History YMMV / DoctorWho

** Season 18 has some fans (especially those who don't like the Creator/GrahamWilliams era), but is also considered an overreaction that went too far the other way. New production team producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner and script editor Creator/ChristopherHBidmead declared their intention to make the show "less silly" and produced a season rather dour and humourless, more interested in technical and philosophical matters than [[JustHereForGodzilla an eccentric hero fighting monsters]]. Creator/TomBaker often looked a shadow of his former self, forced to play the role in a way he disliked, and popular companions Romana and K9 were replaced with [[TheScrappy Adric]]. Of the seven stories, only "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E3FullCircle Full Circle]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay State of Decay]]" really felt like ''Doctor Who''. Of the others, three ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive The Leisure Hive]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E2Meglos Meglos]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E6TheKeeperOfTraken The Keeper of Traken]]") were [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot good ideas]] realised in an esoteric, poorly paced and rather flat manner by the direction and script editing, and the other two ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate Warriors' Gate]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis Logopolis]]") were esoteric and poorly paced to start with. Bidmead only lasted one season, after which the show largely reverted to a more familiar action-adventure style.

** For a very long time (due to home video not being invented when the show began) there was simply no way to find out the quality of stories you had missed (due to ''not having been born when they aired'') save for: 1) buying one of the [[PragmaticAdaptation heavily altered]] and variable in [[DoingItForTheArt quality]] Target novelisations, or 2) buying a book written by someone who had seen the episode in question summarising what it was about and, more importantly, saying whether or not it was good. Both these methods led to serious distortions of truth in the fandom.

* PeripheryDemographic: The classic series was popular with the gay community. As there was almost no suggestion of any sexuality at all, viewers could add their own interpretations on the various relationships between characters.

* SignatureScene: Enough for its [[SignatureScene/DoctorWho own page]].

** The Doctor. Owner of an effectively self-powering, BiggerOnTheInside time machine that lets them go anywhere in time and space they feel like - and no matter where that is, their ability to save the day lets them get away with acting (and dressing) like a [[TheWonka complete lunatic]] regardless of cultural norms. Oh, and their travelling companions tend to be attractive twenty-something women. They don't have to work at a job, finds money to be a queer social construct they don't entirely get the hang of, and can go ''anywhere'' in time and space. The Doctor, like many of their geek fans, is never a rugged, muscular, ActionHero. They pride themselves in saving the day using their [[GuileHero wit, humour, and intellect instead of fisticuffs and guns]]. They are quirky and eccentric but still seen as a thousand times more charismatic than the [[MenAreTough traditionally masculine types]]. Oh, and when they get old, they can just change into a younger, often sexier body. No matter your age, that's pretty fun.

** It's been heavily speculated that The Ninth Doctor, after leaving Rose and Mickey in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose Rose]]" only to reappear a split second later, went on a bunch of unknown adventures during that time. As the start of the episode hinted he just regenerated, this fills the plot holes of (while alone) visiting Krakatoa and saving a family from boarding the Titanic. "The Beast of Babylon" confirmed this.

** Series 11 enjoyed some of the new series’ highest ratings, but got middling reviews for its extremely episodic structure and lack of characterization due to having to split focus between four main characters. This resulted in a catastrophic ratings drop in Series 12, but the people who actually did stick around tended to praise it as a welcome course correction, putting Thirteen through a horrific TraumaCongaLine that leaves her questioning her very existence and is all the more effective after getting to know her as such a lightweight character, plus several truly stunning character returns they were miraculously able to keep totally under wraps.

* HomeGrownHero: The Doctor sure seems to have a thing for the British isles; from speaking with a British accent, having British assistants on his galaxy-saving travels, to settling in them for the ''very brief times'' he does something remotely resembling to settle down. Then again, the [[AliensInCardiff aliens love Cardiff]] too.

** The announcement that a female actress would take the role of the Doctor in 2017 became viral pretty much immediately, both because of the announcement itself and the controversies that followed, many months before the female even had her first full episode.

** His creations, The Daleks also qualify who are ANaziByAnyOtherName but are so iconic and cool that the franchise would not be the same without them.

** The ending scene of "Can You Hear Me?", with Thirteen admitting she had no idea what to say to comfort Graham's fears of his cancer returning, got so many angry people complaining that the BBC had to [[https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-02-12/doctor-who-complaints-doctor-graham/ put out a statement]], with her "I'm going to pretend this conversation didn't happen"-response coming off as dismissive or insensitive rather than tongue-tied. This in turn sparked comments on how Doctors One through Twelve could be as abrasive as they wanted, while Thirteen has to be the "nice one", and the fact that she can barely deal with her own trauma let alone others.

