Why does NuWho never get criticized?

Everywhere you go, people constantly praise the new show and every little thing it does and when even just the smallest of criticisms is aired, everyone suddenly turns into a lynch mob....

So why do many people feel the need to slate the original series as being cheap, childish, emotionally obtuse shite yet praise the new show to the heavens for all the wrong reasons?

Discuss.

To be honest I remember the revival itself being a confusing time. There was definitely a mood change in fandom, at least as I experienced it.

Prior to then it was as if the show didn't matter that much anymore. Fans were drawn together by having been fans but were more likely to discuss the latest episode of Buffy than Doctor Who.

When the revival happened, suddenly the show became majorly serious in fandom again. And as a result, so did everyone's sense of fan image.

It was very confusing and upsetting to me to see this mood-change, where fan forums that previously seemed perfectly friendly and easy-going, suddenly became more cultish, with an air of a witch-hunt going on for fans who were seen as being even slightly near to the complaining autistic anorak stereotype.

i think the reason the old series was seen differently was that the revival caused fans to look back on the older episodes again sometimes with a degree of culture shock and shame (I certainly experienced that too). Suddenly noticing more the elements that would be unpalatable to a mainstream audience today. It was perhaps confusing to know what to feel and so certain spokesmen elitist fans took over and were deferred to. And they had a tendency to turn everything into a zero-sum game. If it was impossible to make the case that Classic Who was always great and superior, then something was seen as wrong or curmudgeonly or 'prejudiced' with you as a fan if you didn't accept the new stuff on the same terms (for me of course the issue is that there were a lot of crap episodes in Classic, but rarely did they feel so 'wrong' as New Who did).

It became all about fandom wanting to suddenly manage a supposed image problem that hadn't been an issue for some years but was suddenly an anxiety revived with a vengeance.

That's the best answer I've got.

Also in terms of the double standards, it simply be a case of some things being seen to work in the context of the new style.

I do remember discussing this with Bernard about whether Davison or Tennant's Doctor was the worse moralizing hypocrite. And I basically argued that Tennant's hypocrisy is usually always mitigated by the safeguards and whimsy of the era ensuring that his desired liberal approach works. Whereas with Davison it was at odds with the reality of the show.

And I think that kind of applies across the board with other aspects. New Who is just the kind of wacky, impulsive, anything can happen, effects bonanza (compared to the more mannered and stagecraft Classic Who) where the Anne Droid somehow becomes part of the furniture in a way perhaps the Kandyman seems to come out of left field. Or maybe so much in New Who comes out of left-field it doesn't even raise an eyebrow.

The whole way certain things just become part of the fabric of a TV show and film.

Another thought that comes to mind.

There's a Star Trek fan reminiscence I read recently that suggests that the old show began to lose it a bit when it, in his words "asked the audience to believe too many impossible things at once".

New Who of course does that all the time. Infact it almost seems to have become pushed aggressively by RTD as something of its USP. To believe the impossible and the hopeful.

Which I think became somewhat mixed with fandom's own wrestling with the impossible having happened in terms of the show's return to mainstream success. And that made it easier for them to believe the rest of the impossible excesses, but also more militant about those who dared point out the cracks.

Great question. My own interpretation depends on my mood. When very depressed, I think it’s because free speech is dead. We are now only allowed to echo the enforced view. Perhaps the digital age has killed tolerance. Perhaps people’s standards are lower. Perhaps people are fooling themselves, or they genuinely think shit is gold.
I think we live in an age of immediate gratification at a very shallow level, loving sound bites and little slices of “drama” (usually just shouting and bright special effects that go BANG). To prepare a meal, to savour the story, to delay gratification, to think, to reflect - those qualities are fading, or are at least not valued so much any more. Despite these rather depressing conclusions, I am still an optimist. In the future, more people will weary of fast food culture and will yearn for more sustenance. And the Tom Baker era will be waiting patiently, with a human smile, ready to be enjoyed again.

Because they're stupid, indoctrinated lapdogs. And cunts, too, of course.

Because the same media which used to shun minorities now jumps on the current bandwagon to promote them to ludicrous lengths rather than steer a middle course.

And I do agree the show became popular at a time social media lowered attention spans. Probably not coincidence.

Indrid Mercury wrote:Everywhere you go, people constantly praise the new show and every little thing it does and when even just the smallest of criticisms is aired, everyone suddenly turns into a lynch mob....

Wow, where do you hang out?
Nobody I know or cross paths with ever mentions it. Ever.

Bill wrote: And the Tom Baker era will be waiting patiently, with a human smile, ready to be enjoyed again.

Lovely!

Speaking of critics, Bowlestrek's been oddly quiet.

I am going to do another rant video tomorrow

I meant most places in fandom.

I'm not the only one who's 'lucky'. You'd be surprised what it's like outside the world of fandom.

Nobody gives a fuck about Doctor Who here. I've never even met ever (in person) anyone that was seriously into Doctor Who (old or new). Ok, maybe two guys that I can think of (and I've been into Doctor Who since 1985) - That's two guys in 35 years! I haven't even talked to that many people who liked to watch it at all.