20 Things Doctor Who Wants You To Forget

7. Ooh I Say Matron

Doctor Who Forget
BBC

Doctor Who is good old fashioned, clean-humoured family entertainment. Most of the time. Its target audience is 0-99 and the program continues to appeal to the younger market with various ranges of cuddly toys, video games, books and kiddies clothing. In the UK, that all-ages reach gives booksellers and libraries cataloguing issues, with Doctor Who books being variously displayed in the children’s section, the teen section or the adult sci-fi/fantasy section.

For a pre-watershed program, the BBC has at times sailed close to the wind. To be fair, some of the material just lends itself to smutty innuendos – none more so than the sonic screwdriver. But rather than turning in her grave, Mary Whitehouse (who founded in 1965 the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association) would probably be rolling her eyes as if to say, not again, because Doctor Who has always allowed its writers and actors to have a little bit of fun at the expense of childhood innocence.

It’s all there to have a snigger at, but the Fourth Doctor blowing on the phallic shaped creature from the pit is not something the BBC particularly wants to draw attention to. And to be honest, it’s a sight that most of us would like to forget too.

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.