Media Essays: The Rise and Fall of Doctor Who 2005 - 2025

Written by The Wandering Fox

Greetings everybody, it is I, the Wandering Fox with another blog entry that many of you will not bother reading since it’s Doctor Who, which is ironic given today’s whole subject is about the Rise and Fall of the current era of Doctor Who. I know they’ve said the new era has already begun but I don’t buy that as it still leans on a “plot point” set up in the Whittaker era, so yeah, this is about the show’s rapid decline from 2005 to 2025. I know it’s not much of a celebration of the show with this being the twentieth anniversary of the revival, but hey, if RTD is happy to take a dump on Davros for the series’ 60th anniversary, then I’ll happily take a dump on the work he’s done for its twentieth anniversary.

So, how do we start this? Let’s go all the way back to 1989.

The End

Doctor Who came to an end in 1989 after the BBC and Michael Grade set it up to fail by having it go up against Coronation Street, which at the time was gaining lots of views. Grade made it clear he did not want Doctor Who on anymore and with the story Battlefield drawing in the lowest viewing figures for the series at the time, it was decided shortly after Survival finished filming they wouldn’t bring Doctor Who back in spite of a plan for season 27, hence the last we saw the Doctor in 1989 he had defeated the Master and walked back to the TARDIS with Ace, narrating “There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, the seas asleep, and the rivers dream! People made of smoke, cities made of song! Somewhere there’s danger! Somewhere there’s injustice! And somewhere the tea’s getting cold! C’mon Ace, we’ve got work to do!”

The sad part was that Doctor Who was finding its feet again with McCoy as the Doctor in telling more intriguing stories, the Doctor becoming a more mysterious character and having a tough companion in Ace who’s own story became a personal connective tissue through the series. But of course, Michael Grade was wanting it gone, so it was tossed out. However, this wasn’t the end of Doctor Who on TV as then for the 30th anniversary we had that dreadful Dimensions in Time which crossed over with EastEnders, then we had the TV movie which honestly was a decent film, we had a great Doctor in Paul McGann, an awesome TARDIS interior and a proud opening theme, while also getting Sylvester McCoy back for the regeneration. However, despite the TV movie’s successful viewing figures over here it didn’t catch an audience in America so we didn’t get a series with McGann. However, if there’s something we have to bear in mind, Ace and the Eighth Doctor had a huge impact on the series going forward with their character arcs, aspects having a legacy in the modern series. Doctor Who spent the next few years mostly in comics and audio, until come 2004 we then had the revival.

Doctor Who’s Return

In 2004, Russel T. Davies, at the time a rising star in tv producing and show running, had the BBC give him the chance to revive Doctor Who for a new audience. Snubbing McGann (seriously, Paul recently said RTD never phoned him), wanting a fresh start without the “baggage” of the Classic series, RTD started with introducing us to the Doctor through Rose Tyler, a young woman from the 21st century who ends up uncovering a group of Autons in the lower levels of the clothes shop she works in, saved by the Doctor, now played by Christopher Eccleston. Rose uncovers more of the Doctor, with her seeing he’s long existed, before going into the TARDIS and realises the Doctor is an alien. With a more somewhat faster paced storytelling with more focus on the emotional beats of the companion and the Doctor, the introduction of a companion’s family life being impacted on by travelling with the Doctor, and a series long story arc that was sprinkled in a few episodes, Doctor Who brought in a new audience as well as bringing back old fans, the show keeping much interest with the reveal the Doctor was now the last of the Time Lords, his people having fought against the Daleks, the interest was growing over this gap between the TV film and the revived series. Much was done in creating scary monsters like the Reapers and the Empty Child to help scare but excite the folks watching, helping old fans remember the joys of being scared by the aliens of Doctor Who, the series was indeed off to a great start. But what kept everybody coming back after so many episodes with just this series from 2005? Easy. Regeneration.

At the end of The Parting of the Ways, which saw the Doctor having his last stand against a reborn Dalek Empire, Rose absorbed the Time Vortex and killed the Daleks and their Emperor. The power of the Time Vortex was killing Rose so the Doctor made a heroic sacrifice, absorbing the vortex at the cost of his own life. As audiences unfamiliar with Doctor Who watched with sadness and confusion, the Doctor told Rose he was never going to see her again but told her she was fantastic. And so was he. Then me, like many kids back then, watched in complete surprise as he suddenly burst out golden light and then in the Doctor’s place was another man, spiked brown hair, a whole different voice. Who was this guy? Tuning in to the first Christmas special of the revived era, we found out who he was. He was still the Doctor. Having spent the episode with Rose and her mum trying to come to accept the strange man was indeed the Doctor, we ourselves saw we weren’t alone, but by the end we had this brand new Doctor in his smart pinstripe suit, trainers and trench coat and the adventures continued with us excited to see the Doctor on whole different adventures with Rose. Then from there Doctor Who became a great juggernaut of a franchise.

