It’s time to give the Time Lord a well-earned break from TV
When the BBC announced the arrival of its new Doctor for the Doctor Who show the response was certainly… lacklustre.
A few years ago, an announcement of a new Dr Who would have been an all-gunsblazing event given a massive countdown and fanatical fanfare.
In 2013 the BBC held a special televised event to reveal the casting choice of the 12th Doctor. Big views, big news.
This time around it was just a feeble Tweet randomly sent out in the middle of a Sunday announcing... here we go, Doctor number 14. Oh, OK, fair enough, as long as we know, so we can all shuffle along and get back to our roast beef.
Our first black Doctor, Sex
Education star, Ncuti Gatwa deserved more than a throwaway Tweet to introduce him as the 14th Time Lord. Way more. There’s certainly a lot to unpack there, but the news being delivered in such a trivial way just underlines a certainty. People aren’t bothered.
The dull reaction highlights how far the show has fallen into a cultural crevice out of people’s minds. Only a select few fans still loudly cheer with the enthusiasm that was shown during that early 2000s magic where the phrase ‘timey wimey’ was the height of hilarity.
Time has moved on. Even diehard Whovians seem uninterested and met the news with a shrug.
Dr Who is a cornerstone of British pop culture. Even during the 15 years it was off air it was held in awe nationally and internationally. Now we do not get the time to miss it. It is always there, with new Doctors, new companions for them to fall in love with and ever-expanding plotlines that feel too big for our TV sets.
It needed a long ‘time off ’ years ago. But now it is steeped in banality. The show doesn’t feel spectacular or special any more. It is just something to watch if it happens to be on and by now there is such an enormity of episodes and specials it can feel off-putting to dive back in.
Letting the show sleep for a few years won’t harm it. In fact giving the show a bit of a rest will give much needed time for people to grow excited about it again. Time will tell.