The Yorkshire Who-athon and The Stormy Capaldi Survey

Just before Christmas, I went up to Yorkshire to a mate of a mate’s cinema room for a Who-athon. Seven of us chose either a Nu-Who 45-minute episode or two 25-minuters from Classic Who. The playlist was an eclectic one:

DAY OF THE DALEKS – EPISODE 2
DARK WATER
THE REBEL FLESH
THE ALMOST PEOPLE
THE WEB OF FEAR – EPISODE 4
DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS – EPISODE 1
PLANET OF THE SPIDERS – PART SIX
THE CRUSADE – THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS – PART THREE

For those eagle-eyed mathematicians out there: No, we didn’t manage to get through everyone’s choices but we at least enjoyed one each! We were gluttonous when it came to Pertwee and suffered a paucity of Tom. And not a single 1980s episode reared its head. Nor, perhaps remarkably a Tennant story. Averaging things out, Tom and David were the favourite Doctors of the group broadly speaking so to have none of their episodes screened was a surprise.

But the thing that struck me the most about this motley rabble of fans was the feeling of doom, the feeling that the end was in sight for the good Doctor, and that the fun of the show had evaporated. All but one person thought of Capaldi’s time as the Doctor as something of a mistake. Daggers were pointed in the direction of Steven Moffat and the idea of casting a female Doctor was a cause of concern for everyone, even those two people who supported the notion. It was quite sad really, to see a group of lifelong fans so negative about the thing they love, about the thing that brought them together. And I think they felt sad too.

Knowing that there was a probability of such an atmosphere, I cheekily decided to hand out a devilish survey. This survey concerned the Capaldi era and fans’ thoughts thereof. The results made for compelling reading. I couldn’t quite believe what fans found to be offensive. After the screening of Dark Water, one fan commented that it was “totally tasteless” whilst another felt “Doctor Who isn’t the place for these things.” I felt like a lunatic, surrounded by people who loved the show, decrying what I thought to be a pretty phenomenal episode with an absolutely riveting climax. Equally, when I derided The Almost People for being the shambolic mess that it is, I was greeted with anti-cries of “It’s not that bad,” and “I never lost interest,” and “It keeps you thinking.” What was going on? Fandom it seemed had turned on the show and its victories were all squarely rooted in the past even when the past was demonstrably dogshit.

Other things I learnt in no particular order: 

·         Watching episodes out of context and in isolated form breathes new life into them. Day of the Daleks Episode 2 had an urgency about it, missing when the programme is digested in one fell sitting. Episode 2 without Episode 1 is still a perfect little vignette of a programme. Invasion of the Dinosaurs 3 has its own little idiosyncrasies, Sarah Jane repeatedly leaving messages for the Doctor before she goes out confined to this episode alone.

·      The Web of Fear is a masterpiece of atmosphere. If only Episode 3 existed, it could be perfect. 

·         Matt Smith’s performance veers wildly, sometimes ending up indulgent and embarrassing, other times hitting notes of absolute beauty. (This is frustrating in the extreme!) 

·         On the basis of four Pertwee instalments: the actor is completely outstanding in every single scene. He is pitch-perfect, hugely charismatic and you cannot take your eyes off him. 

·         The Crusade is sumptuous in every single respect. “And some half-started morning while you speakers lie abed, armies settle everything, giving sweat and sinew, bodies... aye and life itself.” 

·         Watching a 2-parter like The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People essentially back to back can sap the life out of it. Especially when it’s crap.

All told, it was an incredibly interesting day, seeing fan consensus on certain subjects proving fascinating. I really was amid the “Moffat Must Go” brigade. With that in mind, the results below may prove very interesting!

The average age of the survey completer was 46, with the eldest being 66 and the youngest (that’s me, by the way) being 32. All the fans were men but my wife helped bulk out the results afterwards. Whilst she wouldn’t call herself a fan, she’s seen every episode since Eccleston and her opinions did tend to chime with her fellow scribblers. Several other surveys have since come my way via email. 

I asked the question: Are you happy with a female Doctor? The majority answered No, with only one person answering Yes. The best negative answer stated that the fan was “cautiously optimistic.”

When asked to describe the show’s journey over the last ten years, three people independently answered that the series had seen a “slow/spiral of decline."

Finally, it was my mammoth task to collate all the individual story scores. (They were all marked out of 10, although three fans admitted there were several episodes they hadn’t seen and so the averages were adjusted accordingly.)

Several episodes completely divided opinion. Both Death in Heaven and Face the Raven received scores of 10 and 0. Listen and Heaven Sent received scores of 10 and 1. For some, these proved to be the very best and very worst of the Capaldi era! The Woman Who Died and The Husbands of River Song had been watched by the fewest people. Twice Upon a Time had yet to be broadcast and only four people sent results to me on the Christmas special, skewing the average score. 

Below, you’ll see the full chart, from best to worst.

1	WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME	8.11
2	THE DOCTOR FALLS	7.78
3	MUMMY ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS	7.44
4	OXYGEN	6.89
	EXTREMIS	6.89
6	DEEP BREATH	6.78
7	THIN ICE	6.67
	THE ZYGON INVERSION	6.67
9	INTO THE DALEK	6.56
	THE PILOT	6.56
11	KILL THE MOON	6.44
	THE RETURN OF DOCTOR MYSTERIO	6.44
13	DEATH IN HEAVEN	6.38
14	THE ZYGON INVASION	6.33
	LAST CHRISTMAS	6.33
16	EMPRESS OF MARS	6.22
17	KNOCK KNOCK	6.11
18	SMILE	6.00
	THE HUSBANDS OF RIVER SONG	6.00
	UNDER THE LAKE	6.00
21	BEFORE THE FLOOD	5.88
22	ROBOT OF SHERWOOD	5.78
	DARK WATER	5.78
	FLATLINE	5.78
	THE EATERS OF LIGHT	5.78
26	HEAVEN SENT	5.75
27	THE PYRAMID AT THE END OF THE WORLD	5.67
	FACE THE RAVEN	5.67
29	THE WITCH'S FAMILIAR	5.63
30	THE GIRL WHO LIVED	5.50
31	THE LIE OF THE LAND	5.38
32	THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE	5.33
33	THE WOMAN WHO DIED	5.29
34	TIME HEIST	5.22
35	HELL BENT	5.00
36	LISTEN	4.88
37	THE CARETAKER	4.67
38	TWICE UPON A TIME	4.50
39	SLEEP NO MORE	4.44
40	IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT	3.44

As you can see, there is a clear victor and a clear loser. World Enough and Time stands tall as the best of the Capaldi era and In the Forest of the Night perhaps predictably takes last place. What is notable though is the lack of high-scoring tales: only three stories gained an average of more than 7 out of 10. Six out of the Top Ten stories hailed from Capaldi’s third season and one fan commented that his last series had been the “best for 3 or 4 years.” 

So despite the latest bunch of episodes ending on a seemingly universal high, spirits among the group were still low, the general feeling that the show’s heyday was in the past almost tangible in the cinema room. However, Doctor Who is about to undergo a huge regeneration. Everything is about to change. I hope that Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker can breathe fresh life into these fans’ ailing opinions on the show and leave them a little happier than they are at present. I adored the Capaldi era and I hope Whittaker’s can be just as strong. If not, we’ve always got our Special Edition Day of the Daleks DVD to re-watch. Those CG laser bolts really do make all the difference. And some of us can fill in another survey in three years’ time and think wistfully about how much better everything was when Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat were in charge. Vive la difference! 

JH