Doctor Who at a Toys R Us. I think this was my local Toys R Us, judging by the layout.

Doctor Who was everywhere. There were toys from figures, remote controlled Daleks, voice changing Cybermen helmets, Sonic Screwdrivers, and more. I know they became much sought after I bought a lot of toys. This also saw the Classic series have its chance to be reintroduced to the fan base both old and new thanks to Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 returning with the Classic series getting DVD releases, though if you were me I ended up getting the VHS tapes of the Classic franchise, thus younger fans could discover William Hartnell, Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, Paul McGann. It also saw two spin offs made, Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures, seeing former companions Captain Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane Smith on their own adventures. With the series raking in top viewing figures and many awards, Doctor Who truly had its golden age come 2008 with Catherine Tate returning, Karen Gillan and Peter Capaldi debuting, Sontarans and Davros reintroduced to the series, brand new monsters and aliens like the Ood, Judoon, Weeping Angels and the Vashta Nerada, Doctor Who had been much loved by both old and new fans. David Tennant easily became a hero and fan favourite to many children and fans. It was truly a return to awesomeness for the franchise. Then came a big change.

David Tennant and RTD left. With RTD having served as showrunner since 2004, he felt 2009 was the right year for him to leave. Tennant was thinking of staying on for series 5 but chose to leave, thus we got a whole new era of Doctor Who with Steven Moffat in charge and Matt Smith taking on the role of the Doctor, the youngest actor so far to have taken the role. Doctor Who retained a strong fan base and viewing figures, many interested in the adventures of the Eleventh Doctor, discovering who River Song was, and then came the 50th anniversary which saw Tom Baker, Paul McGann, and David Tennant return and Matt Smith departed an episode later, making way for Peter Capaldi to come and take up the role of the Doctor.

Doctor Who was growing strong. With the 50th behind them, Gallifrey brought back, the Doctor had a new life cycle, and we got a new Doctor, surely the show was gonna keep getting stronger, right?

Eh. Not really. It started to go downhill. Not Capaldi’s fault, I blame Moffat.

Series 8 oddly spent more focus on Clara in trying to develop her as a character after being relegated as a plot device in Series 7, but this came at the cost of not exactly doing much to focus on the new Doctor, not helped by the fact Series 8 had the Eleventh Doctor in mind rather than the Twelfth Doctor at the start of it being written, hence we didn’t get quite a grip on the Doctor until later say around Listen or Time Heist, which annoyed a few fans as they were hoping to get a good enough reading on the Doctor as soon as but instead it came later. It didn’t help Series 8 gave us terrible episodes like Kill the Moon and In the Forest of the Night which had not only a sensitive topic about abortion but also how destroying the moon didn’t have an impact on Earth even for the tiniest of seconds until another hatched, or how Forest had by far one of the most baby like plots ever and had terrible kid actors in it which Moffat loves.

Then Moffat started to break the boundary a bit to his writing and the lore of Doctor Who which led to polarising results. For example, in the finale Moffat played around with the afterlife, but went down a disastrous route in which he had a scene in which the spirit of a man begged somebody “Please done cremate me!” This disgusted more than scared viewers, especially those who had cremated their loved ones. Not helping is Moffat basically desecrates the dead by having them reborn as Cybermen then blow themselves up, including Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart! Was Sarah Jane among the Cybermen who came back from the dead then was blown up? It certainly left a sour taste in the mouth of fans, who also had to contend with another bad Cyberman story which did them and the Brigadier a disservice. Then Moffat went a step further and revealed the Master regenerated into a female body. I have nothing against Michelle Gomez as an actress but I think she’d be better suited as the Rani than the Master, as the way how she was written came off as more of a fetish of Moffat’s cos he clearly likes a femme fatal kind of woman. This didn’t exactly gel well with some fans. Some liked it, others didn’t and well, let’s just say Moffat’s throne was dented after series eight.

Series 9 came with the return of Davros, the Zygons, and finally the Time Lords and Galifrey. It was by this point people were beginning to tire of Moffat’s typical tropes. Let’s see:

The Doctor will be destined to go to the Pandorica. Series 5.

