I am starting this in a good spirited way, because at the end of the day, none of us will agree on everything, but I do find it interesting to see how some parts of DW can be sacred to one person and loathed by another. So in the spirit of civilised disagreement, what are your controversial takes?
Mine are:
- Jago and Litefoot are boring, and Talons of Weng Chiang is massively overrated and also boring (racism aside. it’s just boring)
- I don’t really care about Charley or Rose and think they are vastly overrated
- I really did not like Stranded at all
- please god can we stop bringing David Tennant back. he is not the be all and end all of DW. I like his run as much as anyone but I have had Enough
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I enjoy the Jago and Litefoot series well enough but I don’t think it’s BF’s bestest ever spin off in the universe ever which seems to be what most fans think. Talons is fine but not my favourite of that season.
Charley I love, but I was there at the dawning of her time and she did a lot of appearances via Tenth Planet and she was a lovely person in real life. Rose, I’m with you on. Much prefer Martha and/or Donna.
It does seem like he is EVERYWHERE at the moment. Thing is, he is the Tom Baker of the modern series and just like everyone clamours for Tom, he has the same effect.
I have a few controversial views (shock!) but off the back of that, I’ll start with:
- Tom Baker returning as the Curator was underwhelming and actually a bit insulting to the other surviving Doctors.
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SO true, it was so disappointing in 2012 that he was the only one who got recognised. The Fiveish Doctors however was brilliant
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No hate, honest!
I like Ianto on paper, I like Gareth David-Lloyd - I think he is a terrible actor.
I like Yaz on paper, I like Mandip Gill - I think she is a terrible actor.
Not being facetious, I think Matthew Waterhouse is a better actor than those two.
I’ll just go hide in a corner now.
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Oh boy. All I have is controversial opinions about Doctor Who. I’ll just list a few.
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Charley is a bore, Charley is a snore. She should have stayed with Eight. She doesn’t have a good rapport with Six at all, their stories are dry, and every audio I’ve heard with them has her complaining about how she can’t divulge her secret. Tell him or get over it.
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The Doctor is the only interesting Time Lord. The others are all cookie-cutter clones of each other. You’re telling me the Doctor is the only decent, “good” TL around? And where are the normal Gallifreyans? I wish they’d show more of the regular classes instead of focusing on the same elites again and again.
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I don’t blame anyone for not having the interest in watching Classic Who. The serials, for the most part, are drawn out and not engrossing in the slightest, especially for younger audiences or those who aren’t sci-fi fanatics.
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The Power of the Doctor was a slap in the face for Six fans. Nicola wasn’t even invited to join. If anyone deserved a heart-to-heart on-screen reunion to that grand, dramatic degree it should’ve been Six and Peri.
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For the most part, I’m not a fan of the Master, Gallifreyan politics, or multi-Doctor stories. I prefer the stories that are lower on the sci-fi elements and are more character-driven.
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The insulting “jokes” about Six’s attire and weight are stale and need to be retired for a while. Mel Bush, get over yourself; Six exercises every time he steps out of the TARDIS. He’s allowed to eat some sweets. And you’re telling me there’s no one in the entirety of the universe who doesn’t like mismatched clothes? His companions have been traveling with him for far too long to still carry hang-ups about what he chooses to wear.
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The Unbound: Doctor of War series had potential, but the execution was atrocious. (Not to mention how it doesn’t make sense for it to star Six instead of Five).
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Six’s female companions are too similar in personality and standing. Hebe should’ve been a man, just to shake it up. It’s like BF is afraid to give him an original male companion, or a companion who isn’t sassy or an academic (I’m aware of Flip and I do like her).
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I genuinely cannot comprehend how you could think this because I think Mandip is consistently great and one of the best actors I’ve ever seen at seemingly effortlessly conveying and shifting through complex emotions.
