I remember a time when there was no Doctor Who on TV. There was no hint of it being axed at all. Putting Slyvester’s 3 seasons up against Coronation Street was wanting it to fail. And at that time the viewing figures suggested it did fail, which is a shame as they were some of the best stories produced. It had survived the middle 80s which saw Who on the brink of cancellation and the disgraceful way it treated Colin Baker. So, after Survival there was no new Who (unless you count Dimensions In Time) until 1996, the TV Movie. The first 25 minutes is good, after that it just falls apart to rubbish. This is no refection at all on Paul McGann who’s terrific with the nonsense he’s been given. It was released on video the week before being televised. I remember how excited I was by this and as I worked for Virgin Megastores at the time we got it a few days before the release date but couldn’t buy it. How frustrating that was! But my excitement changed the Monday before the Wednesday it was released as my favourite Doctor of all time Jon Pertwee died of a heart attack. I was devastated. My hero was gone. it ruined Who for me and it was a long time before I could bear to watch one of his stories again.
Fast forward to 2005 at hey presto we have wonderful new Doctor Who with an equally wonderful Doctor in Chris Eccleston who sadly stayed for only one season. It was an immediate success. With a big budget, special effects worthy of a Hollywood budget and actors of high quality, it was bound to succeed. And succeed it did even more so when David Tennant took over. A young good looking man who is extremely nice and pleasant when interviewed. This carried on when Matt Smith took over as he is a young good looking extremely nice man. But that is where the problem started but not with him.
My first memories of Doctor Who is William Hartnell. I also remember Patrick Troughton’s stories from The Evil Of The Daleks onwards, so yes I am of a certain age. It was truly a magic time. The 60s gave over to the 70s and colour TV came to the fore. My favourite programme in colour was such a joy.
In 1979 I was working in John Menzies (now WH Smiths) and had no knowledge of forthcoming new magazines so imagine my surprise at seeing Doctor Who Weekly with the then Doctor Tom Baker on the cover with transfers. I bought it of course and have done ever since. I have them all. It went from weekly to monthly to every four weeks and on the whole has been very enjoyable. A must buy for every Doctor Who fan anywhere. But recently is has not been so.
Producers have come and gone. There has been some brilliant ones like Barry Letts and not so good ones (no names) but still produced some good stories. John Nathan-Turner for some unknown reason is always vilified, which is unjustified. He may not have always got it right but nor has any producer. JNT to his credit sought publicity for Who any opportunity he could at the time. On the whole it succeeded. The recent allegations on his private life are unwarranted and very unwanted.
Then we come to the present day. Russell T Davies brought back Doctor Who in such a wonderful way that couldn’t be imagined. The actors, the stories, the publicity, the budget were all just great. He was not without the ‘not so good’ story like ‘Love And Monsters‘ and ‘Blink‘ (yes Blink which I think is so crap). Then he left leaving us all sobbing. When Steven Moffat was announced as replacing him and as he was a fan we all applauded. He cast the brilliant Matt Smith as the Doctor and his first season was good. But then he started to get, so he thought, ‘very clever’. The second of Matt’s season should have been called ‘The Amy, Rory and River show’ as it had nothing to do with the ‘show’ Doctor Who. It was complete rubbish. Hard to understand the stories or even follow story strands. For the casual viewer this would be a turn off and I’m sure it was. It has carried on during his tenure. The stories are rubbish. He has destroyed the timeline of the Doctor. Destroyed the programme as a whole. It seems that any story will do when it comes to him regardless of how rubbish it is. I must be the only one who thinks that ‘The Doctors’ Wife‘ is complete absolute rubbish. I hate it. I would rather watch ‘Twin Dilemma‘ and ‘Timelash‘ back to back than watch that again. I loathe with a passion the Weeping Angels. I think they are boring. I was so. so glad when Amy went in such a rubbish story. She had become so annoying.
The once very reliable and even minded Doctor Who Magazine has now succumbed to be being so sycophantic and brown noses Moffat at every opportunity. I have tried to post negative comments to them but have never succeeded because they won’t accept any negativity. This has been more than obvious under the editorship of Tom Spilsbury who cries like a baby if you say anything he doesn’t like on Twitter.
Doctor Who is in crisis as it is run by a producer who doesn’t care about telling a story but is more interested in causing confusion, no understanding of a story, and most importantly rewriting the history and understanding of Doctor Who. He has to go and now! And I would suggest a change of editor on DWM before it becomes totally irrelevant.
Peter Capadi will not be a good Doctor.
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