10 Recurring Complaints About Doctor Who Right Now
8. It's Too Complicated
The "too complicated" criticism became increasingly noisy during the early days of Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunner. The complaints around what the Flux happened at the climax of The Vanquishers recalled a lot of the bafflement viewers experienced at the end of The Big Bang back in 2010.
It's a strange one, because Doctor Who certainly doesn't feel that complicated most of the time. In a way, this complaint only serves to patronise the show's viewers, when Moffat (and other writers) never have.
Douglas Adams once said that the challenge of Doctor Who "was to make it simple enough for adults and complicated enough for children". At a time where social media and smartphones have fundamentally damaged our attention spans and ability to focus on key plot points because we're too busy tweeting about how little we understand what we're seeing, this has never been more accurate.
Another Doctor Who writer, Toby Whithouse, provided a compelling counter-point to the "too complicated" criticism while Series 6 was airing in 2011:
"The fact is, most people like the show the way it is. They can follow the stories, and week after week they are spooked and thrilled and delighted. The only problem with content majorities is they tend to be silent."
NuWho is no more complicated than some of the themes and plots in the classic series, so it's unlikely this will change going forward either!