10 Classic Doctor Who Absurdities New Fans Won’t Believe

Doctor Strange.

By Chris Allcock /

With Peter Capaldi€™s eyebrows looming on the horizon, and the rest of him due to step into the Doctor€™s newly-polished shoes less than a month from now, the fans are lapping up promises from the producers that the show is going €œback to basics€. Words like €œgravity€ and €œraw€ are being bandied around to describe a tonal shift in the show €“ one that that the audience seems to have been clamouring for some time now. But shifting from what? Who fans are a vocal lot, and opinions since the show€™s 2005 return vary wildly. Nevertheless, there€™s a common thread through complaints that stretches all the way back to Eccleston€™s debut €“ a lot of fans don€™t like it when the show does something they perceive as €œsilly€, whether that€™s the Doctor€™s latest victory over a trillion Daleks or Mickey being eaten by a wheelie-bin. Silly covers a wide range of sins, from characters acting abnormally for the sake of a joke (the Doctor planting an unwanted smooch on Jenny Flint comes to mind) or conceits that just don€™t work, like a gigantic Weeping Angel moving around New York without anyone spotting it. Legitimate complaints, perhaps, but the classic series was just as guilty of dropping plot threads, weaving overly-contrived storylines and putting the boot into its own mythos in ways that make Nu-Who seem positively tame by comparison. Wooden Cybermen attacking Christmas? That€™s hardcore sci-fi compared to some of the weird and occasionally stupid decisions of the past fifty years: