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4* ''YMMV/DoctorWhoMagazine''
5* ''YMMV/BigFinishDoctorWho''
6** ''YMMV/{{Gallifrey}}''
7* ''YMMV/DoctorWhoNewAdventures''
8** ''YMMV/BerniceSummerfield''
9* ''YMMV/EighthDoctorAdventures''
10** ''YMMV/FactionParadox''
11* [[YMMV/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Other Expanded Universe works]]
12
13'''WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!'''
14
15[[index]]
16!!Subpages:
17* [[{{Adorkable/DoctorWho}} Adorkable]]
18* [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/DoctorWho Alternative Character Interpretation]]
19* [[Monster/{{Whoniverse}} Complete Monster]]
20* [[EnsembleDarkHorse/DoctorWho Ensemble Darkhorse]]
21* [[YMMV/EpisodeYMMVPages Episode YMMV pages]]
22* [[FanonDiscontinuity/DoctorWho Fanon Discontinuity]]
23* [[FandomSpecificPlot/DoctorWho Fandom Specific Plot]]
24* [[FanNickname/DoctorWho Fan Nickname]]
25* [[FranchiseOriginalSin/DoctorWho Franchise Original Sin]]
26* [[HarsherInHindsight/DoctorWho Harsher In Hindsight]]
27* [[HilariousInHindsight/DoctorWho Hilarious In Hindsight]]
28* [[MagnificentBastard/DoctorWho Magnificent Bastard]]
29* [[MoralEventHorizon/{{Whoniverse}} Moral Event Horizon]]
30* [[Narm/DoctorWho Narm]]
31* [[NeverLiveItDown/DoctorWho Never Live It Down]]
32* [[SpecialEffectFailure/DoctorWho Special Effects Failure]]
33* [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome/DoctorWho Visual Effects of Awesome]]
34* [[Woobie/DoctorWho Woobie]]
35[[/index]]
36----
37!![=YMMVs=] for [[Series/DoctorWho the TV series]]:
38
39[[foldercontrol]]
40
41[[folder:TV Series Tropes - A to E]]
42* AccidentalAesop:
43** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]]: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it—unless the Doctor arrives in time.
44** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators "The Dominators"]] was intentionally written with an anti-pacifist message. However, it's also possible to read it as encouraging student activists to fight for justice, rejecting rote learning and irrational laws.
45** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E3TheUnquietDead "The Unquiet Dead"]] was perceived in some quarters as an attack on immigration (since the episode features aliens who come to Earth on the pretence of finding a new home after their planet was blown up, but are actually attempting to invade), even though the subtext was entirely unintentional.
46** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon "Kill the Moon"]]:
47*** Some viewers reacted angrily to what they saw as a pro-life (as in anti-abortion) message in the episode. There's a question of preventing a birth and the Doctor gives the women the "choice" to terminate it. Then, in a democratic method, the whole world together decides to prevent the birth. But finally, Clara just can't bear to "kill the baby", and her decision to save it is proven to be the right one in the end.
48** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven "Face the Raven"]]: Those who aspire to greatness -- or, in this case, to be the Doctor -- are to be punished. ''Doctor Who Magazine' #494 printed a fan letter condemning the episode for implying this by having Doctor-aspiring Clara [[spoiler: die because of it]]. The ending of "Hell Bent" does rectify this somewhat as [[spoiler: Clara is quasi-revived, convinces the Doctor not to be a Woobie, Destroyer Of Worlds but to keep to his ideals, and becomes a Doctor-figure herself complete with TARDIS]].
49* AccidentalInnuendo:
50** From "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Terminus Terminus]]", we have this spit-take inducing line:
51--->'''The Doctor:''' Nyssa's skirt... There's blood on it!
52** Fifth Doctor serials seem to have a knack for this. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E4TheVisitation The Visitation]]" gives us this exchange...
53--->'''Tegan:''' Hurry up!\
54'''Adric:'''[[note]] Who's actually trying to force open a window.[[/note]] It's stiff.\
55'''Tegan:''' You were boasting your strength a minute ago. Get on with it!
56** The sonic vibrator Nyssa builds in the same serial may also deserve mention. Made worse by Adric's line,
57--->"I don't see why you wanted to work in here (her bedroom)."
58** Yes, Jamie, it's a big one.[[note]]This may have been a little more deliberate. It was actually a RunningGag between Creator/PatrickTroughton and Creator/FrazerHines that they would try to get this line in somewhere during each story they did.[[/note]]
59** Three words: [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110504165019/tardis/images/9/9e/TCE.jpg Tissue Compression Eliminator.]] So phallic the cast and crew were falling over laughing.
60** The jury is out on whether the Doctor's dodgy [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/gallery/thirddoctor/images/1024/19.html time disturbance detection device]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster The Time Monster]]" was deliberately phallic or not. But... he built it to detect ''TheMaster''.
61** The fact that the title "companion" carries some pretty... adult... connotations. Lampshaded immediately when the Ninth Doctor first used the term to refer to Rose in "Aliens of London" when explaining Rose accidentally missing a year due to the TARDIS landing her at the wrong time. The police constable questioning him immediately asks if he means this in the sexual sense. Occasionally the show tries to shy away from using the term directly, preferring "assistant" and "friend" among others, but "companion" is often used, and occasionally the innuendo is invoked. Ironically, in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]", the Doctor's actual wife (who also travelled with him occasionally) is only referred to as his "consort".
62* ActorShipping: Almost a secondary pastime for many fans.
63** Creator/TomBaker and Creator/LallaWard - actually subverted as the two were in fact a real-life couple during their time on the show and were later married for a couple of years.
64** Creator/DavidTennant and Creator/BilliePiper.
65** Creator/MattSmith and Creator/KarenGillan.
66** Creator/MattSmith and Creator/AlexKingston (due mainly to the two flirting during interviews for ''Doctor Who Confidential'').
67** The chemistry between Creator/PeterCapaldi and Creator/JennaColeman proved to be so strong that some fans actively began shipping them with the name "Colepaldi" sometimes attributed to the pairing, despite Capaldi being happily married, Coleman in a long-standing relationship initially (and another later), and no indication of anything but deep friendship between the two. Ironically, the relationship displayed in real life by the two actors - confirmed as even extending onto the set, per WordOfGod (directors, writers, Moffat, and even the guy who shot a publicity photo with the two on the Abbey Road zebra crossing) - actually exhibits all the traits ''sans romance'' that some fans say should exist between the Doctor and Clara and other companions.
68* AlasPoorScrappy: Adric is one of the most despised companions from the show's history, but his SenselessSacrifice is still considered one of the show's biggest [[TearJerker Tear Jerkers]].
69* AlternateSelfShipping: Although never even hinted at in-series, the use of [[TheNthDoctor "regeneration"]] in ''Series/DoctorWho'' and the propensity for the Doctor to meet their 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.
70* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: When the revival was launched in 2005, the idea of reviving a cult science fiction series that had been off the air for sixteen years (with one failed revival) and was infamous for its at times campy tone and laughable production values starring an actor known for social-realist dramas (who bailed after one season) and a former pop star was deemed laughable. In fact, Creator/RussellTDavies later said that Creator/ChristopherEccleston was only given a one-season contract because they genuinely had no idea if they would even get another season. Davies also told the crew that even if the revival failed, at least they'd have the DVD boxset to show for it. Seventeen years and thirteen seasons later and it's still going.
71* AngstDissonance: Due to the diverse nature of the show's ever-changing mixture of characters and actors, some fans react differently to angst-related scenarios than others. The somewhat angst-ridden relationships between the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler (particularly after she is trapped in the alternate earth) and the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald are not supported by some fans.
72* AngstWhatAngst:
73** Some of the companions have heavy overtones of this, especially Vicki (who lost her whole family and then spent years marooned on a planet being terrorised by a villain) and Nyssa (who had both her parents murdered by the Master, had the Master start [[GrandTheftMe walking around]] in her father's body, and then had her entire home star system destroyed).
74** Eleven in general in comparison to both Nine and Ten. [[spoiler:It's shown in Series 6 he still has guilt for what he did to Rose, Martha and Donna, as well as the loss of the Time Lords, however.]]
75*** By Series 7, [[spoiler: he's gotten considerably more morose. He left a bomb in a [[MonsterOfTheWeek Villain of the Week's]] ship and nearly shot another. This was ''before'' he lost Amy and Rory. The second half starts with him trying to stay out of all world-threatening events. He snaps out of it when he realizes there's a new mystery to solve in the universe, and even then he shows signs of trauma and such.]]
76*** Turns out he's some bizarre combination of wilfully trying to forget the past and [[StepfordSmiler outright pretending it doesn't bother him]].
77* {{Anvilicious}}:
78** Creator/RobertHolmes is not exactly subtle about showing his contempt for tax collectors in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E4TheSunMakers The Sun Makers]]".
79** The years that Creator/AndrewCartmel was script editor (1987-1989) had a tendency to be a bit on-the-nose about how 'right-on' the show was. In 2010 this was admitted by people who worked on the show and who claimed they had filled the [=McCoy=]/Seventh era (1987-89) with attacks on the Thatcher government. This "revelation" was largely treated with derision, firstly for the sheer hubris of those involved (the show's days as a national favourite were well behind it and the audience by the late '80s consisted of hardcore fans and kids, neither of whom were a large voting block) and secondly because this was barely a secret since the attacks on Thatcherism had all the subtlety of, well, an anvil. Add in the fact that a LOT of shows were attacking Thatcher, so it was also a bit of "yeah, you and a thousand other blokes."
80** Yeah, painting the TARDIS ''pink'' in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol "The Happiness Patrol"]] was probably a ''bit'' on-the-nose...
81** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow "The Beast Below"]], there is the "Doctor = Space Whale" parallel.
82** To a lesser extent, if you started a drinking game about how many times Rory being a nurse got brought up, you'd be drunk very quickly.
83** [[Recap/DoctorWho2011CSTheDoctorTheWidowAndTheWardrobe "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe"]] has a thumpingly unsubtle MotherhoodIsSuperior message, especially when the tree people reject males (even the Doctor) as their vessel because "You are weak", but accept females - Madge in particular - as "the mothership". British journalist Caitlin Moran figured that having spent the day corralling the family and making Christmas dinner for everyone, mothers would appreciate the boost "Yeah, we're the ''[[Franchise/StarTrek USS Enterprise]]''".
84** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon "Kill the Moon"]]:
85*** Humanity gave up on space exploration, and then found they were in desperate need of it.
86*** Part of the reason for the angry reaction to the pro-life aesop is that the episode is not exactly subtle when it continually refers to the creature as a 'baby'.
87*** Even if it not necessarily an anti-abortion episode, it is still a very heavy-handed ThouShallNotKill story.
88*** Danny advising Clara not to make a big decision over a "bad day."
89** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight "In The Forest of the Night"]]. Trees are good. Don't bother them.
90** Series 9 touched none-too-subtly on topics ranging from the futility of war ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E8TheZygonInversion via the Doctor's epic speech on the subject]]) to allegories to Syrian refugees in not one but two episodes.
91** One [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm2PXshWC_0 teaser]] for the Thirteenth Doctor's debut season has her literally breaking a glass ceiling and giving a sarcastic "Oops," followed by the tagline "It's about time."
92** Thirteen's tenure as a whole has a tremendously heavy-handed anti-gun and -violence tone. While the series has a history of both, it gets ridiculous when she explicitly considers being locked in a room to starve to death to be ''more humane'' than a quick bullet.
93** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E3Orphan55 Orphan 55]]" from Thirteen's run would like to remind you that global warming is bad.
94* ArchivePanic: Oh boy where do we begin? In mid-2022, the TV series alone stands at a whopping '''870 episodes''' split into 299 serials across 39 seasons. Watch (or listen to) one serial a week and you'll finish the classic series in a little over three years. Watch/listen to one serial a ''day'' and you'll finish the entire show in just under a year. There's a reason the show reset the season and episode counters to 1 when it started up again in 2005.
95** 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/Class2016'', which are all canon. And now ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' is also canon.
96* ArcFatigue: Many a fan has grown tired of the show playing up the Doctor questioning his morality, especially since we all know full well it'll ''never'' come down on the side of him being a bad person. That said, especially with the arrival of the darker Twelfth Doctor, he still finds himself doing things that some might vehemently disagree with from a moral perspective.
97** Similarly the Doctor's angst and self-loathing over being the last of the Time Lords was, in the minds of many a fan, milked until there was nowhere else to really go with it, and [[spoiler: it seems Creator/StevenMoffat agreed, hence "The Day of the Doctor" playing out as it does]].
98** The whole Silence arc in the renewed series had several fans complaining about how long it was stretched. The prophecy that "the Silence will fall" was first spoken in the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour first episode]] of the fifth season. At the end of that season, we find out that the Silence [[spoiler:are the ones who blew up the TARDIS]], but there are no clues to who they are or why they did it. In the sixth season, the nature of the Silence is revealed and they become the BigBad of that season, but we still don't find out what the whole "Silence will fall" thing is really about. Series 7 ''ignored'' it until the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor season finale]], but its true meaning is still not revealed. It's not until [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor "The Time of the Doctor"]] that the Silence arc finally reaches its conclusion, over ''three-and-a-half-years'' after it was first introduced![[note]]During this time, the "Silence" went from a type of alien to a mysterious organization that includes those aliens to the silence of the universe destroyed with the TARDIS by that organization to the organization that the first organization was an evil splinter faction of (the Church, trying to keep the Doctor's name from being spoken, and the aliens helped with confessions). This arc also intersects with the Trenzalore arc, where the Doctor never dies and the Doctor's name is never spoken anyway.[[/note]]
99** Fans are split on the success of the three-season-long character arc followed by Clara Oswald, with some fans arguing it was well thought out and progressed naturally and logically, and others saying they couldn't make sense out of it.
100* AssPull: So many episodes end with the villains being foiled by some brand-new, never-before-seen [[AppliedPhlebotinum trick of time, space, the TARDIS, or the Doctor's sonic screwdriver]] that it's difficult to keep count.
101** 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 the Doctor could regenerate into a new body.
102** The Doctor managing to disrupt the Daleks' power supply in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]].
103** The [[GlassShatteringSound 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.
104** The Doctor's previously unmentioned 'respiratory bypass system' which saves him from strangulation in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars "Pyramids of Mars"]] [[note]]At least it was established for the next dozen times it saved the day[[/note]].
105** Undoing Peri's death off-screen. Actress Creator/NicolaBryant didn't even ''know'' about this until years later, to boot!
106** Then there's Captain Jack Harkness' performance in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf "Bad Wolf"]]. While completely naked he reaches behind himself and produces a small laser gun. This is immediately lampshaded when he is asked where he got it from. While the act in itself is an AssShove, it also qualifies as Ass Pull as there was no indication that he had it prior to using it. It was a scene played for laughs though.
107** The Gallifreyan mind meld in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace"]]. Has there really never been a suitable reason to use it at any time in the previous 27 seasons?[[note]]Granted the fact that Gallifreyans were telepathic had been established in the first season in 1963, so it's not such a bad example.[[/note]]
108** [[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 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.
109** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]], the Doctor is forced to wipe Donna's memories, saying that if she ever remembers him, her head will be incinerated. A year and a half later in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], she ''does'' remember him - only then the Doctor says he added a "defence mechanism" which knocks out her and everyone in the vicinity. This comes very handy in incapacitating an enemy ''that the Doctor could not possibly have foreseen.''
110** In [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]], having the Queen pretending to be the leader of the Zygons, somehow knowing exactly what their plan was, and pulling it off well enough to fool the other Zygons.
111** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E3RobotOfSherwood "Robot of Sherwood"]]:
112*** Although the spoon has relevance to the swordfight, it does seem to appear out of nowhere in the TARDIS. The Doctor is discussing Robin Hood, he's flipping through a book, he turns away from Clara, we hear a "CHING" sound effect and suddenly there's a big spoon in his hand covered in an unknown white foodstuff (leading to momentary thoughts of this trope being applied ''literally''), which the Doctor sheepishly licks. Clara doesn't even seem to notice. And the spoon appears to ''vanish'' when the Doctor starts hunting for the Polaroid. If the Doctor hadn't later needed the spoon for the swordfight (and as it is said spoon is completely devoid of said white substance when it does appear) this would have qualified most criteria for a BigLippedAlligatorMoment.
113** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon "Kill the Moon"]], the moon creature lays a second egg right after it's born, without any sign given before that it could, neatly sidestepping any problems destroying the moon would cause and proving Clara was right.
114** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied "The Girl Who Died"]]:, The Doctor brings Ashildr back from the dead using the Mire's medical kit that wasn't mentioned at all before at any point in the episode & it makes her immortal.
115** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]]:, Gallifrey all of a sudden now has an "extraction chamber" that can take people out of the point in time where they're about to die "from heart beat to the next" & as long as they go back at some point, then there's no consequences [[spoiler: This is what the Doctor does to bring back Clara.]]
116* AudienceAlienatingEra: Seasons 22-24 marked an irrecoverably massive exodus of viewership. Producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner's insistence on using new writers brought success in the early '80s, but here the practice's shortcomings overcame its benefits. Script editor Creator/EricSaward's affinity for DarkerAndEdgier content resulted in the show seeing its highest levels of violence and cynicism, leading to widespread complaints of TooBleakStoppedCaring. The BBC consequently tried cancelling the show before putting it on hiatus, and the result was Season 23's ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', a season-wide arc which tried to address fan complaints but was regarded as padded-out and gimmicky. Season 24 further attempted to amend things with a LighterAndSofter approach, only to be seen as a swerve to the opposite extreme. While Seasons 25 and 26 moved to a more Byronic direction and are widely regarded as a creative renaissance, by that point the damage had been done, and the show was unceremoniously cancelled at the end of 1989.
117* AwesomeEgo:
118** Clara Oswald, who on not one but two occasions actually pretended to be the Doctor and [[spoiler: became him in all but name at the end of Series 9]].
119** The Doctor himself, of course.
120** The Master is an evil version. Yes, he's full of himself, but more often than not, he has reasons to be.
121* BaseBreakingCharacter:
122** Susan. Some fans dislike her for being very shrill and easily frightened, and for constantly proving to be TheLoad of the first TARDIS line-up, especially in comparison to the much more capable Barbara. For other fans however, her role in the genesis of the series and unique relationship to the Doctor make her far too iconic of a character to dislike entirely, if at all -- there's a reason why several companion permutations were considered for the Second, Third and (when he was meant to fully take part) Fourth Doctors when they came back for "The Five Doctors", but the list of potential First Doctor companions started and ended with Susan.
123** Romana I. Depending on who you ask, either she's little more than the less likable prototype of Romana II, or her intelligence, ability to verbally spar with the Doctor, and DefrostingIceQueen arc over the course of the Key to Time season make her a worthwihle character.
124** Tegan is either a funny, sassy, relatable everywoman, or an annoying person whose constant bitching and complaining made her no fun to be around.
125** Clara Oswald. Her narrative role in her introductory series, and later her characterization in Series 8 & 9, have been intensely debated among fans. To some she was a flat, stereotypical "Moffat character" with all of Moffat's worst writing vices on display (Jenna Coleman was cast for the role in part because she could banter faster than Matt Smith) whose timeline-jumping arc meddled with years of past canon Moffat had no right or reason to touch, who then became obnoxious and self-centred in her Twelfth Doctor seasons with a relationship subplot that was impossible to care about. Other fans were endeared by her spirited personality and found her entire relationship with the Doctor - from their intertwined timelines to their quasi-romantic bond in her final seasons - poetic and touching. There's scant middle ground between fans who rank her among their favourite companions and those who rank her among their least favourites.
126** Rose Tyler is a major example of this. To some, she is one of the best and most iconic companions, an adorable badass, and the Doctor's one true love. Others, however, see her as an obvious CreatorsPet who is praised by the Doctor to an undeservably high degree despite not being particularly interesting or extraordinary and despite acting as TheLoad in many of her episodes. Some also dislike her for her ClingyJealousGirl tendencies towards the Doctor (which are somewhat hypocritical considering she is shown to have no issue with flirting with and even kissing other men in front of him) and for the fact that she always seems to get whatever she wants regardless of the consequences or dangers that come with it. The fact that she is one of the characters most commonly shipped with the Doctor doesn't help, as, again, some people genuinely don't understand why he's so smitten with her.
127* BestKnownForTheFanservice:
128** Nyssa's [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nyssa_9366.jpg skirt-removal]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Terminus Terminus]]". The in-story HandWave for why she decided to strip down to her slip was that she was feeling feverish. This doesn't really come across on screen, so Nyssa appears to strip off her clothes for no reason.
129** The Fifth Doctor's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvAenK95PfQ moving death scene in "The Caves of Androzani"]] is [[DistractedByTheSexy somewhat undermined]] by the [[MaleGaze excellent view]] the audience get of Peri's trembling cleavage. Davison has joked about this turn of events at times.
130** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire Planet of Fire]]", Peri entered the TARDIS [[http://ibw.cwbuechler.com/newblog/wp-content/Peri-in-Peril.jpeg wearing a bikini]] (being carried by Turlough, who was wearing bikini ''briefs''). There was a long-running joke/tradition that Companions always left the TARDIS wearing less clothes than they entered in, which many were waiting to see if it would hold true...
131** Most of Peri's costumes seem to be designed to show as much cleavage as possible on a family show. Also note that a lot of people note that Peri is pretty.
132** And Zoe [[http://fancyfembot.com/wp-content/uploads/mindrob3.jpg clinging to the TARDIS console]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber The Mind Robber]]", while the camera drools over her bottom in a very tight catsuit.
133** We've got [[http://nerdalicious.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/leela-louise-jameson-2.jpg Leela]] in her fur bikini and split skirts, while Romana 1 was a ''very'' [[http://laraandthereelboy.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/romana.jpg attractive]] woman with a [[http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/qE9hOaR6cdc/hqdefault.jpg cleavage window.]]
134** Most media coverage of new companion Creator/KarenGillan (Amy Pond) at the start focused on her skimpy kissogram costume in her first episode.
135** There were some media attempts at this when Creator/JennaColeman made her first appearance in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Asylum of the Daleks]]", in which Oswin wore a short, form-fitting dress, and the fact a miniseries titled ''Room at the Top'' in which Coleman appeared topless aired soon after didn't help matters. Ultimately averted, however, as the decision was made to dress Clara more conservatively.
136** The Eleventh Doctor's era is best known by many as the era where the Doctor was played by an attractive and young Creator/MattSmith.
137* BizarroEpisode:
138** "The Feast of Steven", the ChristmasEpisode in the middle of the grim 12-parter "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]". The heroes have a chase through Hollywood in the 1920s, get arrested by police in the 1960s, and end up Breaking the Fourth Wall. It's really bizarre when you remember that they are in the middle of an epic journey to stop the Daleks from dominating the universe, and that one of the characters murdered her brother a few episodes ago.
139** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber The Mind Robber]]". The TARDIS materialises outside reality and then explodes, and the characters find themselves randomly interacting with fictional characters. Despite this bizarre premise (or perhaps because of that), it's unanimously considered by fans as one of the Second Doctor's best and most creative serials, in addition of escaping the typical structure "Base Under Siege" of his era.
140** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters Love & Monsters]]" from the New Series introduced the "Doctor-Lite" concept to the revived series. It features an [[UnreliableNarrator unreliable narrator]], Franchise/ScoobyDoo style [[CartoonPhysics cartoon physics]] in a flashback, and a monster designed by the winner of a [[Series/BluePeter kids' TV show]] contest.
141** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E9SleepNoMore "Sleep No More"]], an experimental episode depicted in the first-person "found footage" format and without a traditional resolution. Often described as a "marmite" episode (after a particularly divisive foodstuff popular in the UK): those who love the episode really love it, and those who hate it tend to rank it among the worst in the franchise's history.
142** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]]: A an episode in which the Doctor is (almost) completely alone for the entire hour in a surreal scenario sparked by the death of his companion. Unlike the other episodes of this type, it's widely acclaimed across the board as a modern classic.
143* BrokenBase:
144** For decades there was a massive argument about "UNIT Dating" - whether Jon Pertwee's earthbound stories were set in the early 1970s or the near future from then (stated to be either the early 80s or late 70s). Nowadays the debate has died down, as newer fans broadly assume they were set sometime around broadcast.
145** During the "Wilderness Years" when the show was off the air there were frequent and very heated online debates about the question of canon. The franchise has never had an official statement defining which ExpandedUniverse stories are or aren't officially in continuity with the TV show, so fans have taken all sorts of stances - from "everything counts" through "only the TV show counts, but not even all of that", to "the concept doesn't even apply to Doctor Who" and everything in between. Debates between fans of the books (who tended to include everything or deny canon existed) and the audios (who tended to say that the audios counted but the books didn't) were particularly heated.
146** To this day, some fans are still divided over whether the Classic series or the Modern series is better. Some fans prefer the Classic series for being less melodramatic and having less stories set on Modern Earth while also having more focus on the plot and a more sci-fi feel, while Modern series fans prefer the focus on CharacterDevelopment and story arcs while having more modern storytelling conveniences. There are of course plenty of fans who like both series and even see them as one big show, but don't tell the other fans that.
147** The Creator/StevenMoffat era can get very divisive in the fandom, since the man ran the show for six seasons and gave two Doctors three full seasons.
148*** Along with the not uncommon internet arguments about the strengths and weaknesses of Moffat's era versus his predecessor, Creator/RussellTDavies', people also tend to be divided over which half of the Moffat era was more entertaining overall - the one with the Eleventh Doctor or the one with Twelfth. Depending on who you ask, the Eleventh Doctor regenerating into the Twelfth Doctor is either the point where the Moffat era [[GrowingTheBeard grew the beard]] or the point where it started to steadily decline into [[SeasonalRot blandness and banality]].
149*** Fans of Twelve's run prefer it for Peter Capaldi's consistently impressive, introspective performance as the Doctor; Clara Oswald's character development as she tries to emulate the Doctor and flies a bit too close to the sun; several, thought-provoking philosophical episodes; and the era as a whole avoiding the excesses of the Matt Smith years (especially after the SeasonalRot of Series 7) by having simple, character-driven season arcs instead of plot-driven ones that occasionally got too convoluted for their own good.
