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From Genesis of the Daleks to The End of Time, Doctor Who has plenty of controversies to its name.
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00:00Doctor Who has one of the most passionate and enduring fanbases in the world.
00:05Like the Master and the Daleks, this fandom just never seems to die.
00:09And with the excitement surrounding Russell T Davies' return in 2023, it only looks set to grow.
00:16But like any other fandom, Whovians do have those issues that they just can't seem to agree on.
00:22Now, the vast majority of Doctor Who storylines are well-liked and don't really cause much of a
00:28stir amongst fans. But there are certain episodes or even certain scenes, characters or storylines
00:34that aren't quite so lucky. So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with
00:4110 Doctor Who controversies that divide fans.
00:45Number 10. Was the end of time a satisfying send-off for the 10th Doctor?
00:50With David Tennant dominating the news cycle as of late, now seems like the perfect time to revisit
00:57a topic that has seen much debate in the years since he left the show.
01:02Was his final story, the end of time, actually any good? Or was it a total hot mess that didn't
01:09give arguably the best Doctor of all time the send-off he deserved?
01:14You'll often find people saying that the end of time has a bunch of terrific moments peppered
01:19throughout, like the Four Knocks, the Rassilon confrontation, and the Doctor's
01:23Time Lords live too long speech, but that the master plotline is far too silly. The Doctor's
01:29farewell tour is self-indulgent and drags on way too long, and that sub-villain Joshua Naismith is a
01:35complete waste of screen time. Elsewhere, some find that the 10th Doctor's final line,
01:40I don't want to go, veers heavily into cringe territory, while for others it instantly triggers
01:46the waterworks.
01:47In general, it's the story's emotional beats that people praise the most, from the Doctor's
01:54realisation that Wilf is trapped in the radiation booth, to Jeffrey Noble lending the Doctor some
01:59money for a lottery ticket. Thanks to Bernard Cribbins and David Tennant's incredible performances,
02:04there's a massive beating heart, or hearts, at the centre of the end of time, that does paper over
02:10some of the cracks. But, coming off the Waters of Mars thrilling, complex storyline, it's hard not to
02:17wish that Tenn's conclusion was a bit more engaging in the narrative department.
02:21Now, for me personally, I think I have to agree that the storyline element of that episode wasn't
02:27the strongest. It's not a storyline that sticks in my mind that I can always remember. But, I do think
02:35that the emotion was definitely there. And, I don't think I have a problem with the farewell tour,
02:41as it's put here. Because, particularly for the fourth series and for David Tennant's Doctor,
02:47those companions are such an important part of the storylines that we've seen. So, I almost feel like
02:53it wouldn't have been right for him to have not said goodbye to them. I do think that there is one
02:58character in that line-up of farewells that just wasn't quite right, seemed a little out of place,
03:04which was the great-granddaughter of Joan Redfern.
03:07Number 9. Could the Fifth Doctor have saved Adric?
03:12Although Adric is usually at the bottom of the pile when it comes to ranking the companions,
03:18his death in 1982's Earthshock was one of the most, well, shocking moments in the show. So much so,
03:26that the end credits rolled in complete and utter silence for the first time in Doctor Who history.
03:32But rather unexpectedly, Adric found himself back in the news when Series 12 was on the air in early
03:392020, with fans debating whether or not his death could have actually been prevented by the Fifth
03:45Doctor. This debate was sparked by the episode Praxeus, where the 13th Doctor uses her TARDIS to
03:51rescue Jake Willis, who has decided to manually pilot a small spaceship after its autopilot fails.
03:58Right before this spaceship explodes, the TARDIS captures Jake like a net, shielding him from the
04:03explosion and saving his life. Many fans then pointed out the similarities between Jake's situation
04:09and Adric's, with the e-space stowaway also trapped on a doomed spaceship that's about to blow him sky
04:15high. In this case though, the Fifth Doctor does nothing, instead watching on in disbelief as his
04:20companion dies. So why couldn't the Fifth Doctor have used the same trick that the Thirteenth Doctor
04:26did? Seems like a fair question at face value, but many of those riled up Adric supporters missed
04:33that the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS console was badly damaged by a Cyberman, which prevented him from
04:39flying to his friend's rescue. And still, some fans think that this is a rather flimsy excuse,
04:45because the TARDIS has a mind of its own and therefore should have been able to function still.
