History YMMV / DoctorWho

** The Celestial Toymaker, a one-off villain from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker a First Doctor story of the same name]], was considered one of the show's best antagonists for decades thanks to reviews that praised the lost serial as a forgotten classic; there were even plans to bring him back for Season 23 before a BBC-imposed 18-month hiatus led to the season being completely rewritten. However, after a reconstruction of "The Celestial Toymaker" released and sank the story's reputation (with many now knowing it for its copious {{padding}} and racist elements), the titular villain would decline into curiosity status at most, with people praising Creator/MichaelGough's performance but considering his character an Orientalist relic of the show's EarlyInstalmentWeirdness in the '60s. The Toymaker would eventually (read: ''[[LongBusTrip 57 years later]]'') [[TheBusCameBack make a return]] during the 60th anniversary specials, and this incarnation received much more straightforward praise as he preserves the theatricality and unique characterization that made the villain so intriguing but [[ReimaginingTheArtifact mercifully reworking him without his cringeworthy baggage]].

** The Celestial Toymaker, a one-off villain from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker a First Doctor story of the same name]], was considered one of the show's best antagonists for decades thanks to reviews that praised the lost serial as a forgotten classic; there were even plans to bring him back for Season 23 before a BBC-imposed 18-month hiatus led to the season being completely rewritten. However, after a reconstruction of "The Celestial Toymaker" released and sank the story's reputation (with many now knowing it for its copious {{padding}} and racist elements), the titular villain would decline into curiosity status at most, with people praising Creator/MichaelGough's performance but considering his character an Orientalist relic of the show's EarlyInstalmentWeirdness in the '60s.

** Mel is considered to be one of the most generic companions in the entire series, with her only striking feature being the fact that she screams quite loudly. That's it. It also didn't help that Colin Baker's firing made it impossible to give her a proper origin story which could have helped a lot in making her more interesting. When she returned in "The Giggle" she was portrayed as more mature and capable with a quirky sense of humor and, perhaps most importanly, ''no screaming''. Many fans commented that the episode allowed her to be RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap.

** There's a contingent of fans who feel that Donna Noble deserved better than what she got, doomed to forget the Doctor with her potentially dying if she ever remembers him, which led to the Tenth Doctor's sendoff episode [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot consisting of him partnering up with Wilfred Mott instead of Donna herself]]. As the Fourteenth Doctor, [[spoiler:not only do he and Donna get a genuinely emotional reunion and a few final adventures together, Donna is able to remember her time with the Doctor because the metacrisis event that would have killed her was split between herself and her daugther, Rose]].

** Mel is considered to be one of the most generic companions in the entire series, with her only striking feature being the fact that she screams quite loudly. That's it. It also didn't help that Colin Baker's firing made it impossible to give her a proper origin story which could have helped a lot in making her more interesting.

** The Daleks are popular for their unique design, menacing delivery of their [[MemeticMutation “EXTERMINATE”]] CatchPhrase, and for being so powerful that The Doctor cannot defeat them in a straight fight, requiring him/her to rely on his/her wits to defeat them each time.

** Even though Creator/WilliamHartnell was the first actor to interpret the character of the Doctor, many people feel the definitive 'first' Doctor performance was Creator/PatrickTroughton, who introduced many of the performance and character elements that would influence later Doctor performances - being funnier and warmer, being younger and more active, having a CatchPhrase, getting CharacterFocus rather than being part of an ensemble cast, ComicalOverreacting, being more of an IdealHero rather than TheTrickster, and so on. He was also the first actor who was playing the Doctor as an unambiguous alien rather than as an AmbiguouslyHuman 'future' person, and the first to play an ''[[LegacyCharacter incarnation]]'' of the Doctor rather than just 'the Doctor', an element of the character crucial to how he is perceived.

** "Wild Blue Yonder" is seen by some fans as a step in the right direction for the way it addresses the Doctor's trauma from the Flux and finding out they're the Timeless Child; the latter was seen as a major misstep by Chibnall by severla fans, but Tennant's performance sells how overwhelmed the Doctor is, and how he doesn't really have anyone who he can relate to anymore.

* EvilIsSexy: Most incarnations of The Master are considered very attractive and very charismatic, excluding the decaying Master and the Bruce Master (for his lack of charisma).

