Ever since Disney bought the streaming rights for Doctor Who in 2022, fans have been worrying nonstop about exactly how much creative control Disney would have over the series. And that’s a fair thing to worry about in some ways, because Disney is very … Disney.
Plenty would argue that aspects of Star Wars and Marvel were toned down and “theme-park-ified” when Disney bought the franchises. For Doctor Who, the Season 14 opener, “Space Babies” was when the “Disneyfied” complaint really began to pick up steam.
After all, the episode seemed to be quite squarely aimed at young children, what with its central monster being a creature made out of boogers and so on. And yet … the season progressed and “Space Babies” proved to be an outlier. Episodes such as “Dot and Bubble” were clearly not for young kids, and the Doctor didn’t suddenly gain a wacky animal sidekick and begin singing. (Alright, there was some singing in “The Devil’s Chord” but that made sense within the context of the episode, yeah?)
After that, the Disneyfication complaints just got plain confusing, because no one seemed to be able to pinpoint what “Disneyfication” actually was. Were the silly, “kiddy” aspects of the show all to do with Disney executives sticking their noses in? I think not … because Doctor Who has always been like that. If you came in with “Rose,” the first episode of the 2005 reboot that eventually conquered the airwaves, you would have seen a trash can eat a man and belch within those 45 minutes. Three episodes later, in “Aliens of London” viewers were introduced to hostile green aliens whose defining trait was that they farted a lot. Doctor Who is deeply silly at its core. It’s a family show, but it does tend to prioritize child audiences and what will make them laugh. House of the Dragon this ain’t, despite the presence of Matt Smith.
Disney doesn’t actually have that much say in Doctor Who
By all accounts, Disney really don’t meddle much in the running of Doctor Who. Writer Steven Moffat has even outright said as much. He told CinemaBlend in May:
The notes we got from Disney were all good, and they were not trying to impose a Disneyfication on Doctor Who whatsoever. I never heard one word of that. Never. And I’m pretty confident that’s what Russell would tell you. That simply didn’t happen.
A fandom going mad over something that didn’t happen? Say it ain’t so!
Disneyfied means what now?!
Trouble is … some parts of the fandom have been claiming the pro-LGBTQ+ stance of season fourteen was a “Disney” thing. Was it a Disneyfication to have the Doctor romance another man in “Rogue”? Well, if you know anything about Disney’s laughable record on LGBTQ+ characters, you know the answer is no. The LGBTQ+ aspects of Doctor Who came not from Disney, but from showrunner Russell T. Davies and his team of writers.
And that brings me to … oh god, people are using “Disneyfied” as a stand-in for that dreadfully misused word “woke,” aren’t they? Ncuti Gatwa being the first Black man to play the Doctor, Yasmin Finney’s appearance as Doctor Who’s first transgender heroine, these were all apparently “Disney.” And when I see comments of that nature (admittedly, mostly on YouTube, and very few people who comment on YouTube have anything worth saying), I just want to laugh. Disney?! Woke?! You’re kidding me, right?
Russell T. Davies, on the other hand, very much does seem to be “woke,” if you’re taking woke to mean “considerate about other people,” and long may that continue. And if you’re using “Disneyfied” to mean “has Black and LGBTQ+ characters and I don’t like that,” as many people apply the term, the Doctor would think you suck. Sorry.