150*** However, those in favour of Eleven's run are enchanted by Matt Smith's layered performance and Eleven's character arc as a Doctor who's simultaneously young and old; the multi-season arc of the Doctor finding a family with the Ponds, Amy and Rory gradually outgrowing the Doctor and the Silence meddling with the Doctor's life; the confidence and ambition present in Series 5 - 7 with their consistently stunning cinematography, and Eleven, Amy and Rory having more likable personalities than Twelve, Clara and Danny; and most of all, the freshness and vigour of Moffat's early seasons compared to the later Capaldi seasons, where many have argued the series experienced franchise fatigue and Moffat's exhaustion as the showrunner started to show with Twelve having a large number of bland, uninteresting scripts that coasted by too much on social commentary.
151** The Creator/ChrisChibnall era is either great or awful. Common complaints are aimed towards the writing, the direction, or the method in which the perceived "PC politics" are executed in the show since Chibnall's takeover as showrunner. On the other hand, praise has been given towards the series' handling of historical events, Creator/JodieWhittaker's acting, Creator/BradleyWalsh's emotional performance as Graham, and an overall feel reminiscent of the classic series.
152** The reveal in Series 12 of the Doctor's "true" nature (pending a very possible retcon, naturally), [[spoiler:an extradimensional being who is the source of the Time Lords' ability to regenerate, and who has had a ton of other life cycles beyond the one covered by the series that have been periodically erased from their memory]]. While some fans liked it, many others just think it interferes with the idea of the Doctor just being a random "idiot with a box" bopping around space and time. There was also a sizable number of fans who feared that [[spoiler:it would be used as an excuse to never again cast the "main" Doctor as anything but a white man, with all other options relegated to guest stars like Ruth. These fears were mitigated with the casting of Creator/NcutiGatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor.]]
153** More generally, every era of the show has fans who loved it and fans who hated it.
154** Shipping the Doctor with other characters (mostly companions, but other characters as well) has become this to a certain extent. Some fans see no issue with shipping the Doctor with other characters since the show itself has featured the Doctor actively showing romantic interest in other people from time to time and even gives him a wife in the form of River Song. Other fans dislike the idea of the Doctor being paired with anyone, prefering him to only have platonic relationships with his companions. Fans in the latter category are typically part of the group of people who dislike the increasing focus that the show has taken on romantic relationships between the Doctor and their companions and feel that the show should focus more on the adventure aspect of the story.
155* CargoShip:
156** Some fans pair the Doctor and sonic screwdriver. The series itself has lampshaded this by having the Doctor actually acknowledge this in [[Recap/DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol "A Christmas Carol"]] and in the made-for-DVD mini-episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33ShortClaraAndTheTardis "Clara and the TARDIS"]] Clara Oswald says the Doctor is in a "co-dependent" relationship with his screwdriver.
157** The ''show itself'' pairs the Doctor and the TARDIS. (With some serious squick potential when we see the ship's Cronenberg-esque telepathic circuits for the first time in Series 8.) This climaxes in the episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife "The Doctor's Wife"]] when the TARDIS - the titular "wife" of the title - briefly takes on human form and ultimately is heard to say "I love you" to the Doctor before she reverts to her original form.
158* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: The show, being a series that's been operating almost nonstop since the '60s (apart from a lengthy hiatus in the '90s and 2000s), inevitably has a number of characters whose reputation shifted with time:
159** The First Doctor, by virtue of being the ''only'' Doctor for the show's first three years, was a popular figure among viewers. Initially devised as an AntiHero to contrast main protagonists Ian, Barbara, and Susan, he quickly became the show's BreakoutCharacter and became a more beloved hero through CharacterDevelopment; after Creator/WilliamHartnell's departure in 1966, reactions ranged from scepticism to outrage at the idea of anyone else playing the Doctor. Nowadays, while he's still well-regarded, the First Doctor is seen as more of a historical curiosity thanks to him being [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness very different]] from later incarnations.
160** The Second Doctor was initially a huge BaseBreakingCharacter with viewers thanks to Creator/PatrickTroughton bearing the burden of being the very first actor to take on the role from the previous (and at the time, only) incumbent. The First Doctor was quite beloved, and Hartnell's exit and [[TheNthDoctor unconventional means of replacement]] initially came as a big shock to audiences (something Troughton himself anticipated), with Troughton's performance in his first story receiving plenty of negative audience feedback. While Troughton soon won over audiences and brought an increase in ratings from their low ebb at the end of the Hartnell era, they never recovered to the heights of the earlier Hartnell era, and by the end of Troughton's final season ratings had begun to slide again to the point where the show faced cancellation at the end of the '60s. Decades later, he's now considered one of the best and most influential incarnations of the Doctor, with his "secretly-scheming mad hobo" characterization laying the groundwork for all later versions of the character.
161** The Third Doctor helped usher in a revival of interest in ''Doctor Who'' during the early '70s thanks to a substantial {{retool}} that had him fighting aliens on Earth with UNIT. Like Hartnell, Creator/JonPertwee's departure in 1974 was the target of consternation with viewers. Today, while the Third Doctor is by no means disliked, his reputation is much more modest, with many viewing his era as restrictive in scope and his ''character'' as decent, but vastly overshadowed by the more popular and influential Second and Fourth Doctors.
162** The Fourth Doctor was initially a BaseBreakingCharacter. His actor, Creator/TomBaker, was much younger than prior incarnations, he came right after the highly popular Third Doctor, and he was initially seen as a bit too out-there compared to his comparatively grounded predecessors. Within a few years, however, he quickly became the single most popular incarnation of the Doctor, thanks in part to his mammoth seven-year run, his broad-reaching appeal (having been deliberately written to resonate with both children and countercultural adults alike), and his arrival coinciding with what is widely considered the show's golden age. Today, the Fourth Doctor remains the most iconic version of the Doctor in the Classic Series, with his overall popularity only being rivaled by the Tenth Doctor.
163** For years, the Sixth Doctor was widely regarded by fandom as the worst incarnation. His characterization as a haughty AntiHero was derided as a poor attempt at emulating earlier Doctors, while his greater willingness to use violence was seen as straying far from the show's ethos of "brains over brawn." However, several factors over the years would contribute to a belated reappraisal: the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio plays gave him CharacterDevelopment that stripped away his most abrasive elements, the Revival Series would feature multiple morally gray Doctors [[ImprovedSecondAttempt to great success]], and more information about [[TroubledProduction the behind-the-scenes chaos]] of Creator/ColinBaker's tenure would become publicly available. All of this resulted in a major reevaluation of Six's portrayal in the mainline TV series, with him now being seen as an ahead-of-his-time incarnation who simply got stuck with bad scripts and never got to use his full potential until the audio plays.
164** Martha Jones was initially a BaseBreakingCharacter, coming after the similarly divisive companion Rose Tyler and being unflatteringly compared to her in-universe by the Doctor himself. Years later, however, she's now considered one of the best Revival Series companions next to her successor, Donna Noble, for being far more intelligent than many of her predecessors and for being able to hold her own without any NewPowersAsThePlotDemands (which was a criticism of both Rose and Donna). Furthermore, her exit, leaving the TARDIS entirely on her own terms, is considered one of the best for how against-the-grain it was compared to other Revival Series companions, who were more often than not forced away from the Doctor.
165** The Daleks immediately became the show's most iconic and beloved villain when they debuted in its second serial, ushering in a wave of "Dalekmania" that culminated in film adaptations of their first two stories. However, as the decades dragged on, VillainDecay gradually soured their reputation, leading them to become emblematic of the show's limitations in the eyes of audiences. Their final appearance in the Classic Series restored their menace among hardcore fans, but it would be the Revival Series story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]] that reignited their popularity with casual viewers as well. Nowadays perception of the Daleks remains fairly positive, if not returning to Dalekmania levels.
166** Upon their introduction in 1966, the Cybermen were considered genuinely terrifying, leading them to become the Second Doctor's equivalent of the Daleks when the pepperpots were KilledOffForReal. However, the Cybermen would sit out most of the '70s after the Daleks' "final end" was undone, and once they became mainstays again in the '80s, their reputation sharply declined due to severe VillainDecay that undercut the CyberneticsEatYourSoul elements that made them appealing in the first place. The Revival Series would briefly turn this around when they introduced an alternate universe version of the Cybermen that emphasized how each one WasOnceAMan, but VillainDecay would quickly affect them too: nowadays, what people think of the Cybermen is entirely dependent on how a given story uses them.
167** 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 was [[ReimaginingTheArtifact mercifully reworked to exclude his cringeworthy baggage]].
168* CharacterRerailment:
169** The Sixth Doctor was accused by many fans and critics of being a complete jerk in his first season, being mean to his companion Peri and forgetting the moral values of previous Doctors. In his second season, the writers clearly made the Sixth Doctor more likable, especially in his friendship with Peri. Unfortunately, it was not enough to save Colin Baker, who was fired from the series at the end of the season.
170** In an especially long-term version, Creator/ChrisChibnall's run saw 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 led to several accusations from long-time fans of [[PoliticalOvercorrectness increasing political correctness]], [[CriticalDissonance though professional reviewers seemed to enjoy it]].
171* CommonKnowledge:
172** ''[[FandomEnragingMisconception DALEKS CANNOT BE STOPPED BY A FLIGHT OF STAIRS GODDAMNIT.]]'' The Daleks were able to fly over stairs since the 1988 story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance of the Daleks]]" , so it's been quite a while and yet the myth persists. Some fans will even point out that they were inferred (though not shown on-screen) to be able to fly up stairs as early as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase The Chase]], which was only their third-ever story.
173** Many people and fans often describe the Doctor as a character that preaches ThouShaltNotKill and abhors guns. While this portrayal is true to some extent, this varies DependingOnTheWriter and the Doctor in question as shown [[https://youtu.be/lzmnPs64K74 here]]. Even the Tenth Doctor, who called himself "a man who never would", [[GoodIsNotSoft killed his enemies]] when all else failed as the Racnoss and a few others can attest to...if they were alive.
174* CrazyIsCool:
175** Vincent van Gogh. He's the only person who can see the MonsterOfTheWeek. So he ''stabs it with his easel.'' [[AlasPoorVillain It works.]]
176** Some of River's stunts are this. Highlights include jumping out of an airlock, confident that the Doctor would show up to save her and defacing the oldest mountain in the universe to leave a message for him. [[spoiler:Oh, and fighting Nazis with regeneration]].
177%% Per TRS discussion https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1341554362019735300&page=4#80, Rose and River do not fit the four qualifications for Creator's Pet.
178%%%
179* CreatorWorship:
180** There's no single person who can be called the creator of ''Doctor Who'', but one of the most important creators was the original producer, Creator/VerityLambert. She is held in such high esteem by the fans that, when ''Doctor Who Magazine'' held an open "single contribution" category in its 50th anniversary poll, she was the clear winner some 48 years after she stepped down from the role.
181** Creator/TerranceDicks was known as the face of the show for years, in no small part due to his work in novelising the stories. Creator/BarryLetts as well.
182** Creator/RobertHolmes and Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe are widely considered as the show's very best creative team, overseeing what many consider the show's Golden Age.
183** Creator/AndrewCartmel for helping the show regain its mojo in its last years.
184** Although not strictly the creator, Creator/RussellTDavies gets a fair amount of worship for bringing the show back.
185** However, Creator/StevenMoffat, titled the ''[[Franchise/StarWars Grand Moff]]'', is more revered due to making some of the best Who episodes. His tenure as the executive producer and head writer received much praise from his followers.
186* CreepyAwesome: In general, if a villain or monster is popular, at least part of it comes from the fans being terrified of it.
187* CriticalBacklash:
188** There comes a point at which the sheer amount of hatred that gets directed at the Sixth Doctor makes it difficult not to root for him as a GoodIsNotNice AntiHero. The fact that Creator/ColinBaker is loved by the fandom and that everyone knows about the problems that occurred behind the scenes of his era also helps. It also helps that some of the Sixth Doctor serials have now become classics like "Vengeance on Varos", "Revelation of the Daleks" and "The Trial of a Time Lord" and the Sixth Doctor does get better as time goes on and that he got stories from Big Finish that fills the gap between Season 23 and 24 that which leads to his regeneration story that explains what happened to him and why he regenerated as well.
189** Thanks to DVD releases, a lot of fans have given the critically maligned Seventh Doctor era a positive reassessment, with Season 26 in particular now acclaimed as one of the strongest of the entire series, even though that was the year the ratings bottomed out and the original series was terminated, while some fans were mounting a campaign to have the showrunner ousted.
190** Modern Era showrunners Creator/RussellTDavies, Creator/StevenMoffat, and Creator/ChrisChibnall endure a lot of hatred from some aspects of fandom.
191* CriticalDissonance:
192** 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 [[Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations 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.
193** A particular 1980s review tome - "Doctor Who: A Celebration" - contained reviews of all of the stories, in some case based on guesswork themselves (looking at the general quality of actors playing guest stars) which were taken as gospel by people who had never actually seen the stories, leading to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters "The Gunfighters"]]'s reputation as an absolute disaster and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker "The Celestial Toymaker"]]'s reputation as a classic - there is an anecdote about a woman who stood up at a ''Who''-con to announce that the two aliens she definitely didn't want to see return were [[SpecialEffectsFailure the Zarbi]] and the Gunfighters. Now that all the surviving footage is widely available thanks to the internet and [=DVDs=], fans nowadays (such as ExpandedUniverse and new series writer Creator/PaulCornell) tend to find that "The Gunfighters" is a self-referential and funny comedy episode and "The Celestial Toymaker" is slow-paced, badly-plotted, [[YellowPeril racist]] garbage - but "The Celestial Toymaker" had the benefit of a quality actor playing the villain and a quirky premise, while "The Gunfighters" had no-names and a very straightforward "the Doctor in the Wild West" premise.
194** The book also panned comedy episodes simply because they were comedy and the author felt they had no place in a "serious" science fiction show, causing comedy episodes to fall out of fashion amongst the fanbase for a while. Some fans-turned-writers even condemned [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath "City of Death"]], nowadays rightly considered a defining classic of its era and which had the highest-rated episode ''ever'' until the revival (more than sixteen million viewers, which even the revival has only occasionally surpassed), purely for the crime of being funny.[[note]]''Doctor Who'' had done its first comedy serial all the way back in Season 2, with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans The Romans]]", by the way.[[/note]] Notably, deliberate comedy would make a comeback as part of the general resurrection of the series in Creator/SylvesterMcCoy's era, and the new series embraces humour as a vital part of the formula.
195** Similarly, fans-turned-writers of the late 80s regularly condemned the historical serials of the Sixties as "aberrations" in what was supposedly a show about the Doctor fighting monsters. Originally the series had alternated between historicals and future/alien-set stories every serial, so the "aberration" was really only something that could be perceived in hindsight. The record low viewership figures of "The Gunfighters" and "The Smugglers" were (and sometimes still are) held up as evidence of the unpopularity of historicals, but they were in fact more indicative of the series' shrinking popularity generally.[[note]]Viewership had been falling steadily since "The Daleks' Master Plan", due to increased competition from ITV and the series' behind-the-scenes production troubles being reflected in the scripts. It would bounce back strongly when Creator/PatrickTroughton took over the role, but they also felt that Troughton's Doctor didn't work the same way in historicals, and having Jamie, Victoria and Zoe from the past and future respectively meant they didn't work as well as audience surrogates.[[/note]] It also didn't help that many of the best historicals were [[MissingEpisode/DoctorWho missing]]. Still, unlike comedy episodes, the historical never really returned, being replaced with the "pseudo-historical", featuring SF plots in Earth history. They're still a presence in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, however, with Creator/BigFinish regularly dropping the Doctors into mundane (but equally dramatic) historical events.
196*** A term used to refer to inaccurate memories (both positive and negative) of lost or not-seen-in-decades episodes, "the memory cheats", is often invoked within ''Doctor Who'' fandom. It was first said by Creator/JohnNathanTurner, though ironically he seems to have meant it as a defence against accusations that "''Doctor Who'' used to be better" in a time when the series actually was in the doldrums and the accusation was true.
197** Professional reviewers loved [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters "Love & Monsters"]], but the fanbase does not.
198** While [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon "Kill the Moon"]] seems to be a BrokenBase for fans, critics for the most part loved it. In fact, the bulk of critics seem far less divided and substantially more positive about the Twelfth Doctor era (particularly Series 9) as a whole than the fanbase.
199* CrossoverShip:
200** Amy Pond has a couple of {{Crossover Ship}}s with some popularity:
201*** With Sherlock Holmes of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''.
202*** With Dean Winchester of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.
203** The Doctor himself with [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Pluto]].
204** Clara also gets tons of it. One particularly popular little oddity seems to be to ship her or any of her echoes with practically ''every single character'' Creator/PeterCapaldi has ever played. For that matter, due to Capaldi and Creator/JennaColeman's intense chemistry and close friendship off-screen -- if one wasn't aware that he'd been happily married for a quarter century and she was likewise in a long-term relationship, and ignoring the age disparity, one could easily mistake them for a real-life couple -- a branch of shipping emerged dedicated to shipping the ''actors themselves''.
205* CultClassic: The Seventh Doctor's tenure (more specifically, his latter two seasons under Creator/AndrewCartmel as head writer), which had the lowest ratings from the series' history but a ''very'' loyal fanbase.
206* DamselScrappy:
207** Tegan--though, as a woman of normal intelligence stuck on the TARDIS with three alien super-geniuses (The Doctor, Nyssa, and Adric/Turlough), she was Damsel Scrappy By Default. You want a real Damsel Scrappy in ''Series/DoctorWho'', try Susan, Victoria Waterfield or Peri Brown.
208** In a rare male example, Adric. In addition to being a widely disliked character, he was repeatedly captured and/or mind-controlled by various evil manipulators; most notably the Master in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Castrovalva]]", the Vampire Orcon in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay State of Decay]]", and the Cybermen in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock Earthshock]]".
209** Mel was the only companion during her tenure, and thus had the duty of getting captured. This would be fine if she were useful or likeable. And then she was followed by Ace. Who killed Daleks with homemade explosives (stored in deodorant cans) and a super-charged baseball bat. It also doesn't help that Creator/ColinBaker's firing made it impossible for the show to portray her backstory and how she met the Doctor, which could have done a lot to make her more sympathetic.
210* DieForOurShip: The Creator/RussellTDavies era upped the (previously unspoken) romantic side of travelling through space and time with a [[TheHero heroic]], [[MrFanservice dashing]] genius, with each companion dealing with it in their own way. Of course, everyone has their favourites. Every Doctor-companion pairing has been the subject of this, with competing factions (most notably Doctor/Clara and Doctor/River) not seeing eye to eye.
211* DracoInLeatherPants: The Master has benefited from a lot of this, particularly thanks to Creator/JohnSimm's depiction and the increased FoeRomanceSubtext it's given him with the Doctor. It can be a bit too easy for fans so inclined to handwave his lengthy list of evil deeds and the body count they have resulted in just because he acts a bit quirky and flirty to the Doctor or because of the FreudianExcuse the drums in his head (introduced in the 2007 episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Utopia]]" as a symbol of his insanity) give him.
212* DryDockedShip: Doctor / Master - while the latter is an unrepentant mass-murderer, the sheer amount of FoeRomanceSubtext between the two (especially in the revival) makes it very easy to read them as bitter exes. ''Especially'' after the Master becomes Missy.
213* DryDocking: The fandom has "Stay away from the Doctor!"
214* EndingFatigue:
215** The farewell scenes in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]", which partially led to the episode overrunning by 20 minutes.
216** The 15-minute farewell scenes in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]". Though to be fair, in "The Death of the Doctor" The Eleventh Doctor told Jo Grant that during that scene he also visited all of his classic companions offscreen. As awesome as that would be, we should probably be lucky it was only fifteen minutes.
217* EngagingChevrons: The rocket launch in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E6TheSeedsOfDoom The Seeds of Doom]]", with a full one-minute countdown.
218* EpilepticTrees:
219** Series 5 has generated reams of fan theories, ranging from very clever, probably right ones, to the fact that the barely legible text of the library card in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E6TheVampiresOfVenice "The Vampires of Venice"]] has a slightly wrong post code on it.
220** Series Six has followed in suit, and the Spoilers WildMassGuessing page had to be broken down into folders sorting the different type of speculation- e.g. [[spoiler:The Silence, Rory's Death, who is River, etc.]]
221** And of course, Series 7 has the mystery of [[spoiler:who Clara is and why she keeps coming back from the dead in various time periods]]. Creator/StevenMoffat really likes instigating these.
222** Series 8 before it came out already had a page.
223** Likewise with Series 9.
224* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory:
225** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol The Happiness Patrol]]" is the most (over)analysed story in the history of ''Doctor Who''. Is it a biting criticism of Thatcher? Is it about homophobia? Is it a satire of runaway commercialism smothering society? Is it just plain crap? Or all of the above? Just about the only thing anyone can agree with is that it features a candy robot that kills people.
226** Everything about Swarm. [[spoiler: Swarm's relationship with the Doctor, his criticism about her idealism, and his concept as an alien appear to be a critique of the toxic fanbase of Doctor Who, specifically the entitled side of the fanbase that criticised the series for their creative direction. Swarm is an ancient alien who knew the Doctor before her 13th incarnation, he criticised the Doctor for being too idealistic for wanting peace, he wants to see the destruction of the universe because of what the Doctor did to him, and he has a hatred towards The Division, Tecteun, and the Timeless Child. These traits parallel some real-life criticism for the series; having the Doctor played by a woman for the first time parallels the fact that Swarm knew the Doctor before her 13th incarnation, Swarm's hatred for her pacifism and idealism is in reference to virtue signalling since people have widely criticised the series for its messages on justice and revenge, and finally, Swarm's hatred towards The Division, The Timeless Child, and Tecteun greatly parallels the controversy of ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren The Timeless Children]]'' and the criticism that it brought.]]
227* EscapistCharacter:
228** 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, find 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.
229** The Doctor's companions are an AudienceSurrogate who also get to be more grown-up, cooler and more fun than the children. Many, many children in the UK have grown up wishing the Doctor would whisk them away for adventures in his TARDIS.
230*** Susan Foreman was added to the show for this reason. The two teachers were needed for the show's original {{edutainment}} premise, and then an innocent teenager and close relative of the Doctor was added so children could imagine themselves aboard the TARDIS.
231*** Leela was created because Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe was concerned that the show lacked a companion that little girls would want to be, rather than one who [[DamselScrappy always got rescued]] or who [[MuggleBestFriend didn't have any cool features]]. She's an extremely strong and highly intelligent ActionGirl from a warrior tribe selectively bred to embody the Doctor's courage and passion, with highly aware senses and a great outfit. She gets to come with the Doctor and learn about the world (and stab robots).
232*** Creator/RussellTDavies stated that Rose Tyler was intended to be this. She is an AudienceSurrogate already, but also a young woman from a London council estate (housing project for American tropers) who gets picked out of her boring life to find adventure and love (!) with an alien much cooler than her current boyfriend.
233*** The cosplaying Petronella Osgood is ''explicitly'' a big fan of the Doctor's. She's almost the canonical Whovian and ''she gets to run with the Doctor''. SQUEE!
234** Daleks. It's been noted for half a century that children strongly identify with Daleks - it's often suggested that it is because they act like bratty toddlers (even having AmbiguousInnocence) but get to exterminate adults, allowing children to explore anger and hate in a safe way. The 60s comics even used Daleks as heroes because this was what children wanted.
235** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]", when the Doctor shows Lawrence Scarman into the TARDIS, watch how Creator/MichaelSheard (who plays Scarman) chooses to play it - his otherwise adult character suddenly starts acting like an excited child. Sheard said that he hadn't known how to perform the scene, but then decided that his job was to 'live the dream of the children in the audience'.
236* EvilIsCool: The series has many popular villains, many of which are considered cool enough to have received JokerImmunity so that they are never gone for good. These are considered the coolest:
237** The Daleks are popular for their unique design, menacing delivery of their [[MemeticMutation “EXTERMINATE”]][[CharacterCatchphrase 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.
238** The Master’s level and type of coolness depends on the incarnation, but nevertheless he/she is considered an extremely cool villain in almost every incarnation. The Delgado Master oozes charm and sophistication, the decaying Master is a NoNonsenseNemesis who uses crafty methods to extend his lifespan, the Tremas Master is an entertaining LargeHam CardCarryingVillain with some of his sophistication regained, the Yana Master managed to be threatening in his short amount of screen time by changing from extremely good to extremely evil on a dime, the Saxon Master is a wildly entertaining {{Troll}} who steals every scene that he’s in, the Missy Master is an entertainingly evil LargeHam who ends up revealing the HiddenDepths of the character in an engaging way, and the “O” Master is an unpredictable psychopath with a surprising amount of charm and style to his insanity.
239** Davros for his unique look, LargeHam voice, and intelligent schemes due to being a MadScientist.
240[[/folder]]
241
242[[folder:TV Series Tropes - F to J]]
243
244* FandomEnragingMisconception:
245** 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 they use. It probably doesn't help that he was credited that way for more than a decade in the classic series.
246** TARDIS these days is all caps. While Tardis was officially used in the series's early years, from the 70s onwards it's been TARDIS, and unless you're deliberately being archaic, using Tardis is going to come off as being out of touch. (''Radio Times'' can get away with it since they're using their house style.)
247** Yes, Daleks CAN climb stairs. And we've known it since the 1960s, and saw it happen in 1988.
248** A certain brand of Thirteen haters took to spinning Series 11's ratings to "prove" that making the Doctor into a woman had killed the show, ignoring that even with the gradual decline across the series, it objectively got the highest numbers the show had seen in years. It also tends to involve the naturally lower overnight ratings, rather than the later ones that incorporate people who watched the episode by other means than the live broadcast within a week that ends up as the official ranking.
249** 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. (And Series 15 was in pre-preparation before the 2023 specials and Series 14 had aired.)
250** And speaking of Thirteen haters, do '''not''' refer to her or her seasons as "Nurse Who."
