RIP Doctor Who (1963-2017)

by Joe Brennan

Since its debut in 1963, Doctor Who has been a staple of British (and recently global) entertainment and, despite a few rough patches, it has maintained a solid and passionate fanbase for over 50 years.

The character of the Doctor, while ever changing, has always stuck to a consistent set of core characteristics and principles. However, in the Christmas special of 2017, these characteristics, and by extension the entire character of The Doctor, was betrayed. Steven Moffat, in his final episode of Doctor Who, was unable to put politics aside and let this decision ruin an episode that would have otherwise been a great sendoff to Peter Capaldi. In a decision that tainted and destroyed the legacy of past Doctors, Steven Moffat sacrificed character integrity and consistency of storytelling for an excuse to push his gender politics and a very blatant agenda.

They made the First Doctor sexist. They brought back the original incarnation for a full multi-doctor special just to make him the butt of a few sexist jokes. In an attempt to mock and ridicule an era of the show that Moffat has gone on record to say he doesn’t like, David Bradley’s character was injected with misogynistic and inappropriate views. Moffat’s reasoning is that “he’s from the 1960s” so has ideas that would be considered acceptable at the time but frowned upon today (hence Capaldi’s shocked and embarrassed reactions throughout the episode). This justification is so baffling that I have come up with a very shocking explanation- Steven Moffat has never seen Doctor Who. I know it sounds ludicrous but I’m 100% sure that the man has either never watched the show, or has somehow forgotten all of it. It seems unlikely that a man who has been attached to Doctor Who for 19 years and was running the whole show for 8 of them has never actually watched a single episode but it is the conclusion I find the most probable. If Moffat had watched just two episodes before the Christmas special (an episode he actually wrote), he would’ve heard The Doctor tell his companion that he is from “the most civilised civilisation in the universe” and that they were “billions of years beyond your petty obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes”. It’s a pretty good line, reminding the audience that The Master used to be a man (something rather important to a reveal later on in the episode) while also setting up quite an important change in The Doctor’s near future. So it would definitely appear strange two episodes later, if they had this same Time Lord from that same future civilisation say “aren’t all women made of glass... in a way?”.

Despite David Bradley giving an excellent performance as The Doctor (he had previously played the role of Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time for the 50th Anniversary), his return was tainted by Moffat’s growing incompetence and clear lack of understanding. Unfortunately, the majority of those watching the episode will not have seen any First Doctor episodes and will assume that he was a sexist old man. The First Doctor’s character really acts as William Hartnell’s legacy, immortalising him in entertainment history in a role that lives on to this day. Steven Moffat has said Doctor Who really only “becomes watchable” once it gets to Peter Davison so it shouldn’t really come as any surprise that he went on to butcher and mock the era he hates. As someone who has sat through every episode from his run and listened to the audio of all missing episodes, I can say very confidently that he does not treat women differently. True, he does talk down to Barbara and treats her like a child but the people using that as an example are neglecting to point out that he also treats Ian Chesterton with the same patronising attitude. An important part of Hartnell’s Doctor’s character arc is the transition he makes from grumpy old man to a warmer and more open figure. By the time Twice Upon a Time takes place, he should be at his most softened but he seems to have been written in the style of his very first episode.

  

Arguably the worst line in the episode is when Bill (a character named after William Hartnell- THE MAN THIS EPISODE SEEMED TO HATE) has an outburst of BBC approved expletives and The First Doctor threatens her with a “jolly good smacked bottom”. In all fairness, this is a fairly humorous moment thanks entirely to Pearl Mackie and Peter Capaldi’s charm and the line itself is taken directly from the Classic Series. HOWEVER, the context of that moment was very important- when he said it in Dalek Invasion of Earth, he was addressing his disobedient granddaughter and I would argue he would’ve said the very same line to a cheeky grandson. There is a large difference between scolding a child you’re raising and threatening to punish a stranger. Once again, Steven Moffat has shown his complete lack of understanding of the characters he claims to care about. Agree with the decision or not, it is now canon that The Doctor enjoyed having Polly around because the TARDIS got dusty when she wasn’t. I can lie to myself and say he was only saying these things to put Mark Gatiss’ character from the early 1900s at ease but the truth is, Twice Upon a Time’s otherwise moving sendoff for my first real Doctor and a fun introduction to the new Doctor was ruined by the character assassination of one my favourite classic Doctors and, for all the good he’s done for Doctor Who, I’m unable to forgive Steven Moffat for it. Hopefully Chris Chibnall is able to reignite my love of Doctor Who because I’m a little down on it at the moment- perhaps it’s just post regeneration blues paired with this. I don’t think the show is dead, that’s really just clickbait. I wanted to make you think I was unhappy about the female Doctor (which I’m not).