The TARDIS will be destroyed. Series 5.

The Doctor is destined to die at Like Silencio. River Song is destined to kill him. Series 6.

The Doctor is destined for Trenszalore. Clara was born to save the Doctor. Series 7.

The Doctor uncovers a prophecy about the Hybrid which he fears is him. Series 9.

Bad kid actors who talk as if they’re trying to sound smart but are annoying.

Series 9 also had a now legendary infamously bad ending in which, after all the set up with The Day of the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor, Listen, Death in Heaven, and Heaven Sent, the Doctor finally got back home to Gallifrey and the Time Lords, the potential impact on the series with exploring a post Time War Gallifrey was tossed aside to have the Doctor break the laws of time and space to save Clara and leave Gallifrey behind again. After all the recent set up Moffat had done, building off the work of RTD in 2005, he just thought Clara was worth more the story than Gallifrey and this brings us back to another tired trope of Moffat which is that nobody ever stays dead with some few exceptions.

The lacklustre use of Gallifrey and the undoing of Clara’s death had enraged enough fans to finally start walking away from the show, seeing a steady decline in viewing figures and merchandise. I think another factor in Doctor Who’s downfall here was the casting of Capaldi. I like him as the Doctor, nothing wrong with him, but if you’ve had a whole decade of the lead character played by two handsome young men with young women as their companions, you have a certain viewership who latch onto that to see the handsome man and imagine themselves with said handsome man, they will struggle to see themselves looking up to the Doctor. Sadly this affected boys as well imo. You had the likes of David Tennant and Matt Smith making old stuff like suits and bow ties look awesome, young boys project themselves on them and imagine themselves as the Doctor. I thought Capaldi was great but I can see why the appeal was not there for the demographics of young boys and girls. But they could still have retained enough interest if they made the writing strong enough, but the only thing saving those stories was Capaldi being a great actor. But as I mentioned above, things were getting lacklustre for the show with Moffat relying on his tropes way too much, be it him trying to turn an everyday thing into something scary, a.I being a way to live on after you die, mocking religion, making bad comedic timings, a.i’s just being straight faced monotone smug looking characters, femme fatale female characters, insulting the Classic era, it was getting boring and tiring. With this, Moffat stayed on for series 10 until finally after all this, a new era of Doctor Who began in a attempt to revive interest.

In came Chris Chibnall, who made history by casting the first female Doctor in Jodie Whittaker.

The Beginning of the End?

The casting of Jodie Whittaker attracted a lot of attention, from weary fans, fans who had been hoping for something new, and a lot of folks from both sides of the political spectrum. With the setup there with Missy being a female Master, Chibnall went with a female Doctor. Whittaker didn’t know she was going to be the Doctor upon being approached by Chibnall, she wanted to play a villain. This had my interest as I myself was tired of Moffat and wanted something new. Hence I went in this with hope that, having seen Jodie in Broadchurch, she’d bring something good for the role and show a female Doctor can work. But then the cracks began to appear as soon as her costume was revealed, basically looking like a female Adrien Agreste, to Jodie revealing Chibnall told her not to watch or research any of the old Doctors, and a bigger TARDIS team, as well as hiring a writing team which, aside from Malorie Blackman, didn’t have experience with Doctor Who. The first episode, The Woman Who Fell to Earth, did do well enough with viewing figures, but the struggling of writing a big TARDIS team with Ryan as the weak link, trying to find a character for a Doctor who struggled to connect with a vast number of viewers, said Doctor’s character having her morals hard to figure out, the political aspects more in your face, the tries at humour more cringe than funny, it struggled. It did have decent merchandise sales but even then it wasn’t up to the glamorous heights of the Tennant and Smith eras. It did have a decent Dalek story with Resolution which at least somewhat soothed things. Then came series 12 and well, for many, this was where they felt the show died for them.

Series 12 introduced a big amount of things that left the fan base shattered and is still affecting the series to this day.

Gallifrey was destroyed again.

The Time Lords were killed again.

The Master’s development was undone.

Another mystery Doctor was introduced with many debating of whether she was a better female Doctor.

The Doctor being way awkward about Graham’s cancer.

