Honestly, I’ve been of the opinion for years the Doctor/Companion romantic involvement is bad simply because I can not believe it. The Doctor of all characters in this kind of relationship just never feels quite right, almost like its conflicting with their character.
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For me it really depends. I loved River and liked Yaz. Everything else just plain annoyed me. But I guess it also has a bit to do with how the respective fans are acting. A lot of Rose/Doctor shippers I have come across are really adamant that she is the Doctors one true love, while most River/Doctor fans seem way more chill to me.
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I’m a big doctorrose fan but I honestly can’t talk to other shippers for too long because so many people want them to live a perfect monogamous domestic life… the Doctor and Rose are unquestionably in love to me but I don’t think there’s any reason either of them couldn’t love another person too. I mean, I don’t think either of them is fully platonic with Jack, for one thing…
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I don’t really ship Doctor/rose, well I guess I ship rose more with 11 than 10, I think I mostly ship DocMana!
Expecially 4 x RII and 5 x RII!
And my own Khachapuri Doctor and tulip romana, although I guess they’re not much different than 4 and romana I, but I have my own versions of time lords although I rarely use them, I’m more invested in Luvic.
I realized that I couldn’t admit to Luvic’s death bc he has too much of a face that survives to 59 years old.
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I’m a big believer in aro/ace Doctor for the most part, and not much of a shipper at all with them; especially with human companions. That being said… I do like 4/Romana, and I think there’s kind of love with certain Doctor/companion duos that isn’t necessarily romantic (like 4/Sarah, or 15/Ruby). I also do like Thasmin, but that’s mostly from the LGBT representation perspective.
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Great thread!
I’ve given it some thought and I’m not saying I’m alone in this by any means but I suppose my most controversial Doctor Who opinion is that, in much the same way people have said the Twelfth Doctor is the Sixth Doctor done right (not something I necessarily concur with)… I think the Thirteenth Doctor is the Tenth Doctor done right. 
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Interesting take 
That makes total sense (whereas the 12 is 6 done right doesn’t quite as much😉)
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I 100% prefer 13 to 10 and I think you’re right. Certainly those who criticised Whitaker for just ‘copying’ Tennant were extremely wide of the mark.
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I don’t understand how The Red Lady is one of the highest rated audios. It was alright, I rated it 4/5, by no means a favourite but I feel like I missed something within it that makes it one of the highest rated.
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I related it 4,5/5. Personally I really enjoyed the concept very much and thought it was a great introduction to Helen. Though it isn’t my highest rated audio I can get behind why people would say it’s theirs, while also understanding if it isn’t. 
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I mean, you did rate it as 4/5 and if everyone puts it as 4 or 5/5, it’s going to become a ‘highest rated audio’. It is a really good introduction to Helen and the entire concept of the Red Lady is well-realised especially so as it is a very visual concept being depicted on audio.
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Beryl Reid is brilliant in Earthshock. No one can change my mind on this. 
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Is that your way of saying you don’t actually have any controversial opinions? 
Is see no controversy here 
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As promised in my introduction post earlier, I have many controversial opinions of my own, so I’ll note a few of them down here. I’ve tried for a mix of positive and negative, but at no point do I intend to upset or offend anyone who disagrees with me. Strap in, it’s gonna be a long one.
- Doctor debut stories are generally poor
Particularly in the classic era, the introduction stories to a new Doctor generally are just average, nothing special. They’ve improved in the modern era, staying around the 7-8/10 mark, but they still leave a lot to be desired. The only Doctor debut I’d give a 10/10 is The Eleventh Hour.
- Speaking of debuts, Russell T Davies’ season openers are poor
In his first era, Russell’s episode 1s consistently found themselves at the bottom, or very close to the bottom, of my season rankings, and Space Babies still seems to solidify that he’s not great at gripping me with the first episode of a season. On the flipside, he’s magnificent at raising the stakes for a finale, although (and I doubt this is controversial), he doesn’t know how to solve the issue or commit to a huge change in a satisfying way, a fault he shares with Moffat.
