With the new season of Doctor Who two episodes deep, some parents over in the UK are starting to get upset at Moffat’s reign as the Doctor’s new boss.  The Daily Mail and Guardian are reporting that not only has Doctor Who recently seen a dropoff in ratings, but they are also starting to get letters of complains from concerned parents.

An unnamed father told how his two children, aged nine and four, have now asked to record Doctor Who and watch it on Sunday mornings because it is too scary to watch close to bedtime.

Another unnamed viewer, writing on a dedicated fan site, told how her six-year-old daughter, previously an avid fan, now never wants to watch the programme again because it is too scary.

Is this really the case?  Is Moffat making things too frightening?  Too complex?  I say no, I think he is right on the money.

Why is that?

I remember as a kid I would watch old Doctor Who episodes on PBS at night, and I would be scared and confused out of my mind.  From giant computers possessing people to monsters and self-aware robots hellbent on destroying all humankind, even the earlier episodes would leave anyone who wasn’t a fan from the beginning looking like a lobotomy patient.

How do you ask a child to comprehend a call box that is bigger on the inside than outside?  How you to try to explain to a child that what the Doctor is doing is traveling to anywhere, or anywhen in space and time?  It was always this confusing.

So why the backlash now?

Russel T. Davies dumbed down the show to get new viewers, plain and simple.  The first 4 seasons of Doctor Who were a campy cheesefest in time.  The quality and look of the show was about as good as The Lost World of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the storylines, though creative and fun, are honestly hard to go back and re-watch too many times.

Sure RTD managed to do things like relight a fire on a show that was, genuinely hated by the BBC.  Sure he also managed to hook worldwide viewers on the new stories.  But if you ask any fan which episodes were their favorite, they will say Moffat episodes and probably not even realize it.

Episodes like:

Blink

The Girl in the Fireplace

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

Oh and we can’t forget that he wrote probably one of the most heartfelt and moving regeneration episodes…The End of Time Part 2

These are the episodes I generally refer people to when trying to get them into the Doctor and his travels.  They have the best writing, most original story, and tapdance on the darker aspects.

So why are there complains then if the show was always like this.  In my opinion it’s for two reasons.

1. Moffat understands that the audience are also the Doctor’s companions.

Moffat knows that we are on this journey with the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and (sigh) River too, and wants us to take part in the fun and terror of exploring new times and new worlds.  The Doctor never spoonfeeds anything to Amy, and so Moffat doesn’t do it to us.  He allows us to figure things out on our own, and get excited for the next travel.

2.  Moffat understands the untapped potential of the Doctor, and is bringing him up to a respectable level.

There were some stories surrounding the Doctor under RTD’s reign that I felt, insulted my intelligence.  I mean some of these one shot episodes were rather pointless to watch.  I would even go so far as to say the entire season three of the show, was pretty worthless.  Davies version of the Master was one of the most boring, non-threatening villains ever created.

With Moffat, he makes you believe the fate of the entire universe really rests on the shoulders of one alien and his companions.  Along with the sense of dread that the Doctor the world has embraced, soon might not be around.  This gives the show an urgency, an electricity that RTD’s version never had.

I don’t know how you all feel about what Moffat is doing with the Doctor, but I for one think it’s amazing, and I cannot wait to see the rest of this season.

What do you think?

Thanks io9