As we all know, not all Doctor Who fans loved the recent eleventh season of the show. As Peter Capaldi handed the keys to the TARDIS to Jodie Whittaker, so did showrunner Steven Moffat to Chris Chibnall, meaning that the whole ethos of the sci-fi series was revamped. Strangely, considering they love a show that constantly shakes up its cast, Whovians are famously resistant to change and many have rallied against season 11.
Someone who’s wholeheartedly defending Whittaker’s Who though is the former mastermind behind the show. Seen below, Moffat shared a snap of himself with the season 10 crew – that’s Pearl Mackie, Peter Capaldi, Michelle Gomez and Mark Gatiss – on Instagram, remarking that it left him “overwhelmed with nostalgia.” Some saw this as an invitation to drop their criticism of season 11 in the comments, but Moffat was having none of it.
One person wasn’t pulling any punches and wrote that the show had “gone to s**t” since Moffat left, but the writer had the perfect response. “Well, I’m loving it and you should too,” he wrote. “But, you know, it’s always easier to miss the things you love than learn to love new things – but not nearly as much fun. Get with #teamjodie.”
Another penned a lengthy comment about how “forgettable” they found Whittaker’s first run to be. Moffat uncovered a key flaw in their argument, however. “Forgettable?? FORGETTABLE????”, he snapped back. “Look how many words you just wrote about it! Ha!! Gotcha!!!”
While every fan’s got the right to have their own favorite eras of the show, it’s disappointing that some felt the need to bad-mouth Moffat’s successor to him. If they were hoping for him to agree with them, they should’ve paid attention to the fact that the Sherlock creator has always been a vocal supporter of both Chibnall as his replacement and his decision to cast Whittaker as the first woman Doctor.
It’s also ironic that these Doctor Who fans are wishing to have the Moffat era back when there used to be a regular backlash against his vision of the show from certain quarters of the fandom. No doubt history will repeat itself when Whittaker regenerates and these folks will be longing for the days of the Thirteenth Doctor.