- The best way to watch the show is in broadcast order
I’m the sort of person who can only watch Doctor Who from the beginning to the current episode (with the exception of if a new season is airing during a marathon). I’ve never understood the appeal of choosing a random episode to watch, or going through episodes you’ve not seen out of any sort of order. I feel like the best way to experience the show is to experience it the way the world in general has. As different as each story can be, it’s not exactly an anthology series. It’s a continuous narrative that is best experienced in order, because only then can you get a proper insight into the development of the Doctor, the companions, and the universe around them. It also makes spotting certain checkpoints easier, your first companion exit, your first regeneration, the last episode of an era, finishing them all after watching in this way feels so incredibly rewarding, and it’s also beneficial as it constantly allows you to reevaluate every story, spotting new things, evolving your opinions. You’re not abandoning a story to the DVD shelf because you hated it 20 years ago and haven’t seen it since, and likewise you aren’t losing the thrill of your favourites by watching the same handful of stories constantly, you’re watching every episode an equal amount of times. And just as a side note, I hate the mentality of some new potential viewers who seem to immediately ask the question of which episodes they can skip, as if it’s some sort of race to catch up. It’s not the sort of show you can cut corners with, I think you have to fully commit to it and take as much time as you need. It may sound harsh, but if that means you can’t watch a new season that’s airing next week because you’re not caught up yet, then better luck next year.
- The Third Doctor is my least favourite Doctor
Just a quick one, but Jon Pertwee is my least favourite incarnation of the Doctor. He seems to have been a very funny man off screen, especially with Patrick Troughton, and his dedication to the role right up to the end of his life is massively inspirational, but I just can’t bring myself to enjoy his Doctor. His James Bond gimmick doesn’t appeal to me as I’m not a fan of the spy genre, I find him unnecessarily rude quite a lot of the time, particularly towards the Brigadier and Jo. It’s only really towards the end of his era that I start to like him, but it’s too little too late.
- The Tenth Doctor is the worst modern era Doctor
I know it’s fairly common these days to hate on the Tenth Doctor, so I doubt this is particularly controversial, but I genuinely think he’s the worst of the modern era, and close to the worst of all time. Because he’s consistently characterised by some of the Doctor’s worst traits, his narcissism, his arrogance, his ignorance, I find it hard to like him. These things may make him an interesting character, don’t get me wrong, I can see why certain people are drawn to that, but for me personally, he’s quite distant from what I think “the Doctor” should be. Maybe that’s a little closed-minded on my part, but it’s how I feel.
- I absolutely despise Clara
This opinion has got me into many an argument over the years, to the point where I don’t even like to talk about the character any more just to avoid the vitriol the simple act of disliking her seems to ilicit in some circles. I won’t go into full detail here, but the general idea is that I like her in series 7, but her attitude towards the Twelfth Doctor sours my opinion of her to an irreparable degree. There’s too much mental and physical abuse, hypocrisy and lies for me to ignore, not to mention the fact that her relationship with the Twelfth Doctor is intentionally written to be a toxic, unhealthy, self-destructive one. I hate these sorts of relationships in real life, I don’t want to see it in my favourite show between the two main characters who I’m meant to like. Much like the Tenth Doctor’s personality, this aspect of her was intentional (a fact many of her fans will happily admit), but I’m of the mindset that just because something succeeded in making you feel a certain way, you don’t have to like that, it doesn’t automatically exempt it from criticism.
- I don’t understand the popularity of Sarah Jane
I’m lucky to have grown up with The Sarah Jane Adventures so I could see the best that Elisabeth Sladen had to offer, however I don’t understand how Sarah Jane became so popular in the first place to warrant bringing her back, as I don’t see any qualities shining from her in the classic era that other companions didn’t also possess. She’s a fairly standard companion, nothing too special, and especially once the Fourth Doctor comes along, I start to like her less and find her a tad immature at points. Nevertheless, I’m glad she returned and we had four (and a bit) glorious seasons of her own spinoff.