** The Doctor himself is sometimes this, especially his Tenth incarnation. His Eleventh incarnation was basically a big, overgrown puppy in human form. The Eighth incarnation in AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho also falls under this at times. So, interestingly, is the other-wise acerbic Twelfth incarnation, especially during Series 9 where it's clear the man needs a hug but rarely gets one when he needs it, and he reverts to a near-childlike state briefly when he's forced to say goodbye to [[spoiler: Clara, who is about to be KilledOffForReal]].
*** The Thirteen incarnation is full-on moe for being very cute, [[GenkiGirl peppy]], upbeat, {{Adorkable}}, and one of the most overtly kind incarnations of the character. This is in full effect during her first season, but gets a little downplayed during her second season when she deals with bigger personal issues and becomes emotionally withdrawn because of it (not wanting to get her “Fam” involved). She still very much retains that Moe energy in her second season despite that, however.

** Creator/SylvesterMcCoy's [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor Seventh Doctor]] was this to Creator/ColinBaker's [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor Sixth Doctor]], who among [[TheNthDoctor/DoctorWho the Doctor's regenerations]] was easily TheScrappy for his [[DirtyCoward cowardice]], crudeness, and was overall considered obnoxious. The Seventh Doctor on the other hand is one of the more popular regenerations for bringing an air of mysteriousness and mischief to the role that revolutionized future Doctor portrayals but to be fair the Sixth Doctor was getting better as time went on and Sixth Doctor is RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in Big Finish audio dramas after his actor got fired.

* ProtectionFromEditors: Creator/RussellTDavies revealed in ''The Writer's Tale'' that he often rewrote writer's scripts, with the exceptions of Creator/StevenMoffat, Creator/ChrisChibnall, Matthew Graham and Stephen Greenhorn. When Moffat became showrunner, he had the opposite approach to his writers, largely giving them free reign.

** Meta example: After the announcement of Peter Capaldi stepping down as the Doctor, speculation went around for who would be the next Doctor, the most popular theory being a female Doctor. Come July 16, 2017 the reveal that actress Creator/JodieWhittaker was selected as the Thirteenth Doctor, the first ever female to take on the lead role.

** After Matt Smith, the fandom was expecting someone just as great, or better. Matt was 26 (and looked 18, perfect skin and all); younger fans may have been disappointed with the 55-when-cast Peter Capaldi in part of the Twelfth Doctor out of hoping for another Doctor who looked their age. Moreover, Twelve's by-design pricklier, broodier personality didn't sit well with those used to cheery Ten and Eleven. That said, Twelve has a lot of CharacterDevelopment and becomes younger in spirit as time passes. In a case of CriticalDissonance, Capaldi is regarded by critics as one of the, if not the, best actors to have played the part and deserving of a better reception, with his seasons (Series 9 especially) regarded as GrowingTheBeard for the show again after the SeasonalRot of Smith's final two seasons.

** "Let's kill Hitler" has the TARDIS travelling back to Nazi Germany, the reveal that River Song was in her previous incarnation a childhood friend of Amy and Rory, and the Teselecta, a shapeshifting robot that travels through history punishing criminals who were never punished. However even though some of these ideas could have carried an episode on their own them being in the same episode means they don't get enough focus.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The show itself is considered family viewing, despite its dark tone of certain episodes and surprising amount of [[{{double entendre}} sexual innuendo]] and it is shown around the supper hour on a Saturday. ''Doctor Who'' is over fifty years old and neatly matches the second paragraph of this trope's description. It's very much seen as a family/children's show, but it's been violent from the very beginning. A BBC audience research survey conducted in 1972 found that Doctor Who was the most violent show it produced at the time. The show was especially violent during the first few Fourth Doctor seasons, consistently getting complaints, and the show was also so violent in 1985 that it got the show cancelled for 18 months. For instance, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain Of Morbius]]" (1976) featured a man getting shot in the stomach with an explosion of blood, then crawling, dying, down a corridor.

** WTHCastingAgency: Some fans aren't sold on Creator/DavidTennant returning as a new incarnation of the Doctor, feeling it [[SpotlightStealingSquad steals the thunder]] from Creator/NcutiGatwa's casting and sets a bad precedent where previous actors can play new incarnations at the expense of lesser-known fresh faces, that this is a step back for a franchise that has always embraced change, and that it [[CreatorsPet gives Tennant special treatment]] for getting to play two incarnations of the Doctor while most actors have only gotten to play one; and, as always, dislike how it [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking screws with the numbering.]] Of additional concern is the perception that he and Creator/RussellTDavies are returning due to Creator/ChrisChibnall alienating some longtime fans with some of his decisions as showrunner, and that this does not bode well for the franchise's health.

