I have received the following intel from a Twitter account who purports to be in the know about Doctor Who. These were apparently the AI numbers for the latest series:
Space Babies 75
Devils Chord 77
Boom 79
73 Yards 80
Dot and Bubble 76
Rogue 72
Legend of Ruby Sunday 73
Empire of Death 70
I find it highly suspicious that the highest rated episode regards the AI is the one that is a Doctor-lite episode that makes no reference to racism.
This makes me concerned that the AI panel the BBC uses has got some far right racists as a part of it, who complain about everything being woke. Especially as Boom is only a 79, when it was an utter masterpiece of an episode. Any reasonable person would surely give Boom an AI of at least 84.
Have the AI figures been spoilt by far right racists?
How do those numbers compare to the 14th Doctor specials?
I don’t know, I’m less concerned about right-wingers deliberately bombing the numbers and more concerned about (white) people who just don’t like this new Doctor but can’t quite put their finger on why…
Hopefully the racist bias will be evident in people’s comments so the scores can be taken accordingly.
I am a bit confused about what you write, all the audience appreciation index figures are within the 70 - 80 range which means nothing really goes out of the ordinary.
And we all experience stories objectively, I think I’ve seen as many people saying Boom was the worst of the season as I have seen people saying it was a masterpiece.
I think that the ratings are more or less in the order that people in general rank the episodes. The only one that I think looks a little bit of is Rogue which I would have guessed would be a little bit higher. But then again the range between them is not that big.
Yep, Rogue’s AI also has me concerned as there’s unfortunately a lot of homophobia around. I would hate for the BBC to get the wrong message from these AI scores and make Doctor Who a more conservative show.
I’m no expert on AI scores and the like, but without any concrete evidence, I don’t think we should jump to any conclusions from the scores alone. 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble are both episodes that seem to divide people strongly (Boom as well to an extent), so there’s bo real consensus on them. We don’t really know why people have rated these episodes lowly or highly. And aren’t these pretty goof scores overall?
Also while I agree there is a lot of homophobia around, no.
Honestly I fail to see how the AI figures can lead you to your above points. if there had been a drastic difference in ratings for specifc episodes then maybe we could make those assumptions about audiences. I don’t want to negate anyones real life experiences but as it stands I think these are unsubstantiated concerns.
I mean, all the Thirteenth Doctor episodes were review-bombed down and heavily criticised for being “woke” and yet here we are with RTD2 and the gayest, most left leaning woke episodes the show has ever seen don’t worry about it, Doctor Who is going to be fine.
I hope you’re right, because I wouldn’t want to see Doctor Who lose its identity and become more of a voice for prejudice rather than standing up for the voices of underrepresented communities. It would destroy the spirit of the Doctor, as someone who fights for those who aren’t being listened to, and stands against bigotry in all of its forms.
The Doctor should be seen as a sort of pacifistic Superman without the overpowered abilities, although Superman himself has been a pacifist on some occasions too.
If that change happens (and I don’t think that it will) I don’t think that this will have anything to do with it. I expect the BBC to have more and better ways of doing research.
Yep, I may not be a fan of RTD2 but welcome the continued inclusion & diversity. The show is still leading the way as mainstream genre family tv that gives a voice to diverse characters & communites. Just more of that in respect of writers please.
I can’t see it changing. Its been a core principle of the show even in the classic era. Maybe not as overt but has always had moments that show the Doctor has no time for bigotry.
So a noticeable drop, but not too severe. And Ruby Road was only 2 points below the 14th Doctor’s median, which is nothing. (And 6.5 points above s14’s median, which is still small, but taken in conjunction with that, indicates more of a drop from specials to series than from Doctor to Doctor.)
I think you’ve quelled your own concern here. You really can’t make Doctor Who while making it racist and/or queerphobic (…Weng-Chiang notwithstanding). Especially considering how progressive it’s always been relative to its time since 2005, I don’t think there’s any need for concern.
Also, fwiw, Rogue’s score caught my eye as well, but I think it’s important to note that apart from being the only episode with an explicit queer romance, it was the only period episode - and that period was the same as one of TV’s biggest shows at the moment. I would not be surprised if the general public’s opinion of it was dragged down from Bridgerton fatigue, or conversely from comparing it unfavorably to Bridgerton.
Are there racists in the UK? Yes, unfortunately. Are there homophobes in the UK? Also, yes, unfortunately. Will this have an impact on the Audience Appreciation Index? Most likely some, if it’s a representative section of the British public, but I don’t know as much about the AI panel as I do BARB.
None of the scores were bad, the worst score was Empire of Death, and even that is (just) in the 70s. Dot and Bubble is quite a bit above that, at 76, and Rogue is also a couple of points above EoD.
Do I think it’s suspicious that 73 Yards is highly rated? No. Do I think that all the racists and homophobes in the country are far right and deliberately spoiling the ratings? Also, no, racism and homophobia are found from the far right to the far left. And, even if you don’t agree with them, they are a part of this country and their appreciation of an episode should be taken into account if you want to accurately represent an audience response. That’s not spoiling the results. The results are how people across the country responded to the episode.
I think it more likely has the highest rating because it was a really good episode which lots of people enjoyed - certainly came out top in the season for me.
I doubt this is the case at all. Most of those results, as others have said, aren’t signficiantly different enough to draw any sort of conclusion about why there are differences.
Boom didn’t blow me away (ha!) and actually it’s stance of faith would push it down for me personally. Likewise Rogue which I thought was fun but laboured the romance a bit too much for me (and that’s absolutely nothing to do with the queerness of it, I just thought the scenes around it like the dance bit lasted longer than they needed to and affected the pace of the story).
don’t worry about it, Doctor Who is going to be fine.