* SalvagedStory: There's a contingent of fans who feel that Donna Noble deserved better than what she got, doomed to forget the Doctor with her potentially dying if she ever remembers him, which led to the Tenth Doctor's sendoff episode [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot consisting of him partnering up with Wilfred Mott instead of Donna herself]]. As the Fourteenth Doctor, [[spoiler:not only do he and Donna get a genuinely emotional reunion and a few final adventures together, Donna is able to remember her time with the Doctor because the metacrisis event that would have killed her was split between herself and her daugther, Rose.]]

** Hedges from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E2TheInvisibleEnemy The Invisible Enemy]]" is played by Creator/KennethWaller, who would later be best known for playing Old Mr. Grace in ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' and Grandad in ''Series/{{Bread}}''.

** Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe's tenure as producer (1975-77) is widely seen as the show's {{golden age}}. His replacement Creator/GrahamWilliams not only had to follow that, but he inherited a series with all sorts of production issues - budget problems, script problems, labour problems and a difficult star. While his era is era did produce some classic stories, it's widely considered inferior to his predecessor.

** There's a small but vocal contingent that dislikes Amy Pond; some cite the fact that she was willing to cheat on Rory and sleep with the Doctor ''the night before her wedding'', others claim that she's written poorly and it feels like Moffat could barely decide on a consistent character for her, and a third contingent dislikes both her ''and'' her husband Rory due to [[spoiler:the fact that their union resulted in the birth of [[BaseBreakingCharacter River Song]].]] That said, even the most die-hard Amy haters agree that [[AlasPoorScrappy she deserved a happier ending than what she got]].

** It may sound incredible, but the now core concept of ''[[TheNthDoctor regeneration]]'' was itself an Ass Pull. Creator/WilliamHartnell was getting too ill to play the Doctor, but they didn't want to end the show - so Hartnell himself [[RealLifeWritesThePlot came up with the idea]] that Time Lords could regenerate into a new body.

** In an especially long-term version, Creator/ChrisChibnall's run sees a return to the show's original conception as an edutainment series, with the Doctor often pausing to give lectures about history or science. This, however, is a very divisive example of this trope, as it has led to several accusations from long-time fans of [[PoliticalOvercorrectness increasing political correctness]], [[CriticalDissonance though professional reviewers seem to enjoy it]].

** 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 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.

* LGBTFanbase: The show attracted a huge one during the Classic Series, as revival ShowRunner Creator/RussellTDavies had repeatedly referenced on his previous series ''Series/{{Queer As Folk|UK}}''. 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.

** For a generation of younger Who fans, Creator/DavidTennant is largely synonymous with the Doctor; even those who have gone back and watched the earlier episodes are still prone to think of Tennant as "their" Doctor. A smaller contingent feels similarly about Matt Smith; but Eccelston's tenure was too brief, Capaldi's too recent, and Whittaker's too controversial to gain the same degree of reverence.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Most of the games based on the show have been ''incredibly'' poor. Until ''VideoGame/DoctorWhoLegacy'' came along, probably the best were the Adventure Games released in 2010--2011, and even they suffered from uneven design and graphics that were barely UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 standard, though at least they were free to people in the UK.

* RoboShip: Doctor and TARDIS. [[ShipTease Hinted at]] at various occasions, especially during the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh Doctor's tenure. [[spoiler: Now, '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife official, in-universe canon]]''']]

** In the revival series, the writers were more open in implying romance between the Doctor and his female companions. While "Shipping" usually refers to wished-for, rather than canonical relationships, the decision to institute TheILoveYouStigma and depict romance in a more subtle fashion has led to shipping debates related to the Doctor and companions such as Clara Oswald.

** Fan reaction to almost any regeneration and companion addition, sometimes initial, sometimes permanent. Given that the show is over 50 years old and finished its 37th series in 2018, with regular change of cast and the lead role being played by fourteen actors and counting[[note]]this includes Creator/JohnHurt's "War Doctor", who only played the lead in ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho''[[/note]], it is bound to invoke this trope.

** For those who were not a fan of the 13th Doctor era, the revelation that [[spoiler:David Tennant was returning to play the 14th Doctor]] sent screams of delight throughout the fandom.