251** This particular brand of haters have set a new template for people who want to proclaim the show becoming more inclusive will kill it (such as the introductions of trans girl Rose Noble and Fifteen, the first main black Doctor), regurgitating much the same fallacious arguments about the ratings - the Who version of "get woke, go broke".
252* FandomRivalry:
253** The longest-running rivalry is with ''Franchise/StarTrek'' simply because they are the two most famous and long-running TV-based SF franchises worldwide. One of the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures, ''The Blue Angel'' by Paul Magrs, specifically included a direct ''Trek'' parody. The two franchises finally crossed over officially in the IDW comic series ''ComicBook/StarTrekTheNextGenerationDoctorWhoAssimilation2'', which is based around a VillainTeamUp between the Cybermen and the Borg, who many ''Who'' fans accuse of being the ''Trek'' franchise's {{Expy}} of the Cybermen.
254** There have been several different rivalries in different eras with SF/fantasy Creator/{{ITV}} shows that were scheduled directly against the series: ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople1973'' in the 1970s, ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury'' in the early 1980s[[note]]It originally aired in the US on Creator/{{NBC}}, but it was aired in the UK on ITV directly opposite Season 18 of ''Doctor Who''[[/note]], ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' in the mid-1980s, and ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' in the 2000s.
255* FanficFuel:
256** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang The Big Bang]]":
257*** Rory spent 1894 years staying out of trouble [[note]]unsuccessfully[[/note]] and going from Britain to Rome to Germany/France to Italy in 1240 and then back to Britain by 1941. And whatever he went through, he learned that you shoot Daleks in the eyestalk.
258*** At the end there is the whole Egyptian Goddess and Orient Express InSpace. It was suggested to have been a ruse in Series 8, enacted by the owner of the Orient Express, but the details are not mentioned.
259** The talk of "Star Cults" who believe in the onetime existence of stars (and who are right, as the[[spoiler: disappearance of said stars signals that the universe is wrong)]] and their head prophet [[MirrorUniverse Richard Dawkins]]. Who's willing to bet that said cults are made up of many of the Doctor's previous companions? Just think of the possibilities...
260** From "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]": what all of the Clara-fragments were doing and how they saved the Doctor.
261** The Doctor spending hundreds of years on Trenzalore fighting off various Monsters.
262** The Time War itself.
263** The Eighth Doctor's regeneration, before "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]".
264** 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.
265** Series 9 gives us the immortal Ashildr/Me. It's revealed that she was present at the battle of Agincourt, helped end the Hundred Years' War, was (unsuccessfully) drowned as a witch after saving from scarlet fever, and other historical achievements. Later, she decides [[spoiler:she will look after the Doctor's companions after he leaves them]].
266** And Series 9 ''ends'' with the launching of a potentially infinite number of adventures featuring the functionally immortal [[spoiler: Clara Oswald]] and Ashildr.
267** "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]" raises the question of [[spoiler: how the Twelfth Doctor and River Song spent those 24 years together]].
268* {{Fanon}}: Pretty much every question that's gone unanswered has fan theories, some more widely accepted than others.
269** Truly, one of the only nigh universal pieces of fanon in the fandom is the idea that the Could Have Been King mentioned in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End Of Time]] was Omega.
270* FanPreferredCutContent: The entire 23rd season of the show was rewritten from the ground up following ExecutiveMeddling that led to an 18-month hiatus. The new version, ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', was ambitious in its overarching story arc where the Doctor is put on trial as an allegory for the show's situation, but the results are widely seen by fans and critics as hamfisted, gimmicky, and [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks rehashed from several better-regarded earlier stories]]. When word about the original plans for Season 23 got out, fans quickly gravitated towards it for consisting of more original ideas and following up on the {{cliffhanger}} ending of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks "Revelation of the Daleks"]]. This eventually reached the point where ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' adapted most of the scrapped season as the inaugural collection in its ''Lost Stories'' range.
271* FashionVictimVillain: Creator/EricRoberts' Master always dresses for the occasion.
272* FauxSymbolism: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E3Kinda Kinda]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E2Snakedance Snakedance]]" writer Christopher Bailey derived the Mara from a demon of the same name in Buddhist philosophy which, as in ''Doctor Who'', symbolises temptation rather than evil (at least, in the sense of "sinfulness"). In Kinda, Dukkha, Panna, Karuna, Anatta and Anicca's names and functions all derive from Buddhism as well.
273* FountainOfMemes:
274** Long before the internet, the TARDIS was the name for things that are BiggerOnTheInside, and "Doctor Who" was the archetype of a time traveller, at least in Britain. The Daleks and their "sink plunger" attachment hve a similar penetration into popular imagination.
275** The Eleventh Doctor has a meme now. Memes are cool.
276** As of Series 5, the Weeping Angels became this.
277** The relationship between Creator/DavidTennant and Creator/GeorgiaMoffett has provided [[http://cheezburger.com/4396447232 a Whovian take on the "Yo Dawg" meme]].
278* FriendlyFandoms:
279** Due to both being a time travel-heavy sci-fi with a sense of scale that is roughly an equal to one another, both the fanbase of the [[Literature/XeeleeSequence Xeelee Sequence]] and Doctor Who often overlap.
280** The ''Series/BlakesSeven'' fandom tends to have a lot of overlap with classic series fandom, due to the similarities in style and close links between the production teams; the former is generally considered the adult sister show to the latter.
281** Similarly, a lot of fans of Creator/StevenMoffat and Creator/MarkGatiss' ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' tend also to be fans of Moffat and Creator/RussellTDavies' eras as head writer as well (Gatiss and Moffat having contributed episodes to both eras).
282*** [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Super]][[Series/DoctorWho Who]][[Series/{{Sherlock}} lock]]ians: ''Sherlock'' and ''Doctor Who'' with ''Supernatural'' thrown in as well. Very common amongst the fandom side of Website/{{Tumblr}}.
283** Fans of Creator/DouglasAdams and Creator/NeilGaiman also tend to overlap with the show. As both authors also wrote for ''Doctor Who'' (and in the case of the former served as a script editor), this is also understandable.
284** The AffectionateParody spoof ''JustForFun/InspectorSpacetime'' on ''Series/{{Community}}'' was very well received by ''Doctor Who'' fans. Both Creator/MattSmith and Creator/KarenGillan have expressed appreciation of the other show and an interest in appearing on it.
285*** ''Community'' creator Creator/DanHarmon's other well-known series ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has also become this with Whovians due to being influenced by ''DW''.
286** Due to several actors appearing in both franchises, most notably Creator/JohnBarrowman and Creator/AlexKingston in the [[Series/{{Arrow}} main series]] and Creator/ArthurDarvill in [[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow one of its spinoffs]], ''Doctor Who'' and Series/ArrowVerse fans manage to get along pretty well.
287** According to this wiki, fans of Creator/PeterCapaldi[='=]s Twelfth Doctor form a crossover fandom with ''Series/TheThickOfIt'', especially SlashFic fans appreciating Malcolm Tucker's willingness for GayBravado.
288** At least in social media, there's a significant overlap between the Revival fandom and ''Series/GoodOmens2019'', due to Creator/DavidTennant. It helps that several ''Who'' actors are also in the show, and Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/MichaelSheen have worked on the Revival before.
289*** On the other hand, there's a fair number of fans of ''Good Omens'' starting ''Doctor Who'' due to David Tennant. [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Especially in Japan]] where interest in the Revival spiked thanks to it.
290* GeniusBonus:
291** Professor Bracewell is a sort of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracewell_probe Bracewell Probe]].
292** The logo for the Thirteenth Doctor's era features a sideways female symbol on the end.
293** The word "TARDIS" is a play on the Latin word "tardus", meaning "slow".
294** A more obscure example, overlapping with HistoricalInJoke, is the "Bad Wolf" arc: the first time Rose is referred to as the "bad wolf" is in 1869, a time during which she is mistaken for a prostitute because of her makeup. At the time, "she-wolf" was slang for "prostitute".
295* GottaShipEmAll: The Doctor is shipped with almost every single one of their companions (most of whom were strictly platonic friends) over the course of the show's decades-long 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.
296* GrowingTheBeard: Considering the series has decades of history, it's a bit inevitable that there have been times when the show's quality dips and rises again.
297** In the case of the First Doctor, the second season is often considered superior to the first. With the exception of the hated ''The Web Planet'' and ''The Space Museum'', all the other serials of the season are considered to be great or reasonably good, managing to dose the pacing and humour of sci-fi and historical stories better than to Season 1.
298** The Second Doctor's arrival made the Doctor younger, paving the way for more action-orientated episodes, and properly established him as an eccentric but sympathetic character. However, his first season is considered irregular (the fact that most episodes are missing does not help). Meanwhile, his second season is frequently touted as one of the greatest of the entire series, with classics such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen The Tomb of the Cybermen]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld The Enemy of the World]]", as well as the debut of the Brigadier in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]".
299** In the case of the Third Doctor, although his first season is considered one of the best in the series, for introducing more adult plots and a spirit of espionage, many fans think it was in his second season that the writers finally found the right tone for his era, with a better pacing (most of the previous season's serials were up to 7 episodes each) and the introduction of Jo Grant, Captain Yates and, of course, the iconic villain of the Master.
300** The era of the Fourth Doctor is widely agreed to have improved in its second year. Season 12 has two masterpieces ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]"), but the three other stories of the season are less well-regarded. It's widely agreed that Seasons 13 and 14, which moved away from recurring enemies and into a pastiche of Hammer Horror with tightly-written scripts by Creator/RobertHolmes and high production values courtesy of Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe, are the absolute high point of the Golden Age.
301** The Seventh Doctor in Season 25, particularly "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance of the Daleks]]", is seen as marking the point when the 1980s ''Doctor Who'' began to show more confidence and maturity. Unfortunately, the show's ratings did not improve and this led to its cancellation after the following season.
302** Many fans think that "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]]" was this for the revived series and the Ninth Doctor, lifting the Daleks out of a long period of VillainDecay and revealing dramatic details about the Time War; not only that the Daleks had been the Time Lords' foes, but that the Doctor himself had been the one to end it. It also painted the Doctor as a much more complex character with his reactions regarding the Dalek.
303** For the Tenth Doctor, Creator/DavidTennant's performance in his first series (Series 2) was actually very well-received, but fans were less impressed by several story lines, including the romance between the Doctor and Rose and the Torchwood story arc (although [[BrokenBase all three have their defenders]]). Depending on who you ask, either the concluding episodes of Series 2 or Series 3 in general saw a significant overall improvement. Series 4 is seen as where this era really hit it out of the park, with one of the strongest Doctor-Companion dynamics with the Doctor and Donna, no episodes that were regarded as outright bad (or even anything less than "pretty decent"), and an incredibly strong run of episodes in the second half of the season. It's near-universally considered to be one of the best seasons of the revival (Series 1, 5 and 9 are similarly well-beloved), and a strong contender for the best season in the show's entire history, including both the classic and revival eras.
304** The Twelfth Doctor's era improved when his hair grew. For his debut in Series 8, some thought the fantastic lead performance by Creator/PeterCapaldi was hamstrung by his character's personality initially coming off as too grumpy and insensitive (though this [[CharacterDevelopment starts softening]] as early as episode 3, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E3RobotOfSherwood Robot of Sherwood]]"), and companion Clara's romantic subplot, and there were a few absurd-even-by-''Who''-standards plots in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Kill the Moon]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight In the Forest of the Night]]". Depending on who you ask, either Series 9 or 10 is where this Doctor’s era drastically improves. The former because of it’s return of multi-part stories allowing for character-based & slower-moving stories still filled with comedy and action, containing some of Capaldi’s best moments as the Doctor, as well as some of his most popular episodes such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]". The latter because of the new companions of Bill & Nardole, the fresh start approach, acting as a potential jumping on point for new viewers & its fantastic finale "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughandTime World Enough & Time]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls The Doctor Falls]]”.
305** 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 seemingly catastrophic ratings drop in Series 12 (though the series had survived similar drops and worse in the Classic era), 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.
306* HardToAdaptWork: While the series has seen a number of mostly well-regarded adaptations in other mediums, two of them are considered far trickier:
307** Many fans regard the show as next-to-impossible to adapt into a movie. Much of this stems from the 1963-1989 series' nature as a serialized show, already featuring drawn-out plots that match or even surpass the length of most feature films, making the idea of a movie redundant. Additionally, the series' dense lore and tangled continuity would make it difficult to make a movie that appeals to neophytes, as so much stuff would need to be introduced at once. Only three ''Doctor Who'' movies were ever made -- the [[Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks first]] [[Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD two]] were adaptations of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks already-aired]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth serials]] set in an independent continuity, while the [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie third]] was poorly-received by fans thanks to being indecisive about whether it wanted to appeal to longtime fans or newcomers.
308** The other medium ''Doctor Who'' has a strong amount of difficulty fitting into is video games. While the series' "fighting monsters through time and space" premise would theoretically make for a good game, it's set back by the fact that the Doctor is not a conventional action hero, preferring to confront enemies with guile more often than not, with the Doctor's companions typically acting as TheWatson to them. Consequently, while multiple attempts have been made to create viable ''Doctor Who'' video games, none of them were particularly well regarded.
309* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
310** 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.
311** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars The Waters of Mars]]", set in 2059, has a scene in which one of the first Astronauts on Mars, a Russian, video-chats with his brother about said brother's husband's spending habits, with the implication that same-sex marriage is no big deal in Russia. Given the repression of Gay Rights in Russia we've seen in 2013, it makes the episode's overall theme of humanity rising beyond its early 21st-century crisis and making it to faraway Mars all the more powerful.
312** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival Survival]]", last story of the 1989 series, the Doctor closes with [[AndTheAdventureContinues a beautiful speech culminating with, "Come on, Ace. We've got work to do."]] At the time, it was unknown if the show would ever come back, due to ExecutiveMeddling. Fast-forward sixteen years, and the Doctor is back on our screens, with the show as good as (many would say, better than) ever, and since then it's only gone from success to success.
313** A later [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E10VincentAndTheDoctor story]] has the Doctor meet Van Gogh and inspire him, though sadly it's not enough to prevent the artist from committing suicide. Later, new research showed that he may not have committed suicide at all, that it may have been accidental. If this is so, then the Doctor and Amy were far more successful than they realized.
314** Back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]," the Doctor tells Sarah Jane and Harry that even though he failed to destroy the Daleks, he knows that out of their evil must come something good. This can be easy to dismiss, given all of the evil the Daleks are responsible for, but given stories such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon A Time]]," where Daleks actually help the Doctor, it turns out that ''he was actually right.''
315* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct:
316** Creator/BilliePiper was known as a novelty late-90's teen pop artist who was essentially untested as an actor, given the difficult task of being the very first companion of the revival series. Rose continues to be a highly-regarded companion, which makes it easy to forget how wild of a swing her casting was.
317** Catherine Tate was largely known only for her rather low-brow [[Series/TheCatherineTateShow comedy series]] when she was cast as Donna. Her performance in Who was a revelation and she's often considered one of the best companions of all time.
318** At the time Series 11 aired, Bradley Walsh was perhaps best known for hosting ''Series/{{The Chase|GameShow}}''. His moving performance as Graham (a man grieving after the loss of his wife, while already disappointed that he can't connect with his grandson) was hailed as one of the best things about that series, and reminded people that he is an actor first and foremost.
319* HesJustHiding:
320** Fans are known for mourning their favourite Doctors after [[TheNthDoctor their regeneration]], even though the character isn't technically dead, and cooking up elaborate theories for how Doctors can regenerate back into whatever the fan's preferred version of themselves is. These theories were eventually [[AscendedFanon confirmed]] in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]], in which Tom Baker, who played the very much loved Fourth Doctor, reappears as a far future regeneration of the Doctor, playing EccentricMentor to his young self and assuring him that maybe he'll find himself 'revisiting old favourite faces'.
321** Possibly confirmed in "Timewyrm: Revelation" where it is claimed that when a Doctor regenerates he lives on in the Doctor's mind.
322** The Time Lords were all killed, with the Doctor as the LastOfHisKind. Then [[EvilCounterpart the Master]] was revealed to have concealed himself by temporarily becoming human, leading fans to endlessly speculate about who else did this (the Rani being the most popular choice). "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" and then even less ambiguously "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" revealed that Gallifrey was actually locked away from the rest of the universe rather than being destroyed, and could potentially be rediscovered. [[spoiler: It is at the end of Series 9!]]
323** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]":
324*** Theories regarding Donna's Time Lord memories/self/whatever and how she can regain them are similarly endless. [[spoiler: She finally gets them back in Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheStarBeast]].
325*** In the commentary producer Julie Gardner expressed her belief that Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister wasn't dead and had escaped through a trap door.
326** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven Death in Heaven]]":
327*** Fans were quick to notice that if Danny had the opportunity to return to the living world two weeks after his Cyberman body was killed, similar means could be used to resurrect any other character killed in the episode. [[JokerImmunity Especially Missy]].
328*** Fans were also adamant that Missy killed a [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor Zygon]] and not the real Osgood. Ingrid Oliver, Osgood's actress, [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02b9fpy would certainly like to think]] her character's just hiding. Series 9 ''doesn't quite'' reveal what happened. [[spoiler: Either the Zygon duplicate or the original Osgood is still alive, and she's not telling anyone which she is; she considers herself both human and Zygon, and that's all she cares to reveal. Later another Zygon also takes the form of Osgood, and again neither of them will reveal which of them is which!]]
329*** Since Seb isn't actually alive, but an A.I., it's unlikely he would have been "killed" by Missy. This, in turn, provided a small HopeSpot regarding Osgood's survival, though it wasn't what Moffat and co. went with...
330** Post-"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]", partially because there were two episodes still to come, there was much speculation in ''Radio Times'' and elsewhere that [[spoiler: the original Clara Oswald]] was not actually KilledOffForReal. As it turned out, [[spoiler: she was, but the Doctor removes her from the timeline at the last possible moment in "Hell Bent". She's agelessly "alive" as a result, and as the story ends heads out with Ashildr to travel the universe in a TARDIS of their own -- but since her death remains a fixed moment in time, she must eventually return to that moment to preserve time and space]].
331* HomeGrownHero: The Doctor sure seems to have a thing for the British isles; from speaking with a British accent, having British assistants on their galaxy-saving travels, to settling in them for the ''very brief times'' they do something remotely resembling settling down. Then again, the [[AliensInCardiff aliens love Cardiff]] too.
332* HypeBacklash: There are several {{Missing Episode}}s from the 1960s which have developed a reputation for being almost legendarily good classics, despite this being hard to confirm or refute without seeing them. Consequently, there have been several occasions in which these episodes ''have'' been found, to the delight of all... only for a slightly awkward moment to set in as everyone realises on looking back that these episodes, while perhaps not exactly bad, weren't actually as good as they were made out to be. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen The Tomb of the Cybermen]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]" are two which have suffered this fate (though this is a YMMV itself as many have acclaimed the episodes upon seeing them, with Matt Smith openly crediting "Tomb" with influencing his development of the Doctor). Others, such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld The Enemy of the World]]" have ended up being better than many remembered.
333* IAmNotShazam:
334** The main character's name is "The Doctor", not "Doctor Who" (in spite of what the credits might sometimes say). Though "The Doctor" isn't his real name either.
335** And never, ever call him ''Music/TheWho''. Good natured fans might chuckle at the coincidence that both are British icons that started in the 60s, and may occasionally crack a joke about it. The more rabid ones will most likely unleash a verbal storm at you for mixing up the two, followed by a lecture about the Doctor's name.
336* ImprovedSecondAttempt: The Sixth Doctor was intended as a DarkerAndEdgier take on the character, being a morally gray DefrostingIceQueen as a throwback to the First Doctor. However, he made such a bad first impression with viewers, who derided him for decades as the worst Doctor in the show's history, that Creator/ColinBaker was fired from the role by Creator/TheBBC, cutting off his tenure prematurely. Years later, the Ninth and Twelfth Doctors would revisit the basic outline behind Six to much more acclaimed results, this time placing more emphasis on the Doctor's heroism and giving a number of WhatTheHellHero moments at the hands of both himself and his companions. Furthermore, Nine and Twelve's darker qualities were made the results of trauma as a veteran of a GreatOffscreenWar and lingering post-regenerative insecurity, respectively, rather than making them inherent parts of the incarnations' personalities. Incidentally, the better reception of Nine and Twelve would also contribute to Six's [[CharacterPerceptionEvolution positive reappraisal]] by the fandom, who now view him as simply being [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter a victim of wasted potential]] prior to his CharacterDevelopment in ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho''.
337* IKnewIt:
338** In his recap of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf second-to-last episode]] of the first season of [=NuWho=], Jacob of ''Website/TelevisionWithoutPity'' incorporated a lengthy rant on Gnosticism and the [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory parallels thereto]] in the revived series. He concluded from this analysis that, among other things, the season finale would have to involve the Doctor as the Devil battling a "fake bastard God" and being saved by a female character ("I hope it's the TARDIS, but it's probably Rose") as the incarnation of the goddess of wisdom. In his recap of the actual [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays finale]], he doesn't so much gloat as express relief that he doesn't look insane.
339** The return of the Master in the new series. Granted, this got more and more obvious as the show went on, but some fans had this figured out from the trailer. Others had this worked out even before that [[EpilepticTrees based on what DVD box sets of the classic series the BBC was releasing.]] (The box set in question being the "New Beginnings" trilogy, which returned the Master to recurring character status in the original series.) Others rejected this theory because they felt that Creator/TheBBC wouldn't be "that obvious".
340** In possibly the most extreme example, the possible connection between Jack Harkness and [[spoiler:the Face of Boe]] was predicted ahead of time.
341** [[FounderOfTheKingdom Rassilon]] turning out to be evil in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" was this for many fans. "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" and much ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' material had already depicted him as fairly shady.
342** There was a theory that in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone "Flesh and Stone"]], the reason that the Doctor was wearing the jacket that he had just lost wasn't because of continuity errors, but because he was actually the Doctor from the future who had come back in time to talk to Amy. Those who subscribed to this theory were entirely correct.
343** Creator/ArthurDarvill had several guesses as to River Song's true identity before it was revealed on the show, and would sometimes bug Creator/AlexKingston with them on set (she being the only person other than Moffat who knew). Eventually he guessed right, and she just said [[spoiler:"Hello, Dad."]] He wasn't the only one who predicted this, though, as quite a few fans speculated the same thing.
344** And on the subject of River, it was widely suggested that the "good man" that River killed would turn out to be [[spoiler:the Doctor himself]] — it was. He survived.
345** How many jokes were there about [[spoiler:the Statue of Liberty being a Weeping Angel]] before [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan "The Angels Take Manhattan"]]? ''A lot''. How horrified was everyone that the jokes were right? ''Very''.
346** A few fans successfully guessed the revelation regarding Clara in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]": [[spoiler:that the modern London Clara is the original and somehow ends up splintered across time to save the Doctor's life countless times.]]
347** After he first appeared in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]", fans speculated that [[spoiler:the War Doctor was a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor from between his eighth and ninth incarnations]]. The minisode "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]" proved this to be true.
348** Missy's identity, which was revealed at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater Dark Water]]", was correctly guessed ahead of time by savvy fans.
349** Although the actual mechanics remained unspoiled, many fans predicted Clara's death at the end of Series 9 as early as the end of Series 8, though granted some expected her to die (as was actually originally planned) in the 2014 Christmas special.
350** The official synopsis of post-Series 9 ChristmasEpisode [[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong "The Husbands of River Song"]] triggered predictions/fears that it would reveal [[spoiler: the circumstances of the Doctor and River Song's last night together]], and it did. However, the episode ended on a twist no one saw coming: [[spoiler:said night on Darillium lasts '''24 years''' in Earth/human time]]!
351** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime "World Enough and Time"]]:
352*** Some fans figured Creator/StevenMoffat would kill off Bill because he was about to leave the show and would likely sweep the chessboard clean for Creator/ChrisChibnall. That, and they know [[AnyoneCanDie what to expect]] with Moffat by this point, and it made sense he would have one last crack at killing off a beloved character... though from there other fans correctly guessed that there would be more to Bill's fate than the {{Cliffhanger}} teased!
353*** Because of the fake-out regeneration in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand "The Lie of the Land"]], when the Doctor appeared to be dying in the opening sequence, a lot of people expected another tease of a regeneration, only for real this time.
354** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls "The Doctor Falls"]]:
355*** Quite a few fans predicted that Bill would be rescued from her fate by Heather from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E1ThePilot "The Pilot"]] given the latter character's established shapeshifting and time-and-space travelling abilities ''and'' the fact that [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt just killing off a companion for good just isn't in the revival's wheelhouse]]. Eagle-eyed viewers even caught a hint of {{Foreshadowing}} in the previous episode when she appeared in the window Bill was glancing out of!
356*** After David Bradley's return was spoiled by newspapers, many fans correctly guessed he would appear as the First Doctor — after his turn as William Hartnell in ''Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime'' — in the final scene.
357** [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]]: Long before the special aired, most fans figured that the Captain, who was not named in the pre-publicity, was somehow related to {{the Brigadier}}. The reveal of his name near the end confirmed him as a member of the Lethbridge-Stewart family.
358** [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]]: Despite the advertising going to considerable lengths (until Christmas Day, anyway) in avoiding the revelation of who or what "the most dangerous creature in the universe" was, that description was enough for many to figure out [[ArchEnemy just who the Doctor was talking about]].
359** When the first photos of Creator/NeilPatrickHarris's character in the 60th anniversary specials were revealed, the most common guess was he was playing the Celestial Toymaker, a First Doctor foe who [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome hadn't be seen]] since then, based off of him wearing what looked like toymaker attire and being in a workshop. This was confirmed to be the case on September 22.
360* InferredHolocaust:
361** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators The Dominators]]", the Dominators' plan to explode the planet into a radioactive mess as a fuel source is foiled. But the Dominators have been repeatedly sending messages to the main fleet to come that way. When the fleet arrives, will it sit back and take it? Especially against a PerfectPacifistPeople?
362** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior The Time Warrior]]". So, the kitchen staff got out of Irongron's castle before it exploded... right?
363** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E6TheArmageddonFactor The Armageddon Factor]]", it's implied that the Atrians unknowingly managed to wipe out the Zeons very early on in the war, and that the subsequent conflict was engineered by the Shadow simply so that he wouldn't get bored waiting for the Doctor to arrive.
364** Multiple episodes end with it being very unclear whether things won't just go back to normal after the Doctor leaves, or if he has actually improved anything at all. Became AscendedFridgeHorror in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf Bad Wolf]]", which explicitly states the Doctor's actions in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame The Long Game]]" [[NiceJobBreakingItHero made things many times worse]].
365** The climax of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]" has Earth dragged through space at phenomenal speeds, which is shown to cause such a large amount of shaking that characters have to take shelter to protect themselves from the wind and flying debris. What is essentially a world-wide earthquake would have caused widespread damage, killing thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people, and would be worse than normal given all the damage the Daleks did beforehand. Yet the only thing that Doctor comments on is that the disturbance will lead to a lot of rain. And despite all this the Earth-pulling is treated as a happy moment. That's not to mention the gravitational disturbances throughout the Solar System and the Moon getting back into place. The original script has the Doctor say they still have time before the system falls apart but this goes unmentioned.
366** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger The Lodger]]", made and set in 2010, mentions that the population of Earth is several hundred million less than the real life 2010 population. This leaves the conclusion that all the alien invasions the Whoniverse Earth has experienced have resulted in the deaths of ''hundreds of millions of people''. (One possibility is that these people have been erased by the cracks, meaning that they're back at the end of the season. Still an inferred holocaust, albeit a temporary one.)
367** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist Time Heist]]", the solar storm causes a literal holocaust as waves of fire wash over the surface of the planet. The bank patrons are last seen shouting in alarm, and Madame Karabraxos flees with what valuables she can grab, an act that suggests that even her most secure vault will eventually be destroyed by the flare.
368** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Kill the Moon]]", mention is made of horrendous destructive tides. The moon's increase in mass would have many other repercussions for the weather, plate tectonics, etc. But no specifics are given; the only report from the earth is that things are going "badly", but apparently the developed world still has electricity, even the parts along coastlines.
369** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight In The Forest of the Night]]":
370*** What happened to aeroplanes in flight when every runway in the world was suddenly taken over by the forest?
371*** If animals could escape from the zoos thanks to the trees, could prisoners escape from prison thanks to the trees? And speaking of which, what kind of ecological catastrophe could ensue if the zoo is unable to get the animals back? And what about critically endangered animals in captive breeding programmes? Wouldn't their escape cause a severe blow to international conservation efforts?
372*** No way Nelson's Column is the only large structure to collapse from the growth of the trees. How many other such events occurred worldwide?
373*** The reason humankind initially tried to burn down the trees was to make room for essential services. With that stymied, there are no ambulances to deal with medical emergencies or accidents. No quick relief for fires or crimes.
374*** [[ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts And what about the astronauts?]] Everybody on the space station probably got fried, unless it happened to be behind the Earth at the time. Is this why humans gave up on space travel by 2049?
375* InformedWrongness: Prime Minister Harriet Jones [[note]][[RunningGag Yes, we know who she is.]][[/note]] ordering the destruction of a retreating Sycorax warship in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion The Christmas Invasion]]". Yes, killing a retreating enemy isn't exactly honourable, but it is understandable. Jones' argument in her defence--that [[HoldingOutForAHero the people of Earth can't always rely on the Doctor to protect them]]--actually makes some sense, but it's instead used for a straightforward HumansAreTheRealMonsters message. Later, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth The Stolen Earth]]", it is proven that she was right to try and arm Earth in case the Doctor isn't there, and actually set up a program that seeks out help in an emergency. It's especially notable because this is Ten, who is not above doing some fairly nasty things for ''vengeance'' rather than possibly-misguided protection of the Earth.
376* IronWoobie:
377** Nyssa. The Master kills her family and takes over her father's body, proceeding to wear it around while mocking her. Then her entire planet is destroyed. Then she starts travelling with the guy who was unable to prevent any of it, and was later unable to prevent one of their other friends from dying. And she still gets up in the morning and gets on with life and is sensible and quietly helps repeatedly save the universe and doesn't talk much about any of it.
378** In Series 5's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang The Big Bang]]", [[spoiler:Rory Williams spends 1894 years alone guarding his in-suspended-animation fiancée in a giant metal box, keeping it safe from outside influences, following it wherever it is taken, and writing himself into the myths and legends of a dozen civilizations in the process]]. Then in Series Six he has to deal with [[spoiler:all his memories of 2,000 years threatening to overwhelm him, the constant suggestion that Amy prefers the Doctor over him (she doesn't), his wife dissolving into goo, then his ''child'' dissolving into goo, and then the revelation that River is his daughter]]. Poor guy.
379** The Star Whale from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow The Beast Below]]". Say what you will, there's something [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments touching]] about choosing to continue ferrying [[HumansAreBastards the humans who tortured you for roughly two hundred years]].
380** River Song. To say she lived a ''very'' painful life is an understatement. [[spoiler: Being used and abused by her kidnappers for her first couple of decades, losing her parents, and constantly meeting the Doctor when he won't remember her each time she sees him is depressing, especially when you remember the first time we see her in "Silence in the Library", he flat out ''doesn't know her''.]]
381** The Ninth Doctor, both in show and meta. In show considering [[spoiler: he firmly believes he wiped out the Time Lords in a desperate way to save all of time even if it meant becoming [[LastOfHisKind the last Time Lord]].]] Meta considering Eccelston stayed on the show for ''one'' season for a myriad of reasons.
382** Amy Pond. Left behind by the Doctor when they first meet ''as a little girl'', [[spoiler: losing Rory to the Crack and forgetting he ever existed, ''losing her baby'' who then is revealed to be River Song, having her faith in the Doctor shattered MULTIPLE TIMES and a slew of problems that lead to her and Rory being zapped by the Weeping Angels, thus losing contact with the Doctor and dying in the past separated from him]]. ''God''. For all her flaws, you gotta hug her.
383* ItWasHisSled:
384** New fans might be surprised that it took ''six seasons'' to be revealed that the Doctor is a Time Lord. And we only find out the name of his planet (Gallifrey) in ''Season 11''!
385** The reveal of the Cybermen in part 1 of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock Earthshock]]" was well-hidden. Today it is widely known; a Cyberman is even featured on the DVD cover.
386** All episodes in which the Doctor regenerates or a companion leaves the show suffer from this, often thanks to publicity before the episode is even broadcast.
387** Given the iconic status of the Daleks, it's very easy to forget that them having survived the Time War was originally a twist in the first season of the revival.
388** 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 she even had her first full episode.
389* JustHereForGodzilla: The Sixth Doctor's era is widely considered the nadir of the show, with its gratuitous violence, outrageous costume design, unlikeable and ineffective protagonists, and nonsensical plots. However, for all the era's faults, Colin Baker's committed and sincere performance as the Doctor is consistently worth watching.
390
391[[/folder]]
392
393[[folder:TV Series Tropes - K to O]]
394* LauncherOfAThousandShips: The Doctor has been shipped with just about everybody, including ''[[ScrewYourself themself]]''. Some of the characters most popularly shipped with them include Rose, River, Romana, Clara, Fitz, Charley, Martha, Jack, Yaz, the Master / Missy, and the TARDIS.
395* 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 Yasmin Khan and establishing Time Lords as genderfluid, reinforcing the LGBT fanbase in the process.
396* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt:
397** Every time The Master is killed off. Ditto for the Daleks... and Davros... and the Cybermen. By 2008 or so, the writers had stopped even trying to pretend that it was the final end of those characters.
398** Creator/RussellTDavies implied this about Davros in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]". He stated that he didn't want to be the one to have permanently killed off such a legacy character. So as far as WordOfGod is concerned, he survived somehow. [[spoiler: And he did -- Darvros returns for the Series 9 opener.]]
399** Series 6 hinted very strongly that the Doctor is going to die For Realsies This Time [[spoiler:and it in fact begins with a future version of the Eleventh Doctor apparently getting shot to death and cremated (except not really, as revealed in the finale)]]. Since this would bring the entire series to an end, all but a few were pretty convinced he'd get around it somehow -- the question lay in what the 'somehow' in question was. The same episode had Rory in trouble. The trailers for the next episode didn't even hide his survival.
400** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E9NightTerrors Night Terrors]]". Admit it, you were relieved when Amy turned into a doll. Nothing to do with how you feel about Amy. It's just that once Amy turned into a doll, you knew she and all the other dolls would turn back to normal by episode's end and this would be an episode where EverybodyLives.
401** "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]". Even if Creator/PeterCapaldi hadn't shown up last time, this really wouldn't be fooling anyone.
402** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight In The Forest of the Night]]". Killing a companion? Okay. Do timey-wimey things that would destroy the futures seen in previous episodes? Fair enough. Destroy Earth in a present-day episode... and one with ''kids'' in it, at that? ''No way.''
403** The [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35ShortPrologue prologue short to the Series 9 premiere]] has the Twelfth Doctor in TheLastDance mode, preparing for a confrontation with an old enemy that will surely kill him once and for all, giving Ohila his last will and testament to deliver... but none of the pre-release publicity even ''pretended'' he wouldn't survive the opening two-parter and have more wacky adventures.
404** The preview for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" implied the Doctor would regenerate. [[spoiler: The story's set on Gallifrey, where pretty much everyone can regenerate]], but yep, it's totally the Doctor regenerating!
405** Every time the Doctor's morality is questioned. As the star of the show, he is not going to suddenly make some morally ambiguous/outright wicked choice that is going to make him lose audience sympathy for good; he '''always''' comes back from the MoralEventHorizon -- even in the finale of Series 9, which sees Twelve temporarily become a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, he is brought back to his best self ''and'' accepts a karmic punishment for going too far.
406** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E5Oxygen Oxygen]]" has the Twelfth Doctor [[spoiler:becoming permanently blind due to him entering the vacuum of space without a helmet to save Bill]]. Some saw the "permanent" portion as this due to the already established fact that [[spoiler:he can still use some of his regeneration energy to heal an injury, even if he isn't regenerating]], and figured that it would be taken care of by the end of the season or even within the three-part "Monks" arc that started immediately afterward. Turned out that [[spoiler: they were right -- it's healed mid-arc, but at a heavy price, in "The Pyramid at the End of the World"]].
407** Later that season "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime World Enough and Time]]" teased two things at the top and bottom of the episode, respectively -- that Twelve would [[spoiler: regenerate ''before'' the Christmas show]] and Bill would [[spoiler: die as the Cyberman that Saxon!Master converted her into]], which would be a massive DownerEnding for the season. The outcome of "The Doctor Falls"? [[spoiler: Twelve puts it off a little longer while Bill is saved and restored to humanoid form by Heather]]. Subverted in the Doctor's case because they ''would'' have done it had there not been a need for a ChristmasSpecial for 2017 and [[spoiler: the original plan to have it be Thirteen's debut didn't pan out]].
408* LoveToHate:
409** The Master. Always [[LaughingMad evil]], always [[LargeHam hammy]], always magnificent.
410** [[MadScientist Davros]] as well. There's a reason even casual fans know his "to hold in my hand" speech.
411** His creations, The Daleks also qualify, being ANaziByAnyOtherName but so iconic and cool that the franchise would not be the same without them.
412%% These were the entries approved by the special efforts thread. To add more or edit these, please first discuss and
413%% receive approval from this thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=15255322860A44444400&page=1
414* MemeticBadass:
415** Barbara Wright, fairly badass in the TV stories, is often treated by fandom as an unstoppable stone killer in pumps and a turtle-neck.
416** Stormaggedon, Dark Lord of All; because everyone who isn't "Mum" is either a peasant or "Not Mum" if you're his dad or the Doctor.
417** Ace. She took on a Dalek with a ''baseball bat'' and got it to call for ''REINFORCEMENTS''.
418** Rory "Chuck Norris" Williams, the Last Centurion. He terrified Cybermen into submission with a single question (Where is my wife?) and the hotel that shows everyone their fears showed him ''the exit door''.
419* MemeticLoser:
420** Dodo is generally regarded as one of the least-loved companions of all time due to her poor acting, inconsistent accent, lack of personality and development and being as dumb as the bird she's named after. After four stories, she was written out and was deemed so unremarkable that she didn't even get a goodbye scene. The expanded universe didn't treat her any better, with one book giving her an STD and another killing her off entirely.
421** Adric is another unpopular companion due to his lack of any likable character traits - arrogant, condescending, sexist, whiny, self-important, egotistical, smug and having a bad habit of siding with the villains. Like Dodo, his acting also left much to the imagination. He did at least get a heroic exit, albeit he died ''failing'' to save the world. As if that wasn't enough, one of the Past Doctors books reveals that he suffers from body odour.
422** Adam Mitchell, who was literally designed to be a companion that doesn't measure up due to being a conniving, selfish opportunist. He remains the only companion to ever been booted out of the TARDIS. Add in the fact that his actor had career-ending allegations against him and you have a character that even Creator/BigFinish won't touch.
423* MemeticMutation:
424** Yartek, LEADER OF THE ALIEN VOORD! is a classic one, stemming from a description of the story in tie-in material.
425** Many things associated with Creator/JohnSimm's Master; the four drum beats, his nice choice in music, the gas mask..
426** Eleven's "X are cool" catchphrase. From bowties to fezzes, he had a knack for picking up unusual clothing items and declaring them to be "cool", often against Amy's objections.
427** Every second of the Doctor Who cast and crew's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s4Czla6tXc 500 Miles music video]].
428** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYztG0G0ywM Sue from Catering]] now has her own Facebook and Tumblr tag.
429** [[http://i.imgur.com/GVbXM.jpg Goddammit Steve!]]
430** Thanks to Creator/PeterCapaldi's role as [[SirSwearsalot Malcolm Tucker]] on ''Series/TheThickOfIt'', the Twelfth Doctor has been almost universally characterized by the fans (prior to his debut) as ''incredibly'' foul-mouthed. Amusingly enough this is referenced in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater Dark Water]]", where the psychic paper has swearing on it.
431** Stormageddon, the Dark Lord of All, Craig's newborn son that (according to the Doctor, who speaks fluent baby) dislikes the name "Alfy" and prefers the more grandiose title.
432** Thanks to Ten's most famous line, the phrase "wibbly-wobbly" has essentially become shorthand for [[MST3KMantra "too complicated to bother explaining"]].
433** As is "[[TimeyWimeyBall Timey-Wimey]]" when used to explain complicated Time Travel plots.
434** ''EVERYONE'' is a [[WMG/TimeLord Time Lord]]. Related, every female character is The Rani.
435** "Capaldi Intensifies!" is often used to describe Creator/PeterCapaldi's [[DeterminedExpression three]]-[[WhamShot second]] [[ProductionForeshadowing appearance]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor Day of the Doctor]]".
436** At least [[http://www.memecenter.com/fun/1817823/quick-game-of-heroic-amp-quot-my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours-amp-quot one meme]] points out that being a constant saviour of all of Timespace with little more than a time machine, a sonic screwdriver, and the greatest intellect in the universe, kinda dwarfs the exploits of certain other muscle-bound heroes in tights.
437** "Like a hybrid!"
438** Creator/StevenMoffat's reputation as TheScapegoat, including being blamed for ''any'' [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks disliked changes]] whether or not he was involved, has led to several other fans to mock that portion of the fanbase by jokingly blaming Moffat for inane things, like one's coffee going cold.
439** From the classic series: The Ambassadors... ... ... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we7BNW8UqZw OF DEATH!]] (''[[ScareChord Twang!]]'')
440** After the reveal of Creator/JodieWhittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, her luscious blonde hair caused a very popular speculation that Thirteen's first line would be some surprised sputtering that seems to be over becoming a woman, until she instead says "I'm ''still'' not ginger!"
441** The Thirteenth Doctor's first scene ends with her falling out of the TARDIS as it blows up. Jokes she would not last long soon started; others thought the speed at which she ended up in mortal peril showed [[DoomMagnet she was definitely the Doctor]].
442** The scene also confirmed that Whittaker would be using her natural Yorkshire accent, prompting a lot of jokes about how this is the real boundary being crossed with her casting.
443* MemeticMolester: The Doctor's tendency to get ShipTease with female companions despite being at least [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 900 years old]] (and one, Rose, was 19 years old when she became a companion) has created the interpretation that the Doctor is a lecherous predator.
444* MisaimedFandom:
445** An unusual example where the fans praised the writer because they read in ''too much'' satiric intent: ''Series/DoctorWho'' had "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf Bad Wolf]]", an episode featuring {{Deadly|Game}} GameShow versions of ''Series/BigBrother'' and ''Series/TheWeakestLink'' where losing contestants were slaughtered. Many fans lauded these as brilliant parodies pointing out the vapidity of such shows. New series producer Creator/RussellTDavies likes these shows, and put that in as a ''[[AffectionateParody tribute]]'' to them.
446** Played straight with some fans who have latched on to the Master, particularly his Creator/JohnSimm incarnation, especially where the FoeRomanceSubtext was flowing thick and free; plenty of FanFics featuring the Master tend to treat him as a quirky, slightly sarcastic guy who just wants to hook up with the Doctor. Never mind that he's ''also'' a vicious psychopath who [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking conquers the world, wipes out a tenth of the population, destroys Japan, enslaves the survivors of the human race, and possibly beats his wife]].
447** Some fans who recognise how evil the John Simm version was now tend to write the Creator/RogerDelgado or Creator/AnthonyAinley versions as {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s simply because they weren't so glaringly AxCrazy and sadistic. This, despite, for example, the Delgado version manipulating Earth's two native sentient species into a genocidal war ''just because the Doctor liked one of them,'' and the Ainley version once [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds accidentally]] ''destroyed a quarter of the universe'', and after a moment of shock proceeded to take the remaining three-quarters hostage instead of showing real remorse. (Apart from that, when the dust had settled the new Master didn't exactly emerge triumphant, either.)
448*** Destroying a quarter of the universe was a mistake; ''holding the rest hostage afterwards'' wasn't, and he sure didn't show any ''remorse'' about what he'd done. Also not an accident was taking over the body of Nyssa's father, or the very high body count he racked up any time he appeared.
449** Speaking of the Master, Missy is definitely this, even to her haters. Missy turned all of humanity's dead into Cybermen, and coldbloodedly murdered fan favourite Osgood. She was undeniably an evil monster in her first season. But the small vocal minority of fans who hate Missy hate her NOT because of her evil actions, but because she's a she and they're vehemently opposed to the concept of Time Lords genderswapping during regeneration, (the same reason that vocal minority is attacking Creator/JodieWhittaker being cast as the 13th Doctor).[[note]]Though strictly speaking, it's never been confirmed that Missy ''did'' genderswap during regeneration; The Master has stolen bodies before and may have done so again.[[/note]] Conversely, the larger majority of fans absolutely love Missy, despite her evil actions, even overlooking the murder of Osgood and blaming that squarely on Steven Moffat, because Missy's actress Michelle Gomez plays her with such [[AxCrazy batsh-t crazy]] glee that it's almost impossible NOT to love her.
450** The Daleks got this back in the 1960s. Because BeautyEqualsGoodness was assumed standard, it was hoped the audience would side with the InhumanlyBeautifulRace (the Thals) over the Daleks. However, the Daleks, with their menacing movements and RoboSpeak voices, were significantly more entertaining to watch than the Thals, a race of sanctimonious, RP-accented [[PeopleOfHairColor blond men]] in leggings, and the fact that the Daleks' motives at the time were more sympathetic (even though they were achieving them in the nastiest possible way) meant that many viewers found the Daleks the sympathetic ones. A lot of the spinoff "Dalekmania" material produced around this time portrays Daleks as an AntiHero race, siding with their points of view (even if still leaving them enemies of the humans, the Doctor and Susan's then-unknown race, and the Thals) -- Susan even gets a Dalek ImpliedLoveInterest in a photo story in "The Dalek Book". Kids dressed up in Dalek costumes, ate "Dalek Death Ray" ice lollies, and there were even novelty pop songs released that literally were about partying with [[YouSexyBeast sexy Daleks]]. Later canon had no choice but to show them JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope, invading Earth and [[GodwinsLaw constantly comparing them to Nazis]], but they still have a bit of kitschy anti-hero appeal in the popular consciousness.
451** It also didn't help that the Thals got a bit less sympathetic with each appearance. The Dalek vs. Thal war, revealed mostly in reverse order, is basically summed up as: "EvilVersusEvil, but now the Thals aren't evil anymore and want to see if the same goes for the Daleks. ''It doesn't.''"
452*** Dalekmania received {{Deconstruction}} treatment in the ExpandedUniverse audio story "Jubilee", which shows an alternate future England which has a ForeignCultureFetish for the Daleks after a failed invasion a century prior - starting from Daleks being used to [[TheMerch market everything from lemonade to toothpaste]], and ending with England becoming an evil empire that reconquered America and is trying to take over the rest of the world, living by the Daleks' example.
453** Many haters of Moffat heavily criticize him for being unwilling to kill off '''any''' of the companions in his tenure, instead opting for fakeouts when death has already occurred for them. This is inaccurate -- Moffat did [[KilledOffForReal kill some off for real]], just not ''on-screen'': [[spoiler:Amy and Rory die of old age in "The Angels Take Manhattan", and Clara dies (or will have to eventually) in "Face the Raven"]].
454** 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'.
455* MisBlamed: Fans have a tendency to find one particular behind-the-scenes figure -- Creator/JohnNathanTurner, Michael Grade, Creator/RussellTDavies, etc -- and blame absolutely everything they don't like on that figure, regardless of whether they can be reasonably blamed or not.
456** Creator/GrahamWilliams replaced Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe's highly acclaimed tenure and was given the job of toning down the horror element and playing up the humour and whimsy. In additon, his era oversaw a whole slew of behind-the-scenes troubles, none of which were his fault. While his era is regarded as divisive at best, it's generally agreed that he did the best he could under very trying circumstances.
457** The low quality of Seasons 22-23 of ''Doctor Who'''s original run was for a long time blamed on Creator/ColinBaker's [[JerkWithAHeartofGold performance]] as the [[TheScrappy Sixth Doctor]]. After his surprisingly good performances in the ''Creator/BigFinish'' audio plays, he's [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap largely cleared his name]], leading fans to look to [[ExecutiveMeddling other scapegoats]].
458** When Creator/FreemaAgyeman (Martha Jones) left after the third series of the revived show, some fans insisted she had either been fired or pressured to leave because the producers felt she could not live up to her extremely popular predecessor, Creator/BilliePiper (it didn't help that onscreen Martha left the Doctor for this reason). This was denied by all involved, but it still pops up occasionally as a conspiracy theory in the fandom. It's possible that she had only signed on for one series.
459** There has been no definitive proof that Creator/ChristopherEccleston, a 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.
460** Martha had also fallen victim to a Type 3: her character has received criticism for not being confident enough in herself (particularly in her unrequited feelings for the Doctor), and not being convincing as a professional adult. This seems to be based on a misconception by US viewers about the character's intended age: medical students in Britain start studying at age 18, so Martha could well be a teenager, and cannot be any older than 22 or so. There's no in-story reason for her to be particularly world-wise.
461** Creator/StevenMoffat often gets blamed for casting a woman to play the Doctor by those who disagree with the idea of a female Doctor. The idea to cast Creator/JodieWhittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor was done by his successor, Creator/ChrisChibnall, though Moffatt did lay a lot of the groundwork by canonising the idea of cross sex regenerations. On a related note, the idea of a female Doctor has been around as long as regeneration and it was supported by Creator/SydneyNewman. Ironically, during his tenure Moffat often got plenty of stick from people on the other side of the line for ''not'' casting a female Doctor when he had the opportunity.
462* {{Moe}}:
463** Jo Grant provides an ''excellent'' [[http://cdn.okcimg.com/php/load_okc_image.php/images/0x0/0x0/0/11318826022475577877.jpeg___1_500_1_500_cb94de6a_.png live action example.]]
464** Amy; the original entry on the Characters page compared the chibi-like fanart for her to Creator/KarenGillan.
465** On the male side of things, Rory, with his {{adorkable}}ness, UndyingLoyalty and almost constantly sad eyes.
466** Polly, Victoria and Zoe definitely fit into this category too. Victoria has the appearance of a Disney Princess with her huge eyes and blushing, fragile-seeming Victorian era manner and appearance.
467** Clara's big and expressive brown eyes are ''an actual {{running gag}}'' during her tenure, and go together rather well with her short height and anxious, but sensitive and kind personality. Though the Doctor teases her about them, whenever she does use the {{puppy dog eyes}}, it's clear from the Doctor's behaviour that he can't stay mad at his companion.
468** Bel from ''Flux'' (Series 13) is a particularly cute and short ActionGirl with an adorable voice and accent who works with a [[CuteMachines cute machine]] in her search for her partner, who she is happily in love with, so that they can raise their child together.
469** 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 otherwise 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]].
470*** The Thirteenth 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.
471* MoffsLaw: Often a factor when fans get into emotional debate over an aspect of the series. Regardless of the era or the nature of the "complaint", someone will invoke the law at some point.
472* MorePopularReplacement:
473** While Creator/JonPertwee's [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor Third Doctor]] was popular in his own right, it was Creator/TomBaker's [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor Fourth Doctor]] that became the best-known and highest-regarded incarnation of the character, owed to a mix of his resonance with '70s counterculture and his seven-year tenure, which still has yet to be matched.
474** 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 he's RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in Big Finish audio dramas after his actor got fired.
475** Creator/DavidTennant's [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor Tenth Doctor]] became this to Creator/ChristopherEccleston's [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor Ninth]] with Ten possibly being the most popular Revival era Doctor -- though plenty of fans still appreciate Nine, hence the adage "don't skip Nine" to new viewers who might be inclined to overlook Eccleston's respectable (if short) tenure just because Tennant ended up overshadowing him.
476** Vicki was seen not so much as a replacement for Susan, but an improvement, being smarter, more capable and less prone to screaming (it helps that Creator/MaureenOBrien was a much better actor than Creator/CaroleAnnFord).