04:50While others hilariously just think that the Doctor didn't like Adric and so couldn't be bothered to
04:55save him. I mean, it's rather cold, but maybe understandable. Now, to be honest, I don't really
05:00have much knowledge of the classic era of Who, so I don't really feel comfortable making a personal
05:06opinion on that situation. But, our very own Sean Ferrick does indeed have some very strong opinions about
05:13Adric, so I would suggest checking out the video where the classic companions are ranked from best
05:19to worst, which will be linked in the description below if you want to hear his side of the story.
05:24Number 8, In the Forest of the Night. Series 8's In the Forest of the Night has always been a
05:31controversial episode, but I don't think you realise just how much it split the fandom in two. In 2016,
05:39this 12th Doctor story was voted the most divisive Doctor Who episode ever in a Radio Times poll,
05:46beating out fellow 12th Doctor stories Sleep No More and Kill the Moon, as well as the 6th Doctor
05:52serial Vengeance on Varos. Now that's quite a feat, so what earned In the Forest of the Night this not
05:59so coveted title? On the positive side, this Series 8 adventure was praised for its creative premise.
06:05The people of Earth wake up to discover that the planet has been completely covered by large forests,
06:10and its lighter, more fairytale tone, a refreshing contrast from the darker episodes of the series.
06:17Detractors labelled it aimless, threatless and felt that there were a few too many silly moments,
06:22forcing then showrunner Stephen Moffat to jump to its defence, calling it beautifully and elegantly written.
06:29Now it's pretty rare for the showrunners to jump in on the debate, which just goes to show how divisive
06:36this episode actually was. Maybe if there was a less plodding script and a few more standout moments,
06:43such as the deleted Doctor's speech about the untempered schism, it might have been one that
06:49was slightly more positive than polarising. Now this episode isn't particularly memorable for me
06:55personally, but I do remember Series 8 feeling quite dark in tone, and so it was quite refreshing
07:02to just have this episode of lighter tones to it. But I do think that you're always going to have
07:07that divide where there are some fans who really like the darker, more intricate episodes, and some
07:14fans who just want to watch them stand alone and forget about it after it's finished. And so you're
07:19always going to have that divide, so it's very important to find that balance in the middle,
07:24which I think this episode was aiming to try and do.
07:27Number 7. The Sasha Dewan Master ignores Missy's redemption arc
07:32Though few people actually expected Missy slash the Master to be gone for good after soaking up
07:38a laser screwdriver blast in the Series 10 finale, it was nonetheless a surprise when the character
07:44returned in Series 12's Spyfall. And not because fans expected the character to be dead,
07:50but more the fact that this new incarnation of the Master seemed to be a step backwards after the arc
07:56that Missy had been on through her run in the Series. While Dewan's portrayal of the character
08:01received a lot of praise from fans and critics alike, there was a subset of Whovians who were
08:07displeased and confused as to why this new Master had regressed back into a moustache-twirling villain,
08:14after the Missy arc had shifted the Doctor's oldest foe more towards the light. Missy's decision to
08:19become a do-gooder cost her her life, so why undo such a powerful character moment for the more
08:25bog-standard villain antics we've had for the last 50-odd years?
08:28Now, credit where credit's due, Sasha Dewan has been one of the highlights of the Chibnall era,
08:34and it looks like that streak is going to continue in the Centenary Special, but I can understand the
08:39confusion. Big Finish's The Lumiat has explored this gap between Missy in Series 10 and the Master
08:46in Series 12, but there are a lot of fans who don't have access to the Big Finish audio dramas,
08:54and so it probably would have been better if they'd explored this in the actual TV series,
09:00so that the confusion could have been cleared up. Now, I have just done a little bit of research
09:05into the Lumiat, and the premise does sound very, very interesting, where Missy has her own version
09:11of the Valiard. So, whereas the Doctor has this version of themselves that's pure evil, Missy has the
09:17Lumiat, which is pure good, which I think is extremely interesting. But, like I said, if you don't have
09:24access to Big Finish, then that is going to be very confusing to the audience.
