Has 'Doctor Who' Lost Its Fame?

Doctor Who has been a huge hit for the #BBC ever since the show began in 1963. The show started off as a children's serial show, and has now become a family programme, which has been given its prime-time TV slot back for the upcoming series that begins on Saturday.

Since #DoctorWho began, fans have been treated to various actors to play the legendary Doctor, all of which being mixed ages and different personalities. But is casting an 'older Doctor' a bad choice? In a recent article published by The Guardian, they have claimed Doctor Who has become "smug and stale" because of recent series, where Steven Moffat has been the showrunner. However, Moffat is not being blamed for the show recently going "downhill", The Guardian are passing the blame onto #PeterCapaldi, who has just finished filming his final series as the Doctor.

"The easiest place to lay the blame is on the shoulders of Peter Capaldi, whose arrival coincided with the start of the show’s popular decline."

With The Guardian passing the blame onto Capaldi for the lack of views in recent series, they seem to be forgetting that the first actor to play the Doctor, William Hartnell, was in his 50s, which did not cause an issue for the fans back then. Then came along Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, who were both around the same age barrier. That's 3 Doctor's all in their older years cast one after the other without any regret. Especially as Troughton and Pertwee are rated as the best Doctor's of 'Classic Who' by many fans.

The Older The Better?

But it's not that simple these days as it appears people (including The Guardian) that all they care about is having "eye candy" as the Doctor, for example David Tennant and Matt Smith.

"Capaldi is a great actor but there’s a chance that, after two young Doctors, his age counted against him with viewers."

On the other hand, having the Doctor consistently being portrayed by a young actor becomes very tiresome for fans, as it just gets repetitive according to a Facebook user and many others. In a comment, the Facebook user said this:

He [Peter Capaldi] is not the worst. He brought back what was missing since Russell T Davies revived the franchise - The old feel about a mysterious old man in a blue box. He made me want to watch again. Tennant and Smith were good, but they became repetitive. The show lost its true magic. Then Capaldi came along by Moffat's wishes and Moffat made the best choice for the show.

With an actor like Peter Capaldi being cast the Doctor, it makes fans realise the Doctor actually is a very serious character with a powerful backstory, and having the Doctor played by a dashing male, it becomes extremely difficult to take the character seriously in times where it is required. For example, the Doctor's war speech in series 9 in 2015, if Matt Smith was still the Doctor for that episode, the speech would become something completely new, and knowing Smith, he'd insist on adding some witty joke into the script to break the tension.

"But One Thing Most Fans Can Agree On Is That the Last Couple of Seasons Have Not Been Especially Glorious" - Well I Disagree With You

Doctor Who took a break in 2016, which means series 10 is set to be one epic series with a whole year of being planned. But will it be as epic as previous series? Series 8 of the show was the debut series of Peter Capaldi, and was quite a laid back series, most likely so Steven Moffat could have a breather after just writing out a Doctor.

I'll agree that Series 8 of Doctor Who wasn't a huge success for the show, but fans still find it a loving series because of Peter Capaldi by bringing a fresh new style to the show. When a new Doctor is introduced to the show, you have to start the character building all over again, and literally reintroduce the fans of the show to this character as if they were brand new to the show. That is what series 8 was all about, until the series took a turn when we found out who Missy was.

The Guardian are hinting that they were not fans of series 8 or series 9, despite series 9 being rated as one of the best series since the revival in 2005. The 9th series had that one episode where Peter Capaldi had the entire episode all to himself, and the fans went wild for this episode by giving 5 stars. One statement read:

"But our full marks and all of the gold stars go to Heaven Sent, the series penultimate ep, featuring Peter Capaldi all by himself trapped, giving yet another performance of a lifetime. A sublime story."

Series 9 was a try hard series, and the BBC trying really paid off. By bringing back Davros, the Zygons and even Gallifrey, that series was a real gift to fans. This was also the series of Doctor Who where they crossed with #GameOfThrones by bringing Maisie Williams into the show as an immortal character. Speaking on Facebook, this user said:

"When it comes to series 8 and 9 it was a mixture. Some episodes good, others bad. But Capaldi got through them and even made the bad episodes ('Sleep No More', 'Listen', 'Hell Bent') still enjoyable to watch. Comparing them to Tennant and Smith they all seemed to follow the same idea. Capaldi got given extremely experimental episodes that have never been done before yet still came on top."

Here's Why Series 9 Is Doctor Who's Best Series

Series 9 is also heavily praised for reintroducing the two-part stories for almost every episode of the series. This gave Doctor Who that extra push that it needed to redeem itself from the not so up to standard 8th series. The last series of the show is claimed to see a huge improvement in Steven Moffat's writing by saying his his "weaknesses turned into strengths".

The Daleks and Davros together with the Master/Missy made for a mouth-watering prospect and they did not disappoint!

In another source, it appears The Guardian's statements of saying series 9 was not "especially glorious", at it points out that pretty much everything within the series was perfect. For example, the talented guest stars, the return of the two-parters and the chemistry between Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman.

Final Thoughts

So, it seems, The Guardian are standing alone by slating the recent series and Peter Capaldi, but hey, we're all entitled to our own opinions. Everyone has their own favourite and least favourite series for every show, and of course we all have our own Doctor. To lighten things up, why not check out the latest trailer for Doctor Who before the show returns on BBC One on Saturday 15th April?