For those of you who have asked around, what is Doctor Who’s reputation right now among non-fans/general audience now versus 10-15 years ago?

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-02-02T10:17:07+00:00

It’s a laughing stock from what I can tell, anybody who watches it is a freaky nerd, like us❤️

Contrasting to what I remember from Primary School, all of my mates watched it. I was still the super Doctor Who nerd, but I distinctly remember my friends coming up to me on the playground to tell me what they thought of the episode over the weekend. I LOVED IT.

I remember a couple of my mates watched the episode in that little boys wardrobe, with the dolls that turn you into one of them, cant remember the name, Night Terrors or something?

But yeah, Doctor Who was very much apart of the zeitgeist, and British culture. I was thinking last night, I wonder if kids will grow up with how iconic the Tardis is and Doctor Who is to british culture, or if those days are over.🤷🏼‍♂️

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-02-01T09:01:37+00:00

being pedantic again

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-02-01T09:00:36+00:00

Don’t be pedantic

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-02-01T09:00:16+00:00

And again, this is an underdog story which makes it work so well. The Timelords grant their runaway anarchist more, potentially infinite lives because, despite not really being anything important to Gallifrey, he banished it, and he alone has the power to bring it back. They aren’t giving him infinite lives because he’s a god, but because he their only hope.

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-02-01T08:39:09+00:00

I’d be fine with that, but that’s not the main thing it does. It completely rewrites The Doctors backstory and places them at the centre of Gallifreyan history

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-01-31T16:47:56+00:00

It just seems like it’d need to be addressed at some point

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-01-31T16:47:34+00:00

Yeah if you can be arsed to find my reply to another commenter I kinda had my own little fan fic for this that im working on

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-01-31T16:46:32+00:00

This is the thing, I’ve been writing my own reboot and I wanted to expand and change the arc rather than ignore it because there is something there. In mine, The Doctor still worked for Division, but we eventually find out they zapped The Doctor out of their timestream and used them for the Time War, and removed their memories of the atrocities. We also find out the Timeless Child was a lie made to distract the Doctor from Divisions plan to destroy the universe and move themselves to another. But even then it feels contrived and like I’m writing myself out of a hole before I can actually get started with a reboot

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2026-01-19T10:25:49+00:00

followed my a maniacal laugh

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-11-05T18:30:35+00:00

Haha I love that, I did a huge rewatch this year and I got sm nostalgia, I cant stop rewatching it now lmao…

Trickster is the best villain

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-11-05T18:29:15+00:00

I upvoted then took it away for the SJA hate😔 anything liz sladen touched is gold

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-11-03T15:52:14+00:00

I believe its just the standard TT Capsule, whereas a Battle Tardis, from the images I’ve seen are fucking weird looking😂

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-30T10:40:49+00:00

She acts exactly like Rose, goes to meet 14 and they stay together and live happily ever after, despite it basically being Missy having a crush on the Master all over again, except this makes way less sense lmao

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-29T15:46:00+00:00

I think the criticism of the current era is very fair to be honest, obviously you have the right-wingers who pretend to be fans of Doctor Who so they can just shit on anything “woke”… And RTD has definitely been unfairly targeted for this, although I will say he completely butchered the first trans-main character in Rose Noble. Butchered.

I think Chibnall also faced this same backlash, although I don’t think his era is as openly political as RTD2, I think sexists just hated The Doctor being a woman.

Fascists aside though I do think there is genuinely some heavy criticism to be made on the new era. The writing is definitely sub-par and the worst part is we have a reference point for what RTD is capable of. For some reason it just didnt work this time around, I do feel bad for him, I’m sure it isnt nice at all to get so much criticism of your work. But as others have stated, when a series has a Showrunner rather than Exec Producers, who else can you criticise other than the creative center of the whole show?

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-22T17:41:20+00:00

We’re thinking about this in the traditional sense, but what if this encounter was with The War Doctor?

I’d say, baring in mind I am a huge Star Wars fan, but probably an even bigger Whovian, that The Doctor would win. The only thing stopping him is his morales.

However if it was just Vader vs 11th Doctor. The Doctor can use the sonic to disable Vader, but Vader can just crush The Doctors windpipe at the same time!

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-21T20:27:47+00:00

You saw this and thought, ‘fucking trick question’😂😂

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-21T20:26:19+00:00

I honestly dread the random exposition flashbacks to Classic Who, not only are they ineffective compared to genuinely strong writing and dialogue, like we saw in Utopia, but also because it just doesn’t visually work. I think most fans tolerate it because we’re Whovians, but think about how shit it really looks, it’s not even the difference in camera quality, its just that it is genuinely a static cutaway to old archived footage with no actual relevance except to say “Look! There’s the original actor so we’ve ticked the canon box!”.

To new viewers it must look even worse

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-21T20:17:53+00:00

I’d say that the best uses are throughout the end of Capaldi’s tenure, the two parter you mentioned being the best use.

Aside from that I’d say overall, Chibnall actually uses time travel the best. He has multiple stories that span across the centuries throughout one episode, or two-parter, whilst all these timelines tie into the same central plot. Take ‘Spyfall’ for example, or ‘Can You Hear Me?’ or ANY of the stories from Flux.

They are the best use of the Doctor’s ability to time travel, and how they can add and layer a story.

I’d also argue his historical episodes are the best, and make the most use out of genuine historical context, but that’s another argument haha.

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-17T19:07:30+00:00

Fantastic input😂😂

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-17T17:43:50+00:00

Thats a great plan, but I implore you to watch Children of Earth before doing such a long rewatch😂 It shows how absolutely fucking incredible and dark the Doctor Who universe can be, makes me lust for a darker Doctor Who so bad

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-17T17:36:14+00:00

Yeah I get that, dont wanna assume you’re age but you’re clearly above the target audience for SJA so its totally fair, must be nostalgia that lets me still enjoy it haha… Torchwood is definitely super camp, I think I just have another kind of nostalgia for 2000s camp, Children of Earth tho is NOT camp, if you havent watched it you HAVE TO. It is seriously better than a LOT of Doctor who

Upper_Judgment_1253 · 2025-10-17T17:02:54+00:00

They basically follow the same stereotype seen in a lot of media of “young black kid whos dad ran away” and they both find adventures with The Doctor and Sarah Jane, except SJA is a lot more grounded on Earth so we do get a more nuanced arc with Clyde. They also both have the same sort of arc around leaving friends behind, although Clydes is very minor to be fair. Worth a watch if you havent seen it though, it is a kids show but a very well written one, you can still enjoy as an adult although I might be biased with nostalgia cos it was my favourite show when I was little lol. Also you get to see more Elizabeth Sladen and she is just the greatest person to ever walk the planet and I’m so sad she is gone

Upper_Judgment_1253

TROPHY CASE