Pop culture expert and analyst Gary Buechler, who hosts the YouTube channel Nerdrotic, explains how Doctor Who was “murdered by the message.”
The Meep in Doctor Who Special One: The Star Beast
In a recent video upload titled “Doctor Who is DEAD | Murdered by The Message,” Buechler recapped recent Doctor Who history that saw the show’s viewership ratings as well as its audience review scores plummet.
He also noted that they replaced the male Doctor with Jodie Whittaker’s female character. On top of all of this he added, “They also had to completely alter the canon with the horrific Timeless Children where 55+ years of established television and an established character was completely redone in a 5-minute voice over when they replaced the First Doctor played by William Hartnell with a young diverse girl. William Hartnell was no longer the First Doctor. The First Doctor was no longer from Gallifrey and this show was dead, making Doctor Who the worst case of message-assisted Mary Sueicide in all of entertainment.”
Buechler then noted there was some optimism with Russell T. Davies returning to the show with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. However, that optimism was short-lived when actor Ncturi Gatwa, who will play the 15th Doctor decided to start referring to the character using “they” pronouns.
Gatwa stated, “He’s a Time Lord. He’s literally an alien. They are an alien. The Doctor is not from anywhere. It’s like they don’t fit in anywhere. And I think for marginalized people they have been a real beacon of kind of feel like seen in a way.”
Next, Buechler notes that The Walt Disney Company got involved in not only distributing the series on Disney+ in the United States, but also began financing the series. “The unthinkable happened. The worst nightmare for any science fiction fan, any fan of anything good, and any Whovian. Disney got involved with Doctor Who, not just to distribute it, but to finance it.”
The Doctor (David Tennant) in Doctor Who Special One: The Star Beast
It went from bad to worse as viewers got their first taste of Tennant’s return as the 14th Doctor as he faced of with classic villain Davros. Not only did Buechler describe the special as “cringe,” but he pointed out how Davies had a problem with Davros.
Davies said, “There’s a problem with the Davros of old in that he’s a wheelchair user who is evil. And I had problems with that and a lot of us on the production team had problems with that of associating disability with evil. I say this is how we see Davros now. This is what he looks like. This is 2023 and he looks like this now. And that we are absolutely standing by.”
Commenting on Davies’ statements, Buechler said, “It’s political correctness gone mad.”
Russell T. Davies via BBC Newsround YouTube
Buechler then moved on to the first of three specials supposedly celebrating the show’s 60th anniversary, The Star Beast. He noted the show was “sacrificed on the altar of agenda.” and that “the now third reboot of Doctor Who was murdered in its crib.”
Before breaking down the episode, he also asserted that the reason why Davies even returned to the franchise was to use it as “a delivery mechanism for, you guessed it, the Message.”
Next, Buechler breaks down the plot of the episode and describes the whole special is in reality a “trans allegory.”
Jason Noble in Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special “The Star Beast”
After going through a number of the returning characters and the actors’ performances, Buechler discusses the new characters and mockingly notes they introduced a Unit science advisor named Shirley Anne Bingham, who is bound to a wheelchair that is equipped with various forms of weaponry including RPGs.
Buechler mocked, “Unfortunately, I think Unit’s going through some budget cuts because they have access to alien technology, but they can’t provide her with an exoskeleton, a hovering wheelchair, or even a motorized wheelchair.”
He then turns his attention to the character of “Rose,” a 15-year old girl who is played by 20-year old male actor Yasmin Finney. Buechler notes this character is “the centerpiece of the 60th anniversary special of Doctor Who and the message. Not for Yasmin’s acting ability because that really doesn’t exist. It’s for the actor’s existence.”
“We’re told time and time again that Rose is beautiful,” Buechler continues as he shows at least half a dozen clips from the special doing just that.
Next, he notes that the Doctor gets lectured on his pronouns and shares the clip.
#RIPDoctorWho pic.twitter.com/cBNAgrnsF6
— pher (@Christo08679133) November 25, 2023
From there he notes, “Russell T. Davies and company really bring it home with their outright worship of agenda by committing one of the worst crimes against imagination – you can put it right up there with Ridley Scott screwing up Alien — by going back and undoing one of the greatest stories in modern Who that Russel T. Davies wrote, the Doctor Donna.”
“Russell T. Davies completely undid his own work not to tell a good story, but to send a message,” Buechler declared. “And it turns out it was more than just remembering the Doctor. Apparently, Donna’s the Winter Soldier now and her memory could be unlocked with a code.”
After recapping more of the special’s plot, Buechler states, “They undid one of the greatest stories in Doctor Who for a transmission allegory. Turns out when Donna had a child she passed down her metacrisis Time Lord energy to her ‘daughter’ making it the most powerful Time Lord of all. A Trans Lord.”
“And if that wasn’t enough they brought David Tennant back to a 60th anniversary special which really didn’t celebrate the show at all to dress him down,” Buechler declared while sharing a clip of Donna and her “daughter” saying, “We know everything, thanks. And you know nothing. It’s a shame you’re not a woman anymore because she would have understood. You’ve got all that power, but there is a way to get rid of it. Something a male-presenting Time Lord will never understand.”
#RIPDoctorWho pic.twitter.com/oRV4JQthro
— pher (@Christo08679133) November 25, 2023
Buechler then concluded, “The Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary used nostalgia bait to beat you over and over again with propaganda. … If you had removed all the agenda from this 60th anniversary special it still would have been a mediocre episode for a middle of a season. But ultimately the failure of this show lays at the very large feet of our new ‘Rose.'”
“A character like Captain Jack Harkness worked for the same reasons the new Rose didn’t. One character was much more than his sexuality and the other one wasn’t more than its identity,” he said.
The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in Doctor Who Special One: The Star Beast
What do you make of Buechler’s analysis on Doctor Who and his assertion that it was killed by the Message?
