Former Doctor Who showrunner, Steven Moffat, has shared his thoughts on so-called cancel culture, inspired by his creating the comedy-drama, Douglas Is Cancelled.

The writer, whose work includes Blink, The Eleventh Hour, and World Enough and Time/ The Doctor Falls, says that cancel culture is effective on people “who are capable of shame and wish to be well thought of.” He further explained:

“In other words, it only really works on quite good people.

“It’s a smart bomb that can only take out people who at least aspire to virtue: you can’t cancel Hitler, you can’t cancel Donald Trump – you can’t, and they won’t care. What is the point in a smart bomb that only afflicts and affects the civilised? As Aristotle points out, shame is a quasi-virtue. If you’re capable of shame, then by the inverse you aspire to decency, even if you don’t attain it all the time.”

It’s certainly an interesting viewpoint, one I both agree with and disagree with. To me, cancel culture can affect those who aspire to do good, and in such a case, I don’t think it’s a good thing — as Steven says, what’s the point in targeting those with good intentions but whose words or actions sometimes fall short or are misinterpreted?

On the other hand, there are people within Doctor Who, for instance, whose names we shan’t use but who we’re pretty sure will come to your mind immediately, who have effectively been cancelled but whose intentions were not altruistic.

As ever, these things are greater topics than we can cover in a mere news article. Life is a grey area. Should someone not get any work because they spoke out of turn on social media? Should they suffer because someone took a comment in a more malicious manner than meant? At what point do we forgive? Life is a grey area.

Either way, Douglas Is Cancelled is excellent and you should watch it!

Joy to the World, Steven’s next Doctor Who, airs at Christmas.