this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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They destroyed this show with modern audience bullshit. It used to be a great escape from reality, and now it's just more propaganda. It really sucks because Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa could have been soooo much better at the roles if it weren't for the horrid writing.
David Tennant and Matt Smith were peak Doctor Who. Even Eccleston (the twat) had a great story arc...
I'm not super familiar with Eccleston's politics but he had some amazing stories while in the Tardis and what he has spoken of his leaving the series, which has been entirely backed up by everyone who spoke about it after, was entirely due to mistreatment from higher ups to the little people that make the show work.
Maybe I have a huge blindspot but I don't see much reason to get mad at him when he brought up some legitimate concerns, and his departure was a catalyst for conditions improving.
Yeah. Everything after Pertwee kind of lost it's way. Lol.
I am hopefully going to get the chance to talk to Jodie in the next couple of months(Denver fan fest), and I am going ask her how she tolerated the writers for her episodes. (I have a bit to figure out how word that nicely.
She is probably my second favorite Dr to Tennant, FWIW.
I need to rewatch Jodie's seasons again. Thought she was a brilliant actor doing the best she could with the script/stories presented. No idea how things got so bad but she was one of the few good things about those days.
She won't talk negatively about them. None of them will. Not for not wanting to, I'm sure - but out of professionalism. I don't think any of the previous actors would either. Although...maybe Eccleston would (the twat)...
Dude, what is your beef with Eccleston?
His refusal to show up as the doctor for anything fan related, his own dislike for the show, etc. He's a twat.
He played a character on a TV show 20 years ago. That doesn't in any way obligate him to "show up as the Doctor" for fan events, nor does it indicate his "dislike for the show".
There is certainly a twat at play here, but it isn't Eccleston.
He was like that even while playing the role, he's been a twat for all 20 of those years. He refused to take part in the anniversary specials, he was a dickhead when he was on set according to people who worked with him. He's always been a prick of an actor.
He grew incredibly disillusioned with the people running Dr Who at the time. Despite repeated attempts on his part to get people to treat others better, things never changed according to him. He also had a very poor working relationship with John Barrowman, who was repeatedly accused of sexually inappropriate behaviour (eg exposing himself to his co-stars unprompted, supposedly as a joke). Noel Clarke has also been accused of inappropriate behaviour.
Eccleston did not want to work for people who in his view were responsible for the mistreatment of his colleagues on set. He was open to returning to the role, but never with those same people still in charge.
On top of all that, he initially just shut his mouth when he left, not naming names. Then the BBC published a statement saying he was "overwhelmed by the tv shooting schedule" and that he was tired, which is killing for an actor's career. He had a tough time getting roles after that, and basically was forced to work for American producers because nobody in the UK would touch him.
Tennant mentioned that though their interaction was brief, Eccleston was very amicable towards him when Tennant took over.
Eccleston can be petty, but it doesn't seem like he ever was towards someone who didn't deserve it. And given how the BBC and the producers mistreated him, he's been shockingly fair imo.
You'll find the general opinion of Eccleston runs contrary to yours, and manages to do so without the pottymouth.
Oh no, not pottymouth on the internet...
Grow up.
Propaganda for what?
Bludgeoning social matters into everyone's heads using garbage storylines. Like Time Traveling Space-Nazis trying to sit in Rosa Parks seat...
The constant references to racism, equality, blah blah blah blah...
Doctor Who has always had these things as a subtext to their episodes but that's what they were...SUBTEXT. They weren't front-and-center bludgeon you over the head with ongoing social issues shit.
That's why everyone stopped watching and why their viewership is in the trash.
I think what you're trying to say is that the social commentary has lost a lot of nuance, as well as the general quality of the writing going down, in which case I agree. Kinda toeing the line of the 'everything is woke now' crowd though, to which I would say you haven't seen/understood much Doctor Who if you think social issues are only recently a part of the stories.
For the record the Rosa Parks ep was one of my favourites for Jodie, but it's a low bar.
I mean I'm definitely on the left-progressive end of the spectrum but even I thought the writing got too "woke", or rather too on the nose.
The worst one imo was the giant spider in the hotel owned by a Trumpian figure. "Trump" wanted to shoot it, but the Doctor wouldn't let him because that would be wrong. Instead, she let it "humanely" suffocate itself to death, locking all of its offspring in a room to cannibalize themselves and die.
I never thought I'd find myself more sympathetic towards the Trumplike figure rather than the Doctor.
I covered that already with
Everyone knows that Doctor Who has always had this kind of social subtext; but it was more moral dilemmas on a broad scale, rather than specific ongoing social issues in the real world.
Like the way they did the Ood. It was a soft introduction, up until the point where we find out why they are like that and then The Doctor works on fixing it.
That's great -- sometimes parallels to our own social issues can make for a great story; so long as the story is focused on first and foremost and the approach isn't solely on trying to push that particular social viewpoint.
As it is now, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a big orange president try to give up his nation to the daleks as an episode...