Doctor Who’s Mark Gatiss has told disgruntled viewers of the long-running BBC sci-fi series that ‘it’s not for you anymore’.
The 58-year-old Sherlock co-creator has contributed to the show in more ways than one, penning nine episodes and guest-starring as various characters across Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat’s eras of the show.
As well as being the mastermind behind episodes such as The Unquiet Dead, Victory of the Daleks and Robot of Sherwood, he also played Richard Lazarus in season three’s The Lazarus Experiment and the Captain in 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon a Time.
In a new interview, the acclaimed screenwriter has defended the show from backlash in recent years from certain fans who have claimed it has declined in quality since Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa’s tenures as the titular Time Lord.
‘As much as I love old stuff, the job of the show constantly is to regenerate itself,’ Gatiss told the Radio Times.
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He continued: ‘And sometimes when I meet grumpy old Doctor Who fans, you think, “You’ve just fallen into the same space time trap, that it’s not as good as it used to be, because it’s not for you anymore.” If you still like it, that’s great. It’s great, but it’s not for you.’
The creative believes that the show’s primary audience will always be younger, explaining that his 2014 Peter Capaldi episode (Robot of Sherwood episode) featured a scene where the Doctor and Robin Hood fight with spoons.
When he attended a friend’s wedding shortly after, he saw two children fighting with spoons and thought ”that’s job done”.
He warned about the pitfalls of nostalgia: ‘It’s a strange thing, because I’ve revived so many things, but I think nostalgia is a great enemy, and we have to all be careful of it.
‘It’s part of the reason we’re in the mess we are, I think – weaponised nostalgia,’ calling it a ‘dangerous’ path to go down.
‘”Nothing’s as good as it used to be,” and yet people can’t see that people have always thought that, even when it used to be better. It’s a dangerous thing,’ he concluded.
Some fans have accused the show of relying too much on nostalgia in recent years, from bringing David Tennant and Catherine Tate back for the 60th anniversary to Billie Piper’s shock return in the latest season finale.
Former Doctor Peter Davison (and David Tennant’s father-in-law) called it a ‘completely mad idea’ that he couldn’t quite wrap his head around.
Meanwhile, the future of the show since Ncuti Gatwa’s exit as the 15th Doctor remains up in the air as we wait to see if Disney Plus will renew its deal for more seasons.
In a recent chat with Deadline, BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell remained optimistic about the show returning, saying: ‘[BBC Studios is] really committed to Doctor Who and is continuing to look at ways in which we can bring the show to fans.’
Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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