Has Doctor Who fandom ever been so divided? Did you even know, for that matter, about all the online drama that goes on in our community?

I must say that being here on the DWC is a pure delight. All manner of news is keenly shared. Discussions are often passionate but still respectful. There’s some back and forth, but “fallings out” are thankfully rare. We might have different views on the best incarnation of the Doctor, the greatest Dalek story ever to be told and the comfiest looking TARDIS console room. To which I’d say, the indisputable facts are…

The Fourth Doctor, Genesis of the Daleks and the one from the TV Movie.

But if you choose to differ from these entirely correct answers, even though the act would make you foolish and worthy of my scorn, I’m still relatively happy to accept that we’re all grown up enough to make our own choices and that it’s best to just move on with things. What’s the point in sulking? Life’s too short, isn’t it? So, let’s just agree to differ! It doesn’t really matter. We can all be friends despite our differences, can’t we?

You’re still wrong though! Very, VERY wrong!

And I curse you and your bowels forever more.

At the end of the day, we are all Doctor Who fans, and we share an interest that should shine like a beacon in bringing us all together. Sadly, as you’ll no doubt already know, in the often wonderful but sometimes dark space that we call the internet, this is far from being the actual case.

The Division

Maybe it’s just the way that society has gone these days. Everywhere you look there’s some form of division, where sides are quickly taken, and arguments are stoked until even the smallest flame becomes an inferno. I don’t recall Doctor Who fandom being so vociferous in the past.

Then again, we didn’t really have the means to instantly express every thought, feeling, and spur of the moment whim, as we do now.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the most you could do to vent your angst was write a ‘strongly’ worded letter to the BBC.

You know the type, something along the lines of…

If you dare to travel into the battlefield that is YouTube, you’ll find opposing armies deployed and making campaigns for your clicks. From ‘Who’s Views’ to ‘The Sense Sphere’ on one side to the likes of ‘Tharries’ and ‘The Confused Adipose’ on the other.

On one side, you have an older band of ‘classic’ loyalists, on the other, there’s a younger generation of ‘modern’ devotees. I know I’m using these terms as broad sweeping generalisations because I’ve no doubt that things are much more nuanced than I’m making out. But the dog needs a walk, and you haven’t got all day to be reading this article, so I think a bit of generalising is best to get things moving more quickly.

Changing Channels

Suffice it to say, I watch all the content, and I generally enjoy the discussions and thoughts that are shared. There are things, of course, that I don’t agree with. But that’s okay because I like to hear differing views, as I find that it’s often a good way of confirming your own opinions.

It also sometimes has the opposite effect, in making you stop and think that you might have actually got things wrong. When it comes to their respective Doctor Who channels, all of these content creators have a passion for the show and an incredible work ethic.

Their dedication to the cause blows me away and it is far beyond anything that I would ever do as a fan. I think it would be remiss, at this point, if I didn’t step aside for a moment and mention someone like our very own, Philip, who has put in an incredible amount of work and effort into singlehandedly maintaining and growing this website over so many years.

I doff several caps to you, Sir! All your efforts are appreciated.

When it comes to YouTube, if I have to declare a particular allegiance, it would be to the ‘classic’ guys, as they are from my generation and I share the love that they have for the earlier version of the show. But I still have a great deal of time and admiration for ‘Tharries’ whose ideas are always interesting and well thought out.

Meanwhile, ‘The Confused Adipose’ has a confidence in presenting to the camera that I could only dream about having in the present, let alone in my increasingly dim and distant youth. Whatever their views, even if they might differ in so many ways, all of these channels have their merits, but they also serve to show how the Doctor Who community has increasingly split over the last few years.

Recently, the A.I. based ‘Missing Season’ and an attempt by one side of fandom to launch a new version of the ‘Doctor in Distress’ song has sent tongues wagging in a very cruel way. Harsh comments, not necessarily by the content creators themselves, but from different sides of our community have caused a lot of drama.

People have stepped away, then as is often the YouTube case, they have returned after taking a short break.

Who Says?

You might argue that it’s all clickbait territory and that people who put themselves out there must accept the negativity. But no-one deserves that amount of abuse or bile for just having an opinion or doing something that is connected to a T.V. show. Some people, it seems, are incredibly keen to cast the first stone, before even taking a moment to consider the consequences or their own lack of perfection.

