My Unpopular Doctor Who Opinion

If you even occasionally peer into Doctor Who Twitter, you will have recently seen that fans have been sharing their seemingly 'unpopular' Doctor Who opinions left, right and centre. Whether it be on individual eras, different casting choices or even which socks the Doctor wears (I mean, I haven't actually seen that one yet, but it can only be a matter of time), fans have been sparking the fires of controversy with their seemingly radical, controversial and even scandalous opinions. And I have an unpopular Doctor Who opinion of my own. I'm going to share it here, so you might want to brace for it. 

There is no unpopular Doctor Who opinion.

Yep, shocking, isn't it?

It seems to be in vogue for everyone in the Doctor Who fan-base to have at least one opinion that people seem to find really extreme, and so niche that everyone else is going to find it so shocking and disturbing that they'll probably keel over. Except the reality is, your opinion is probably shared by at least a couple of other fans, even if it isn't the vast majority. Sure, you think you not liking Sarah Jane Smith is hip and trendy, but there will be at least four other fans out there who think exactly the same as you do (though I don't know why you'd want to hate Sarah Jane, she's great!). Most of these opinions people have already thought about, and decided that they either want to agree with them, or don't. Sure, there are some opinions that people might actually see as controversial, but, let's face it, having an opinion on the diversity hire of a cast-member isn't a 'controversial opinion', it's just being a so-and-so (especially you, if you're reading this, that dumpy-pumpkin who replied to a tweet that Sacha Dhawan was tagged in saying he was fundamentally wrong as the Master). There are very few definite opinions in Doctor Who, because, like the show itself, it can, and is, lots of different things all at once. For every fan who loves the Gothic trappings of the Philip Hinchcliffe era, another prefers the light-hearted humour of the Graham Williams era. For one fan that thinks "The Timeless Children" fundamentally broke the cannon of the show, and was a twist that went too far, there's another that loves the opportunities it provides for the future, and how it opened up the Doctor's backstory. For every fan that hates Colin Baker's coat, there's another that loves it. There's always differing opinions, and that's what makes talking about the show with fellow fans so fun: there's no 'one' opinion (other than Doctor Who is great, but that's a given). So, really, any opinion that we have, we can almost guarantee is shared by someone else. And that's not a bad thing: there are so many Doctor Who fans that there's going to be at least two people who think "The Twin Dilemma" is a great story. So, when people share their opinions that are 'controversial' or 'radical', there's going to be someone out there that thinks 'that's not that radical'. And some of these tweets end up reading like acts of one up-man-ship, as fans try to out-controversial each other with opinions they may not actually believe in, but say anyway to look cool. It just somehow seems strange to me that we even think opinions are controversial in regards to a children's television show. Every opinion on every subject should have some sort of weight, and, yes, some are more 'out there' than others. But, like the TARDIS, Doctor Who fandom is so, so much bigger on the inside than on the outside, and there is room for every different view on every different subject.

So, the only controversial opinion I have on Doctor Who is that there is no controversial opinion about Doctor Who.

See how you deal with that. *mic drop*

Joe M.

Thank you very much for reading. If you wish to keep up to date with the blog, you can subscribe by clicking the link at the top of the page. Keep an eye out for special social medias for Who Time (& Space) coming very soon!