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There are bits of the Lucie Miller era that I like, individual good episodes, but on the whole it feels generic and boring. It’s “the kind of thing that Doctor Who does”, with a dash of “look how great we used to be”. It doesn’t do anything new or interesting until the final season, and then the finale fumbles it all for seemingly no reason beyond shock value
I like the broad strokes of the Chibnall era. I think every idea he had could have worked (I have no objection to the timeless child as a concept). It’s just the last layer of execution where it doesn’t quite click for me
13’s Tardis interior is gorgeous
15’s sonic is cool and fine
4 and 10 tend to rank as my least favorite doctors. They’re not bad by any means, but their takes on the doctor are so iconic that they became the standard, so they became the default, so they became boring. I much prefer deviations from the norm
Responding to above:
I agree on Stranded, kind of. It was meant to be set in 2020 London, and then Covid happened. It is quite obviously all setup for a finale that had to be hastily rewritten, but that doesn’t feel like anyone’s fault. That said, the idea of “lets strand the doctor on modern earth again” feels very generic at this point, and I was hoping they’d be stranded in deep space or the far future (like we ended up getting with Dalek Universe). Also calling Tania the first trans companion feels a little disingenuous, as the whole point is that they’re all stranded on earth and can’t travel. Even once they get the tardis working, she stays home most of the time.
I also like Yaz on paper. I also think her character doesn’t quite land as she should, but I really don’t think that’s Mandip Gill’s fault. In fact, I’d quite like to see her as the Doctor (ideally with Jenna Coleman as the Master for totally not lesbian reasons).
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I really couldn’t like the Twelfth Doctor like the New Who Doctor, I know, he is an amazing Doctor, but, I don’t know I feel that his era wasn’t enough to attract me fully to his, which is weird, because the Thirteenth Doctor, even having a “mid” era to me, I liked her more than Twelfth
Which my Ranking being
1° 11
2° 9
3° 13
4° 14
5° 10
6° 12
Ooh see I could not agree less, I find her deadly dull with Eight and actually interesting with Six - you’re right that the secret thing is tiresome but at least she’s got another dimension to her
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If I’m saying she’s boring with Six, and you’re saying she’s dull with Eight, then she’s definitely not the companion for me haha.
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I kind of figured we wouldn’t see eye to eye on this 
But the topic did ask for the most controversial opinions.
I just think she exaggerated every single emotional scene she was in especially with her facial expressions, I much prefer a more subtle approach to acting. I think she was best when she was one on one with Dan with a more comedic double-act.
And I just think she stayed on too long so the acting choices she made became too predictable for me.
But seeing Mandip Gill and Jodie Whittaker together IRL is an absolute delight!
My first list feels overly negative, so here’s some more positive ones
Series 9 is good, and Hell Bent works great as a finale once you stop expecting it to be this big epic battle and look at it as a character piece
Sam Jones is good. Her flaws and contradictions make her feel like a real teenager, and she’s an excellent foil for the early 8th doctor
Flux is Chibnall’s strongest work. The sense of joy and fun and passion from the script and the crew is infectious
Everything from The Halloween Apocalypse to The Giggle is series 13. It has a 6-part opening story, a regeneration in episode 9, and another in episode 12
Zagreus is genuinely a good story, and by far it’s weakest part is when it self-depricatingly calls itself nonsense, because I feel like far too much of the audience used that as an excuse to write off a complex story as being nonsensical
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Zagreus is awesome, Zagreus haters are wrong 
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I never understood the hate for Zagreus. An imaginative way of doing a multi Doctor story.
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I must be looking in the wrong places, because I’ve never seen an outpouring of antipathy towards Zagreus. I usually see people raving about it.
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Me too, but that’s another thing I find so interesting about other people’s ‘controversial’ opinions, because what’s loved in some circles is hated in others
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I’m staying quiet on the controversial opinions so as not to ruffle too many feathers 
But here’s one that seems controversial amongst you:
Capaldi is one of the greatest Doctors, and Heaven Sent is an utter masterpiece, probably the single best hour of Who there is 
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how is that controversial when it’s so true
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Okay here goes: I didn’t like Rose and Donna when I first got into Doctor Who. I enjoy them now, but they’re still not my favourites. My favourite as a kid was Martha! I found Rose kind of annoying and Donna mostly dull. I have since changed my opinions, but man am I glad I wasn’t online at the time, I would have been stoned!
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Not only is Delta and the Bannermen really good, it should have been longer. If it had just one more episode to flesh out the characters and theme (oh, yeah, there’s a theme) then it would have been the epitome of Doctor Who. It could even be adapted into a very fun rock’n’roll musical.
On an entirely separate note: every character in The Stones of Blood is a lesbian. Yes, even that one.
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