* YMMV/DoctorWhoMagazine
* YMMV/BigFinishDoctorWho
** YMMV/{{Gallifrey}}
* YMMV/DoctorWhoNewAdventures
** YMMV/BerniceSummerfield
* YMMV/EighthDoctorAdventures
** YMMV/FactionParadox

** And then there's the ExpandedUniverse. To look upon the full extent of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse is akin to [[GoMadFromTheRevelation looking into the Untempered Schism]]. Even ignoring the ExpandedUniverse, there's [[Series/{{Torchwood}} two]] [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures major]] spin-offs, plus ''Series/K9AndCompany'' and ''Series/{{Class}}'', which are all canon. And now ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' is also canon.

** Creator/RobertHolmes and Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe are widely considered as the show's very best creative team, overseeing what many consider the show's GoldenAge.

** ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree The Power of Three]]'' had Amy and Rory wondering if they should stop travelling with the Doctor and have a normal life; this is under-explored in favour of the cubes, and considering what [[BusCrash the next two episodes held]] for the Ponds, some would have preferred it if they had left that episode.

** The claim for shortest tenure belongs to the Eighth Doctor. Even fans who disliked the film will agree that Creator/PaulMcGann gave it all it was worth and was a great Doctor nevertheless. He would end up the breakout star of Big Finish Audios, and enjoy a brief return to regenerate, then a cameo as a Guardian of the Edge.
** The Ninth Doctor had the second-shortest tenure -- 12 weeks. At least Eight and even the War Doctor (see below) have ExpandedUniverse material Big Finish audio stories to their credit. It took a ''lot'' of convincing for Creator/ChristopherEccleston to sign on to do audio stories of his Doctor, and his soul-crushing experiences on set during production of Series 1 have made him adamantly refuse to come back on the TV series to reprise the role.
** The War Doctor has a paltry screen time of under an hour, even less than [=McGann=] -- he's really a guest star instead of a tenure holder. This being the incarnation who fought a huge and terrible war.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Colin Baker's run was characterised by weak writing and a characterisation that was designed to start out as unlikeable as possible, but he never once phoned in a performance and always treated the scripts with absolute conviction.

** And then there's the ExpandedUniverse. To look upon the full extent of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse is akin to [[GoMadFromTheRevelation looking into the Untempered Schism]]. Even ignoring the ExpandedUniverse, there's [[Series/{{Torchwood}} two]] [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures major]] spin-offs, plus ''Series/K9AndCompany'' and ''Series/{{Class}}'', which are all canon. And now ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'', which already has its own entry above, is also canon.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] features some of the biggest Ass Pulls in the history of the show. Suddenly the Doctor is able to send enough regeneration energy into a severed hand to conveniently grow a half-human Doctor when a human touches it. And when the human touching it is electrocuted she suddenly gets Time Lord intelligence, [[DeusExMachina just in time]] to stop the Daleks destroying the Universe.
** The above event actually provides a double helping of ass-pull as many fans feel this of Ten preventing his regeneration by sending the energy into his severed hand. Then again a few series' later when it's revealed that it still counted as a used up regeneration.

*** [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Super]][[Series/DoctorWho Who]][[Series/{{Sherlock}} lock]]ians. The above friendly fandoms with Supernatural thrown in for some reason. Very common amongst the fandom side of Website/{{Tumblr}}.

** Creator/ChristopherEccleston appeared to have left for reasons similar to the above (on top of the hectic shooting schedule); there has been no definitive proof that the 40-something actor left after one series due to being "typecast". Eccleston has also been quoted as being dissatisfied with how some of the directors mistreated the other crew during long shoots as why he wasn't involved in the 50th anniversary show. When his autobiography was released in 2019, it was clarified that he also had a falling-out with Creator/RussellTDavies and was battling anorexia and depression.

* OneTruePairing: Virtually every companion-Doctor partnership has, at one time or another, been considered an OTP by some aspect of fandom, regardless of whether any on-screen romance is depicted. BrokenBase, above, describes in greater detail this aspect. Tends to intersect with ShipToShipCombat, especially with regards to certain pairings such as the Doctor and River Song (who actually marry) and the Doctor and Clara (whose relationship threatens to destroy time itself at the end of Series 9).