And lastly, the Doctor’s origins were retconned. The Doctor was never born on Galifrey, no, she was born outside the main universe, was found by a Galifreyean, killed repeatedly for the Galifreyeans to uncover the power of regeneration and erased these lives from the Doctor’s memory, thus William Hartnell was no longer the original Doctor, flying in the face of the fact the Doctor said repeatedly he was born on Galifrey, he became a Time Lord by joining the Academy, he met a hermit while living on the mountain, he was called Theta Sigma at school, he had his baby cot. You can argue they tried setting this up in the 80s with the Cartmel Masterplan and the TV movie implying the Doctor was half human, but here’s the thing: the former was not fully adapted and the half human thing was tossed aside in other media explaining the Chameleon circuit was faulty.

These all led to many fans flat out decrying the show and just wanting it to be retconned, others thought it didn’t matter, others on both political spectrums using it in their arguments with some making daft comments like a certain toxic positive YouTuber and others opposite him. Making it more annoying is how Chibnall resolved it by just having the Doctor literally tossing it aside, therefore the major impacts of this other Doctor, Gallifrey’s destruction and the Time Lords gone more insulting, not helping is how Chibnall did this as a allegory of his own upbringing. So basically stroking your own ego. The BBC were becoming well aware Doctor Who was not in good shape and they almost ended the series with The Power of the Doctor, the original ending revealing there was no David Tennant at the end. In hindsight I wish it was the last episode because what came next is basically a bully giving you a present but then smashes it up to spite you.

“I created this franchise. I may as well end it” RTD probably.

Though they were going to end The Power of the Doctor with it as the last episode, the BBC met with RTD and got a deal with him. Initially he was supposed to do the 60th anniversary then that’d be it, but as he wrote the trilogy of specials he got an idea for a series 14. Pitching it as a soft reboot, Disney agreeing to have Doctor Who on Disney+ to join Bluey, RTD revealing he was coming back was welcomed with open arms by the majority of the fandom who hoped he was gonna return the show to better quality storytelling. With David Tennant and Catherine Tate coming back, and Ncuti Gatwa casted as the Doctor, there was lots of hope RTD was gonna bring his magic back. But instead, the cracks appeared very early, as filming showed RTD was basically celebrating his era. Then came the episode where everybody realised RTD had lost his magic and was taking an axe to Classic Who with him turning the war on Skaro into a joke, as well as retconning the Daleks’ origin and changing Davros into an able bodied man. At first we just guessed this was Davros before he was injured but RTD, who back in 2008 said he wouldn’t dream of altering Davros, now said Davros was an insult to the disabled and he was going to be able bodied from now. This angered a lot of Doctor Who fans, disabled ones included, for this, many citing he’s removed somebody’s disability, made a fuss of something that didn’t bother many people, and blatantly doesn’t get that Davros isn’t defined by his disability, nor did his disability make him evil, he grew up hating the Thals and wanted to live long to kill them. RTD did not make things easier for himself by arguing with Doctor Who fans online, even telling disabled fans who were upset “Tough” or “F- Off”.

A few of RTD's disgusting comments.

A disabled Doctor Who fan criticising RTD.

This soured the mood for the 60th, not helping with how badly resolved the Meta Crisis with Donna was or the blatant sexist comment Donna and Rose make towards the Doctor. Wild Blue Yonder was okay. The Giggle could have worked better if it was a two parter, but the cop out of Bi-Generation was a blatant excuse for RTD to spare David’s Doctor from death, not helped by how objectified he made the Gatwa Doctor with him in a shirt and undies. The David Tennant Doctor surviving has me see the show is scared to move on from him and in hindsight Tennant has been more of a thorn in the series with his Doctor having no reason to be in the 50th, his Time Lord Victorious story overshadowing the Whittaker era, and her regenerating into him was enough for me and others to be tired of Tennant. The Church on Ruby Road was okay, but it began a trend with the Doctor many got fed up with very quickly: he cries, like a lot! Not helping is how this Doctor was much too millennial to even recognise him as the same character from Hartnell to even Whittaker, or the blatant condescending vibe of the episodes like Boom or Dot and Bubble, the latter of which was just so cringe I feel RTD doesn’t have a grasp at all on my generation. With Rogue having the Doctor more interested in making out with Rogue as Ruby is about to die, many grew to really dislike Gatwa’s Doctor, but more so RTD became much despised with him taking another axe to Classic Who by doing another retcon which, while not as bad as the Timeless Child, was still bad enough to make you cringe at the fan fiction being brought to life. With Sutekh being on the TARDIS since Pyramids of Mars, this ignores the fact the time tunnel was separate from the Time Vortex, the times the TARDIS was destroyed, or the fact Sutekh could be on the other TARDIS, or the moments Sutekh could have easily killed everybody. The resolve of Ruby’s mother basically being a “Sike! You thought she was important, that’s why she was important!” Was just that bad many have done away with RTD and are begging the series to finally be cancelled. There are those who think series 15 will improve things but that was filmed right after series 14 finished filming.

