10 Biggest Mistakes Of The Doctor Who Disney Era

Adjacent to the previous point is the fact that this era was marketed as a new entry point – a fresh slate after 20 years of lore and baggage. They restarted the series numbering (which is even more frustrating with hindsight), split our Doctor from the existing Doctor, and promised he was headed in a new direction.

In theory, this meant you could go in with no foreknowledge of the show whatsoever. That was, if you’d watched The Celestial Toymaker, Pyramids of Mars, The Mark of the Rani, and Midnight. That’s Doctors One, Four, Six, and Ten – just to make sure they hit the widest spread of eras possible so that everyone has a chance to feel left out.

Bringing back classic villains is a time-honoured trick, and most of the time it works. The issue here is in the execution. Previous monster revivals have offhandedly alluded to classic adventures, but reintroduced and redefined the monsters for a new era, as if they were appearing for the first time. When the Cybermen first crashed Pete Tyler’s mansion party, we didn’t get Ten having flashbacks to the Tenth Planet, because it wasn’t needed – they were cool and scary and that’s what mattered. When Cold War brought back the Ice Warriors, it wasn’t made into a big deal, because the show understood that most viewers didn’t know who they were.

Contrast that with Sutekh. A huge tease, and a massive reaction from the Doctor, complete with flashbacks to Tom Baker. But in all likelihood, less than 5% of the audience knew who Sutekh was. The show had to literally release a special bonus episode of Fifteen, Ruby, and Mel watching Pyramids of Mars just to lend some context! Meanwhile, Omega and the Rani were revealed so unceremoniously that it’s baffling nobody said anything behind-the-scenes. This era was supposed to be for newcomers! Are you expecting them to sit and clap while these obscure classic villains are namedropped like iconic rock stars?

All this approach does is alienate audiences, who feel like they’re missing out on some huge reveal, or aren’t invited to a private party. You can either have the big shock reaction and do the proper legwork (on screen) to make it work, or you can underplay the reveal and have it as an easter egg for hardcore fans.

What you can’t do is take a one-off villain from 1975 and hinge your entire series arc around it while simultaneously calling it ‘Season 1’.