Should I give up on Doctor Who?

12 Oct 2014

Originally posted at https://palfrey.livejournal.com/312869.html

So, I'm currently 3 episodes behind on Doctor Who, and I'm wondering if it's worth it anymore. To give some background, one of the changes I've been making over the last few years is to give up on TV series when I'm just not enjoying them anymore, rather than continuing out of sheer stubbornness. That's not to say I won't watch some things out of stubbornness (Gilmore Girls Season 7, House Season 8, etc) but I've only got so much time, and if a series isn't fun anymore I should stop.

Series I have given up on:

There's probably a couple more, but Doctor Who looks like it's likely to join them. Peter Capaldi is fairly decent, but I suspect I was watching the Matt Smith run out of sheer stubborness, and now it's just not fun anymore. There's some entertaining bits in there, but there's so much good TV out there these days and I don't have enough time to watch it all, so some things have to go. The only reason I think I'm watching now is the long history with the series, and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't watch a new series with the same sorts of stories, which is always a sign you should stop watching something.

I suspect there will be a fair number of comments along the lines of "No! You must! It's brilliant!" and probably something about "All British sci-fi fans watch Doctor Who!!!", and I think I now need to group those under the opinions on other series I don't like e.g. Supernatural, in that my preferences differ from others and that collectively we watch different things, and Doctor Who is now about to get grouped under "stuff I no longer watch".

End of a (personal) era. C'est la vie.

Previously: NineWorlds 2014 writeup Next: Convention over configuration: other opinions