20 Things Doctor Who Wants You To Forget

8. Don't Worry About Taking Your Medication

Doctor Who Forget
BBC Studios

Doctor Who might be an entertainment show, but right from its beginning it has taken seriously its duty to educate. Science and history play a part in this, but the show has always been more about teaching children values, such as welcoming the stranger, not judging by appearances, and dealing with bullies.

In the Forest of the Night, one of the latest episodes to take this responsibility seriously, was written by children’s author Frank Cottrell-Boyce. It contains a positive message about caring for the environment, but inexplicably carries another, more dubious one. A young girl, Maebh, becomes the hero but only by stopping her medication and, following the Doctor’s advice, listening to the voices inside her head.

Medicine isn’t the answer to every ailment, but to make even one unwell child think that it’s good to defy the will of parents and Doctors, and throw away the pills is frankly (excuse the pun) inexcusable.

Contributor
Contributor

Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.