Are the show's fans its own worst enemy?

[SiHart]

This was an interesting article...

http://www.denofgeek.com/television/...rst_enemy.html

What do you think?

[Jeff]

It was a a good article. I didn't need it to know that the subject of the thread is true though.

If some of the (and I'm not saying all or even the majority here) DW fans had their way, the show would be aimed at pleasing a few thousand hardcore internet fans of the old series instead of a modern casual audience, ratings would slip and the show would be canceled. I think quite a few would probably be pleased to see the show canceled as it is, simply because it doesn't live up to their nostalgic ideal, and they would rather no one else get to enjoy the show than have its current existence tarnish their precious memories.

That's how I feel sometimes listening to criticism of the current product anyway.

[J.R. Southall]

Fortunately, the show is big enough to ignore this kind of thing these days (or it would be, if the media weren't so eager to report it); we're just lucky not to be in a situation like the 1980s, when it became apparent to the BBC - when fandom first organised itself and things like DWB started to get a lot of attention - that even the people who liked Doctor Who didn't like it any more. The BBC are a lot more savvy these days.

[Awesome Wells]

Absolutely spot-on article. This bit in particular:

Doctor Who now is not made for us anyway. We enjoy it because it is a continuation of the show we loved as children, and allowances are made for us because the show is inclusive, and yet we tear it apart. Why can't we, as fans, manage to enjoy it on our own terms irrespective of the opinions of others?

How ironic - or perhaps, apt - that amid the deserving praise in the comments section are examples of precisely the kind of behaviour the piece is rightly critical of.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I think the biggest problems is the assumption that "fandom" is this big homogenised group where everyone acts the same, has the same opinions and are all part of one big club. And the article's constant use of the word "we" only reinforces that really.

[Jon Masters]

Wot he just said

[SiHart]

It's true. Fans and their attitudes are as diverse as people are in general. You only have to look around this forum to see that no fans ever agree entirely with each other.

There's a lot of general truths in the article though, lots that rings true from other forums and stuff and some things I've been guilty of too.

[Si Hunt]

It cuts both ways. Without fans, even perhaps without those shouty, drum-beating, letter-writing obsessive fans there would be no-one to buy all the merchandise, no-one would have campaigned for Doctor Who to be brought back for all those years and the show would probably have died quietly in 1985.

Si.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Yes - what a great article. There are elements of fandom which are just vulgar indeed.

[Jason Thompson]

I think it's an interesting article that does make some valid points but, as has been said here already, 'fans' are not one big group of people behaving the same way towards the show and each other. Yes, there are fans who can be real miserable gits at times. Just reading Lawrence Miles's reviews of new series episodes on occasion was a massively soul-destroying experience as he ripped them to shreds with amazing bitterness and ire, while completely missing the point in some cases (complaining that removing all the stuff with Sarah Jane and her relationship with the Doctor from School Reunion just leaves a very dull plot, so the episode is rubbish, when in fact the episode is about Sarah Jane and the Krillitane bit is the backdrop was probably his most obvious mis-fire).

And then there are places like this, where for the most part we can discuss the show in a civilised manner. We all like different parts of it and dislike different parts of it. True, disagreements can become heated at times, but they rarely if ever spill over into personal attacks, and they never spoil the regular occasions when we all get together and have a damn good time.

And of course, lest we forget, it is thanks to fans such as Russell T Davies, Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffatt, Gareth Roberts, Nick Briggs, Paul Cornell and so on that Doctor Who in some form or other has been in regular production since the show was taken off the air in 1989. Do we always like their output? No. Should that stop us enjoying the fact that there still is output getting on for half a century after the show was first started and that it is now once again a massively popular show? Hell no!