There’s also been this trend which Moffat started by being very demeaning of the Classic series, which combined with demeaning the First Doctor into a sexist bigot when he evolved out of that, Chibnall rewriting the Doctor’s past, with the butchery of the Daleks and War Games in Colour, retconning Davros, Sutekh, The Toymaker and the War Chief which has alienated a lot of Doctor Who fans who feel, myself included, that they wouldn’t be anywhere without the Classic series and they should give it respect, not mockery.

2023 viewing figures, screenshot from Doctor Who TV.

2024 figures screenshot from Doctor Who TV.

With Gatwa’s episodes raking in lower viewing figures than the Seventh Doctor era, RTD retconning more of Doctor Who, his incredibly rude behaviour towards fans, Moffat returning just to do the same old tropes he’s done before, making the series much too childish, and bad storytelling, it’s little wonder. Gatwa didn’t help as he told fans who didn’t like it to go touch grass.

RTD can try and play about with the viewing figures, but the numbers don’t lie. Even the iPlayer can’t save it as even the 28 Day figures he came up with have given the series low viewing figures, and Joy to the World being the lowest viewed Christmas episode and even it’s +7 day figures down from the Christmas before it, the BBC and RTD have to accept it. They can’t keep the series up. It’s twenty years old now. It’s had its moment but you have to accept that it’s done and it needs to go away.

Doesn’t help either that Louise Jameson, Peter Purves and Phillip Hinchcliffe have said recently they aren’t happy with the show. I mean look at that, you have beloved former companions in Louise and Peter saying Doctor Who isn’t doing well and they only recently returned for mini episodes, and Phillip Hinchcliffe had a very deep history with the show so if they're not liking it, you have to realise something is wrong here.

The Future

Whether series 15 rakes in enough viewers remains to be seen. Disney and the BBC will decide Doctor Who’s future. The spin off they’re doing may not screen this year. If this was successful they’d be announcing more spin offs like Paul McGann’s series, a David Tennant series, but no. If series 15 goes lower then RTD better start packing his bags and the BBC better get Doctor Who up on the shelf.

I doubt Paul McGann can save it. I love him and his Doctor, the fandom would have happily taken up a spin off, but Moffat couldn’t be bothered and neither can RTD, and I feel it’s much too late now. Even now the fandom would be much more distrusting of RTD if he were to do an Eighth Doctor spin off, with him and his team blatantly retconning Davros, Sutekh, the War Chief, and the Doctor as a father and grandfather, I wouldn’t trust RTD if he was begging Paul McGann at his feet to come back. David Tennant couldn’t save it with the 60th, what makes him think McGann can?

RTD you admitted you wanted to polarise the fans, why are you angry there’s lots of fans quitting Doctor Who and hating it? Why are you acting more like a bratty teenager than a guy in his sixties? Get off social media, grow up and accept that you lost your magic and apologise for your utterly childish behaviour.

Now, if Doctor Who was to be cancelled, what do I see? I see RTD and Moffat blaming the fanbase. Then once that is done, I think Doctor Who will just go away and fade from our minds for a bit. Big Finish could continue but it’d have to avoid the many mistakes the show made. Let Doctor Who fade away and then, say in fifteen years, bring it back. But if you are to bring back, you must:

Stop giving the Doctor a love interest.

Stop turning the companion into a plot device.

Stop making the Doctor the most special person in the universe.

Stop insulting the fans.

Stop stroking your egos.

Stop retconning Classic Who.

It’s sad to have Doctor Who get like this. A once beloved, strong show with good storytelling reduced to a joke which began in the Capaldi era and is now handled by those who can’t take a slight bit of the fact there will be fans who will criticise them. I’ll always love the show back when it was good, but after Empire of Death I realised I couldn’t watch the show anymore. I saw it beginning to die with Series 8, I tried to hope things would get better after the Timeless Child, I hoped RTD would try to make it a great storytelling series, but after the last series I couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t watch Joy to the World. I have no desire to watch Series 15. I know others won’t. If only RTD can act more his age and just be mature enough to accept that maybe Doctor Who is done now and needs to go...

Thank you very much for those who read this. Do you think Doctor Who has to finish, or do you think it’s all fine and can go on? Tell me what you think down below.

I’m the Wandering Fox and I’ll see you later.