10 Times Doctor Who Got Way Too Dark For A Family Drama

What do you mean, it's for kids?

The debate has raged for years over whether Doctor Who is a show for children, families or for pale men who sit in front of laptops. Often, the audience of the show has been dictated by the desires of the producers. Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes famously pushed the horror content as far as they were able in the 1970s to the extent that the following producer was told to tone it down, while John Nathan-Turner in the 1980s started to pander to the show's adult fanbase, even having one as an unpaid adviser. The situation has always been muddied because, though intended as a children's show, Doctor Who was made by the drama department and conceived as a show that would bridge the gap between early and late Saturday evenings and keep families in front of the Idiot's Lantern. Since its return in 2005, Doctor Who has been much more overtly marketed as a family show, one designed for kids, parents, gran and the robot dog to sit down together to watch and hopefully end up with them still there for the rest of the evening. However, even that has been debatable, with Russell T Davies suggesting the show was too scary for under eights and with Steven Moffat ramping up the horror in Peter Capaldi's debut season as the Time Lord. However, if we accept the argument that Doctor Who is watched by a family audience then it is fairly obvious that, on occasion, Doctor Who has got way too dark for that audience. Here are 10 examples.

Contributor
Contributor

Writer of The Blog of Delights, a review site covering film, TV, cult TV, books and audio. Fan of Dr Who, Bond, X-Men and Marvel. Also the writer of e-book 'Fictional Legends: Doctor Who - the TV Adventures' for Collca.