8 Times Doctor Who Mocked Itself

2. Whizz Kid Mocks The Show's Obsessive Fanbase

Doctor Who The Greatest Show In The Galaxy Whizz Kid
BBC Studios

Us Doctor Who fans are a strange old bunch. We spend the early episodes of each regeneration complaining about how the new Doctor sucks, and how the show was much better "back in the day".

But then, when the time comes for the current Doctor to leave, we miss them terribly, beginning the endless cycle of "hating the new guy" all over again.

There's a clear nod to this kind of fan behaviour in the Seventh Doctor serial The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, with the character of Whizz Kid (yes, that's actually his credited name), claiming to be a massive fan of the Psychic Circus.

However, despite this, he openly bashes it, voicing his opinion that it's "not as good as it used to be".

Whizz Kid is a not-so-subtle mockery of the show's fans, who - and let's be honest here - are known to adopt this "it's not as good as it used to be" mentality from time to time, usually due to childhood nostalgia.

Amusingly, Whizz Kid dies shortly after this scene, a clear statement from the writers that they aren't too fond of this kind of fan behaviour. Bit mean, but fair enough.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!