Doctor Who: 10 Behind The Scenes Decisions We Can't Forgive
8. Crediting The Doctor As "Doctor Who"
Okay, yes, this one is incredibly petty, and there's probably a good portion of the fanbase that doesn't care about a small detail like this. But our inner Whovian cringes enormously when we notice that the lead actor has been credited as "Doctor Who" (or "Dr. Who"), because, as most people know, that isn't the character's name.
The Doctor wouldn't get his or her mail delivered to Mr. or Mrs. Who - "Who" isn't a surname. "Doctor Who" is the name of the show. We did warn you this was petty.
What's odd about this issue is that it was actually corrected for the Peter Davison years, and then uncorrected for the 2005 revival. In the first chunk of the Classic era, "Dr. Who" and "Doctor Who" were used, with the latter being seen in Tom Baker's final story, Logopolis. Then, Davison's first story - Castrovalva - changed it to "The Doctor".
But then, for some reason, Christopher Eccleston was labelled as "Doctor Who" for the duration of his sole season, before David Tennant requested for this credit to be changed to "The Doctor" for The Christmas Invasion onwards.
This irksome crediting was somewhat forgivable in those early, formative years of the show, when it was still finding its footing. But the Eccleston credit is just bizarre.