For me, this great divide in fandom just wasn’t there in the early days of ‘modern’ Doctor Who. It felt as it we were all united, old fans and new, in our enjoyment of the wonderfully successful return that Doctor Who made to our screens. From being at an all time high of the Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith eras, there was no drop in quality with Capaldi. Viewing figures were still good, but perhaps not quite as high as they had been. So, the BBC deemed that a fresh start and new direction was needed.

Chris Chibnall took over as showrunner and Jodie Whittaker became the Thirteenth Doctor. You might feel differently, but I don’t think that this was to be a lucky number for the show. It’s at this point, that I believe the fractures in fandom really started to appear. Now, before some of you start, I’m not after any controversy or drama. There are fans who adore this era, which is lovely and fine for them, but I have to be honest and say that I’m not one of them.

Chibnall imposed some ‘Clueless Child’ revisions and storylines that never really hit with me. Jodie didn’t have the gravitas, in my opinion, and I’d rather have had Scooby and Shaggy on board the TARDIS than the Fam.

Recollections May Differ

But these are only my thoughts. You might, once again, feel differently. Neither of us can claim that we are definitively right or wrong. What followed with RTD2 didn’t improve things. The bold new vision took the fractures in fandom and turned them into chasms. Some people thought that Ncuti was the best Doctor ever! I didn’t. RTD’s messaging, some truly awful scripts and two seasons with catastrophic finales nearly got me to the point of pushing the eject button.

I feel that Ncuti was miscast and that he didn’t really understand what the role required. His portrayal of the Doctor was a take on the character that I almost didn’t recognise. It just didn’t work for me.

Despite all this, I still watched all the episodes. There were some stories, both in Jodie’s and Ncuti’s eras, that I enjoyed. None of them would find a place in my top ‘whatever’ list of adventures, though that’s purely down to my own particular taste.

Both Jodie and Ncuti are obviously a long way from my ‘perfect’ version of the show, but I’d still not want either of these recent incarnations to be retconned or removed from the rich history of Doctor Who.

It’s clear that they are loved by lots of people and that they have, in common with all the other Doctors, their own very loyal following. Many of whom, might have been inspired to watch the show and become fans because they felt a connection to these incarnations of the Doctor.

Good for them, I say! Welcome on board!

The Crazy Train

I think it might be time to stop putting the blame of the current hiatus on any particular set of shoulders. I’m being, of course, a complete hypocrite because I’ve done this as much as anyone else! Everyone has their own ideas about what has happened, but that’s done and dusted now, so perhaps it’s time that we moved on. If the show is to survive, we all need to start putting on a united front.

When Doctor Who returns to our screens, I believe it’s important to accept that it won’t be able to please all the fans and cater to what they perceive as being their perfect vision of the show. There will have to be some compromise and meeting in the middle along the way. As one of our own regular DWC contributors, Rick Lundeen, very wisely wrote in his recent article…  

“…we might come to the conclusion that what we knew as Doctor Who is gone for good, and what comes next is just some new show based on an old program we knew long ago.”

I couldn’t agree more.

When Doctor Who comes back, it will be a shiny new entity with some recognisable features. On this point, Mark Gatiss, who is both wise and wonderful, gave an interview a little while ago, which really helps to sum up my own personal feelings on the matter.

When it came to the classic Pertwee era, Gatiss admitted to feeling a sense of worship towards the show. But for everything else, even the adventures that he worked on himself, for which he still feels a great deal of love, it’s just not quite as profound an emotion as what he felt for the episodes of his childhood.

Perhaps, dear readers, this is the best way for us all to be.

After over sixty years, we each have our own Doctor Who peaks and troughs. But that’s great, isn’t it? Such things give us countless stories and opinions to share with each other. It’s what makes us all fans in the first place, so let’s just celebrate the endless light years of common ground and not worry as much about any differences.

I’d like to urge everyone out there, whatever your opinions might be on the classic or the modern eras of the show, to come together as a community and get behind any new production. It might end up being our last throw of the dice, so let’s try and make sure we take it, while we still have the chance.