** As noted, the claim for shortest tenure belongs to the Eighth Doctor. Which for all the flaws of his one singular appearance on-screen, most will agree that Creator/PaulMcGann gave it all it was worth and was a great Doctor nevertheless. He would end up the breakout star of Big Finish Audios, and enjoy a brief return to regenerate, then a cameo as a Guardian of the Edge.

** In terms of the modern series, the Tenth Doctor as played by Creator/DavidTennant is something similar to the above; the Doctor to whom his successors tend to be compared to. While his successors have hardly been unpopular or disliked, Tennant took on the role at a point where ''Doctor Who'' was experiencing popularity and ratings success it hadn't seen in decades, his stories experienced both wide popular and critical acclaim, and even after leaving the role his Doctor remains widely popular.

** In later years, it's become a trend that while most people ''do'' love and accept Thirteen as who she is despite the sheer idea of her being the first ever female Doctor on the show upsetting a huge bunch, Series 11 is considered very underwhelming, especially after the rather impressive success Series 10 had with being Twelfth's final run (which is ironic considering as stated above, Series 10 itself was ''considered'' underwhelming compared to Series 9 sans "Twice Upon a Time"). And even with that, Thirteenth's generally playful and energetic personality (and how she handles villains often leading to KarmaHoudini) generally are seen as mixed bags compared to Twelfth's techniques to deal with his adversaries. Season Twelve gave her deeper characterisation, explaining the previous season was her running away, and she has to face the consequences of her past, continuing to push away her companions in depression and admit the team structure isn't always flat.

** Although Series 10's initially "back to basics", less continuity-dependent approach has caused fans of Series 9 to see it as a case of ToughActToFollow (see above), it also won back a chunk of viewers who didn't like the Twelfth Doctor -- and especially the Twelve/Clara relationship -- in Series 8 ''or'' 9, with some of them vocally wishing Twelve and new companion Bill Potts weren't getting just one season. And then, after the one-two punch of "Oxygen" and "Extremis" raised the dramatic and emotional stakes significantly, frustrated Series 9 fans were won back.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The show itself is considered family viewing, despite its dark tone of certain episodes and surprising amount of [[{{double entendre}} sexual innuendo]] and it is shown around the supper hour on a Saturday. ''Doctor Who'' is over fifty years old and neatly matches the second paragraph of this trope's description. It's very much seen as a family/children's show, but it's been violent from the very beginning. A BBC audience research survey conducted in 1972 found that Doctor Who was the most violent show it produced at the time (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who ). The show was especially violent during the first few Fourth Doctor seasons, consistently getting complaints, and the show was also so violent in 1985 that it got the show cancelled for 18 months. For instance, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain Of Morbius]]" (1976) featured a man getting shot in the stomach with an explosion of blood, then crawling, dying, down a corridor.

* LGBTFanbase: The show attracted a huge one during the Classic Series, as revival ShowRunner Creator/RussellTDavies had repeatedly referenced on his previous series ''Series/QueerAsFolk''. This is commonly ascribed to the show's long-time NoHuggingNoKissing policy, which meant that gay viewers didn't have the characters' heterosexuality rammed down their throats, and also made the Doctor into something of a symbol in the UsefulNotes/{{Asexual}} community. It doesn't hurt that most eras of the show were about a clever, snarky, flamboyantly-dressed hero who defeated bullying authoritarians with guile rather than violence. This eventually resulted in the Revival Series frequently nodding to this following, including openly queer companions like Jack Harkess, Bill Potts, and Yasmine Khan and establishing Time Lords as genderfluid, reinforcing the LGBT fanbase in the process.

* [[BrokenAesop/DoctorWho Broken Aesop]]

** As noted, the claim for shortest tenure belongs to the Eighth Doctor. Which for all the flaws of his one singular appearance on-screen, most will agree that Creator/PaulMcGann gave it all it was worth and was a great Doctor nevertheless.
** The Ninth Doctor had the second-shortest tenure -- 12 weeks. At least Eight and even the War Doctor (see below) have ExpandedUniverse material Big Finish audio stories to their credit.

* RonTheDeathEater: Dan Lewis as [[Memes/DoctorWho “Evil Dan”]] is among the very rare intentional uses of this trope. In the series proper, he’s a NiceGuy, a FriendToAllChildren, and unambiguously on the side of good. After a WebAnimation/YouTubePoop video edited Dan’s lines into making him TheSociopath (“What’s the point of being alive if not to make others die?”), a BlatantBurglar (“Nobody needs soup more than me!”), and having an EvilLaugh (“Hah-ho!”), fans found it hilarious and now run with this villainous interpretation of him, which was nowhere to be found in the actual series, for RuleOfFunny reasons.

