A new petition has been launched that calls for the BBC to fire Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall and replace him with Steven Moffat and Russell T. Davies.
The petition created by Shelli Ingle on Change.org begins by stating, “Doctor Who used to be a beloved show since 1964 and a lot of people had grown with that show since they were little. Sadly, it got cancelled in 1980s and it tred (sp?) to come in the 1990s. But thanks to RTD and Moffat that it had came back for a newer regeneration in the mid- It had grown a big, giant fanbase.”
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The petition goes on to state, “Chris Chibnall had shown that he has no respect for William Hartnell’s Doctor and the other Doctors. He had rewritten the history of Doctor Who that had tried to made the original actors who portrayed as The Doctors to looks like The Doctor is an evil white dictator of because the actors are white.”
It continues, “The talented actors (like William Hartnell’s Doctor, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and other actors) always wanted to remember as being each everyone’s favorite Doctors for each generations to continue on to honor William Hartnell’s Doctor’s legacy,because they used to love the show when they were growing up since they were little kids and they had really fun of time as being The Doctor.”
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The petition goes on to describe current Doctor Who actor Jodie Whittaker as a “political puppet.”
It reads, “Jodie is okay as the female Doctor,but she is nothing but more a political puppet to Chris Chibnall and he even mistreated her poorly as the Doctor. ”
“Those kids from the future generation who wanted to becoming the Doctor or being his/her companion and take away to the Tardis through time and space, but their dreams will be shatter by Chris Chibnall,” the petition goes on.
The petition then continues to hammer Chris Chibnall claiming he’s destroying the Doctor Who property, “Now Our beloved Doctors are going to be erase from Doctor Who, it is all thank to Chibnall that had destroyed everything that the show had lived for. He had decided to replace William Hartnall’s Doctor and Patrick Troughton’s Doctor with Jodie’s Doctor and Jo Martin’s Doctor. Even he is planning to replace John Peetween’s and Tom Baker’s Doctor,too.”
It then calls for people to contact the BBC to put a stop to Chibnall’s Doctor Who storytelling, “It’s up to us to put a end to the production of Series 13 and fire Chibnall. People had enough of his fanfic and we don’t none of it. You need to tell BBC to stop him to get away with destroying everyone’s beloved show.”
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Finally, Ingle calls for Doctor Who fans to sign the petition and share it across social media, “We need to get this petition on Social Media to get out there to let everyone to sign it. I am not referring to Gallifrey or J-bots,but I am referring to Classic fans and Nu Who fans from RTD and Moffat. Not only fans, but We need to send this petition to the actors/actresses from Classics and RTD and Moffat on Twitter. We also send it to show writers,too. We need to tweet this to Moffat and RTD that they need to save Doctor Who.”
The petition concludes stating, “It’s up to us to save our loved Doctor.”
It has currently been signed by 7 individuals and is aiming for an initial goal of 100. The petition will be sent to BBC and BBC Studio.
The most recent season of Doctor Who saw its viewership absolutely nosedive. The season premiere debuted with 6.89 million viewers in the United Kingdom according to Doctor Who News.
By the final episode of the season, viewership was down to 4.69 million total viewers. That’s a loss of over 2.2 million viewers and a decrease of over 30%.
In fact, the viewership ratings were so bad that the final episode, The Timeless Children, was the the least viewed episode of Doctor Who since since 1980’s Meglos: Part Three.
Related: Doctor Who Executive Producer Matt Strevens Defends The Show After Fan Criticism
Despite the declining viewership, Doctor Who executive producer Matt Strevens defended the show saying, “I think it sort of cleaves to the basic principle we have and I’ve had on the show, but I think we all have, is you have a vision for what you want to do while you’re on the show, whether you’re the Doctor, whether you’re a producer, whether you’re a writer, and you see that vision out.”
He added, “And the conversation around what fans want and what audiences want, all that kind of stuff, you just have to trust yourself as a program.”
“You can’t really be buffeted by those winds because people will change their minds,” he stated.
The BBC’s drama chief and former Doctor Who producer Piers Wenger took the defense of the show a step further by claiming, “I worked on Doctor Who myself and produced it for many years and I can honestly say I don’t think it’s been in better health editorially.”
He added, “The production values have never been better. It’s also not just funded by the BBC, it’s funded by lots of international partners.”
What do you make of this new petition? Do you plan on signing it? Do you think the BBC plans on changing their editorial direction with Doctor Who?