477** The brainy and playful Zoe was seen as a great improvement over the rather wet Victoria.
478** The first incarnation of Romana, played by Creator/MaryTamm, wasn't widely disliked by any means, but her IceQueen personality was a turn-off for many fans. Her second incarnation, played by Creator/LallaWard, was way, ''way'' more popular, and widely considered to be the Fourth Doctor's most popular companion after Sarah Jane Smith (who in turn is generally agreed on as the show's absolute most popular companion of all-time) and arguably Harry Sullivan.
479** Ace has a very, very committed personal fanbase, and outside that group is mostly remembered affectionately. She followed Peri and Mel, who are probably the two most widely-disliked companions in the history of the series.
480** Bill Potts was wholeheartedly welcomed by the fandom after she takes over from her [[BaseBreakingCharacter polarizing predecessor]] Clara Oswald. Bill also wins points from the LGBTFanbase for being the first openly gay main cast member.[[note]]earlier seasons had already featured ExtremeOmnisexual Jack Harkness as a recurring character, but he never became a regular companion, though he did get his own spinoff show ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''[[/note]]
481* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
482** The characteristic TARDIS dematerialisation sound [[spoiler: created, according to River Song, by the Doctor leaving the brakes on. ([[IMeantToDoThat He claims it's deliberate]] because he likes the sound).]] Of course, this raises the question as to why Romana and the Master had it happen to them, but River could have just been messing with the Doctor.
483--->'''The Moment''': You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning? That sound brings hope wherever it goes. To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone. However lost. Even you.
484** Clara comes close to uttering the trope name when talking about how much she missed the TARDIS sound in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas Last Christmas]]".
485** The TARDIS' Cloister Bell which rings when [[OhCrap something is going badly wrong]]. While hearing it means something terrible is happening the sound itself (which is a gong being struck under water) is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJx88JvEjAg hauntingly beautiful]].
486** Anytime the 9th Doctor says "Fantastic".
487** Martha's frankly adorable bubbly laugh.
488* MyRealDaddy: The series, technically created by committee, has had many producers and head writers, but these are a few of the most commonly-cited examples:
489** Creator/VerityLambert, the show's very first producer. For starters, she is the one who ensured that some aliens called the Daleks made it to air. In fact, the story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature]]", which sees the Doctor become a human with no memories of his Time Lord self, claims that his parents were named "Sydney and Verity".
490** TV theme composer Ron Grainer wrote the score for the ''Doctor Who'' theme, but it was ElectronicMusic pioneer Delia Derbyshire's production that made it stand out, so the piece is usually credited in modern times to her. Even Grainer regarded the theme as Derbyshire's, famously asking her 'did I write that?' after hearing her rendition (she responded, 'most of it'). Due to Derbyshire's contractual status within the BBC at the time, she was denied a credit and made no money other than her usual employee wage from the piece.
491** 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 later writers.
492** The Daleks are ''Doctor Who'''s most popular and enduring monster, and their invention is credited to Creator/TerryNation - but many fans doubt it was ''his'' writing that was actually responsible for making the Daleks a hit. Fans inclined to credit the design for their success are likely to credit them to prop designer Raymond Cusick (who, like Derbyshire, was only paid his usual wage for the work). Other fans celebrate David Whitaker, script editor of the first couple of seasons of ''Doctor Who'' and Nation's uncredited cowriter, who also wrote the highly regarded AdaptationExpansion novelisation of the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]", ghostwrote much of the "Dalekmania" [[ExpandedUniverse spinoff material]] and wrote several fan-favourite DarkerAndEdgier Dalek serials ("Power of the Daleks", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks The Evil of the Daleks]]" and the second half of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]"). In Whitaker scripts [[DependingOnTheWriter Daleks tend to be]] a formidable race, while in Nation scripts they're TheGrotesque and rather pathetic. Nation, for his part, disliked Whitaker's take on the Daleks and worked hard to end Whitaker's influence on the aliens in the 70s by such measures as having Whitaker creations ExiledFromContinuity. However, that didn't stop Creator/RussellTDavies' take from being clearly influenced by the Whitaker Dalek material more than the Nation stuff.
493** 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 [[CharacterCatchphrase 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.
494** Even though he was the ''fourth'' television Doctor, Creator/TomBaker's performance was massively defining and influential, and it's easy to argue that every Doctor since has been in some way a reaction to him. He lasted almost seven years in the role, the longest tenure of any Doctor, and was the first Doctor consistently portrayed as being [[TheMentallyDisturbed mad]] rather than just eccentric and the first to bring in elements of being a destructive force of cosmic justice, with a specific blend of darkness, whimsy and odd character quirks that became the 'default' take on character ever after. Due to his tendency to tinker with his scripts, add lines and occasionally entire unscripted scenes, and [[WagTheDirector take charge of direction]], he ended up being a heavy creative influence on the way the show was written and shot, with the result that much of the show's sense of humour is what he imprinted onto it. He was not the first Doctor whose performance was heavily [[MetaCasting based on his own personality]], but he was the one whose performance was ''most'' based on his own personality, and due to the influence of his era many of Baker's real-life personality quirks run through the psychology of the character to this day.
495** Creator/TerranceDicks and Creator/BarryLetts acted as the script editor and producer for the Creator/JonPertwee era of the show. Dicks is one of the franchise's most prolific writers, penning oodles of novelizations in addition to his TV work, which notably includes 20th anniversary special "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" and Creator/PatrickTroughton's swansong, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]". Their era featured UNIT at its most prominent, and introduced such iconic elements of the show as the Master, the Sontarans, the Autons, and fan-favourite companion Sarah Jane Smith. Barry Letts is the only producer to return to the show in a similar capacity, when he acted as the executive producer for newcomer Creator/JohnNathanTurner's first year, and had also worked as a writer and director for a number of stories. Letts' influence bled past his run on the show and had a strong impact on the first year of...
496** Creator/RobertHolmes and Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe, who were respectively the script editor and producer between 1974 and 1977. The era when they were in charge is considered by many to be a Golden Age for the series due to a genuinely frightening "gothic horror" atmosphere, a fan-favourite Doctor (Creator/TomBaker) and popular companions (Sarah, Harry, and Leela), as well as a seemingly endless streak of classic and beloved stories (including, but by no means limited to, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]". Holmes has written more individual TV episodes than any other writer, and in 2009 his story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]" was voted by the readers of ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' as the all-time greatest ''Doctor Who'' story.
497** Creator/AndrewCartmel, script-editor during Creator/SylvesterMcCoy era, is widely hailed by fans as improving the show's quality in its last two seasons by making the Doctor a mysterious character again, introducing one of the most popular companions in Ace (thus creating one of the most iconic TARDIS teams), having darker and more mature storytelling inspired by the resurgence in comic books of TheEighties and having an anarchic, overtly political edge. His approach stayed with the show long after it went off the air, with the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' being the face of the franchise for most of TheNineties and arguably inspiring the revived series approach.
498** 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. Up until his departure in Series 10, he was the only person to have written for every season of the revival.
499** 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 alienating, and Whittaker's too controversial to gain the same degree of reverence.
500* NarmCharm:
501** Often, the series manages to be cheesy while still being on-the-edge-of-your-seat-tense. Any non-humanoid Auton in particular.
502** In the Master's first-ever appearance in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E1TerrorOfTheAutons Terror of the Autons]]", he fed a man to a chair and tried to take over the world with plastic daffodils. It's widely regarded as Roger Delgado's best performance in the role, and one of the best stories from Creator/JonPertwee's era.
503* NeverLiveItDown:
504** Romana wasting several regenerations just so the Doctor would like her new look. It wasn't intended that way, but the story's writer didn't quite grasp how the process worked.
505** Adric being persuaded to approve of Monarch's evil plan in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E2FourToDoomsday Four to Doomsday]]" in about three minutes of conversation, which led to massive {{Flanderisation}} of him as "always siding with the villain".
506** The Sixth Doctor trying to strangle Peri, which they themselves don't get over until "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet The Mysterious Planet]]".
507* NightmareRetardant: The cheaper costumes of the classic era. Sometimes pops up every now and then afterwards, though more with the CGI than the prosthetics costumes.
508* OlderThanTheyThink:
509** The willingness of the Series 11 writers to reference contemporary social issues is a strong point of contention amongst fans. However, as [[http://sartorialgeek.com/political-awareness-doctor-who/ this article]] points out, the show has a long history of social commentary which was, if anything, ''more'' overt in the past than it is now.
510** Chibnall has been blamed for ''destroying the Canon'' with the Timeless Child plot twist (in which it was revealed that the Doctor, far from being an ordinary inhabitant of Galifrey, was actually a mysterious child of unknown origin whom the Time Lords stole the power of regeneration from). However, this isn't the first time the show has alluded to the Doctor having had incarnations before the First Doctor or having an origin that differs from the one commonly given. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain of Morbius]]" alluded to the Doctor having previous regenerations before Hartnell and the Seventh Doctor was also hinting at a mysterious origin and not being an ordinary Time Lord. So essentially Chibnall was simply just building on some ideas already introduced.
511* OneSceneWonder:
512** Creator/TomBaker and Creator/LallaWard's punting scene in Sha- err, "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]".
513*** From the same episode, The Raston Warrior Robot slaughters a group of Cybermen and simply leaps into thin air, never to be seen again in the episode.
514** The disassembled, lone Cyberman's fight against the Doctor and Amy in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]".
515** A number of the Doctor's allies in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar A Good Man Goes to War]]", including [[spoiler: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E1SmithAndJones the Judoon]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks the Space Spitfires]], and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E3TheCurseOfTheBlackSpot the pirate captain and his son]].]]
516** 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 run of prequels!
517** Creator/PeterCapaldi's three-second appearance as the Twelfth Doctor in "Day of the Doctor".
518* 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. 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).
519** However, in 2011, the series itself canonically established that the show's true OTP has nothing to do with humanoids. In "The Doctor's Wife," Amy Pond pegs it when she identifies the Doctor and the TARDIS (who, in the episode, is confirmed as sentient) as the true companions:
520--->'''Amy''': It's always you and her, isn't it, long after the rest of us have gone. A boy and his box, off to see the universe.
521* OneTrueThreesome:
522** Doctor (usually 9)/Rose/Jack Harkness. This came as close to canon as possible for a family show: Jack and Rose are both in love with the Doctor, Jack and Rose also fancy each other, and the Doctor loves Rose (but CannotSpitItOut and never states whether it's romantic love or something else) and merrily flirts with Jack. Their dynamic culminates in Jack romantically kissing the Doctor and Rose in the same scene, in front of each other, and neither of them make a fuss -- the Doctor kisses Rose soon after. However, their lives get very complicated right after that and, apart from a brief battle against a Dalek army years later, they never actually get a chance to spend more time together.
523** Doctor/Master/Rani got some FoeRomanceSubtext in "Mark of the Rani", though they don't get much support in comparison to the ever-popular Doctor/Master.
524** Two/Jamie/Zoe, [[http://i40.tinypic.com/2rxz8nm.png as seen here]]; three characters, one hairdo. There's an RL platonic element to this one. The three actors were quite close and, according to Creator/FrazerHines, even made some of the other actors jealous on the set of "The Five Doctors". Hines also stated that none of the constant hugging was scripted -- it just came natural.
525** Eleven/Amy/Rory is a bit of a variation. Rory is [[SingleTargetSexuality completely Amy-sexual]], Amy is in love with Rory but obsessed with the Doctor and wants to fit them both into her love life somehow, and the Doctor consciously represses his attraction to Amy (cf. "Amy's Choice"), but quickly grows to really like Rory with ''heaps and heaps'' of HoYay. Fandom seems to have embraced it big time. Their idea of a honeymoon is to run off with the Doctor in the [=TARDIS=], [[http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee81/Maki_P/wedding_09.jpg And they look gorgeous]]. Though after Amy and Rory were revealed to be [[spoiler:the Doctor's mother- and father-in-law]], this ship was largely abandoned... until Eleven ([[CloudCuckooLander being Eleven]]) decided that this was in no way a reason to stop randomly snogging Rory.
526** Five/Tegan/Turlough and Five/Tegan/Nyssa.
527** Ten/Rose/Handy (Handy here being the fan nickname for 10.5, the duplicate Doctor that grew from the Doctor's severed hand. Long story. ''Really'' long story.). Some people don't think it's quite fair that Rose should have to choose one of them and leave the other pining for her until the end of his days. Or something equally dramatic.
528** From the UNIT years, Three/Jo/Master is tremendously popular, especially now that it's canonical that the Master ''was'' flirting with the Doctor all along. There are quite a few official prose stories about the era in which Jo seems to ship it.
529** It's pretty much a grab bag with ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', as EveryoneIsBi and the gang all have ''really'' screwed-up love lives.
530
531[[/folder]]
532
533[[folder:TV Series Tropes - P to T]]
534
535* {{Padding}}: Often suffered by the classic series, especially in the earlier years when stories would sometimes run for six or seven (and in one notable instance twelve) episodes, but also with the more standard four-parters; the stereotypical third part episode would involve the regulars, having been captured or imprisoned at the end of the previous episode, breaking free and spending a lot of time running up and down corridors before being recaptured at the end. In some of the worst cases from the Creator/JonPertwee era, entire episodes are given over to a 25 minute chase sequence which doesn't advance the plot ''at all''.
536** The chase-scene padding in the Creator/JonPertwee era can often be put down to WagTheDirector — Pertwee loved driving motor vehicles around very fast (in fact, the "Whomobile" seen in a couple of episodes was not the BBC's property, but his own personal car). The episode-long chase scene in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders Planet of the Spiders]]" has been explicitly mentioned to have been a farewell present from the writers to him.
537** The one-shot special to announce the [[TheNthDoctor actor who would be playing the Eleventh Doctor]] was basically five minutes of padding and fifty-five minutes of mindless filler. The one made for the Twelfth Doctor's casting was almost as bad, albeit was at least shorter at just thirty minutes in all. Fortunately, the BBC seemingly got the message by the time Creator/JodieWhittaker took on the role, with her casting simply being announced in a thirty-second TV spot in the middle of the 2017 Wimbledon coverage, without a single word of dialogue in the spot.
538** Particularly painful padding in the classic series is the long shots of characters turning knobs and levers ever so slowly, or lingering on them making tea (or doing something equally mundane) just a bit longer than necessary.
539** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]", there's a whole lot of shots of the Doctor and Romana just merrily running around Paris; excused partly by the BBC wanting to get their money's worth out of the location shooting (literally all they could afford was a silent shoot with Creator/TomBaker, Creator/LallaWard and no other actors, and they may... um, not have asked permission to film from anyone), and partly for SceneryPorn.
540** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E4Inferno Inferno]]" has been described as a four-part story with episode three removed and replaced with another four-part story. Fortunately, both stories are generally considered classics.
541* ParanoiaFuel:
542** The Autons. Basically ''anything made of plastic'' could come to life.
543** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars The Waters of Mars]]". Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not One Drop. Being turned into a monster if you touch something that your body physically needs is terrifying.
544** How about: "Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead! They are fast. Faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink! Good Luck."
545** Creator/StevenMoffat seems to be determined to give the entire planet a phobia of ''everything''. So far he's covered ticking, statues, shadows and now [[spoiler:cracks on the wall and... whatever the Smilers are]].
546*** And now [[spoiler: anything that captures the image of a Weeping Angel ''becomes'' an angel. You have one on your television screen? It might just come out and get you, so ''don't look away.'' And if you stare at it too long, you might get one in your head. "Don't blink, don't look at it."]]
547*** Makes people scared to death of their Gran's angel collection, too.
548*** He's now extended that to Wifi, finding something that is completely undetectable to human senses ''and'' is virtually omnipresent.
549*** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]", he managed to make you scared of ''breathing''.
550*** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E4Listen Listen]]". [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Scared. Of.]] [[spoiler: Literally NOTHING]]. This one should be fairly hard to top.
551*** But "[[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas Last Christmas]]" may have managed it. Because you can never, ''ever'', ''[=EVER=]'' be sure that one of those [[spoiler: Dream Crabs]] isn't ''already'' slurping on your brain...
552** Gangers. Human clones with the same memories. So how are you going to tell the original and the copy apart? Well, you can't, unless the Ganger is incomplete and has that smooth, transparent face. Just hope you won't be seeing it in the mirror. And then there's the twist of "The Almost People": [[spoiler:who's to say that '''you''' aren't unknowingly piloting a ganger right now, separated from all your friends and family who don't even know you're missing?]]
553** "[[Recap/DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol A Christmas Carol]]". So you're just minding your own business, ruling a planet as the Scrooge you are. Then a guy comes into your house, shows you footage of your childhood, then ''appears in said footage and changes it, rewriting your memories in the meantime''. At the same time, a guy appears when you're 8 and starts saying stuff like "[[AccidentalPervert I'm better than your nanny]]" at an age you can probably see the DoubleEntendre, even if the time-travelling alien doesn't. Then the guy almost kills you in your past several times, while ''you see the live feed in your present''. And there's nothing you can do about it.
554** The Silence are made of this. They're everywhere on Earth, they could be in this very room, and forget about them every time you look away from them, and they can plan suggestions in your head forcing you to do something without you ever knowing why. If you know they exist, you'll still forget them after seeing them. Also, they look like [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]].
555** Moffat did it again with the ''Daleks'' of all things. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Asylum of the Daleks]]" we are introduced to the Dalek Puppets; people that have been partially transformed into Daleks using nanotechnology. You can't tell they are Daleks until their eyestalk pokes through their forehead. And the kicker? The Dalek-ified people don't even realize that anything's wrong until they remember that they ''died''. You or anyone else can be a Dalek and you'd never know it.
556* PeripheryDemographic: ''Doctor Who'' is famously popular with the autistic community, thanks to how relatable the Doctor is to them as an eccentric outsider with a strong sense of justice who doesn't completely gel with humanity's way of thinking but still bonds with them anyway. The fact that the Doctor is an alien is further used as a sign of connection given that a common metaphor for being autistic is being an alien from another planet. Dr. Tony Attwood, one of the first major voices in autistic advocacy[[note]]though he himself is allistic and would grow more controversial in later years for his depictions of autism[[/note]], once described using ''Doctor Who'' as a way to help autistic children navigate the world around them.
557* PlayAlongMeme:
558** Series 6 (2011) introduced the Silence, a religious order of creepy humanoids. Once anyone looks away from a Silent, they forget about them. However, these aliens use post-hypnotic suggestions. Many commenters act like they've never seen the Silence but remember what they said; it went as far as videos of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a major plot point in the episode "Day of the Moon".
559** In "[[Recap/DoctorWho60thASWildBlueYonder Wild Blue Yonder]]", the Doctor and Donna accidentally interrupt Isaac Newton just as he figures out gravity, causing Newton to give the fundamental interaction of gravity the name "mavity" instead. From that point onwards in the show, all characters refer to the fundamental interaction of gravity as "mavity", including the [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifteenthDoctor Fifteenth Doctor]]. A lot of fans have taken this and run with it, including attributing the [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor First Doctor]] mentioning "gravity" to one of Creator/WilliamHartnell's infamous line flubs, and various other incarnations of the character mentioning "gravity" being taken to be "bloopers that were left in by mistake", and so on.
560* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Most of the video 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 Platform/PlayStation2 standard, though at least they were free to people in the UK.
561* 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 rein.
562* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
563** The Sixth Doctor was received in a very divisive way by the fandom during his two seasons on the TV series, to say the least. This was caused by his dubious character and more explosive personality, on several occasions behaving like an jerk with his companion Peri and the people he was supposed to help. Years later, the character was much better received by the fandom thanks to his stories at Big Finish, with the general consensus being that he is much better written in the audios stories.
564** The Seventh Doctor started his tenure as an annoying, over-the-top pratfalling clown with a tendency towards irritating mixed metaphors, who irritated many of the viewers. After his first season didn't go down that well, the production team decided to sober him up, taking away his more annoying quirks and adding a more mysterious, brooding depth to him. This met with widespread fan approval; however, it was arguably too late to save the series, which was cancelled after his third season. This CharacterDevelopment continued in the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novels, which greatly increased the character's more sober, introspective AntiHero nature to widespread approval (although it's also often argued that, at worst, the novels had a tendency to take it too far with the DarkerAndEdgier stuff, and sometimes wobbled into making the character an unlikeable KnightTemplar bastard). His AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho episodes largely take place between TV show episodes, and ''somehow'', the writers took his first appearances as a bumbling goof and used that characterisation in two of the most well-loved audio episodes ''ever'': "Bang-Bang-A-Boom!" and "Unregenerate!".
565** When Donna Noble made her first appearance in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride The Runaway Bride]]", many fans were put off by the shrill, abrasive nature of the character (Given that she was played by comedian Creator/CatherineTate, at least the British fans knew what to expect). The announcement that she would be a regular member of the cast during the 2008 season was met with mixed reaction at best. A few episodes into the season, however, she had undergone deliberate CharacterDevelopment, and about half of the fandom had warmed up to her and even praised the "shrill, abrasive nature" that earned Donna so much hate in her debut. As of the end of Series 4, certain fans even considered her if not the Best Companion Ever, then at least the best modern companion.
566*** It was partly helped by circumstances. When Donna first appeared, that "shrill, abrasive nature" was levelled against the Doctor himself (including slapping him.) This isn't a smart thing to do around Whovians. By the time the show came around, that nature was being pointed toward the actual enemies of the series, so she probably started getting liked more when she started hating the right people.
567*** One of the more interesting things about this example was [[spoiler:that the other characters acknowledged that this had happened and in the end her fate worse than death was to be returned to her Scrappy-state. Some of the fans that once disliked her were instead upset that such an anti-climactic fate had befallen her.]]
568*** In many ways this also extended to Catherine Tate herself, since before her return to ''Who'' she was something of a victim of typecasting in roles which had a limited appeal. Donna started out as such a character, then changed incredibly.
569*** Tate also picked up '''the Doctor Who Magazine's Greatest Contribution Award''' for 2008 for her performance. With twice as many votes as her nearest competitor, Creator/RussellTDavies, who had definitively proven ''Series/DoctorWho'' was back and popular by leading it to its first #1 at the top of the weekly viewing figures in its history. If that's not proof how well the character turned around, what on Earth is?
570** Although Creator/JennaColeman's performance was praised by most people, a fandom drained with ArcFatigue for Creator/StevenMoffat's LivingMacGuffin female characters found "Impossible Girl" Clara Oswald to be a "generic companion" FlatCharacter, dressed in a melodramatic mystery arc we'd already seen several times before in this era. Due to the nature of the arc she was introduced in (her first two appearances were as different characters who died helping the Doctor -- but implied to all be the same woman) as well as the main Smith-era arc still not having been resolved ''and'' the 50th anniversary special WhamEpisode being set up, she was stuck doing nothing or having her character reset to zero for most of Series 7B, and conflicting production instructions meant different writers interpreted her in very different ways. The nature of her relationship with the Doctor (who didn't trust her, but was obsessed with her anyway) also meant he ended up acting like a creepy old man -- but with this presented as a romantic ideal, and her actions in the SeasonFinale and the follow-up specials easily made her one of the most powerful companions ''ever''. However, Series 8 completely overhauled her character, giving her a different job, a genuinely dramatic PartTimeHero plotline and a complicated, {{Hubris}}tic relationship with time travel, making her much more flawed, unique and interesting. The elements of her relationship with the Doctor that came across as unintentionally creepy were brought to the forefront and handled more deftly, without sacrificing the heartwarming qualities of their friendship. The recasting of the Doctor with a much older man moved their relationship away from the standard 'two young hot people in love' idea towards a more complex portrayal of the potentially devastating consequences of the traditional Doctor-Companion UndyingLoyalty. This continued into the well-received Series 9, in which she became his DistaffCounterpart for better and for worse; although her ultimate fate ([[spoiler: she was Killed Off For Real, but due to the Doctor's mad attempt to rescue her she can have infinite adventures in the last moment of her life, complete with her own TARDIS and companion]]) caused a BrokenBase, it was a ''loooooong'' way from where she started as a character in more ways than one.
571** Nardole (Matt Lucas) was just a cowardly comic relief one-off character in the post-Series 9 ChristmasEpisode "The Husbands of River Song". '''No one''' in the fanbase expected, much less wanted, him to become a secondary companion in Series 10 (with Bill Potts the principal) and reactions were split between "Ugh, not him again!" and "Huh, wonder how they'll manage it?" given his fate in that special -- and given that there were ''several'' one-off characters introduced in previous Twelfth Doctor episodes that fans would have loved to see again (Shona from "Last Christmas" being particularly popular). However, his return as a cyborg MoralityChain with a MysteriousPast, timid and oft-maligned by the Doctor yet able to hold his own in snarking and capable of great intelligence, loyalty, and backbone as needed, made him a funny and endearing companion who also enhanced the Doctor and Bill's dynamic, making for one of the best-received TARDIS teams of the revival.
572* QuestionableCasting:
573** Creator/BarryLetts would later admit that Richard Franklin was miscast as Captain Mike Yates, as he felt that he was too young-looking and soft to play a military officer.
574** Creator/JohnNathanTurner's era as producer in general has been strongly criticised by many fans for StuntCasting without much consideration as to whether the celebrity guest was actually suited to the role, one notable example being Creator/BerylReid as Captain Briggs in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock Earthshock]]", due to Nathan Turner's love for light entertainment.
575** Nicholas Parsons' casting as Reverend Wainwright in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric The Curse of Fenric]]" might appear to be an example of this at first glance, given that he was best known for being a quiz show host at the time of the story's airing. In reality Parsons was actually a pretty experienced actor, although he hadn't done any TV acting work for over a decade when the story was made. (The director wasn't aware of this prior to recording of the story, but when he noticed Parsons could actually act a number of scenes were hastily rewritten to give his character more development.)
576** Creator/EricRoberts as the Master in the TV movie.
577** While the Creator/RussellTDavies era was praised for its intelligent casting of celebrity guests in roles that were suited to them, with celebrities who weren't really actors reserved for walk-on roles or cameos as themselves, some felt that not all their celebrity cameos exactly made sense, such as biologist UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins being interviewed about the astronomical location of earth. As with many ''Doctor Who'' issues, others thought the casting brilliant, given that Dawkins' impassioned emphasis on '''factual evidence''' in the episode was identical to his impassioned statements against the position of Young Earth Creationists in the (real life) popular media. Of course this reaction could be partially down to Dawkins being a controversial figure even among atheists, which has increased since this episode aired.
578** The reaction of some fans to the casting of Creator/MattSmith ("Too young!"), Creator/PeterCapaldi ("Too old!"), Creator/JodieWhittaker ("A ''woman!''").
579** 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.
580* RetroactiveRecognition:
581** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E4TheSunMakers The Sun Makers]]", Goudry is played by Creator/MichaelKeating, better known for his later role as Vila Restal of ''[[Series/BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]''.
582*** On that note, Creator/PaulDarrow (Avon) is Captain Hawkins in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians Doctor Who and the Silurians]]".
583*** And in THAT story, Dr. Quinn is played by [[Series/{{Porridge}} Fulton Mackay]].
584** The policeman pursuing the kidnappers in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma The Twin Dilemma]]" is [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Mr. Gibbs]].
585** [[Characters/BerniceSummerfield Lisa Bowerman]] and [[Series/{{Emmerdale}} Adele Silva]] appear in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival Survival]]".
586** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Maxil]] is the Sixth Doctor
587** Five years before becoming the first actor to play Davros, Creator/MichaelWisher has a fairly minor role as a broadcaster in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E3TheAmbassadorsOfDeath The Ambassadors of Death]]". He also appeared in "Terror of the Autons" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E2CarnivalOfMonsters Carnival of Monsters]]" and voiced the Daleks in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E3DeathToTheDaleks Death to the Daleks]]".
588** Lon from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E2Snakedance Snakedance]]" is Gary from ''Series/MenBehavingBadly'' and Series/DocMartin.
589** The Celestial Toymaker is [[Film/Batman1989 Alfred Pennyworth]].
590** John in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance of the Daleks]]" is Geoffrey from ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''.
591** Series 3 and 4 co-star Creator/FreemaAgyeman shows up in the Series 2 episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts Army of Ghosts]]" [[RetCon Martha's strangely-identical cousin]].
592** ''Series/Merlin2008'' later cast quite a few ''Doctor Who'' alums:
593*** Jeff from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]" is Sir Percival.
594*** Jethro from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight Midnight]]" is Merlin himself.
595*** Reinette's friend Katherine from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace The Girl in the Fireplace]]" is Gwen.
596** Frank from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan Daleks in Manhattan]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks Evolution of the Daleks]]"? [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan Spider-Man.]]
597** King Richard the Lionheart from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade The Crusade]]" and Count Scarlotti from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" would become [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack General Veers]] and [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade Walter Donovan]], the last bringing the RetroactiveRecognition inadvertently full circle.
598** Hal from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior The Time Warrior]]" is [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Boba Fett]].
599** Tom Milligan from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]" is [[Series/Lucifer2016 Lucifer.]]
600** Anahson from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]" is [[Film/BlackPanther2018 Princess Shuri]].
601** Astos the nurse from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E5TheTsurangaConundrum The Tsuranga Condundrum]]" is [[Series/TedLasso Roy Kent]].
602** Clara the Clown, the Queen of Hearts, and Mrs. Wiggs from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker The Celestial Toymaker]]" and Ruth from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]" are played by Creator/CarmenSilvera, who would later be best known for playing Edith Artois in ''Series/AlloAllo''.
603** Lieutenant Commander Tony Mitchell from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E3TheSeaDevils The Sea Devils]]" is played by Creator/DavidGriffin, who would later be best known for playing Clive Dempster in ''Series/HiDeHi'' and Emmet Hawksworth in ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances''.
604** Sir George Hardiman from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E3TheClawsOfAxos The Claws of Axos]]" is played by Creator/DonaldHewlett, who would later be best known for playing Colonel Reynolds in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'' and Lord Meldrum in ''Series/YouRangMLord''.
605** Popplewell from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe The Ultimate Foe]]" is played by Creator/GeoffreyHughes, who would later be best known for playing Onslow in ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'' and Twiggy in ''Series/TheRoyleFamily''.
606** Technician Penn from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E6TheSpacePirates The Space Pirates]]" is played by Creator/GeorgeLayton, who would later be best known for playing Paul Collier in ''Series/DoctorInTheHouse'' and Bombardier Solomons in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum''.
607** Marat from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E4PlanetOfTheDaleks Planet of the Daleks]]" and a Thal soldier from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks]]" are played by Creator/HilaryMinster, who would later be best known for playing General von Klinkerhoffen in ''Series/AlloAllo''.
608** Maddy from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E2ParadiseTowers Paradise Towers]]" is played by Creator/JudyCornwell, who would later be best known for playing Daisy in ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances''.
609** 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|1986}}''.
610** Vorg from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E2CarnivalOfMonsters Carnivals of Monsters]]" is played by Creator/LeslieDwyer, who would later be best known for playing Mr. Partridge in ''Series/HiDeHi''.
611** Wells from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]" is played by Creator/NicholasSmith, who would later be best known for playing Mr. Rumbold in ''Series/AreYouBeingServed''.
612** Harper from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" is played by Creator/RudolphWalker, who would later be best known for playing Bill Reynolds in ''Series/LoveThyNeighbour'' and Constable Gladstone in ''Series/TheThinBlueLine''.
613** Fred Mullins from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace Spearhead from Space]]" and Dave from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath The Green Death]]" are played by Creator/TalfrynThomas, who would later be best known for playing Private Cheeseman in ''Series/DadsArmy''.
614** Toby from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks The Evil of the Daleks]]" is played by Creator/WindsorDavies, who would later be best known for playing Sergeant Major Williams in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum''.
615** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar Lorna Bucket]] is played by Creator/ChristinaChong, over a decade before her role as [[Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds La'an Noonien-Singh]].
616* RoboShip: Doctor and TARDIS. [[ShipTease Hinted at]] at various occasions, especially during the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh Doctor's tenure. Now, '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife official, in-universe canon]]'''.
617* 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 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.
618* RootingForTheEmpire: Let's face it, there are people out there who aren't ''Doctor Who fans'' per-se, but really ''Dalek fans''. During the 60s when Doctor Who first started and the Daleks first appeared, the case of people rooting for the Dalek Empire was so great, it led to the Daleks becoming the first recurring enemy of the show, and subsequently a wave of pop culture surrounding them called 'Dalekmania', marked by an excess of Dalek merchandise, comic books focused on them, and film versions of their first two TV serials. They even got comic strips before the Doctor before their second appearance.
619* SugarWiki/RuleOfSeanConnery: No matter how bad a particular storyline might be, or even an entire production era, odds are someone will point out that the best part about the episode/era is the actor playing the Doctor and often (but not always) the companion(s) as well.
620* SalvagedStory:
621** There's a contingent of fans who felt that Donna Noble deserved better than her fate in "Journey's End": 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]].
622** "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 several 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.
623* TheScrappy:
624** Dodo Chaplet from Season 3 has a pretty poor standing among the fandom. She was written to be a fashionable young Londoner - which might have worked, had the showrunner at the time, Creator/JohnWiles, not had a rather negative view of young people of the time. As a result, her only real personality trait was being maddeningly dumb. Her character lasted only six stories before getting unceremoniously dropped from the show in a throwaway line. It's a mark of how little the fandom cared for her that a popular rumour was that she died of syphilis.
625** Adric was a failed attempt at the producers creating an audience surrogate for the prime fan base. Instead, he came off as [[ThisLoserIsYou a snotty, pompous, whining, arrogant and almost entirely unbearable maths geek]]. And despite being incredibly arrogant about his intelligence, he has a tendency to either screw up the Doctor's plans or, as in one notable case, gets suckered into helping the bad guy's EvilScheme, despite it being very transparently evil, thus making his reported intelligence something of an InformedAbility.
626** Peri is hated by many fans for being considered a generic companion and quite sexualized by the production. Her dynamics with the Sixth Doctor was also criticized, for seeming uncomfortable at various times with an abusive relationship, with many fans questioning why she was still travelling with him.
627** The Sixth Doctor (at least his television incarnation) was found to be obnoxious, abrasive, and an empty attempt by the producers to make the show DarkerAndEdgier. Although ExpandedUniverse media have largely contributed to this character being RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap.
628** 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, highlighted her computer skills (which her original run largely ignored), and ''she didn't scream''. Many fans commented that the episode made them view her in a much better light.
629** The New Paradigm Daleks. Audiences mockingly dubbed them the "Rainbow Daleks" or "iDaleks" due to their bright colour casings, and so they were quietly written out and the old Bronze coloured Daleks were brought out of retirement.
630** Danny Pink. He is viewed as a pointless SatelliteLoveInterest with a forced rivalry with the Doctor and DieForOurShip also comes into play for those who want to see Clara with the Doctor. His character in-and-off itself was pretty barebones, and can be summed as "he was a soldier once, and it made him kind of sad." What little personality he ''does'' have paints him as moody and insecure. His relationship with Clara also suffered from getting StrangledByTheRedString and poor writing not helped by the actor who had a lot of DullSurprise moments. Quite a few people were delighted when he was [[TakeThatScrappy killed off in "Dark Water"]].
631* SeasonalRot: Being a {{Long Runner|s}} with a huge fanbase, the series seems to be called on this one with every season, with symptoms ranging from [[TheNthDoctor cast changes]] to [[ReTool shifts in direction]] to questionmark lapels appearing.
632** While not a severe case of this trope, the last full seasons for both the First and Second Doctors (Seasons 3 and 6 respectively) are felt to be a slight step down after two very solid seasons each. While both Seasons contain great stories, they also contain some of their weakest stories of their tenure in both seasons.
633** The Third Doctor's last season (Season 11) is often considered his weakest. It did introduce one of the best loved companions Sarah Jane Smith, in the well-received first story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior The Time Warrior]]", but "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]" is a good story with awful special effects (even for the standards of the show), "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E3DeathToTheDaleks Death to the Daleks]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E4TheMonsterOfPeladon The Monster of Peladon]]" seem to contain a lot of RecycledPlot and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders Planet of the Spiders]]" feels quite padded. It didn't help that the Master's actor had suddenly died, scrapping the original plans for an emotional sendoff to the Master and the Doctor.
634** While there's no general consensus about the Fourth Doctor era after the exit of producer Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe, many fans found Season 17 (the last season produced by Creator/GrahamWilliams and with Creator/DouglasAdams as scrip editor) to be lacklustre. Yes, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" is almost universally considered to be one of the best stories of all time, but it doesn't make up for the despised "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks Destiny of the Daleks]]", the innuendo-laden "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E3TheCreatureFromThePit The Creature from the Pit]]", the Anvilicious "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E4NightmareOfEden Nightmare of Eden]]", the ridiculous "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon The Horns of Nimon]]", or the fact that the entire season was cut short by a poorly-timed crew workers strike.
635** 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/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors 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.
636** One thing nearly everyone seems to agree on is that seasons 22 through 24 (1985-7), better known as the two seasons of the Sixth Doctor and the first season of the Seventh Doctor, were the nadir of the classic series, although different fans pick different ones of those seasons as the worst.
637*** 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. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros Vengeance on Varos]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks Revelation of the Daleks]]" are considered the only really good stories of this season.
638*** Season 23 had the unpopular "Trial of a Time Lord" extended arc, some very lacklustre writing, and an ending that revealed the behind-the-scenes chaos the show had descended into by being almost incomprehensible, unintentionally. Both this and the previous season are also notable for bothersome amounts of ContinuityLockOut and ContinuityPorn.
639*** Season 24 suffers from a LighterAndSofter shift that many fans considered to go too far into glitzy {{Camp}}, Creator/SylvesterMcCoy playing the Doctor as an actual [[TheDitz Ditz]] instead of his later, more popular performance as a world-weary ManipulativeBastard who occasionally engaged in ObfuscatingStupidity, and Keff [=McCulloch=] and his disco-aerobics brand of incidental music.
640*** All three seasons also suffered from having two of the most widely unpopular companions in the show's history: Peri who was one of the few pre-1989 companions to genuinely be as [[DamselScrappy hapless]] and frequently-demeaned as post-2005-only fans and lazy media commentators claim all of them were; and Mel who was [[TheScrappy just annoying]] and played by [[Creator/BonnieLangford an actress who had an irritating public image and a lot of baggage from earlier roles]].
641** One point that many fans and casual viewers of the revival era of Doctor Who can agree on are that Series 1, Series 4, Series 5, Series 9 and Series 10 are solid series overall with few points of contention. However, the rest of the series are subject to personal opinion as to which series of the revival era is the weakest.
642*** Series 2 of the new series (season 28 overall) is considered the least of the first four, due in part to an over-reliance on the Doctor/Rose ship and the show in general becoming a little too goofy, even for Who. A lot of people also found 10 and Rose's smug, self-involved behaviour unbearable. It also produced three of the least liked Doctor Who stories, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E7TheIdiotsLantern The Idiot's Lantern]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters Love & Monsters]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E11FearHer Fear Her]]". On the other hand, it wasn't a complete disaster; Creator/DavidTennant's performance as the Doctor was fantastic, catapulting him to star status and making him the most popular Doctor since Creator/TomBaker. Another positive is the finale, which had Daleks vs Cybermen and a very satisfactory ending to the season's arc. Though that ending is becoming a bit of a base breaker due to Rose gaining quite a hatedom. And many people don't think the arc had a good payoff.
643*** Series 3 also gets this. The general reasons are a major focus on the Doctor grieving Rose's departure at the expense of his new companion and the companion in question being not as developed. The finale is also considered by many fans to be the weakest of the RTD era. That being said, this series is still generally seen as good and an improvement over the previous series. It's even home to some of the best episodes of the entire show, including the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature-]][[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood The Family of Blood two parter]], and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink Blink]].
644*** The "Specials Year" that saw out Tennant's tenure is seen as a step down compared to Series 4, with the first two stories being fairly average and unmemorable, the third actually pretty decent, and Tennant's final story ''massively'' divisive, with some considering it a worthy GrandFinale to both Tennant's and Davies' time on the show, but others seeing it a bloated and {{Wangst}}-filled example of Creator/RussellTDavies overindulging in some of his worst flaws as a showrunner, and bringing Donna back after her heart-breaking exit only to do nothing with her.
645*** The general consensus for Series 6 is that the series had a lot of good, ambitious ideas that were sometimes tripped up by shaky writing. Fans complained that the constant twists in the convoluted story arc hurt the overall flow of the season, causing odd swerves in tone and character development. Some accused the River Song arc of being a RomanticPlotTumour, or just disliked her in general. Amy's pregnancy was another source of controversy, with some taking offense to how it was portrayed. On the flip side, many of the episodes from that series like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon Day Of The Moon]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctor's Wife]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar A Good Man Goes To War]]", [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited The Girl Who Waited]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E11TheGodComplex The God Complex]]" are well liked by fans and critics, and have come to be regarded as some of the Eleventh Doctor's best stories in retrospect.
646*** Series 7 had problems ironically partially caused by trying to get away from the problems of Series 6. The overly-complex Silence plotline was dropped completely, only getting a belated and perfunctory tie-up in the next year's Christmas special. Writers instead focused on standalone episodes, but these suffered from lacklustre execution, sometimes as a result of pacing. Casting changes were also criticized. Some fans don't think The Ponds got the exit they deserved, and Clara is either one of the best companions of the new series or a glorified MacGuffinGirl and CreatorsPet.
647*** Series 8 isn't as badly regarded as Series 7, but the Twelfth Doctor's debut season suffered for Clara's belated CharacterDevelopment eating up lots of screen time; Twelve's unusually prickly, if not unlikeable, initial characterization and relationship dynamic with her proving inconsistent; a RomanticPlotTumour between Clara and Danny Pink; a pair of too-silly-even-for-''Who'' plots in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Kill the Moon]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight In the Forest of the Night]]"; and an ultimately gloomy StoryArc with a BittersweetEnding that felt more like a DownerEnding for the leads.
648*** Although unfortunately the reception of Series 11 was affected by misogynist fans who did not approve of the concept of a female Doctor, even many of those who supported Creator/JodieWhittaker's casting conceded that it suffered from Yaz being an under-developed companion, several weak and unmemorable stories (with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa Rosa]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E6DemonsOfThePunjab Demons of the Punjab]]" being exceptions), and an underwhelming finale. Creator/JodieWhittaker's performance is praised, but a lot of those excited for a female Doctor were rather put off that Thirteen's initial season made her the most ineffective Doctor since the Fifth Doctor, hardly ever getting a clean win as Karma Houdinis abound. HistoryRepeats as well with the issue of Yaz's underdevelopment, since a major criticism of the Fifth Doctor's era was his having too many companions.
649*** Series 12 was seen as a case of two steps forward, one step back -- or vice-versa, depending on who you ask. The overall quality of stories was seen as an improvement, in no small part thanks to the show starting to make use of popular recurring villains such as the Daleks, the Master, and the Cybermen again, and even managing to sneak in a surprise return by Jack Harkness. However, lack of character focus remained an issue (this time giving Yaz more development, but at the expense of mostly pushing Ryan into the background), and the season's reception was weighed down first by "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E3Orphan55 Orphan 55]]", which was widely regarded as the worst post-2005 episode by no small margin, and then by an ''incredibly'' divisive {{retcon}}ning of the Doctor's (and by extension, the entire show's) backstory in the season finale.
650*** Series 13 (Flux), while generally regarded as the best of the Thirteenth Doctor's seasons, still had its issues. The shortening of the season from ten episodes to six, while enforced by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, ultimately made for a more focused and faster-paced narrative, with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E1FluxChapterOneTheHalloweenApocalypse The Halloween Apocalypse]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E2FluxChapterTwoWarOfTheSontarans War of the Sontarans]]" and especially "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E4FluxChapterFourVillageOfTheAngels Village of the Angels]]" being some of the better-received stories from this era. However, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E3FluxChapterThreeOnceUponTime Once, Upon Time]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E5FluxChapterFiveSurvivorsOfTheFlux Survivors of the Flux]]" were both regarded as pretty forgettable and exposition-heavy, and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E6FluxChapterSixTheVanquishers The Vanquishers]]" was seen as a yet another underwhelming finale.
651* {{Shipping}}:
652** Ian and Barbara. Canon as of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''' fourth series, which mention an "Ian and Barbara Chesterton".
653** Ben/Polly. Running an orphanage according to the above SJA episode.
654** Jamie with Victoria, Zoe and Peri. [[HoYay And The Second Doctor.]]
655** The Fourth Doctor/Romana (especially her second incarnation). For one thing, she was the first woman the Doctor explicitly noted as attractive. Helps that Creator/TomBaker and Creator/LallaWard were in a real-life relationship at the time.
656** Nyssa and Tegan.
657** In the revival series, the writers were more open in implying romance between the Doctor and their 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.
658* ShipToShipCombat: People pretty much ship Anyone/Anyone on the show. Canon or not, they can get ''very'' defensive over their ship(s), and woe betide the series if it introduces a new love interest (whether real or just perceived) for the Doctor.
659* ShockingMoments:
660** The series does outdo itself constantly in this area due to thrills and scares, but very few can compare to the sudden reemergence of the ''TIME LORDS'' in the final scene of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" Part One, and their TitleDrop of just what they plan to do.
661** Specifically, when the viewer gets out ahead of the plot on that one and realizes what's coming just soon enough to scream 'HOLY SHIT' about twenty times before the event actually happens.
662** The Daleks returning at the climax of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts Army of Ghosts]]"? That was a big secret held by the production team at the time. These days, the following episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]" is generally known for being Daleks v Cybermen.
663** The Doctor on the point of near-death dies ten times, and has his appearance forcibly changed at the end of the Creator/PatrickTroughton era.
664** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]": the Doctor had a secret incarnation that he hid because he did something so terrible that he renounced the name of "the Doctor": He was the one who ended the Time War by wiping out the Time Lords (or, as it turned out, only believed that he did).
665** "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" provided this just through the extent of its {{Call Back}}s to the show's history, from ''every'' Doctor showing up to help freeze Gallifrey in the show's climax, to the revelation of the ''Twelfth'' Doctor's input, to the appearance of Creator/TomBaker as the Curator in the episode's epilogue (marking his first appearance in an official episode of the show for the first time since leaving it in 1981).
666** 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, it was revealed that actress Creator/JodieWhittaker was selected as the Thirteenth Doctor, the first ever female to take on the lead role.
667* SoBadItsGood: In a long-lived series like this one, some stories have earned some good-natured infamy.
668** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E5TheUnderwaterMenace The Underwater Menace]]"; one printed review in ''SFX'' magazine describing it as "''[[Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace Plan Nine from Doctor Who]]''".
669** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E2TheInvisibleEnemy The Invisible Enemy]]" can count since it has many special fx failures, an insane plot and a hilariously unthreatening villain, but it is entertaining and the script is decent; plus it introduced K-9, one of the most iconic companions.
670** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon The Horns of Nimon]]" has this reputation. [[HamAndCheese Graham Crowden's performance as Soldeed]] is by far one of the hammiest, most over-the-top performances in the entire series, and that is ''really'' saying something. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRUqJSCOyZ4 His death scene is proof enough.]]
671** The cheesealicious, chock-full-o'-synthesizer soundtrack of the late-1980s, especially in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks "Remembrance of the Daleks"]].
672* SoOkayItsAverage: With a long running franchise such as Who that's had its highs & lows, there have been a lot of episodes/serials that are just kind of average & forgettable.
673* SophomoreSlump: The second years of the first two revival showrunners (Series 2 and Series 6) have been accused of this:
674** General fandom consensus is that the second series has its gems (like the wonderful "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion School Reunion]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace The Girl in the Fireplace]]", and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet The Impossible Planet]]"), but as a whole it's rather unimpressive and bland, especially compared to the Ninth Doctor's tightly written character arc from the previous first season. Series 2 was bogged down by terrible CGI, too much time spent on contemporary Earth, and some of the blandest, poorly written filler episodes in the show's canon, such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E7TheIdiotsLantern The Idiot's Lantern]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters Love & Monsters]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E11FearHer Fear Her]]". There was also a story arc that didn't give as great a reveal as other Series, and which many fans felt was there for Creator/RussellTDavies to set up his own show. Also, despite many fans loving the Doctor/Rose romance, there is quite a group that felt it was becoming a RomanticPlotTumour; even those who liked Rose in the first series felt she and the Doctor were becoming unlikable here due to their codependent attitudes and their callous disregard for everyone else beyond each other that was woven throughout the entire season and eventually came to a head in the finale.
675** The sixth series is this, being the second season of Creator/StevenMoffat's tenure as show runner (with a new Doctor, new companion, and a lot of new people behind the scenes). The general reception to Series 6 was mixed to positive, compared to the outstanding response to Moffat's first series. Some of the show's best episodes ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon Day Of The Moon]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctor's Wife]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar A Good Man Goes To War]]", [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited The Girl Who Waited]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E11TheGodComplex The God Complex]]") were alongside some of that era's weakest instalments ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E3TheCurseOfTheBlackSpot The Curse of the Black Spot]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E9NightTerrors Night Terrors]]"). Additionally, many felt like Moffat was trying to do a little too much and the plot got tangled, and the characterization of River Song took a hit. In a [[http://www.nerdist.com/2013/11/doctor-who-a-companions-companion-series-6/ season review]] from the Nerdist (one of ''Doctor Who'''s biggest cheerleaders), the writer even uses the term Sophomore Slump to describe it.
676* {{Squick}}:
677** The pulsating brain in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp Mindwarp]]" is nauseating. Great effect, though.
678** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters Love & Monsters]]", Elton mentions having a love life with a slab of concrete, with the slab rightfully telling him not to go into any more detail.
679** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow The Beast Below]], the Doctor gets himself and Amy ejected from a giant mouth by making the animal vomit. They go out screaming, with their mouths open.
680* StrangledByTheRedString:
681** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime The Invasion of Time]]": Companion Leela decides to stay on Gallifrey and marry the guard Andred. There's been nothing romantic between them. While the actors tried to suggest attraction in the story with their acting, the script didn't give them much to work with. It was basically, Doctor: "Come on, Leela, let's go." Leela: "No, I'm going to stay here and marry Andred." Doctor: "Okay, bye." This happened because the actress told the producer she was leaving at the end of the season, and he kept trying to change her mind. The Big Finish audio drama series ''Gallifrey'' ends up subverting this relationship in a fairly satisfying way.
682** The posthumous pairing of Peri with King Yrcanos at the end of "Trial of a Time Lord". Apparently, Creator/ColinBaker was distressed by Peri's death at the end of the "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp Mindwarp]]" portion of the StoryArc and mentioned this to producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner. JNT, in his usual subtle way, fixed the problem by giving the Inquisitor a quick line stating that Peri is living happily with Yrcanos as a warrior queen, despite how nothing in the story apart from the brief clip of his putting his hand on her shoulder that is shown ''after'' that line supports that romance, and doing a {{Retcon}} of it makes a hash of the entire end of the story.
683** Martha Jones and Mickey Smith, two characters who before "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]" had never even met, and had only been onscreen together in the scene where ''everybody from the new series ever'' flies the TARDIS, are shown in their "happy ending" vignette in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" as a married couple, freelancers and fighting a Sontaran. This is despite the fact that Martha had been shown to be engaged in a previous appearance (though her fiance never showed up). This naturally got a lot of accusations that they were only paired up because [[TokenShipping they're both black.]]
684** River and Eleven for some, due to the main gimmick of their relationship being that they meet in the wrong order and therefore one tends to gain affection as the other loses it. Post-"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong The Wedding of River Song]]" they seem to be on the same wavelength, alleviating this aspect of their relationship.
