Fandom 250: Why Doctor Who has the best fandom
BBC
Why should Doctor Who rank #1 in FanSided’s Fandom 250? Well, we have a few reasons.
Every year on FanSided, the site ranks the Top 250 fandoms in Sports, Entertainment, and Lifestyle. (You can read more about it here.) Even though the site is predominantly sports, can anything really match the fandom of Doctor Who?
This article may sound arrogant, but even when put up against monster fandoms like Game of Thrones or Harry Potter, Doctor Who still stands on its own. It’s not a fad or a phase that will die out in a few years, it’s something that has survived generations and will continue. How many shows can say that people old enough to have grandchildren and their grandchildren can enjoy the same show?
How many shows can even say that they’ve had a successful 54 years? It’s defined Britain for generations and become a national treasure. There’s nothing in American television history quite like it. Even our well known television shows and movies, Star Trek and Star Wars to name a couple, don’t define our country quite the way Doctor Who does for Britain.
New Series
Since the New Series debuted in 2005, there has been a new love for the show ingratiated in a whole new generation. Now there are conventions, cosplays, and spin-offs made of the show. But what makes the show so watchable? One might argue that it can get old to watch an alien battle other aliens. It’s also a worry that, like many television shows that run for so long, that plots might be reused.
BBC
But the great thing about Doctor Who is that it has something that no one else has. And no one else would ever try to copy. The regeneration. If Verity Lambert and the other producers hadn’t thought to put that brilliant factor, there would be nothing to talk about. Because of that brilliant idea, something so simple yet never quite replicated as well, it’s defied all laws of television.
Today we have cosplays and conventions and games and fierce fans. In an ironic way, the outcry among fans about the controversy of a female doctor was the biggest show of what Doctor Who means to people. People are so attached to this character, what he (or she) brings as a role model, they can’t let it go. Whether played by Tom Baker or David Tennant or Jodie Whittaker, the Doctor holds a special place in people’s heart.
That’s what makes the fandom so amazing. Underneath the quarrelsome fans, there are people who want to sit and watch a show about good moral values. Values that strike a chord in everyone’s heart at any age. That’s the fandom of Doctor Who. Linked together through a madman in a box, always slightly wishing it was them the companion.