- The Timeless Child does not destroy canon
This is another one that could be a post in itself, so I won’t go to deep into it, but I genuinely believe that the Timeless Child storyline can quite comfortably fit with everything we knew before. Every single alleged plot hole that people point out has at least one explanation, or in some cases multiple explanations, if you just take the time to think of them. The way Chibnall constructed this story, with very little concrete answers, allows the plot to be molded around what we previously knew without contradicting anything. Whether you like that form of storytelling or not is another matter in itself, but it can’t be denied that by not giving too many specifics, Chibnall has allowed the story to coexist just fine with the previous 50+ years.
And to finish off, here are a few controversial opinions on some of the stories over the decades:
- An Unearthly Child part 1 is severely overrated, and the following three parts are better
- Some missing stories are more enjoyable than some fully surviving stories. For example, I can happily “watch” the entirety of Marco Polo in one go, while The Krotons is a struggle
- The Sensorites is good
- The Web Planet is severely underrated
- The Gunfighters is a 10/10 and what’s more, the song doesn’t at all irritate me
- The Power of the Daleks is incredibly boring
- The Underwater Menace is brilliant
- The Macra Terror’s reputation, especially when the animation was released, is baffling to me, though I’ve slightly warmed to it on recent viewings
- Fury from the Deep is one of my least favourite stories of all time
- I don’t think The War Games is too long, and can quite happily watch the lot in one sitting
- Inferno is hugely overrated
- The Sea Devils is an overrated and lazy rewrite of The Silurians, and every subsequent appearance from homo reptitlia suffers from following the exact same storyline of them wanting the planet back, something that always ends in them not getting it back, an absolute waste of an episode slot in the modern era especially
- Frontier in Space is horrific, one of the only Doctor Who stories that has ever made me genuinely angry while watching it
- The Ark in Space is a very average story, I don’t understand its everlasting reputation as one of the greats
- Standard one, Genesis of the Daleks is overrated
- The Masque of Mandragora is criminally underrated
- The Hand of Fear is overrated (though I prefer the sections set on Kastria)
- Horror of Fang Rock is dreadful and host to some of the most pointless and infuriating side casts of all time
- Image of the Fendahl is one of the best stories of all time
- The Pirate Planet is overrated while The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll and The Armageddon Factor are all underrated
- Due to its status as an unaired story, Shada is sorely overlooked
- Meglos is a brilliant story
- The E-Space trilogy is let down only by Warriors’ Gate
- Earthshock is very overrated, though I do like everything to do with Adric’s departure
- Time-Flight is absolutely wonderful and one of my feel-good stories
- Mawdryn Undead is terrific and deserves to be spoken about more
- Similarly, The King’s Demons doesn’t get nearly enough attention
- Warriors of the Deep is a relaxing watch. Stick it on on a Saturday morning and then try to tell me otherwise
- The Awakening and Planet of Fire are more Fifth Doctor stories that are massively overlooked
- My go-to controversial opinion - The Caves of Androzani comes nowhere close to deserving its reputation as the best story of all time, I find it absolutely horrendous, easily one of my least favourites of all time, its only saving grace is Graeme Harper’s direction. To rub salt in the wound, I also think The Twin Dilemma is better
- Vengeance on Varos isn’t the best Sixth Doctor story, in fact I’d call it one of the worst
- The Two Doctors is a 10/10 and proves that it doesn’t need to be an anniversary to bring back an old Doctor
- Timelash, wait for it, is a banger
- Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen are incredible
- The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is the Worst Episode in the Sylvester McCoy Era (see what I did there?)
