Justin Taylor

**Doctor Who: A Once Great Show Reduced to Hollow Political Pandering** The latest incarnation of Doctor Who is nothing short of a Monty Python send-up. With David Tennant reprising his role, now doubting his sexuality (perhaps unsurprisingly, having been Jodie Whittaker just a few months ago), and featuring a superhero in a wheelchair, the show hits every politically correct checkbox with exhausting predictability. The next Doctor’s race change is the final, glaring tick on this pandering checklist. Gone are the days when I could enjoy Doctor Who with my kids as an innocent adventure series, free of incessant moralizing. Now, it desperately tries to compete with superhero films in a twee, BBC way, aiming to please everyone and avoiding offense at all costs. The latest episodes feel like a mix of Poverty Row Star Wars and a Christmas pantomime – a tragic decline for a once-beloved show. Doctor Who, once a nerdy haven created by science geeks with authentic quirks and creativity, has been warped into a Disney-fied spectacle for the mediocre. The original writers' genuine weirdness, wit, and sci-fi creativity have been replaced by hollow gloss and focus-group keywords. It’s clear the show is now merely a tool for corporate marketing teams, rather than a passion project for sci-fi aficionados. Despite the potential for Russell T Davies to deliver an amazing series, the latest reboot feels like a children's show, with remnants of Chris Chibnall’s preachy woke agenda. After sabotaging Jodie Whittaker’s tenure, the BBC seems poised to repeat the disaster with Ncuti Gatwa. It’s only a matter of time before the series is axed again. The show’s forced inclusiveness and political correctness come off as disingenuous, reducing rich characters to stereotypes and distracting from what should be compelling storytelling. The acting is dry, the plots are cheesy, and the singing scenes are better suited for low-budget pantomimes. The once-loved Doctor Who has been ruined by the BBC’s self-righteous pandering, losing viewers and credibility in the process. Unless something drastic changes, Doctor Who is destined for the same fate as other Disney-fied properties: forgotten and axed, with the blame misplaced on critics rather than acknowledging the real issue – the BBC’s loss of authentic storytelling. RIP Doctor Who. You were great once, but the BBC has utterly destroyed you.

Really setting itself up as a worthy counterpart to breaking bad. Few episodes in, loving it.