10 Reasons Doctor Who Is Better Than Star Wars

8. Doctor Who (Mostly) Avoids Pointlessly Cute Characters

Another reason why Doctor Who can claim to be "better" than Star Wars is the relative dearth of pointlessly cute characters. With NuWho especially, producers have successfully avoided the pointless inclusion of cuteness for the sake of cuteness. The only exception might be K-9. In Star Wars, there are any number of examples, such as ewoks, Jar Jar Binks, and now BB-8 (the ball-shaped droid from Episode VII). There's nothing wrong with trying to appeal to children but children can usually smell out these suspect attempts to win them over with form over substance - and it should be remembered that the most enduring children's stories are those with elements somewhat grimmer than Jar Jar snatching at food with his long tongue. It's telling that kids' favourite Jar Jar moment is when the little Gungan gets his tongue painfully grabbed in mid-extension. Such is the cultural power of Star Wars, that the cutsey characters offered in that franchise affected other films and TV series made in its wake. The hideous taint of this character type led to Muffit the daggit in Battlestar Galactica (Muffy, if you prefer). Thankfully, the rebooted Galactica spared us a robot dog for Boxey. Of course, it could be argued that cute robots predate Star Wars - the service robots in 1972's Silent Running are a chilling reminder of how far back this trend goes.