685** Clara Oswald and Danny Pink are this to some fans too. The relationship has rushed development that includes getting together at the end of "Listen" when they'd ''just'' endured a disastrous date. Wooden acting and bad writing on Danny's end really did not help, nor did the unsubtle introduction of a LoveTriangle -esque scenario midway through the season (Clara continuing to travel with the Doctor while lying to Danny about it). The entire introduction of Danny was perceived my some as an awkward attempt to give Clara a new love interest in the mistaken assumption that viewers wouldn't accept the relationship between Clara and the Doctor established in Series 7 continuing with an older actor in the role; this backfired.
686** River Song again, this time with the Twelfth Doctor. Despite River having been written out ''twice'' by Creator/StevenMoffat during the Eleventh Doctor's era, he decided to bring her back for a romantic dalliance with the Twelfth Doctor in the 2015 Christmas special. Which would have been fine if said special hadn't aired a mere three weeks after the conclusion of the ill-fated romance between the Doctor and Clara Oswald [[note]]ExpandedUniverse comics have it that it was much longer for the Doctor in-universe, with him taking on several short-term companions in turn[[/note]]. One chunk of the fandom was glad to see Twelve finally thrown a bone after a season that had '''no''' {{Breather Episode}}s and unimaginable personal suffering; the other chunk felt he moved on from Clara too quickly even though 1) they mutually realized it was no longer a healthy relationship and 2) he [[spoiler: doesn't remember what made him love her thanks to the mind wipe]], meaning he doesn't have much to brood over in the first place.
687* StrawmanHasAPoint:
688** 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.]]
689-->'''Colonel Mace''': [[ScrewYouElves Thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much for your lack of faith, but this time I'm not listening.]] ''He pulls off his gas mask and dons his badass hat.''
690** In the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]", aspiring glamour photographer Isobel suggests getting proof of the Cybermen's presence in the sewers by going down to take pictures. TheBrigadier agrees, but intends to use his own men instead, on the basis that such a situation is [[StayInTheKitchen no place for a lady]]. Isobel blows up at how backward and sexist he's being, but the Brig refuses, and both girls gang up on Jamie for agreeing with him and both she and Zoe [[IdiotBall walk away in a huff to get the pics themselves]] with Jamie worriedly tagging along, which ends up getting [[RedShirt a police officer and a UNIT soldier]] sent to rescue them killed. While it could easily be argued that the Brig was in the wrong to assume they could not handle themselves for being ''women'', it might have been better to let trained and experienced soldiers do the dangerous work, and neither of the girls are called out for their reckless actions getting two men killed. To add insult to injury, Isobel's photos end up being useless since she's never done any surveillance or dim-lighting photography.
691** Both Harriet Jones and Torchwood One are presented by both the Doctor and the script writers as being entirely in the wrong for respectively shooting the Sycorax InTheBack [[ShootTheDog while they were retreating]], and harvesting alien technology. However, both characters make the accurate point that the Doctor, being functionally immortal, is reckless and treats death like a game, and is often not there when the Earth needs him which requires them to have other options to defend themselves against less friendly aliens. Furthermore, he is indirectly responsible for a good portion of the threats the Earth encounters in the first place--which is ironically showcased by Ten forcing Jones out of office in retaliation for the Sycorax, paving the way for the Master to become Prime Minister two seasons later.
692** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]" the Doctor is disgusted when his clone destroys the Dalek fleet and treats him like a monster, even though the Daleks are fanatical mass-murderers who never negotiate and letting them live would inevitably lead to countless more deaths. They had just come close to destroying the Universe and it probably wouldn't be too difficult for them to try again, considering from what we see the Doctor was just willing to leave them like they were, when it probably wouldn't be too difficult for them to recover. We later see that a few Daleks surviving rebuild their race, which has led to a lot more death and destruction throughout the Universe.
693** Whizkid in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E4TheGreatestShowInTheGalaxy Greatest Show In The Galaxy]]" is a cruel stereotype of the ''Doctor Who'' fans of the period, complaining that "[[PraisingShowsYouDontWatch although I never saw it in the early days]] I know it's not as good as it used to be." Except, as pointed out in ''The Completely Useless Encyclopedia'', Whizkid is ''right'' about the circus, and the reasons are [[AnalogyBackfire pretty much exactly the criticisms]] fans were making about eighties ''Doctor Who''.
694** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E2TheCurseOfPeladon The Curse of Peladon]]" Hepesh is treated as an unreasonable nationalist willing to do anything not to deal with the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. But "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E4TheMutants The Mutants]]" two serials later shows that an earlier Human Empire did to the planet Solos exactly what Hepesh feared would happen to Peladon, exploited to the point of destruction and with the native population almost wiped out. Decades later, "Planet of the Ood" would give another good reason to dislike the empire.
695** The Doctor often criticised the Time Lords in the original series for sitting around being pompous instead of using their powers to intervene more, content to let whole civilisations be destroyed on their watch. However, with all the dangerous renegades like the Monk, the War Chief, the Master, and the Rani running around with all the damage they cause, and the Doctor himself often centimetres away from full AGodAmI status, it makes sense that the Time Lords prefer not to intervene except for major problems. When they first appeared they did interfere, the Doctor calling them in to stop a plan to conquer a galaxy with an ArmyOfTheAges assisted by a rogue Time Lord, and the Time Lords occasionally sent the Doctor, especially the Third, to assist affairs on an important scale. That's before considering that when the Time Lords intervened in "The Trial of a Time Lord", this action almost destroyed Earth, and when they sent the Doctor to destroy the Daleks before they were created it ended up being the first shot in a GreatOffscreenWar that nearly destroyed the universe. The serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E5Underworld Underworld]]" even reveals that when the Time Lords first interacted with another planet by giving them advanced technology, the planet and nearly all of the species were wiped out.
696** In "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]", Ten and Eleven criticize Kate Stewart for being willing to blow up the Black Archive (and a good chunk of London with it) in order to keep the Zygons from using the technology stored in the Archive to conquer Earth. Sure, the Doctors come up with an alternate solution, but at the time, Kate didn't see another option (although there were only a few Zygons, and she could summon an army).
697** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK Arachnids in the UK]]": Robertson is a {{Jerkass}}, NeverMyFault, ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, [[GunNut trigger-happy]] American stereotype who kills the mother spider by shooting it with his dead bodyguard's pistol. However, the spiders had killed at least four people (including said bodyguard) with the intent of eating them like flies, they were nonsentient and could not be politely reasoned with, and the mother spider was already suffering a horrible and slow death by asphyxiation.
698* TaintedByThePreview:
699** The ads for Series 11 got quite a bit of controversy for leaning hard on the new Doctor being a woman, with one especially infamous one showing her literally breaking a glass ceiling. Note that this was after ''months'' of the crew insisting they wouldn't be making any kind of big deal out of it.
700** Furthermore, some fans took issue with the adverts for not revealing much information about the new series beyond the identities of the Doctor's new companions, which could have been taken to suggest a lack of confidence on the BBC's part. However, given that this stands in stark contrast to promotional material for previous series (which were criticised for giving away full-on spoilers), it may simply be the BBC learning from its mistakes.
701* TakeThatScrappy:
702** The Doctor certainly has some choice words for Adric and his dubious behaviour in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E2FourToDoomsday Four to Doomsday]]":
703--->'''5th Doctor:''' Now listen to me, you young idiot, you're not so much gullible as idealistic. I suppose it comes from your deprived delinquent background.
704** And earlier in the same story, ''Nyssa'' tells him to shut up.
705** In an extra on the DVD version of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock Earthshock]]", Adric ''survives'' the spaceship crash, lands on prehistoric Earth... and is promptly eaten by a Tyrannosaurus. A detached Cyberman head remarks, "Excellent."
706* TearDryer: In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen The Tomb of the Cybermen]]", the Doctor awakens to find his new companion Victoria who is clearly still very sad over her father's death at the hands of the Daleks in the previous serial. Comforting her, the Doctor assures her that her memories of him won't be always be sad, and explains to her the sheer wonder of their opportunity to travel all of time and space.
707* ThemePairing:
708** There's a portion of the fandom that ships Adric/Nyssa because they are [[ConvenientlyAnOrphan Orphaned]], HumanAlien, [[TeenGenius Teen Geniuses]] traveling through time and space together.
709** The Doctor and Sailor Pluto from ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' share many things: filling the role of TheOnlyOne, being {{Time Travel}}lers, having SurvivorGuilt, and being {{Genocide Survivor}}s.
710* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
711** 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 39th series in 2022, 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.
712** This is particularly true for Creator/MattSmith's run as the Doctor since they changed basically everything at the same time: new Doctor, new companions, [[Creator/StevenMoffat new showrunner]], new tone, new cameras, new TARDIS interior, new title sequence, new theme song arrangement, new foes (including a new look for the Daleks, though this was relegated later on), and even a new sonic screwdriver. Then you add the facts that Creator/MattSmith is the youngest actor ever to play the Doctor, that he directly succeeded Creator/DavidTennant (who as of 2013 is still considered the most popular Doctor and casts a gigantic shadow over Eleven and Twelve, especially to younger fans), and that Smith's Doctor was the goofiest yet of the revived series (Tennant and even Creator/ChristopherEccleston had their moments, but that was it). It's typical for ''Who'' actors to say they owe a great debt to their immediate predecessor, but Matt Smith sounded like he genuinely believed it.
713** 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 the 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.
714** Series 11 under Chibnall has been criticized for a lack of a story arc, the first series in the revival to dispense with one; this resulted in a very poorly received SeasonFinale that felt like an average episode than the game changer the SeasonFinale usually is. The fact that many feel that the writing of the episodes themselves was poor, and the greatly reduced number of {{Continuity Nod}}s, didn't help anything either.
715** Under Creator/ChrisChibnall a lot of changes were made - a reduced episode count, moving the show to Sunday, and more focus on new aliens instead of bringing back fan favourites - amongst others. But moving the annual holiday special from Christmas to New Year's Day is something that rankled a lot of fans who've come to see annual Christmas special as part of their holiday traditions and really don't appreciate the change, especially since Creator/StevenMoffat wrote "Twice Upon a Time" to keep the tradition since Chibnall didn't want his Doctor to debut at Christmas. However there was already a feeling among some that the show was running out of ideas for Christmas and that this was justified.
716*** 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. (However, Series 13 shows [[spoiler:the Doctor was putting a face on -- which she's very good at -- as her obsessive pursuit to learn more about her forgotten past leads her into the events of the season's story, which is very much driven by characters from that part of her life]].)
717* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
718** The {{Shapeshifting}} android Kamelion was shoehorned into the series in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E6TheKingsDemons The King's Demons]]", then promptly [[PutOnABus never appeared again]] until "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire Planet of Fire]]" where he was [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off]]. Apparently the complex animatronic puppet that represented the character was a nightmare to operate, never really worked correctly in the first place, and just to really top it off, its creator (who was the only person who really knew how to ''work'' the damn thing) had died without leaving any instructions. Ironically, it was only in "Planet of Fire" where they used the character in a way that ''should'' have allowed him to appear in the other intervening episodes - being a ''shapeshifting'' android, Kamelion takes the forms of Peri's stepfather and the Master for most of the serial as he acts under the Master's control. It baffles the mind that they didn't simply have Kamelion shape-shift into a human actor (or even several) to take part in the story if they had any interest in using the character.
719** The Valeyard is the Doctor's dark side, which has split off from him... or something. Basically, he's an evil version of the Doctor from somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnation. The concept of the Doctor going bad is terrifying in so many ways, and the Valeyard is still out there as well. And yet, he has only ever shown up in one season, "The Trial of a Time Lord", and his true nature was only revealed in the last two episodes.[[note]]This is actually because Robert Holmes didn't intend the twist, but died before writing the final story, with the new writing team legally forbidden from knowing his intended ending during the writing process.[[/note]] He has expanded universe appearances as well, but nothing whatsoever in the show since then, aside from a shout out by the Great Intelligence. Whether he will ever come back or not is up for debate.
720** The Great Intelligence in the second part of Series 7. The show makes an effort to reimagine him as an EvilCounterpart to the Doctor, and seems to leave the impression that he'll be an interesting long-term enemy. Not only are the implications or similarities between the Doctor and Great Intelligence left mostly unexplored, but by the end of the series, [[spoiler:the Intelligence is most likely dead, or at least won't be appearing again for a long time]]. Not to mention that fact that, according to the EU, he is the disembodied mind of [[EldritchAbomination Yog-Sothoth]], embodiment of time and space.
721** Canton Everett Delaware III. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]" almost outright states that he's one of the Doctor's most trusted still-living human allies, since he's one of just five people that he chose to tell about his impending "death" (the other four being Amy, Rory, River, and [[MyFutureSelfAndMe himself]]). Aside from that, he's a very memorable BadassNormal maverick FBI agent who answers directly to the President of the United States, and he's openly engaged in an interracial same-sex relationship in the 1960's. In spite of all that juicy development, though, he's completely dropped after the two-part opener of Series 6 and never mentioned again. The last we see of him from his timeline is the older Canton 40 years later coming to see the Eleventh Doctor's "death" and then outright saying that this will be the last time he'll be seeing Amy, Rory, and River.
722** With the Thirteenth Doctor having three companions, one of them typically gets the short end of attention from each script, and Ryan and Graham's complex and fertile relationship means that most of the time it's Yaz. In particular, her being a police officer hardly ever gets brought up, even with there being a few situations where it would come in handy.
723** Ashad, the Lone Cyberman, was one of the more interesting and complex villains introduced to the rebooted series and helped make the Cybermen legitimately threatening again. His multi-episode story arc sadly ends with him taking a backseat to yet another one of the Master's plots and becomes nothing more than a literal prop for a confrantation between the Doctor and the Master.
724* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
725** Nyssa and Tegan's introductions saw the Master steal the former's father's body and accidentally destroy her home planet and murder the latter's aunt. None of these plots were ever resolved, in fact he was still making appearances long after they departed.
726** At the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" Part 1, the Master has turned every human on Earth into the Master except two people: the Doctor's current companion, Wilfred Mott and Wilfred's granddaughter, former companion Donna Noble and ''Donna's starting to remember!'' OMG! Are we about to see the return of the Doctor Donna? Maybe she'll find a clever way to keep her memories without dying! At the very least, she's bound to play a key, pivotal role in Part 2, right? Right?? '''Wrong.''' At the start of Part 2, she gets chased around a little, then some AppliedPhlebotinum the Doctor left in her brain kicks in, knocking her and her pursuers out, and she doesn't wake up (and isn't seen again onscreen) until after the main crisis is over, and she wakes with her damn amnesia still intact. Also, ''Torchwood'' and ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' are going on at the same time -- what happened to those people? Gwen was ''pregnant'' around the day the Master created his new race. Luke apparently didn't change, because he is an artificial human manufactured by the Bane with strange differences from ordinary human DNA. Too bad that's never explored.
727** "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.
728** "[[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.
729** The most ''consistent'' complaint about the Series 9 finale "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" was that an event that one would have expected to be the focus of an entire episode -- [[spoiler: the Doctor returning to Gallifrey for the first time since the Time War and confronting Rassilon]] -- is, rather, the setup for the endgame of [[spoiler: his relationship with Clara]].
730* TooBleakStoppedCaring: A common criticism of the Sixth Doctor's era is that because the Sixth Doctor himself is an arrogant {{jerkass}} and his companion Peri has a combative and highly toxic dynamic with him most of the time, they tend to come off as unlikeable as the villains of their stories.
731* TooCoolToLive:
732** 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 "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]", then a cameo as a Guardian of the Edge.
733** The Ninth Doctor has the second-shortest tenure -- one TV series of 12 weeks. 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.
734** The War Doctor has a paltry screen time of under an hour, even less than [=McGann=] -- he's really a guest star (retroactively added to the show's timeline to boot) instead of a tenure holder. This being the incarnation who fought a huge and terrible war.
735** The Fugitive Doctor is also a guest star Doctor, getting four appearances during Thirteen's era, only two of which take place during her incarnation's life.
736** Father Octavian from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels The Time of Angels]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone Flesh and Stone]]". He sets a standard for FaceDeathWithDignity that from now on everyone's going to be struggling to match.
737** Isaac from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E3ATownCalledMercy A Town Called Mercy]]". He's loyal, brave, is a man of integrity and a leader that everyone seems to trust, has a dry sense of humour and is quite easy on the eyes (being played by Ben Browder). Of course he's doomed.
738* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Colin Baker's run was characterised by weak writing and a characterisation for his Doctor 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.
739* TooSexyForThisTimeslot: Some of the papers felt that Amy's policewoman outfit was this.
740* ToughActToFollow:
741** Everyone's favourite Doctor is a tough act to follow -- not to name names; you know where the [[BrokenBase bases are broken]].
742** 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. (Though it does depend whether you're counting by years or seasons, due to the number of hiatuses during the Modern Era - by 2023, it had been running for 18 years and 13 seasons, with more to come.)
743** The First Doctor's era was one to the Second Doctor's era. At the time Creator/PatrickTroughton took over the role, Creator/WilliamHartnell was THE Doctor and audiences weren't accustomed yet to the idea of [[TheNthDoctor regeneration]], and so Troughton's era suffered a ratings decline as a result. Although nowadays his era is largely seen as VindicatedByHistory, with Troughton himself being seen as the actor who did the most to shape the Doctor's personality in the show's early years.
744** The Fourth Doctor. Regardless of who your favourite Doctor is or what you think of the quality of the show when he was the star, the simple fact is that Creator/TomBaker played the Doctor on television for the longest period of time and was watched by more people in the UK than any of his predecessors or successors (episode four of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" continues to hold the record for the largest amount of viewers that a ''Doctor Who'' TV story has enjoyed on first UK broadcast). His episodes were also the first ones to break into the American market. His look, with the distinctive curly hair and eighteen-foot multicoloured scarf, is instantly iconic, and it's fair to say that almost every one of his successors, including those in the modern revival, has been inspired by or drawn on his portrayal in some way. It's also telling that Tom Baker was the only classic series Doctor to appear in the 50th anniversary special in person rather than as just stock footage. Put simply, even today for many people the Fourth Doctor simply is ''the'' Doctor.
745** 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.
746** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]" just feels like it set the bar way too high for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma The Twin Dilemma]]". The producers should have waited until the next year to introduce the Sixth Doctor and formulate a better story, instead of rushing to the plate with the hype for Creator/ColinBaker's portrayal. At least that would have provided a lot of time for a better script.
747** In terms of the modern series, the Tenth Doctor as played by Creator/DavidTennant has become 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.
748** As Series 9 was critically acclaimed by fans and critics alike for its multi-part episodes, deeper CharacterDevelopment carried from Series 7B and 8, and extreme emotional heft regarding the relationship between the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald, it was '''initially''' seen as this to Series 10, which came after a year-plus hiatus spelled only by two [[BreatherEpisode breather Christmas specials]] and displayed an more-or-less clean slate (albeit with a lot of {{Continuity Nod}}s) from the first episode alone (which was even called "The Pilot"). While it still received a lot of acclaim, thanks in large part to the '''very''' well-received team of the Twelfth Doctor and Bill Potts (plus secondary companion Nardole), there were complaints up through "Knock Knock" that it was too lightweight. Then the stakes were dramatically raised with "Oxygen" (and its shocking ending revealing [[spoiler: the Doctor was still blind]]) and the Monks Trilogy mid-season, and there was rejoicing. Of course, there's also a subset of fans who DIDN'T like Series 8 and 9, often because of the focus on the Twelve/Clara relationship, who were won back with early Series 10, often wishing that Twelve's era had been like this from the start. Not all of these fans were happy to see it take a darker turn.
749** 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 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.
750[[/folder]]
751
752[[folder:TV Series Tropes - U to Z]]
753
754* UglyCute:
755** The Adipose (cutest BodyHorror ever!)
756** [[EldritchAbomination Prisoner Zero]] can be this when it's not trying to scare people. [[spoiler: Especially when you hear its [[SnakeTalk voice.]]]]
757** The Ood. In fricking ''spades''.
758** Ganger-Jennifer. Her degeneration makes her look like Voldemort's younger sister.
759** 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 several decades 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".
760*** Even {{Creator/Jodie Whittaker}}, arguably the most conventionally attractive of the actors to play the part, has a tendency to pull [[http://upslapmeal.tumblr.com/post/178931882965/shes-beauty-shes-grace-she-scronch-she-face very odd but very endearing facial expressions.]]
761** The Sensorites from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E7TheSensorites The Sensorites]]", being a subversion of BeautyEqualsGoodness and a rather sweet and feeble species prone to SensoryOverload.
762** The Rills in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 Galaxy 4]]" are another BeautyEqualsGoodness subversion and look quite endearingly like walruses.
763** The Marshchild from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E3FullCircle Full Circle]]", a creature that's essentially a baby swamp monster. In one of the first scenes in which it appears, it's shown peering at the Doctor from behind a fallen tree, its obvious timidity combined with its endearingly ugly face giving it an almost irresistible cuteness. That cuteness is only enhanced by a subsequent scene in which it's shown materializing in a spaceship corridor behind the Doctor, only to go scurrying back out of sight a moment later. It doesn't help that its subsequent ill-treatment by a bunch of (apparent) humans propels it firmly into Woobie territory.
764** Daleks in general, at least their metal casings. What's not to love about a metal pepper shaker with a plunger and half an eggbeater for arms? Special reference goes to the squeaky-voiced and gurgly humanised Daleks in "The Evil of the Daleks", Dalek Caan and the Ironside in "Victory of the Daleks".
765** The Ood. Due to their benevolence and the fact they are all Woobies, once you get past the fact they've got mince meat where their mouths should be, they are very sweet.
766** The tiny old Doctor that the Master kept in a birdcage from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]". He was so tiny and sad! And kind of looked like [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Tweety Bird]], between the birdcage and the huge head. Also, there's something very endearing about the Doctor's personality in that minuscule body.
767** The baby Adiposians. Basically a pound of roughly humanoid animated fat. Possibly the cutest thing the show has ever featured. They become less cute when you remember that that pound of humanoid animated fat ''killed people'' when they came into existence, although 99% just [[{{Squick}} detach from a human and walk away]] one by one. The main characters even comment that it's not that bad a weight loss program, all things considered.
768** The Gangers are incomplete, unstable copies of human beings, all with a smooth, featureless NightmareFace with visible veins that looks like they are melting. They also managed to look vulnerable and sweet, especially the positively dainty Ganger of Jennifer.
769** Mr. Sweet from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E11TheCrimsonHorror The Crimson Horror]]" has elements of this, with his big black eyes.
770** The P'Ting from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E5TheTsurangaConundrum The Tsuranga Conundrum]]". Relentless, bad-tempered, highly dangerous, and something to be desperately avoided, it still manages to be adorable especially when it has a full belly.
771* UnexpectedCharacter:
772** Nardole in Series 10. The announcement that a bumbling comic relief character created as a one-off would be a ''companion'' from "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" onward came completely out of the blue -- especially given his state at the end of "The Husbands of River Song" -- even more so because Bill was announced to the public first and no publicity so much as hinted that there would be a Team TARDIS in Series 10. Also, there are ''a lot'' of characters the Twelfth Doctor's encountered whom fans thought would make good post-Clara companion material: Journey Blue (turned down by the Doctor over her soldier status), Psi and/or Saibra, Perkins (turned down the Doctor's offer because he ''didn't'' want the attendant CharacterDevelopment), Rigsy, Osgood (one might have accepted his offer but was killed by Missy; the other chose to work on the Zygon-human peace instead), Shona (who wanted to be friends with him and Clara in reality), Ashildr/Me (turned down by the Doctor because her immortality was a bad fit for him; ended up with Clara Oswald instead)... no one ever considered ''this'' guy!
773** The trailer for the BBC Centennial Special revealed 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''). For the episode itself, no-one was expecting [[spoiler:cameos from past Doctors, or from other old companions like Ian and Mel]].
774* UnintentionallySympathetic: Many villains and antagonistic characters can come across this at times, with many viewers finding their actions justifiable considering the situation or at the very least underserving of the fates they suffered. For similar reasons the Doctor and their companions can come across as [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic unlikable]] due to their ProtagonistCentredMorality.
775* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Quite unavoidable — the special effects and fashions give the production decades away within minutes. When the stories have been restored to DVD with new special effects, the Restoration Team have very deliberately shot many of the new effects in appropriate styles so they wouldn't clash with the source material. So the Special Edition of [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]] has new and improved CGI effects that ''actually look like Eighties effects''.
776** 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 [[{{Retraux}} synthesized background music]] of the Fifth Doctor's era.
777** Watch's 50th Anniversary rundown of the Doctors pointed this out while discussing each Doctor — pointing out how each Doctor's personality, the personality of the threats they faced, and especially their personal appearance was informed by the era from which they came. For instance, the narrator suggested that the addition of Mel was inspired by the 1980s fitness craze, and most of the talking heads seemed to agree that, while Colin Baker's outfit was [[ImpossiblyTackyClothes incredibly awful even in-universe]], it's really only a mild exaggeration of [[IWasQuiteAFashionVictim hideous things people sincerely wore in the 80s]].
778** Played with in the novelization of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]", which was a 1979 DevelopmentHell episode originally written by Creator/DouglasAdams,[[note]]the basic plot and many characters of which would eventually see the light of day as ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', mildly {{retool}}ed to take place in their own 'verse[[/note]] and eventually novelized by Gareth Roberts in 2012. As a result, the 1970s setting, which was LikeRealityUnlessNoted for Adams, is deliberately played for kitschy absurdity — the male companion is specifically noted to have long, feathered hair and a taste for denim jackets (which would have been assumed default in the '70s), a very Douglas Adams joke about humanity's obsession with digital watches goes from being satirical (similar to a modern joke about fixation on smartphones) to being funny entirely because of the anachronism of it, and the band Music/StatusQuo show up at one point, for laughs. At the same time, the Time Lord tech is altered to be more like modern tech, with K-9 being given a battery charge indicator that works like one on a modern phone, and Chronotis' time telegraph having a touch screen and a "Sent Mail" folder, and it's likely this was intended to look equally silly in the future.