** And once again used deliberately in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2007CiNSTimeCrash Time Crash]]", which alternates between the grand orchestral score of the Tenth Doctor's era and the the [[{{Retraux}} synthesized background music]] of the Fifth Doctor's era.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem The Sontaran Stratagem]]", the Doctor insists that he is going to handle the situation and that Colonel Mace of UNIT should listen to him and not attack the Sontarans who have already killed several dozen people and are warming up a full force invasion. While the Doctor is right that something fishy is going on with the Sontaran tactics and that UNIT could easy be crushed if the Sontarans actually tried, Colonel Mace is dealing with ''an alien invasion''; he knows that attacking that building may end with all of his men dead, but he points out that they cannot [[IdiotBall simply sit around and wait to be conquered.]]

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters Love & Monsters]]" from the New Series.

** The Fifth Doctor's middle season (Season 20) is generally considered the weakest of his three. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E5Enlightenment Enlightenment]]" is unanimously considered the best story, while "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E7TheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" is fun as a tribute to the series' 20th anniversary. Meanwhile, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E2Snakedance Snakedance]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead Mawdryn Undead]]" are considered good, but not great. The big problem is "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Terminus Terminus]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E6TheKingsDemons The King's Demons]]", which are considered three of the worst stories of the Fifth Doctor's era.

* AlternateSelfShipping: Although never even hinted at in-series, the use of [[TheNthDoctor "regeneration"]] in ''Series/DoctorWho'' and the propensity for the Doctor to meet his past selves has all the inevitable implications. There is even an entire live journal community [[http://community.livejournal.com/timeslipping dedicated to exactly this.]] There are so many works devoted to relations between the tenth Doctor and the copy regenerated from his preserved hand that they have their own name: Tencest.

** The main character's name [[IAmNotShazam is not "Doctor Who"]]. [[OnlyKnownByHisNickname It's not actually The Doctor either]], but that's the most common pseudonym he uses. It probably doesn't help that he was credited that way for more than a decade in the classic series.
** And TARDIS is spelled in all caps, not as Tardis.

** They tried doing the same for Series 12, due to the large ratings drop between Series 11 and 12... but said drop saw the show ending up roughly where it had been in Series 10. Series 13 managed to maintain Series 12's ratings and improved its average UK chart position from the mid-20s to the mid-10s. Further, the BBC were secure enough in the show's performance after Series 12 that they ended up commissioning Series 13, the 2022 specials, the 2023 specials, ''and'' Series 14, which for British TV is an astonishing commitment.

* GottaShipEmAll: The Doctor is shipped with almost every single one of his companions (most of whom were strictly platonic friends) over the course of the show's 50 year existence. Other companions from different eras [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight are shipped together regardless if they've ever actually met]]. [[OneShotCharacter One-Shot Characters]] are all shipped with random companions, the Doctor, and other one shot characters. The Doctor's daughter/OppositeSexClone Jenny deserves a special mention for being a LauncherOfAThousandShips despite appearing exactly once and having previously met ''none'' of the people she's most commonly shipped with.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Seeing the early First Doctor stories, where he slowly warms up to Ian and Barbara, becomes more so after seeing the Doctor develop a fondness for humans and planet Earth. If not for that meeting in a junkyard, Earth would have been destroyed a million times over, and the Doctor themself would be a much poorer person.

* 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 settling down. Then again, the [[AliensInCardiff aliens love Cardiff]] too.

** The Doctor themself 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]].

** Creator/DavidWhitaker, the show's first script editor, managed to establish multiple things that became part of the series' DNA forever after - the first TARDIS team (the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan), the first companion-switchover ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E3TheRescue The Rescue]]"), the first post-regeneration story ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks The Power of the Daleks]]"), and the first novelisation (''Dr. Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks''). He also established several important canon points like the TARDIS being a MagicFromTechnology EldritchAbomination SapientShip, the Doctor being 'cut off from [his] own planet' with his exact backstory a RiddleForTheAges, and incorporated mystical and psychedelic themes into the early show that would go on to influence.

** Creator/RussellTDavies and/or Creator/StevenMoffat for those who started with the 2005 revival. RTD brought back the show for a whole new generation and is known for his sense of fun, adventure, and emotion, while those who prefer Moffat appreciate his more complex storylines that place greater emphasis on time travel and the Doctor himself. Moffat is also the only person who has written an episode for every series since the revival.

** Creator/DerekJacobi has less than ten minutes' screen time as the Master, and only one kill to his credit, both by far the least of any incarnation of him. And yet, he is still so popular that Big Finish brought him back for a prequel!