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: Americans. This one's a little more moderate with the casting of Creator/JohnBarrowman as Jack Harkness, but the show will rarely pass up an opportunity to thumb its nose at the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates.
* AcceptableProfessionalTargets:
** If you're an authority figure in general, you're probably going to be made to look like an idiot. If not, you're at least going to be something to make the Doctor look good by comparison.
** One of Creator/RobertHolmes' trademarks was his utter loathing of bureaucracy in all its forms, ''especially'' if it involves taxes.
* AcceptableReligiousTargets: If religious organizations show up, they're probably evil and religious people are probably going to be a mindless sheep or a mook.
** Unless you're a Buddhist in the time of the Third Doctor.
** Or a (non-crazy) member of Tasha Lem's space church; the Doc gets on quite well with Tasha.

** The Classic Series' Cybermen went from "no known weaknesses" to "gold dust interferes with their respiratory systems" to "[[WeaksauceWeakness holy crap, anything gold kills them dead]]". "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E1AttackOfTheCybermen Attack of the Cybermen]]" didn't utilise any gold weaknesses, but they were still quickly shot down in droves, including one who forgot it was immune to ordinary bullets. The trend has been reversed since "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen Rise of the Cybermen]]", the first Cyberman episode since the Creator/SylvesterMcCoy era. Although the ones that appeared from 2006-2008 weren't from Mondas, a single Mondasian Cyberman in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]" has more nasty tricks up its sleeve than they ever did in the classic episodes -- including lasers, tranquilizer darts, CombatTentacles and the ability to function separately as a body and a severed head when necessary. Three years later, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver Nightmare in Silver]]" (described by WordOfGod as [[http://www.sfx.co.uk/2013/05/07/exclusive-neil-gaiman-talks-doctor-who-and-cybermen/ a "cross-breeding" of Cybus [the corporation that created the 2006-08 Cybermen] and Mondas tech]], and in-story using some of the source code of the older Cybermen in its Cybermites) added AdaptiveAbility and SuperSpeed to their arsenal, while keeping a nod to the "body working separately from the head" seen in "The Pandorica Opens". Ironically, the episode also brought back a mild form of gold weakness.
** The Master underwent some serious Villain Decay in his two stories opposite the Sixth Doctor, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani The Mark of the Rani]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe The Ultimate Foe]]", in both of which he achieves very little and mostly acts as comic relief to the Doctor's conflict with a new Time Lord villain. (The fact that he '''isn't''' the title character in "The Ultimate Foe" sums it up.) This was fortunately reversed in his only Seventh Doctor story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival Survival]]", in which his desperation to escape a decaying planet makes him even more ruthless than usual and his sadism is played up considerably more than it had been for a long time. However, it was reversed quickly by the TV movie, where The Master's behaviour is outright ridiculous (not to mention the fact that he was played by ''Creator/EricRoberts'', who isn't even British). And this was later reversed again in Utopia, when they got Creator/DerekJacobi to play The Master while he was "Professor Yana", a kind old scientist trying to help humanity survive at the end of the universe. And when then he turned back into the Master, Jacobi's performance was nothing less than thrilling. Then Creator/JohnSimm came along and brought out the crazy in The Master, giving us an entirely new side to him. Finally, they brought Creator/MichelleGomez to play "Missy", a female incarnation of the Master, and subsequently took it up a notch in both [[AxCrazy craziness]] and [[LargeHam hamminess]].
** The Slitheen were fairly menacing (if goofy) in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Aliens of London]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E5WorldWarThree World War Three]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E11BoomTown Boom Town]]" in Series One. By the third series of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', they were quickly caught by their "cousins".

*** Season 22 saw Creator/EricSaward going overboard with the DarkerAndEdgier, with the Sixth Doctor (Creator/ColinBaker) acting like an arsehole most of the time (including to his own companion), grim plots with lots of BlackAndGrayMorality and KillEmAll, and enough FamilyUnfriendlyViolence to, for the only time ever, cause the fans themselves to start getting uncomfortable. Saward was also purported to dislike Baker's performance of the Doctor and reduced his role accordingly, to the point that in "Revelation of the Daleks" the Doctor is arguably completely superfluous to events.

%%** Rory "Chuck Norris" Williams.