09:29Number six, are the Daleks overused?
09:33Now, there's a Doctor Who urban legend that the Daleks are contractually obligated to appear at least
09:40once every season. Now, supposedly this is due to an agreement between the Daleks creator Terry
09:46Nation's estate and the BBC. Whether or not there is any shred of truth to that remains to be seen,
09:51but the Daleks do indeed rear their heads on a consistent yearly basis. Even when they don't
09:57have an episode to themselves, they can't resist a cameo, which has got fans asking the question of
10:03whether or not they're overused, and whether it would be best if they were rested for a while.
10:08On one side of the argument, the Pepper Potts have been used in some new and interesting ways over the
10:14course of their 59 year long shift from introducing their creator Davros in 1975's Genesis of the Daleks,
10:21to series 11's body controlling reconnaissance scout. Plus, they're the bloody Daleks, they're one of the
10:27most iconic parts of Doctor Who, and have been since the very beginning. But on the other hand,
10:32it's no longer exciting or surprising when Scarrow's finest wheel onto our screens. And they've also been
10:38outstripped by other villains in terms of power and scare factor, bringing their status as the
10:44Doctor's greatest enemy into question. Personally, I don't think they're overused. Maybe a little bit
10:49at the beginning, during kind of series one to four? Slightly, maybe a little bit, they seem to be the
10:56big bad at the series finale pretty much every season. But I also agree that they are so iconic and
11:03such a big part of Doctor Who that without them, it just wouldn't be the same. Number five, The Sixth
11:08Doctor. As many polls and rankings will demonstrate, Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor is one of the least
11:15popular incarnations in the show. Digital Spy and Radio Times have both got him at the bottom
11:22of their fan voted lists, and even some of our own rankings do the same. And it's a similar story with
11:28episode polls two, with Baker's debut serial, The Twin Dilemma, being voted televised Who's
11:33worst outing not once, not twice, but three separate times by Doctor Who magazine readers.
11:40With hardcore Whovians though, it's a slightly different story. Sure, it's not like he suddenly
11:45shoots to the top of people's lists, but there's no question that love for Baker's Doctor has increased
11:50in recent times, thanks to his successful run of big Finnish audio dramas. Indeed, many will agree that
11:57the Sixth Doctor works far better on audio, which is something that our very own Tom Housen noted in
12:032020, stating,
12:04Big Finnish enhances the Sixth Doctor. Colin's incarnation is simply a joy, and it's understandable
12:10why you'd wish to travel with him. Colin Baker even got to do an audio story that was written by
12:16the king of modern Who, Russell T Davies, which instantly upped his Doctor's cool factor. But all this
12:23is to say is that your opinion of the Sixth Doctor is widely dependent on whether or not you are an
12:29audio listener. His TV era was categorised by its brash tone, violent content and frequent behind the
12:36scenes drama, and it was this ill-fated mid-80s run that doomed him to the bottom of those fan polls,
12:42likely for a good long while. However, he is much more likeable over at Big Finnish, making his entire
12:49era a tale of two halves, and one of the most divisive runs a Doctor has ever had. Now again,
12:56I'm not particularly knowledgeable of the classic era of Who, so I don't have a strong opinion either
13:03way of the Sixth Doctor, but I have listened to some of the audio adventures that do include him,
13:09particularly The Diary of River Song, and I do think that he sounds very fun and exciting, so I do agree
13:16that the audio dramas have worked in his favour. Number four, should the Doctor become romantically
13:21entangled with their companions? No hanky-panky in the TARDIS was basically an unwritten rule of the
13:28classic era of Doctor Who, and according to some accounts it was actually a firm rule. But regardless
13:35as to which version of events is true, the point is clear efforts were made to not have the Doctor be
13:41romantically involved with, well, anyone. But all that changed with the 1996 TV movie,
13:49where all of a sudden Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor was snogging companion Grace Holloway. Now granted,
