Doctor Who: 10 Controversial Moments From The Revived Series

5. Trailer Tyranny

Remember all that controversy surrounding Doctor Who's 50th anniversary being bigged up more around the world than it was in the UK? That was destined to reach new levels of fevered frustration during the summer of 2013 when the first trailer for the show's imminent landmark special was premiered exclusively to a lucky audience at San Diego Comic Con and then subsequently not made available for the viewing pleasure of the rest of the show's fans. Unsurprisingly, Doctor devotees - and this time not just in the UK but all around the rest of the world, too - took this as a slap in the face and in retrospect it was a pretty cruel move on the BBC's behalf to show a preview of one of Doctor Who's most anticipated episodes ever to a select few and then all but deny the trailer ever even existed. The BBC justified their actions by claiming that attendees of the convention had paid a lot to be there and thus deserved to be treated to a worldwide exclusive. Show producers attempted to respond to the initial angst by bigging up a "special" midnight online announcement which ultimately turned out to be confirmation that the Daleks would be appearing in the 50th anniversary escapade (alongside a picture of one, because there weren't enough of those already...) - something which most of us had pretty much figured out by this point already. Way to rub salt into the wound, guys. This only heightened the frenzy and BBC inboxes were subsequently flooded with angry emails from insulted fans demanding that the trailer was released online right this instance or so God help them there would be sheer hell to pay and there was no assuring that the stratosphere of the entire universe wouldn't just pack up and implode as a result. The BBC's response? "There are no plans to release the Comic Con trailer online". Ouch. Still, fans had this brilliant fan made one (it seriously duped Twitter for a while there) to keep them going until the troubled trailer was finally released to the masses some three months later, and they all got to enjoy the actual episode, The Day of the Doctor, at the same time thanks to its record breaking simultaneous premiere in over 94 countries. That's the most important thing, right? ...Right!?