Points of View

Points of View is a BBC One TV series featuring letters from viewers, offering praise, criticisms, and general observations of recent BBC programmes. Doctor Who has been the subject of multiple segments throughout the show's run.

Times Doctor Who was covered

• c. February 1985

Viewers complained about the scene in The Two Doctors in which Shockeye ate a rat.

• c. September 1987

The broadcast of the first episode of Time and the Rani, and Sylvester McCoy's debut as the Seventh Doctor is covered. In a negative review of the episode, a viewer referred to it as "twenty five minutes of the most appalling mindless drivel" before going on to criticise the acting, the sets, the writing, and the new theme arrangement. A counteracting positive review praised the pre-credit regeneration and the acting quality, particularly McCoy's performance.

• c. May 1996

Then-presenter Anne Robinson talks about the "very robust - almost record-breaking response" to the television movie, noting the handful of complaints that the story was "far too scary" for its pre-9pm time slot among the overwhelming majority of positive responses, with "a few gripes"; a viewer expresses his dismay via a voicemail message at the movie's "nightmare of cliched banalities" and citing it as "everything that's awful about American television all rolled into an hour and a half of non-stop violence, noise, and car chases" before criticising the revelation that the Doctor is half-human, and his romance with Grace Holloway.

• 11 April 2010

The public reception toward The Eleventh Hour is discussed. Matt Smith's performance was received well despite preconceptions, as well as the new companion and new TARDIS. An aspect that viewers did not like, however, was the new theme arrangement, with one viewer branding it "an abomination", and a second citing it as "so far removed" from the original and "unlistenable". A third viewer panned the "nasty trumpets at the beginning, together with the silly "disco beat"". In response, Doctor Who management stated their regret that viewers did not like the new theme, before pointing out the theme has already changed multiple times throughout the show's run, and that that tradition was bound to continue.

• 2 May 2010

The backlash from the BBC's infamous continuity error in which a trail for Over the Rainbow was displayed at the bottom of the screen during the climactic final moments of The Time of Angels the previous week. More than five and a half thousand people phoned the BBC with their complaints and their inbox "stretched at the seams with the weight of incoming venom" over the error, with one viewer expressing their anger at the BBC for following the example of satellite TV channels in running "incredibly irritating" animated promos during their shows. A second viewer commented that it "totally removed [them] from the moment, spoiled [their] enjoyment, and put [them] in a bad mood all night", with further messages citing it as "show[ing] contempt for the viewers and the programme itself", and calls for an apology to be made. An apology came promptly, with it being agreed that it should not have happened, and revealed that steps are being taken to ensure that such an error would not happen again.

• 9 May 2010

Viewers expressed their concern over "Amy Pond's attempted seduction of Doctor Who" towards the end of Flesh and Stone, with many taking issue with its airing before the watershed. One viewer expressed their "shock" at the shows content "corrupting the minds of [Britain's] impressionable young children", with another branding it "a disgrace" at how "It's seen as inconceivable that two people can just be friends with each other." In response, presenter Jeremy Vine read an excerpt from the BBC Editorial Guidelines, namely that programmes broadcast pre-watershed should not portray inappropriate sexual behaviour or contain explicit sexual discussion unless editorially justified. Vine ended the segment by saying "the [editorial] team told us the decision was made that this... [a clip of Amy and the Doctor kissing is played] ...did not constitute inappropriate sexual behaviour".