Doctor Who fans need to stop rooting for the show’s downfall
I’m sick of coming across comments that seem to see my entire identity as ‘woke nonsense’.
Another day, another bout of rumours about Doctor Who.
This time, there’s wild speculation that the iconic show has been cancelled, lead star Ncuti Gatwa has one foot out the door, and there’s internal backlash over apparently ‘woke’ storylines.
I’ve been watching Doctor Who for almost two decades – it’s been a constant in my life, from my childhood sitting with my dad on the sofa throughout my adolescence when my interests were changing on a dime and well into my adulthood.
And if you want my take – as a fandom, we all need to get over ourselves.
As a six-year-old when the show was rebooted in 2005, the discourse around it potentially being cancelled after Christopher Eccleston left passed me by.
But as I grew older and more plugged into the online fandom I realised there was a near-constant muttering of the show being booted from screens every time a new era of the show emerged.
David Tennant and Freema Agyeman attend a Doctor Who screening (Picture: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)At first it was ‘oh how could anyone compare to David Tennant’ before Matt Smith won over audiences. Then Peter Capaldi bitterly divided viewers, with some declaring him their favourite Doctor while others denounced the entire series.
And of course I remember the complete mess that Whovians were thrown into when Jodie Whittaker took the helm as the first female TARDIS occupant.
The rot of ‘woke’ discourse completely invaded online spaces as swathes of longtime fans criticised the show for daring to put a woman in the role of a time-travelling alien. I guess for some it was too unrealistic…
I looked on with tired anger during Whittaker’s era from 2017 to 2022 under showrunner Chris Chibnall, when there was an exhausting cycle of conversation over the show’s plummeting ratings and constant complaints over storyline, stilted writing and dynamics between the Doctor and her companions.
Ncuti enters his second season playing the 15th Doctor (opposite Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra), we find ourselves staring down the barrel of yet more cancellation rumours (Picture: BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf/James Pardon)But it survived, as it always does, and now we have to do the same thing again with Ncuti Gatwa.
Just two weeks ago there was a flurry of panic after Bad Wolf Studios – the TV production company who, alongside the BBC, are responsible for Doctor Who – apparently advertised space for filming, prompting fears that the show had got the can. And then more ‘leaks’ yesterday.
Of course, much like any series of Doctor Who, its popularity with fans has always fluctuated depending on the writers, the actors and the plot.
But ultimately, the core of the show stays the same – a sharply dressed alien traipsing around the universe and through time to save everyone’s lives.
It’s a tried and tested formula that has put the BBC series in good stead for over six decades and made it one of the longest-running TV shows in the world.
And yet, as Ncuti enters his second season playing the 15th Doctor (opposite Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday and Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra), we find ourselves staring down the barrel of yet more cancellation rumours, and yet toxic discourse of ‘wokeness’ driving Doctor Who off screens.
I’ve been watching Doctor Who for almost two decades – it’s been a constant in my life (Picture: BBC)It’s like the show who cried (bad) wolf.
Especially because the BBC quickly pushed back against the cancellation rumours, reiterating the 26-episode deal with Disney+, while cautioning that they never comment on ‘future Doctors and storylines’.
Honestly, it’s the answer I would expect but there is a certain segment of fans, public figures and casual viewers who are revelling in the idea that their prediction that wokeness had killed the show could come true.
‘Wokery has literally killed off Doctor Who. The British Bashing Corporation next please,’ one wrote on X.
‘Doctor Who – long-running and famous TV show totally ruined by political wokery,’ another complained.
Rinse and repeat, and honestly it is really disheartening to navigate discourse online as someone from a marginalised community.
Peter Capaldi as The Doctor and Pearl Mackie as Bill (Picture: BBC)Frankly, I’m sick of coming across comments that seem to see my entire identity as ‘woke nonsense’.
Last June, the BBC released the ratings for Ncuti’s first run with an average of 4 million viewers making it BBC’s top drama for under-35s in 2024 and this has remained consistent with BARB confirming the Christmas special, Joy To The World, had 4.11 million overnight viewers.
Although the show has previously reached highs of 7 to 10 million, neither showrunner Russell T Davies nor the BBC seems worried about the future so far.
So it seems like fans seriously have nothing to fear.
Of course, in terms of the long-term survival of the show itself, no one has a crystal ball.
But as a fan, I’m going to look at the positives, not anti-woke rantings or online rumours.
