June of this year saw the launch a Kickstarter campaign to put a scale model of the Tardis containing a hard drive and a Go-Pro camera into orbit. It reached almost triple its funding goal of $33,000 and is a wonderful example of how fandom can bring people together and achieve incredible things. Sadly though, a lot of fandoms have a dark side. A small toxic element that ruins it for everyone or makes the entire fandom look like idiots because of their stupid antics. Sometimes it's one or two nutters like the fans who tried to cut off the power to a hotel JLS were staying in order to lure them outside, but sometimes it's larger groups embarrassing their fandoms. Here are some of these groups and the stupid things they did...
10. The Twelfth Doctor's Internet Backlash
It's pretty telling of the attitude of some Doctor Who fans that all Peter Capaldi had to do was walk onto a set and do a brief interview before the backlash against him playing the Twelfth Doctor began. Minutes after his reveal, a small but vocal minority of fans on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter posted criticisms that, at the age of 55, Peter Capaldi was too old to play the role and that the Doctor needs to be played by a younger actor. Despite the fact that William Hartnell was 56 when he took on the role, and that out of twelve, only four Doctors have been under the age of 40 in their first appearance. To get a sense of how some Whovians reacted to the casting of Capaldi, here are a small selection of some of the anti-Capaldi comments taken from Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S., a Doctor Who fanpage on Facebook with 328,000 fans:
"the MAJORITY of people watching the show are YOUNG! So we dont want a freakin' old bat we want someone we could say "damn hes hot"" "I do not like this at all. I'm sorry, but you can't just throw someone as old and unattractive at us after 3 really good looking doctors." "Why an old guy, :( no fun in watching a old guy prance around with that new chick Clara o.o (pedo much)" "I have no idea who this guy is, all I know is that he's ugly as sin. What a bummer."
And my personal favourite partly because it's still harping on about David Tennant three and half years after he left:
"dude.... HE'S SO OLD WHAT'S UP WITH THAT ?!?!?!?!?!?! NOBODY CAN BEAT TENNANT, STOP TRYING!!! JUST GET A GUY THAT'S AT LEAST CRUSHABLE FOR GIRLS!! COME ON BRO"
This immediate criticism of Peter Capaldi over his age despite the fact that he had not even appeared in character and is a BAFTA-winning actor and Oscar-winning director showed that a sizeable minority of Doctor Who fans (most of whom are young women) are only interested in the programme if the Doctor is played by somebody they can have a crush on. Which is missing the point of Doctor Who completely.