779** The first revival season ends up falling into this, much of which was toned down once the series became a confirmed hit. The Tylers' (and a few other characters') Chavvy fashion style is significant, Rose has to visit her boyfriend's house to use the internet (which is a mixture of Timecube-esque personal sites and Livejournal) and uses a Nokia brick phone which is nevertheless talked up, homosexuality is discussed in slightly edgy pre-civil-partnership terms.\
780\
781[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld The second story]] involves Music/BritneySpears' "Toxic" as "a traditional Earth ballad", the fourth is a WholePlotReference to 9/11 conspiracy theories and the 'sexed up' Iraq September Dossier, and the finale is about the Doctor (and the Daleks) getting trapped in DeadlyGame versions of 2005 light entertainment shows, like ''Series/TheWeakestLink'', ''Series/BigBrother'' and ''Series/WhatNotToWear'', complete with celebrity parodies immediately recognisable to the contemporary audience but rather dated now. (There was a certain RealitySubtext to this last part, as the main feeling in the television industry was that the ''Doctor Who'' revival was doomed as "family television" didn't exist as a format any more except in the form of SoapOpera and reality or game shows.)
782** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E9TheTimeMeddler The Time Meddler]]", the Doctor discovers that the Meddling Monk is not from the Middle Ages (but from the distant future)... because he uses a ''record'' player to re-enact the sounds of monks praying.
783** Classic DVD releases all come with a little booklet which gives some details about the story in question. However, some of the "facts" within them are no longer true. The booklet for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans The Romans]]" (released 2009) talks about the [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor current incarnation of the Doctor]], a man who is now several Doctors ago. The Lost in Time set (released 2004) claims there are 108 missing episodes, when actually there are now only 97. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]" claims that Creator/ColinBaker is the only person to be in ''Doctor Who'' before being the Doctor, which Creator/PeterCapaldi may now disagree with.
784** The 1970s era, particularly the Creator/JonPertwee era. Everyone uses Trim-phones, and in some of the earlier episodes, people still ask for operators before calling somewhere. The 1970s, in which Britain let go of most of its colonies, saw officers returning from these places and put in British military middle-management, a social change that the character of the Brigadier satirises (as well as forming the allegory in stories like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E4TheMutants The Mutants]]"). The GreenAesop is omnipresent, but in terms of "pollution" rather than global warming, and miner's strikes feature in several stories. ''WesternAnimation/TheClangers'' is referenced, Jo talks about her "O-levels", and both she and Sarah Jane talk about "women's lib". One winceworthy moment is when the Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E2TheMindOfEvil The Mind of Evil]]" claims to be a good friend of Chairman Mao... The Creator/TomBaker era is a bit more timeless, but still features a Doctor with pretty incredible SeventiesHair who wears clothing parodying 1975 fashion in his first season (compare his outfit to what Mike Yates wears in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders Planet of the Spiders]]"). The more satirical tone of his era also leads to references that come across as rather cryptic to modern viewers: the "Harry is only qualified to work on sailors" line in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]" is a joke about the often overly restrictive union regulations of the day, and the exchange in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E6TheSeedsOfDoom The Seeds of Doom]]" about the seeds "travelling in pairs like policeman" — a normal safety precaution then, since discarded as inefficient. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]" is especially 70s, containing references to then-contemporary political scandals (such as the line about the Presidential honours list) that only serious politics [[{{Otaku}} anoraks]] will catch nowadays. This is partly responsible for the UNIT dating controversy; by the mid-eighties, it seemed pretty clear the UNIT Era couldn't ''possibly'' have been TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.
785* ValuesDissonance:
786** Even accepting the retcons and the wonky production values, many people trying to get into the Hartnell/Troughton era nowadays find it hard due to the rather questionable portrayals of race and gender in it.
787** Even allowing for some DeliberateValuesDissonance of the 'Victorian horror-adventure pulp' feel it's evoking, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]" itself reflects attitudes towards race that, while standard for '70s Britain, aged horrendously and stoked controversy in other countries right from the outset (to the extent where Canadian broadcasters refused to air it). In particular, [[TheDragon Li H'sen Chang]], a Chinese character, is played by a white actor in yellowface. Granted, Chang is otherwise depicted in a well-rounded and even sympathetic fashion, but even so.
788* ValuesResonance: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros Vengeance on Varos]]", despite being made in TheEighties, could almost be a parody on certain forms of modern reality TV, seeing as Varosian society (with televised BreadAndCircuses entertainment and viewers voting if people live or die) almost seems to resemble ''Series/BigBrother'' or ''Series/TheXFactor'' meets ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
789* ViewerGenderConfusion: Alpha Centauri, an alien hermaphrodite, who has an obviously female voice and mannerisms but is usually referred to as "he". Apparently he was meant to be played like a gay civil servant.
790* ViewerNameConfusion: In addition to the whole "show title = protagonist's name" assumption, some people think that the Doctor's actual name is "Doctor" or "[[SpellMyNameWithAThe The Doctor]]", when actually it's more of a title. Other people think his name is [[GratuitousGreek Theta Sigma]], but that's just an EmbarrassingNickname he had at school. His real name is unknown, and it's said to be dangerous if a human were to find out.
791* ViewerPronunciationConfusion:
792** The name of the Dalek species is pronounced in the show as "dah-leck." However, a sizable number of folks in the US and Canada mispronounce it any number of ways (e.g. reading the "a" like "apple" or "aphid" rather than "father") due to preexisting differences between British and North American dialects tripping them up. This is poked fun at in ''Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime'', where Creator/VerityLambert has to repeatedly correct series creator Creator/SydneyNewman's mispronunciations of "Dalek" (Newman was Canadian).
793** Davros's name is always pronounced in the show as "DAV-ross", but many North American fans pronounce it as "DAV-roce" or "DAHV-roce", reflecting a common difference between British and American accents in the pronunciation of words ending in "-os".
794** Clara Oswald's first name is pronounced "CLAH-ra", but North American viewers sometimes pronounce it as "CLAIRE-a", as that is how the name Clara is usually pronounced in North America.
795** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines The War Machines]]", the name of the evil computer WOTAN is pronounced as "VOE-tan", but many viewers pronounce it "WOE-tan" as spelt.
796** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E1TheMasqueOfMandragora The Masque of Mandragora]]", the word "Mandragora" is clearly pronounced as "man-DRAG-uh-ra" throughtout the story, but many fans instead pronounce it as "man-dra-GORE-a".
797* VillainDecay:
798** 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 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.
799** 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 (his portrayal by Creator/EricRoberts was also poorly received by many fans). 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. Later, 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]]. Creator/SachaDhawan would later continue amping up those two points for his version of the Master (albeit in a different direction).
800** The Slitheen were fairly menacing (if pretty 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 own "cousins".
801* VindicatedByHistory:
802** "Pure historicals", stories set in historical periods with the presence of the TARDIS crew being the only science fiction element and usually dealing with questions like the morality of interfering with history, were considered by contemporary audiences to be dry and boring and got progressively more and more unpopular as the series progressed. Ratings tanked especially hard during "The Gunfighters", the story which all but killed the format. There has always been a minority calling for the return of this format, but today it is generally agreed upon that Creator/WilliamHartnell's pure historicals tend to be his ''best'' stories. They tend to have rather more mature and witty writing than the show's early attempts at science fiction, don't suffer from SpecialEffectFailure to the same extent, and have less EarlyInstalmentWeirdness than many of the surrounding stories, despite the fact that being a historical is itself EarlyInstalmentWeirdness. Pure historicals usually cited as amongst Hartnell's best include the rather mythologised MissingEpisode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E4MarcoPolo Marco Polo]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans The Romans]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E3TheMythMakers The Myth Makers]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E5TheMassacre The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve]]", and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E6TheAztecs The Aztecs]]" (often given as a contender for his very best story). "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade The Crusade]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E8TheReignOfTerror The Reign of Terror]]" are less popular, but have more defenders than the contemporarily highly popular sci-fi serials "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet The Web Planet]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase The Chase]]". The only pure historical that is generally considered ''bad'' is "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters The Gunfighters]]", although that's a special case: 1) fan lore held that it was an awful story due to an especially damning write-up in the review book ''Doctor Who: A Celebration'' which was around before home video, so fandom took its opinion as gospel (although its loving write up in the later review book ''The Discontinuity Guide'' is eroding its reputation), and 2) it's a comedy and to some extent a MusicalEpisode, so was always going to be a divisive story. The two remaining pure historicals, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers The Smugglers]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E4TheHighlanders The Highlanders]]" generally don't seem to attract too many opinions one way or the other due to them both having little-to-no surviving footage and being situated either side of two far more significant stories, though the latter is at least given credit for introducing Jamie.
803** Creator/PatrickTroughton's era actually resulted in the ratings ''decreasing'' after the popular Hartnell era, to the point that the series was facing cancellation by the end of his tenure and Jon Pertwee's era was a complete ReTool. Troughton is now widely regarded as having had the most influence on the character of the Doctor than any other actor, and the fandom goes ''wild'' whenever one of his missing serials turns up.
804** ''Doctor Who'' has a lot of {{Missing Episode}}s which [[PraisingShowsYouDontWatch tend to get regarded as 'classics' simply because they can't be watched]], but no-one really cared about "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld The Enemy of the World]]" - it's a bit of an OutOfGenreExperience in that it's a spy story focusing on a human DiabolicalMastermind and with no monsters, and the recons made the story seem silly and difficult to follow (not helped by the fact that it's about a CriminalDoppelganger and ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin). Additionally, the only episode to survive in full was a comic-relief one with many deliberately-silly scenes. But when the whole thing was suddenly discovered in Nigeria, fans suddenly were able to see the surprisingly good action scenes in the first episode, and observe the character acting from Troughton that made the story make sense, and suddenly reappraised it as one of the best Troughton stories. [[Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine DWM]] pointed out that in their top 200 stories poll of 2009 it was the 30th rated story of the '60s, but in 2014 it was the 10th rated.
805** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]", a ''Doctor Who'' storyline with no companions, a focus on alien politics, and with an awful lot of FamilyUnfriendlyViolence was viewed at the time as a failed experiment at best (the absence of TheWatson made the plot much harder to follow than normal, and the execs said it was never to happen again no matter how much Creator/TomBaker insisted that it worked) and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids tasteless and audience-inappropriate]] at worst (notoriously attracting so many complaints that the show was {{Re Tool}}ed into a much less violent, more comedy-based series for most of the rest of his run). Fans nowadays tend to appreciate the attempt at trying something other than MonsterOfTheWeek, the more impressionistic and political tone, the especially brutal and exciting action, and in particular the AlternateCharacterInterpretation that the Doctor gets in the story; due to not having an ally to talk to, he comes off as a brooding, quiet, and much more mysterious character with a pinch of SpaghettiWestern hero about him, a sharp contrast to his usual funniness and ObfuscatingStupidity. It's not a usual candidate for Baker's best serial (those would be "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", or "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]") but is often listed as a standout, must-see episode and a bit of a hipster favourite. Its reputation may go up further now that it's had a SpiritualSuccessor in the wildly-acclaimed modern-''Who'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" (no companion aside from a mental construct the Doctor's using as a coping mechanism, ''extremely'' dark story involving a deadly adversary in an EldritchLocation, FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, the Doctor at his broodiest, etc.). Further vindicating it is this particular serial's very unique portrayal of [[ArchEnemy the Master]], to the point that this incarnation of him is widely regarded as a OneEpisodeWonder for many fans. While this incarnation is not as popular as other incarnations, this one stands out for being at the most OmnicidalManiac the character has ever been, complete NightmareFuel in both appearance and personality, and actually being a NoNonsenseNemesis for once due to dropping his usual FriendlyEnemy shtick and being OutOfContinues. While this same incarnation technically shows up in a second serial, [[TheOtherDarrin he is portrayed by a new actor]] and dialed back to be less scary (though certainly still much more frightening than his typical portrayals). Many fans look back on this episode with much more appreciation for that reason alone.
806** Season 16 has risen in the opinions of fans, with the consensus being that while it contains no true classics, it begins with one of the most solid runs (four good stories) in the series' history and that the overall "Key to Time" arc was at the very least an interesting attempt at something different, even if it did come to a severe AntiClimax.
807** While the contemporary criticisms of Season 17 for being [[DenserAndWackier too silly]] remain agreed upon (although with some grudging admission that it was amazing they got anything on the screen at all with all the strikes, budget problems and [[CreatorBreakdown lead actor mental health issues]]), "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" was much hated by the fanbase when it aired for being too farcical and stupid. Nowadays, it's one of the most beloved Classic serials and frequently makes top ten lists. Creator/StevenMoffat is a huge fan, and Website/FourChan's perennial ''Doctor Who'' discussion thread "/who/" even voted it the best ''Doctor Who'' TV story ever.
808** Creator/ColinBaker - often proclaimed "Worst Doctor Ever!" - made a great many fans come around with his outstanding performances in the Big Finish audios. Additionally, over time there has become a growing agreement in the idea that Colin Baker himself was not to blame for the show's problems, but rather [[SeasonalRot the quality of the scripts]] as well as [[ScrewedByTheNetwork behind-the-scenes difficulties]]. The [[WTHCostumingDepartment infamous rainbow coat]] is still much-maligned, but on the other hand, ''Vengeance on Varos'' and ''Revelation of the Daleks'' are now considered two great serials.
809** Creator/BonnieLangford and the companion that she played, Mel Bush, were for years regarded in a ''very'' negative light, only remembered for her constant screaming and being perky and upbeat to the point of annoyance. Much like Baker, the Big Finish audios have done a lot to redeem her in the eyes of fans, and many also now agree that having a much more upbeat companion after Tegan and Peri (both of whom the Doctor tended to argue with a lot) was entirely the right decision, with Langford/Mel simply being unlucky that her run on the show happened to coincide with a period of major creative turmoil that didn't do her any justice.[[note]]That and having half of her stories written at least in part by Creator/PipAndJaneBaker, ''another'' set of creators from this era of the show whose work has been re-evaluated in a much more positive light in the years since, but ones whose major weaknesses as writers are generally agreed to be in the departments of characterisation and dialogue, which unfortunately didn't do much to help define Mel as a character.[[/note]]
810** During the era of the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester [=McCoy=]), ''Series/DoctorWho'' received poor ratings and drew much criticism, resulting in it being put on hiatus for 15 years. The second and third seasons of that Doctor's tenure is now widely praised for its gritty realism, complex plotting, and return to a more mysterious portrayal of the Doctor. Even his first often gets some credit for sowing the seeds for the later renaissance.
811** Creator/PaulMcGann. While many proclaimed him the worst Doctor for the TV Movie, a lot of people over time have decided he actually [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously gave a great performance]] and was hardly at fault for the poorly-received script, and his many appearances in Big Finish have won him a lot of fans. "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Night of the Doctor]]", showing his regeneration and acknowledging his audio adventures as canon, has also helped.
812** To many fans who started watching at the point of the 2005 revival, and grew attached to Rose Tyler as the companion, Martha Jones was seen as a ReplacementScrappy, which wasn’t helped at all by the Doctor even treating her as this InUniverse by frequently comparing her to Rose in unflattering ways. After these fans became used to the show’s frequently-changing cast, and therefore more open to changes in companions, many look back on Martha much more fondly. She’s even seen as one of the most competent and intelligent companions that the Doctor has ever had, standing out from most of the revival series’ companions for saving the world by herself without requiring any special powers granted by the plot, along with leaving the Doctor on her own terms (while still continuing to fight alien threats on her own) without requiring some kind of tragedy to force her away from him. When fans rewatch her episodes now, they tend to think that the Doctor is being unfair to her and side with her over him whenever he makes unflattering comparisons to Rose.
813* {{Wangst}}:
814** Tegan was always whining and complaining about something.
815** These moments were very common during Creator/RussellTDavies' run on the show, with the Tenth Doctor and Rose getting the worst of it.
816* WatchedItForTheRepresentation:
817** The show saw considerable interest for the introduction of Creator/JodieWhittaker as [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor the Thirteenth Doctor]], the first onscreen incarnation of the character in the series proper to be played by a woman, with a jump of 3 million viewers between the Twelfth Doctor's final story and the Thirteenth Doctor's first, from 7.92 million to 10.96 million.
818** Following the introduction of Creator/NcutiGatwa as [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifteenthDoctor the Fifteenth Doctor]], the 2023 Christmas special ''[[Recap/DoctorWho2023CSTheChurchOnRubyRoad The Church on Ruby Road]]'' became the highest rated winter holiday special for several years at 7.49 million, an increase of 3.1 million over 2022's New Year's special ''[[Recap/DoctorWho2022NYSEveOfTheDaleks Eve of the Daleks]]'', which got 4.40 million. Gatwa is the first Black British man to play the role and the first openly queer man to play the role.
819* 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 sixty 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.
820** Even the first few stories could be really dark. In the first story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild An Unearthly Child]]" the Doctor is a quite morally ambiguous figure, and there were some surprisingly violent scenes, such as a Caveman covered in blood and a cave of broken skulls. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E3TheEdgeOfDestruction The Edge of Destruction]]" uses haunted house tropes and has Susan wildly stabbing a bed with scissors.
821** Also a number of classic and revival stories have been rated 12 by the BBFC.
822** A lot of stories from the '80s, thanks to writers and producers making the show BloodierAndGorier. ''Attack of the Cyberman'' has a 15+ rating in Australia, but it was still shown at 6 o'clock at night.
823** Season 22 is notorious for this, showing someone having their hands crushed and showing several people being stabbed to death. This is lampshaded in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros Vengeance on Varos]]".
824** Creator/JohnSimm stated that ''Doctor Who'' being a kids' show was the main reason why he decided to play as TheMaster ([[SoMyKidsCanWatch he wanted to show his son that he could act]]). Of course, the episodes he ''was'' in involved twisted monsters from the future wiping out a good portion of humanity, the Master being [[GoneHorriblyWrong resurrected as a superpowered being]] [[HorrorHunger who devours humans to satisfy his endless hunger]], and turning the ''entire'' human population into copies of himself.
825** Show runner Creator/StevenMoffat has written about how annoyed and insulted he is whenever people use the phrase "kid's show" as a derogatory thing.
826** According to some critics, Creator/ChrisChibnall's run goes too much into the other direction, removing much of the DarkerAndEdgier elements of previous seasons and making the show feel much more like a full on EdutainmentShow than a proper science fiction series.
827** Some reactions to it being shown on Disney XD involved this. Though BBC America markets the show to an older audience, ''Doctor Who'' is considered family viewing in the UK. (Even in the UK, the extent to which ''Doctor Who'' is family friendly is debated, especially later seasons.)
828* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical:
829** Pretty much every time they've shown up, there's some sort of political tie-in that can be debated with the Silurians. The old-series seemed to have a more Soviet/Communist slant to the reptilians, while the modern re-imagining almost mirrors conflicts between native peoples of a land and those who would come to settle on it.
830** The [=McCoy=] era has had several examples of this, some confirmed, some jossed. WordOfGod has specifically denied fan theories that the red, blue and yellow Kangs were a reference to the colours of the UK's three major political parties at the time.
831** In the Creator/RussellTDavies era, UNIT took a much more aggressive and morally questionable approach towards alien threats all in the name of [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror "Homeworld Security"]]. Notably the Brigadier is not impressed at this new mindset at all and says as much in ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'':
832--->'''The Brigadier:''' [[TakeThat Homeworld Security. That's the trouble with UNIT these days. Too many buzzwords, too many directives. At least in my day we maintained the benefits of common sense]].
833** The Twelfth Doctor's "Independently angry eyebrows" may be a jab at the Scottish independence movement. Clara's mouth wanting to "go solo" might be taken as a second comment in that direction. Bits of one's face running off elsewhere is rather problematic.
834** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E8TheZygonInversion "The Zygon Inversion"]]: The Doctor's war speech at the end is unapologetically political, coming near the end of a storyline that directly references the concept of terrorism and refugees.
835** [[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong "The Husbands of River Song"]] includes a near-BigLippedAlligatorMoment where the Doctor for no real reason begins to rant against the concept of the monarchy.
836** "Orphan 55" is infamous for the Doctor essentially lecturing her companions about the dangers of global warming. Especially as an episode the following month, Praxeus, also addressed environmental issues, namely plastic pollution, in what was considered a much better way.
837* WinBackTheCrowd:
838** Ratings sagged towards the end of the [[Creator/PatrickTroughton Second Doctor's]] tenure, to the point that the series faced cancellation. To compensate for the reduced budget whilst taking advantage of new technology, the first season of the [[Creator/JonPertwee Third Doctor's]] era had the Doctor stranded on Earth to avoid any unnecessarily expensive sets, working with UNIT to build a strong cast of supporting characters, and broadcast in full colour. It worked.
839** The ratings during the [[Creator/TomBaker Fourth Doctor's]] last season (the first under Creator/JohnNathanTurner) were the lowest the series had seen since 1969. Ratings during the [[Creator/PeterDavison Fifth Doctor's]] first season were much higher, as the show got DarkerAndEdgier with slicker production values, the return of fan favourites like the Cybermen, and aimed for a more mature audience.
840** The 2005 reboot was a resounding triumph for the Britain's biggest sci-fi hero following the series' ignominious death back in 1989 and the failed pilot on Fox.
841** Following "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Kill the Moon]]" proving to be incredibly polarising, [[BrokenBase Base Breaking]] and poorly received with a large portion of the audience, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E8MummyOnTheOrientExpress Mummy on the Orient Express]]" was received with near universal admiration. To the point multiple fans have outright referenced this trope when talking about it.
842** After the polarising Series 8 (which was critically acclaimed and heavily criticized in equal measure), Series 9 did this with fans and critics alike, with many episodes attracting strong critical praise. Its StoryArc is thematic/conceptual (hybrids, consequences, the Doctor's lonely existence, Clara becoming his DistaffCounterpart), allowing for strong ''almost''-standalone stories where most Series 8 episodes were bogged down by the Clara's double life/Danny Pink/Nethersphere arc. The return of the "multi-parter" format allowed plots and characters to be fleshed out better. [[TookALevelInKindness The Twelfth Doctor's character also warms significantly]]; he is no longer has ''quite'' the cynical, misanthropic personality that some fans found rather jarring. Its overall critical reception was probably the best since Series 5.
843** 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, 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.
844** Series 12 has done this for several naysayers of the Whitaker era. Chibnall has raised the stakes from the standalone stories of Series 11 with continuity, deeper characterisation, and a sprawling StoryArc that contains more than a few {{Unexpected Character}}s that were ''not'' SpoiledByTheCastList.
845** For those who were not fans 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.
846
847* WTHCostumingDepartment: The series runs into this sometimes, especially in the old series. Alien fashion or no alien fashion, some of those costumes were just plain hilarious. Usually it just adds to the show's NarmCharm.
848** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators "The Dominators"]] is known for having unusually bad costume design for the era. For the Dulcians, it consists mostly of curtains. The Dominators wear horrible fringe-covered plastic jumpsuits with ''massive'' foam collars and a lot of eyeliner.
849** In the same season, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E5TheSeedsofDeath The Seeds of Death]]" puts most of the human guest characters into absolutely hideous SpaceClothes whose design around the hips makes them look like nappy fetishists.
850** The Doctor [[SexShifter themself]] has often worn fairly ridiculous outfits. They generally get away with it, with the exception of the Sixth Doctor, whose costume is usually regarded as being too crazy and hideous for even the Doctor to pull off. Even Creator/ColinBaker realized this, arguing for a basic black ensemble for the Doctor to showcase his [[DarkerAndEdgier darker persona]] in this regeneration. He was overruled by Creator/JohnNathanTurner, who felt that the "Technicolor Timecoat" fit Six's "fractured personality". Judging from the other Time Lords, it seems to be a species trait.
851** Creator/JohnNathanTurner is particularly un-fondly remembered for his desire to give the Doctor SymbolMotifClothing for MerchandiseDriven reasons. This led to Doctors from the time of the Fourth's burgundy outfit onwards to incorporate red question marks, usually on the shirt lapels and braces, though by the time of the Seventh Doctor they'd leaked out into a fair isle design on a HomemadeSweaterFromHell and onto the handle of his umbrella.
852** The Third Doctor's plaid overmantel which simply does not go with any of his velvet jackets.
853** Some fans do not like [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOMouxaXcAArJkz.jpg the Thirteenth Doctor's outfit]]. The decision to give her trousers that are too short make her look like a child playing dress-up and highlight Creator/JodieWhittaker's stature. Furthermore, the decision to give her a fanny pack is not only unfashionable, but redundant seeing as her pockets are supposed to be bottomless.
854** The Twelfth Doctor's polka dot shirt in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Kill the Moon]]". Thankfully he's in the Sanctuary base 6 suit for most of the episode.
855** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E4TheAndroidsOfTara "The Androids of Tara"]]: The planet Tara gives new meaning to the phrase PlanetOfHats, with the absurd royal crown, the spiked helmets, Romana's apparently fashionable giant purple hat, and above all, the Archimandrite's tall, sparkly, rainbow-coloured hat.
856*** In Creator/PaulCornell's sequel "The Trials of Tara" in ''Decalog 2: Lost Property'', the Taran IsTheAnswerToThisQuestionYes question is "[i]s the Archimandrite's hat not silly?"
857** Creator/LallaWard said later that the costume department let her wear pretty much whatever she wanted. This got her into a little bit of accidental embarrassment, as in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]", she decided to wear a [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule Victorian girls' school uniform]], innocently unaware of the reaction that some adult male fanboys would have to it.
858** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Castrovalvan]] leaders wear various silly plastic bucket hats. The Portrieve, their leader, is signified by a ''two-tiered'' silly plastic bucket hat.
859** Lampshaded to an extent in the episodes featuring the Eleventh Doctor — after proclaiming that "bowties are cool" and "fezzes are cool" in series five, the fandom embraced those statements and now the Doctor's penchant for ridiculous headgear is a running joke. This, however, is far more tame than most examples, as Eleven's base, nerd-chic outfit isn't bizarre.
860** The Time Lords' high-collared robes and ornate headpieces that appeared in any Gallifrey story from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]" onwards. In "The Deadly Assassin", these are explicitly supposed to be ceremonial garb, so the impracticality can be forgiven. However, later stories make them the standard everyday wear for Time Lords in a costume example of {{Flanderization}}.
861[[/folder]]

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