*** There are a lot of fans who strongly dislike the Timeless Child twist, seeing it as disrespectful to the show's lore due to [[spoiler:undermining the First Doctor and making the Doctor, who has always been merely a traveller (albeit one who has saved the universe multiple times), far too important to the Time Lords' existence]] and having little to no impact on anything that happens even within the story, as [[spoiler:the Doctor seems to get over the whole thing rather quickly and continue as before]] and the Time Lords being wiped out again means that [[spoiler: she]] can't even confront them over it.

** The claim for shortest tenure belongs to the Eighth Doctor, whose entire tenure consists of one TV movie. 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 the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio dramas, and enjoy a brief return to regenerate in the , then a cameo as a Guardian of the Edge.
** The Ninth Doctor had the second-shortest tenure -- one TV series of 12 weeks. At least Eight and even the War Doctor (see below) have ExpandedUniverse material and 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.

** Some purists also apply this trope to the Modern Era (2005 onwards) versus the Classic Era (1963-1989). Certainly, in terms of longevity, the Modern Era is unlikely to equal the original, although it still has run far longer than most English-language sci-fi series.

** Every actor to have played the Doctor, with only a couple of exceptions, blend a handful of strikingly handsome or even beautiful physical traits with a slightly larger amount of funny-looking ones. Add in the requisite dorky mannerisms, [[TheCharmer charisma]] and loveable character acting and you've got the recipe for over 50 years of slightly embarrassing {{Celeb Crush}}es. Steven Moffat said every actor to play the Doctor should be "arresting" and "attractive in a very odd way".

** The trailer for the BBC Centennial Special reveals three characters no-one expected...Ashad (who had been seemingly killed off in his last appearance), Tegan and Ace (since Classic Era companion returns, aside from Sarah Jane and K9, were limited to ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'').

* 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 usually 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.

** The [[MakeMeWannaShout glass-shattering scream]] that Gallifreyans are capable of, which resolved a cliffhanger in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E5ThePowerOfKroll "The Power of Kroll"]] but was never mentioned before and will probably never be used again.

** The Fifth Doctor's middle season (Season 20) is generally considered the weakest of his three. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E5Enlightenment Enlightenment]]" is unanimously considered the best story, while "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E7TheFive Doctors The Five Doctors]]" is fun as a tribute to the series' 20th anniversary. Meanwhile, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E2Snakedance Snakedance]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead Mawdryn Undead]]" are considered good, but not great. The big problem is "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Terminus Terminus]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E6TheKingsDemons The King's Demons]]", which are considered three of the worst stories of the Fifth Doctor's era.

*** 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 murder, 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.

** The Fifth Doctor's middle season (Season 20) is generally considered the weakest of his three. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Enlightenment Enlightenment]]" is unanimously considered the best story, while "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E6TheFive Doctors The Five Doctors]]" is fun as a tribute to the series' 20th anniversary. Meanwhile, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E2Snakedance Snakedance]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead Mawdryn Undead]]" are considered good, but not great. The big problem is "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E04Terminus Terminus]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E5TheKingsDemons The King's Demons]]", which are considered three of the worst stories of the Fifth Doctor's era.

** The Fifth Doctor's middle season (Season 20) is generally considered the weakest of his three. "Enlightenment" is unanimously considered the best story, while "The Five Doctors" is fun as a tribute to the series' 20th anniversary. Meanwhile, "Snakedance" and "Mawdryn Undead" are considered good, but not at the same level of quality as "Earthshock" (Season 19) or "The Caves of Androzani" (Season 21). The big problem is "Arc of Infinity", "Terminus" and "The King's Demons", which are considered three of the worst stories of the Fifth Doctor's era.

** The Fifth Doctor's middle season (Season 20) is generally considered the weakest of his three, due to nearly every story being SoOkayItsAverage and lacking any of the memorable stories such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock Earthshock]]" in Davison's first season, and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]" in his last. In fact, Creator/PeterDavison ''himself'' might support this viewpoint to some degree - in one of the DVD Commentaries he mentions that, although he'd been taking the advice of Creator/PatrickTroughton to leave after just three seasons, he essentially felt like his last season was better written overall and that if he'd had writing of that level earlier in his tenure, he'd have seriously considered coming back for just one more season. For the record, Creator/ColinBaker was already set to succeed Davison by the time Season 21 even started airing, and by the time Davison was reconsidering his decision to ''not'' renew his contract, it was too late to do so.