonist. They’re the reason the Third Doctor was stuck on Earth and had to team with UNIT for resources. They’re the reason we got to meet Davros because otherwise the Doctor would have been smart enough to stay out of Skaro’s past. They’re the reason the Doctor left Gallifrey, because his people were annoying and to hide the Hand Of Omega so they wouldn’t do yet another stupid thing.

In a way, the Time Lords also explain some of the Doctor’s more negative traits, like their shared ego. While the Doctor’s is tempered thanks to the various Companions he’s had over the years, he still thinks himself superior up to the current incarnation telling Belinda just that. With the Time Lords gone, 10 went past “God Doctor” to “Time Lord Victorious” and learned that he had gone too far…then really didn’t change his attitude the way 11 did after losing Amy and Rory, albeit briefly when the “impossible girl” showed up. There’s a reason all that extra media showed up about the Time Lords, including following Romana as the President, the Time War, and stories involving the Celestial Investigation Agency. If there’s that much potential, you’re the only ones who think they’re boring.

The most based of the Doctor actors. He doesn’t like Davies and Bad Wolf, either.

The Numbering Matters To Many Of Us

By tossing out William Hartnell as the first Doctor, it cheapens his character. If he’s not the first of them, the one who reached full maturity and wisdom (while the rest forgot a few things over the regenerations and the personality changes), why did 2 and 3 treat him with such reverence none of the other Doctors have for each other. The same thing happened with 5 when he met his self, while 2 & 6 and 10 & 11 didn’t get along as most teamed up Doctors don’t. Big Finish and the comics remembered this. Even 12, while messing with first self, still treated him with some respect.

Tossing in all these other past lives (and we don’t even know if the little black girl that fell from “heaven” was the first), and having to deal with the War Doctor and the shenanigans of creating the Metacrisis Doctor has messed up the numbers. Where I will agree is that each Doctor should play THEIR Doctor, their incarnation, without baggage from the previous versions. Each Doctor has his (or her whatever) personality and even altered skill sets. However, because there is a long history to the character it shouldn’t be forgotten that his history matters to him as much as ours matters to us, and that includes the Doctor’s regenerations.

Big Finish proves he deserves more.

We agree on Love & Monsters

I’m not even bothered by the Abzorbaloff. He was created by a nine-year-old boy for a TV contest. I can live with that. It’s the whole “love interest fused to a slab of sidewalk” thing (and the “oral sex” joke in the family show) that I don’t like about the ending. It also means no more appearances for the London Investigation ‘n’ Detective Agency (yes, I looked it up). It was a fun take on fandom back when Davies didn’t hate Who fans. I’ll take it over that scene in “Lux” or all of Conrad Clark and his “Think Tank”.

They called him the “Chessmaster” but he was better at Chinese Checkers. Untrue story.

Because the BBC has ALWAYS been runned by fools.

I’d settle for animated recreations via audio recordings or even reenactments they at least try to frame the way the episodes originally were just to see them in some form. Yeah, we may or may not have found all of them, but the stories should be preserved even if the episodes weren’t. The BBC destroying recordings instead of reruns, which were in effect in the 1960s and it’s a show that was one of their biggest exported shows, was a dumb idea. I understand why they did it, to save archive space, but understanding why they did it doesn’t make it any less foolish.

The man deserved better. Time even took his hair.

I was a newcomer once. On the Fourth Doctor.

I don’t think it’s that hard to bring newcomers into the show. This is an annoyingly recent phenomenon, as studios both TV/movie and comic seem to not understand the right and wrong way to use continuity and nostalgia. All you need is pertinent information from previous encounters and solutions given to the audience and let them find their way. Bringing back the Rani? Point the audience to her previous appearances if they care, but tell them what they need to know for this story if they don’t. I realise I’m a very small voice on the internet, but I keep having this discussion because they don’t listen and they’re too stupid to figure it out on their own. (The studios, not the WhatCulture folks to my knowledge.)

Not the Doctor I came in on, but my favorite.

Anniversaries may not NEED multiple Doctors, but it would be nice.

The “not-things” just sound terrible in general, but as anniversary villains they’re absolutely terrible. A tenth anniversary special should be a proper tribute to the long-running series, the longest running sci-fi series in the original run and the longest running continuation with multiple spin-offs. Including past Companions (plural) to celebrate the many incarnations of the Doctor and all the adventures he’s had over the (for him/her) centuries is a proper tribute, and teaming up Doctors is the easiest way to hit that nostalgia Hollywood wants to market off of. Plus we only got John Hurt because Christopher Eccleston hated the BBC Wales/Bad Wolf team, including Davies, after his treatment and the treatment he saw of people behind the scenes and told them where to put their sonic screwdrivers. There are multiple ways to celebrate the franchise, and that special wasn’t it, but it’s the best time to team-up a few Doctors and we love seeing them together. If five and eleven, my favorites, did a crossover story together I’d be a kid again.

