Spacehamster’s Blog

The first episode of the 2nd season of Doctor Who has just been shown on UK TV. What’s been fascinating about the new series is watching Doctor Who fandom’s reaction to the new series - which has, mildly, been quite tepid. Go ahead and read the postings in the Outpost Gallifrey forum if you don’t believe me. It’s amazing that a series that is so popular with a mainstream audience is so incredibly unpopular with fans. The first series received a hostile negative reception. There were accusations that Russell T. Davies was inserting “a gay agenda” in the series, in an effort to corrupt children. There were criticisms of Murray Gold’s music. And then there was the violent reaction of fans to the news that Christopher Eccleston was leaving. A reaction so violent that the forums were shutdown for several days.

In summary, hardcore “true” fans of Doctor Who hate the new series.

Why? Because this series isn’t as gritty or dark as the audio adventures and books they’ve been reading. It doesn’t contain any “traditional” elements that the fans can latch onto. This is Doctor Who revamped and made to entertain a 21st Century mainstream audience. It’s not meant to be watched by hardcore fans that want “The Champion of Time” and adult themes like sex and violence.

As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the new series (warts and all), I’m going to do my best to avoid the New series forums in the interim. I have no problem with criticism - everyone’s going to have gripes with certain aspects of the series. But it does tend to take the personal enjoyment out of things, when the only thing the “true fans” do is criticise and tear things apart.