- Ghost Light is fairly easy to understand after a few watches
- Aliens of London/World War Three is great
- Dalek, not so much
- The Idiot’s Lantern is my favourite Tenth Doctor episode
- The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is overrated
- Love & Monsters is 10/10
- Fear Her gets way too much hate
- Human Nature/The Family of Blood is overrated
- The popular opinion seems to be that Blink is overrated, though I’d say it’s fairly rated
- Voyage of the Damned is the best Christmas special
- The Doctor’s Daughter gets far too much hate
- Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead - not a fan
- Midnight is not an enjoyable experience for me, joining Frontier in Space as one of the few stories to make me angry
- I don’t mind the Weeping Angels moving in Flesh and Stone
- Amy’s Choice doesn’t quite live up to its reputation
- The Lodger is a great episode that people don’t entertain purely because it has James Corden in it
- A Christmas Carol isn’t all that good
- The Girl Who Waited is the worst episode of series 6 and has sent me to sleep on multiple occasions
- With a few exceptions, series 7 is a brilliant season that gets dunked on for absolutely no reason whatsoever
- Peter Capaldi had the best Christmas specials, all of them were at least good
- The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion is a mostly nothing story with a great speech at the end, which is usually the only reason people rate it so much
- Sleep No More is brilliant (I used to rate it higher before Reece Shearsmith blocked me on Twitter for ranking the episodes of Inside No.9, that was a thing that happened)
- Empress of Mars is the best episode of series 10
- The Eaters of Light deserves more recognition
- Twice Upon a Time does more damage to the First Doctor than anything the Timeless Child storyline does
- The Tsuranga Conundrum gets far too much hate
- On first broadcast, Kerblam! gained a reputation as “the only good episode of series 11”, which I fully disagree with. Now people seem to slate it for the assumed pro-capitalist message, which I don’t believe it to have
- The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos isn’t at all a bad finale. Not great, just alright.
- Resolution isn’t all that good and is proof that some people will eat anything up if you chuck a Dalek in it
- Even people who dislike the Timeless Child arc seem to be of the opinion that Fugitive of the Judoon is a great episode, though I disagree, primarily because the companions serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever, I believe it would have worked much better as a companion-lite story
- I don’t understand why people dislike Survivors of the Flux and The Vanquishers so much
- Legend of the Sea Devils is a fantastic episode and doesn’t deserve the relentless hate it receives
- Boom isn’t THAT good, and I doubt it would have as many people raving about it if it wasn’t written by Moffat
- Dot and Bubble is the worst episode of the modern era
And breathe… I’m sure I have plenty of others, but that’s enough to satisfy you all for now, I’m sure. Enjoy trying to figure out how anyone could think this way. 
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About half of what you wrote I strongly agree with, the other half I strongly disagree with
With all the Clara hate I have seen online the last decade, I can’t think that disliking Clara would be considered controversial. Wrong? Yes, but not controversial
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I know a certain someone who’d agree with at least one of your opinions
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Same here, honestly. I quite liked Tsuranga Conundrum, for example.
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This is absolutely the case - especially as Chibnall was extremely careful to make sure it did fit with what came before. The more vitriolic reactions to it stemmed from not only a misunderstanding of what was on screen and in the dialogue but also from a misunderstanding of the countless seismic changes the show had already been through across it’s 60 years.
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This isn’t a controversial opinion - it’s literally entry criteria for this site
Seriously though - there are so many of your ‘controversial’ opinions I agree with there - and a whole chunk I don’t even slightly (Midnight is a phenomenal piece of television).
Fortunately, this site is all about accepting every fan is different and gets different things from the show. No opinion is wrong and there’s room for everyone as long as you show respect and tolerance.
One more thing on your ‘how to watch the show’ stance. Chronologically is fun and definitely something everyone should do once at least but coming from the VHS generation when we got random Doctor Who stories released each month and repeat seasons on TV if we were lucky, during the Wilderness Years - it also feels perfectly natural to watch stories at ‘random’. The majority of stories are self contained and sometimes appreciating an episode or story away from the weight of a season’s run can be hugely beneficial to your appreciation of it.
I did not enjoy Series 8 much at all because I didn’t enjoy the characterisation of Twelve. But having watched quite a few of that season in isolation, I’ve found I’ve enjoyed most of the episodes more than I did first time round.
Both ways have positives and negatives.
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A controversial opinion doesn’t necessarily have to be an unpopular one, it just needs to generate varying responses, which disliking Clara absolutely does.
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