13:54this was more of an American take on the character, portraying him as a dashing Hollywood hero,
13:59rather than the awkward weird uncle of the main series. But even when the show returned to British
14:04Waters with the 2005 revival, that romantic angle didn't go away. In fact, it actually became more
14:11prevalent, with the Ninth Doctor and Rose growing closer and closer throughout their time together,
14:16before capping off Series 1 with a kiss. Things kicked up a gear when the snogaholic Tenth Doctor
14:21entered the scene, with he and Rose pretty much becoming an item by the end of Series 2,
14:26and even declaring their love for each other, or, well, almost in the Doctor's case,
14:31on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay. The modern show's decision to make the Doctor a romantic character
14:36has been criticised and appreciated in equal measure. To some, the Doctor is an asexual being,
14:42which is more or less what we got throughout the entire classic series. To others, giving the Doctor
14:47a love interest makes them more relatable, and adds an interesting dynamic to their relationship
14:52with their companions. Either approach can work, which has been demonstrated throughout the decades of
14:57the show. It just entirely depends on what the showrunner at the time wants to do with their
15:03version of the character. We all know that I love River Song, and I do really love that story arc of
15:09River and the Doctor. But, I do think that in terms of a romantic relationship for the Doctor,
15:15it needs to be very specific. In the case of River Song, this character is kind of 50%
15:21the point of her is to be this mysterious, ambiguous love interest of the Doctor,
15:26but she isn't a companion that is there all the time. In the case of it being, say,
15:31Rose and the Doctor, it was good because it was new. As we've said, it hadn't been done before,
15:36and so it was a new approach to the Doctor Who story. But, it then became a little bit repetitive
15:43as the series went on, when you've still got Martha then pining after the Doctor, and even now
15:48you've still got, you know, you have Yaz and things like that. So I think that if it's a specific
15:53character whose purpose is to be this ambiguous love interest, it works. Because I'm always going
15:59to defend River Song. But if it becomes too much of the main drive of the story, it takes away from
16:06what Doctor Who is actually about, which is about adventure and friendship more than anything else.
16:11Number three, Clara Who and Hellbent.
16:15From her shock debut in Series 7's Asylum of the Daleks, it was clear that Clara Oswald was going
16:21to be a companion, the likes of which we had never seen before. Over the coming months,
16:25that certainly proved to be true, with the name of the Doctor revealing that she was born to save the
16:31Doctor, having splintered herself along his timeline to save him from various threats throughout his life.
16:37Continuing this theme of being a Doctor-like character, Series 8 even saw Clara, on occasion,
16:42fill in for the Time Lord, most notably in Flatline when he was unable to leave his TARDIS. And this
16:47continued emphasis on the character led to accusations that she was being overused,
16:52with detractors even coining the phrase, Clara Who.
16:56Now it is somewhat understandable that these fans felt that Clara was overshadowing the Doctor,
17:01but also overshadowing the show's previous companions. At the same time though, plenty of
17:07viewers found Jenna Coleman's bubbly performance hard to dislike, and Steven Moffat did garner some
17:12props for trying something new, actively avoiding the same old companion role we'd seen a million
17:18times before. The Clara controversy reached its peak in the Series 9 finale Hellbent, which was
17:24criticised for undoing her death in Face the Raven, as well as doubling down on her desire to be like the
17:30Doctor, with the episode actually giving her a TARDIS of her own. Now I'm not personally a massive fan of
17:36Clara. I found her to be a little bit dull in comparison to previous companions. I did like
17:43her original story arc being splintered throughout the Doctor's timeline, but I think it started to
17:49take a very different turn following that. But I'm not one who likes change very much, and so I think once the
17:56notion of the companion changing slightly kind of put my nose out of joints slightly,
18:02and maybe that's something that I need to get over more than the show itself.
