Doctor Who And Why I Felt It Stopped Being Special

Guest contributor Craig Sightings explains his reasoning.

Disclaimer: I understand these types of articles are risky on a site like DWTV where its main readers are more often than not hugely positive on the current show, but understand this is not a ‘hater’ article. Just someone with a different perspective. Please read fully before responding angrily in the comments.

So I started watching Doctor Who properly in 2005 after being one of those that was deprived of it growing up (I only caught the disappointing TV movie as it aired ‘live’ during my childhood). Needless to say I was hooked from day one. I couldn’t wait for each series as the years went by. Even the big changeover to the Moffat and Smith era proved to be a thrilling time. But sometime after the big 50th anniversary my hype started to dissipate and I’ve just not been feeling the same way about the show of late.

I still like Doctor Who, I just don’t love it. At least not as much as I feel I should. It’s a show that just kind of there now, like an old piece of the furniture. I’ll still watch it, but I can’t say I’m as excited as many others seem to be here, even though I really want to be. I’ve been trying to find out what happened and came up with a few reasons I thought I’d share.

Almost all the major ‘Wow’ moments have been done

When the show first returned, RTD had a whole toy box to play with, elements to pick out from Doctor Who’s rich history and reinvent for a new generation of fans. Stuff that had become old and tired in the Classic era suddenly was given a new spin after such a long time away. The new TARDIS, the new Sonic, the new Doctor and his new companion! Christopher Eccleston’s regeneration was a massive deal, along with the transition to a new Doctor, and then again with Matt Smith. Then we finally got the big daddy of them all with a multi-Doctor story. We even had Paul McGann and Tom Baker back! A decade-plus later many of these things are now starting to feel like the ‘norm’ again. We’re all so very familiar with it all, the ‘process’, the changes, and it becomes harder to ‘wow’ with each passing year as familiarisation increases.

Almost all the major enemies have returned (over & over)

On a similar note to the last point, we’ve now seen almost all of the big monsters and villains appear in the revived series, several times over – the Daleks, Cybermen, Davros, the Master – you know the score (exactly the problem). I was literally jumping around the room when the Master first returned in Series 3, knowing how much of a big deal it was. By contrast when Missy was revealed as the latest incarnation, I just shrugged and thought ‘Well, that was obvious’. It wasn’t surprising, or had anywhere near the same impact. The same goes for the Daleks or Cybermen whose first adventures in the new era were hugely anticipated, but have since been wheeled out almost every single year, so much so that even many diehard fans are asking for a break.

The Whoniverse got smaller and smaller

Back in 2008 we had a whole connected TV universe made up of Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, not to mention things like ‘TARDISODES’ and etc. Characters and story elements crossed over from show to show. This lasted for the duration of the RTD era. It seemed like you could barely avoid it and you always had a couple of other shows filling the gaps nicely between the main show broadcasts. Then it all gradually died off.

With Torchwood and SJA meeting their ends, Moffat sadly didn’t take the opportunity to create more spin-offs, despite fan desires. Moffat also stopped bringing back popular RTD characters like Captain Jack and the Whoniverse just started to feel smaller and smaller. Connected universes are all the rage now ironically, just see Marvel and the Arrowverse doing exactly what Doctor Who used to do. Yes Doctor Who was long ahead of the curve in one respect, but it dropped the ball to not carry on that path. Yes, there’s teenage drama Class now coming later this year, but at this stage I can’t help feel is it now a case of too little, too late. Time will tell, but the reaction so far has been muted at best. And it seems it has only happened now to fill Doctor Who’s absence and hopefully distract you from the aching delay.

The bar of TV is at an all time high

From Breaking Bad to Game of Thrones, to the aforementioned superhero shows, and many more besides. Genre fans are in a golden age of TV at the moment and the amount of quality shows is at an all time high. I have found myself being more genuinely hyped by other shows more than Doctor Who of late. The bar is so high that Doctor Who seems to be coming up short, aside from the odd exception with a good episode here and there. With Series 9 I wasn’t stunned with excitement every week. As the Doctor so aptly summed up, it was more a case of, “Same old, same old. Just the Doctor and Clara Oswald in the TARDIS.”

Moffat Staying Too Long

And this I feel could be the biggest reason. Even though Moffat is leaving, we still have another whole series to go and I feel it has been long overdue.

Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved all of Moffat’s early Doctor Who work and thought he was the perfect man to take over when RTD left. With Series 5 he didn’t disappoint and it was so close to perfect, but somewhere between Series 6 and 7 is where he seemed to lose a lot of his magic. Instead he would be content with recycling his old tricks and tropes. Granted, Moffat tried to do things a little differently with Series 8 and 9, but I’ve felt he only rarely showed signs of reaching his past glory. Instead he seems to have become more concerned with headline-grabbing and messing with established canon without due care, rather than concentrating on original stories.

Now, if every episode was as good as Heaven Sent (the closest I feel Moffat got to his inventive old self), then things would be different. I’d be hating the fact he was going! But as it was, it was just one episode, and then Moffat tried his hardest to undo Heaven Sent’s great work with Hell Bent (I could write a whole other article on where it went wrong, but that’s for another day).

I think it comes down to the simple fact that that no matter how much you try to shake things up, one person only has so many ideas and stories to tell. RTD started to become predictable, but he had the good graces to leave after four series before viewing figures hit lows and fans became too dissatisfied. Moffat is now staying until Series 10 and I feel Doctor Who has come the closest to stagnating yet since the revival. It’s one thing Doctor Who should never do if it hopes to remain fresh. Only a new showrunner can offer us a fresh take and can bring something new. Even though Chibnall is not my first choice for the role, I am still more looking forward to seeing a fresher mind take over than another year of Moffat.

Conclusion

Of course I don’t expect many on DWTV to agree, but I am curious if anyone is feeling the same. I know they’ll be some staunch defenders readying their keyboards and who probably haven’t even read this far, but I hope people can understand this is another perspective from someone who has just found their love of the show diminishing and wants to understand why. I honestly wish I had the same level of enthusiasm I once felt. I want to be wowed again! I want to love the show like I used to! Hopefully the Chibnall era won’t let me down when it eventually gets here.