Peter Capaldi, who played the Twelfth Doctor regularly between 2014 and 2017, has suggested that fans might take Doctor Who a bit too seriously.

Asked about the backlash to the castings of Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa, respectively the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Doctors, Capaldi said:

“It reflects its times and it’s a good thing in the world, though it’s become a bit too big, too important for the BBC or whoever. When I was a kid and watched it, it was just a monster show in the corner of the room. I dunno why people take it so seriously.”

It’s a tad disingenuous of Capaldi perhaps, given he does seem to understand why fans take the show seriously — because he, too, is a fan and it’s virtually always meant a lot to him. As a youngster, he was desperate to join a Doctor Who fan group and has been through the stage of thinking the show’s a bit pants, a stage many fans go through at some point before generally coming back into the fold; this stage even meant Capaldi burnt all his Who memorabilia.

Nonetheless, it’s an understandable answer, considering he doesn’t want to stir up anything grim in the fandom.

Similarly, you can understand why he thinks Doctor Who has become “too big”, especially as he’s otherwise shared his opinion that the series should be smaller and more intimate in nature, not some grand spectacle that everyone has a strong opinion about.

And of course, fans do take the franchise too seriously: a mass of negativity, sometimes resulting in threats, fills social media and forums. However, allowing it to be a “good thing in the world” also means accepting the negatives that will certainly come as part and parcel. You’ve got to accept the bad with the good. Fortunately, here on the Doctor Who Companion, we have a readership that appreciates nuances and can disagree without huge arguments kicking off — so thank you, DWC readers!