I seem to gravitate to the Doctor AFTER the most popular one.

I’d actually tie Martha and Donna, but yeah.

Martha was treated poorly during her time as the Doctor and still had to be his disciple. (Not letting that “God Doctor” thing go, am I?) Martha somehow still have the character arc of getting over the Doctor and finding love elsewhere, mini-retconned into Mickey so the two black Companions get together because this series hates interracial couples and will easily kill the “black one” in the relationship. I think the “Eurovision” episode was the first time the black one survived, and usually even being gay didn’t save you. Ask Bill. As for her coming back? Let her and Mickey have their happy ending away from the Doctor, but if they showed up in the UNIT series they’re working on, it might work with the right showrunner. As in not Davies.

Got to be interesting thanks to the Time Lords.

Um, in television the ratings ARE important.

Maybe the BBC doesn’t care about ratings, but there’s a reason even UK commentators not WhoCulture bring them up. For Disney the ratings matter, as Disney+ is paying for this to get ratings. Ratings shows what the audience is watching and that tells the advertisers where to put their money and tells the streamers what their ad-free tier subscribers are paying attention to. And the ratings are not there for Disney Who, as with a bunch of Disney+ productions not coming from their archives or the Australian kids show about anthropomorphic dog world. People aren’t watching what Harbo Wholmes branded “Neo Who”. They’re watching the old stuff. Here in the US Tubi has all the available classic Who shows on demand, Sling is getting them in groups alongside the YouTube channel, and there are more than one feed for the 24/7 “Classic Doctor Who” streaming channel on different ad-sponsored services. The antenna channel Retro is also airing the classic show, though given that network’s obsession with the old soap opera The Doctors I’m betting someone just got confused.

Meanwhile the pre-Disney New Who is still on HBO Max, and all of the show are on home video. And there’s the novels and comics for fans who want good Doctor Who along with Big Finish’s audio dramas. The franchise may be fine, but the main show is in trouble and might be headed for a second “wilderness years”, where all that extra media is the ONLY way to get more Doctor adventures while the show disappears again. I don’t usually say this because I limit my culture war discussion, but this does sound like serious copium from Mark and Elle.

He got to do all the crossover episodes he was alive for.

“Needs” the Daleks is a bit strong

I have nothing against the Daleks and I’m not one of those who think they’re overused on Doctor Who. I even liked their own animated miniseries. There are reasons there are Dalek solo stories. I just don’t know that the show needs the Daleks. They should keep coming because fans love them when used correctly, so I’m mostly in agreement with the writer and host, but there are other classic villains to tap and maybe make GOOD new threats. If anyone got overused it’s the Weeping Angels and I’m not sorry they haven’t shown up again. The first time was good and they were as good a method as any to get Amy and Rory out of the Doctor’s life and enjoying their married bliss outside of his world. I think the shark was Superman leapt over when the Statue Of Liberty was revealed to be a Weeping Angel, though. Even the Brits were too busy laughing to take it as a threat.

The REAL First Doctor. Accept no retconned substitutes!

Oh, I know Davies isn’t a god. But he did make the God Doctor.

I didn’t even like his first go around as showrunner, and even I didn’t call how badly he’d botch this one up. Pandering to his fellow queer community, bringing in an actor for the Doctor who wasn’t British (imagine the outcry if he’d been American), unlikeable Companions, misuse of nostalgia, doubling down on the Doctor as the Timeless Child because the Doctor MUST be the most specialest person ever to be special…so much of that ruined the show when he came back when the BBC thought he was the chosen one for reviving it, which I’m still convinced was just to sell Torchwood. And I know he only used Billie Piper as the regeneration (hopefully a dodge) because he’s had this weird near-obsession with Rose, even naming Donna’s “daughter” Rose and bringing her back whenever Piper had the time to do a cameo. Even Moffat used Piper as the Moment’s avatar, choosing the wrong point in the Doctor’s history. He also fixed everyone’s complaint with how Donna was treated at the end in the most preachy, man-hating way possible, gave us a weak anniversary special with or without other Doctors, and ruined the show for many classic and even New Who fans. I won’t go as far as calling him the devil (that’s still on Chibnall), but he’s definitely not a god and I won’t miss him when he finally leaves. Hopefully with Ncuti “touch grass” Gatwa.

Bonus: give the Peter Cushing movies a chance.

Since I don’t know how to end this, give the Cushing movies a chance. Adapting the first two Dalek story arcs at a time when most of what we know about the Doctor hadn’t been created yet, there’s some charm there, and the second movie has the late Bernard Cribbins, the beloved Wilfred Mott, Donna’s daddy. So, how much do you agree with either, both, or none of us? Curious what you folks think about all this.