18:06Number two, should the fourth Doctor have destroyed the Daleks?
18:11There are few moments in Doctor Who history as pivotal as 1975's Genesis of the Daleks. As the name
18:19suggests, this fourth Doctor serial tells the story of the Daleks' origins. But if Tom Baker's
18:25mad-eyed Time Lord had acted differently, it could also have told the story of their end.
18:30Just touch these two strands together and the Daleks are finished.
18:33Have I the right? Muses the Doctor, his hands clutching the device that could end the tin cans
18:39forever. His hesitation is understandable. After all, genocide is a pretty big thing to have on your
18:44conscience, no matter how deserving the target species may be. But at the same time, Sarah Jane also
18:50makes a valid point, reminding the Doctor that he will cause untold amounts of suffering if he lets
18:55the Daleks live. And for many years, fans have been having the same debate. Was the Doctor's decision
19:01not to destroy the Daleks his greatest mistake, or was he right to not alter the future? From the
19:07atrocities of the Time War to their regular attempts to invade Earth, there's no doubt that the Daleks have
19:12done some pretty heinous stuff. But, as the Doctor notes, fear of the Daleks will prompt many worlds to
19:18become allies, united against a common enemy. And maybe that's worth all the pain they cause.
19:24I think that the dilemma the Doctor faces in this episode was a really important message for
19:29audiences about morality. And also, if the series 4 finale is anything to go by, even if you do
19:36attempt genocide in regards to the Daleks, they're gonna manage to survive somehow anyway.
19:41Number 1. The Timeless Child
19:44It's tough to think of a more controversial moment in Doctor Who history than the lore-shattering
19:50revelations in the series 12 finale, The Timeless Children. This episode told us that the Doctor
19:56isn't actually a Time Lord, but a mysterious being from another universe, one with the power to
20:01regenerate infinitely. The DNA from this Timeless Child gave the Time Lords their ability to regenerate,
20:07meaning that the Doctor is the chosen one, a god, the foundation of Time Lord society.
20:13This reveal sent shockwaves through Who fandom, with many feeling that it was unnecessary, convoluted,
20:19and even disrespectful to the show's pre-established history. What was the point in Eleven's new
20:24regeneration cycle in the time of the Doctor? Do River's own regeneration powers even make sense now?
20:30To some, it was even boring and inconsequential, what the Doctor can regenerate infinitely. So?
20:37This was always going to be the way, in some way or another, for as long as the BBC wanted Doctor Who
20:43on the air. So the Time Lords lied to the Doctor about their past. And? The Doctor has never got
20:49on with the Time Lords, that's part of the reason why they ran away in the first place.
20:54While discourse on the Timeless Child skews largely negative, there are those who appreciate how it
21:00opens up opportunities to explore the Doctor's past. There's also Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor,
21:05an important piece of the Timeless Child puzzle throughout series 12, who received a lot of
21:10praise for her commanding presence. All in all, the Timeless Child is still one of the most debated
21:15topics in Doctor Who's various online communities to this day. Chris Chibnall certainly took a bold
21:21swing here, but considering all the controversy, perhaps Doctor Who was a question best left unanswered.
21:27Now at first, I'll be honest, I was very, very, very confused by the Timeless Child story arc.
21:33I didn't understand it, and I was one of those people that felt that it was
21:37disrespecting the previous 50 years, 60 years. But, I do think that there is potential for it,
21:46so long as we are given some more explanations. As long as those unanswered questions and those loose
21:54ends are tied, I think it has the potential to be a really, really interesting storyline,
21:59and a really good avenue for the show to go down. So long as it's explored fully and not left ambiguous.
22:08And that concludes our list. If your opinions are different, then do let us know in the comments
22:12below, but remember to be respectful of other people's opinions. And while you're there, don't forget
22:17to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us
22:22there at WhoCulture, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie
22:27Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhoCulture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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