Dark Water Attracts Most Viewer Complaints Since 2005

Jonathan Appleton is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Those who felt that the two-part finale of Series 8 sailed rather close to the wind won’t be surprised to learn that Dark Water attracted the highest number of complaints to Ofcom since the programme’s 2005 return.

There’s no data available on the specific issues people were unhappy about (beyond a rather vague reference to ‘generally accepted standards’) but it’s probably a safe bet that it was the references to dead people being able to feel pain during cremation that complainants felt were beyond the pale.

To place the figures in context, the total number of complaints received by the media regulator concerning the episode was… 19. Hardly an avalanche, then, especially when taken as a proportion of that programme’s 8.52million viewers that week, although it’s worth bearing in mind that over 100 people also complained directly to the BBC. And compared to the programmes that topped the Ofcom charts for complaints last year (Big Brother 3784, Celebrity Big Brother 1874, Cutting Edge 1805), Doctor Who’s figures do indeed look like pretty small beer.

But it be wrong to dismiss this story out of hand just because of the low numbers involved. Whether it was on Twitter, in discussion forums or printed reviews there was undoubtedly a level of disquiet following Dark Water that certainly hasn’t been typical of Doctor Who in recent years. The BBC was quick to defend the episode in the aftermath, pointing to the “heightened sci-fi world” of the programme, and stressing that the Doctor correctly dismissed 3W’s claims as a con.

It’s not hard, however, to imagine some younger viewers feeling troubled by hearing recordings of people begging not to be burned in their favourite Saturday night show. And given the decision earlier in the series, prompted by topical events in that case, to make a significant cut to Robot of Sherwood on taste and decency grounds, some people will surely be left wondering why Dark Water was felt to pass a threshold that the earlier episode did not.

Aside from the issues raised by Dark Water, there’s a rather entertaining rundown of the most complained about episodes of Doctor Who since 2005. Apparently Deep Breath attracted 11 complaints about scheduling, perhaps from parents who felt that a 7:50pm start time was too late for the nation’s youngsters…

What do you think? Was all that death stuff in Dark Water a bit much? Or is all of this a lot of fuss over not very much? Let us know!

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