‘Doctor Who’ Season 2’s Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score Suggests Review Bombing Has Returned

Much like a trip in the TARDIS to a dangerous planet in the distant future, it can be difficult to remember quite how we got to this place, but the reality remains nevertheless concerning. Review bombing has been a topic of much discussion over recent months, especially when it comes to those projects that have found themselves a target of the “anti-woke” brigade. Next in the firing line is the recent return of Doctor Who, which recently premiered its Season 2 opening episode, “The Robot Revolution.”

Written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Peter Hoar (The Last of Us), the first trip in Season 2 for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his new companion Belinda (Varada Sethu) has been seemingly well received by casual viewers, with many others from within the Whoniverse declaring it a much better opener than last year’s “Space Babies.” Alas, despite the positive reception and an early perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, Season 2 has awoken the ire of a mob of gang-handed internet dwellers who simply cannot handle the idea that a progressive show about a gender-fluid alien flying around time and space while saving people has inclusivity on its mind. This has left the audience rating on the aforementioned Rotten Tomatoes at a shockingly low 46%, although this is at least a 16% improvement on last year’s comparative figure.

Calling ‘Doctor Who’ “Doctor Woke” Shows a Lack of Understanding About the Series

There is a strange opinion held by the bigoted few that Doctor Who has evolved in recent years into a series that stands for the rights of minorities in contrast to its 2005 revival status as, seemingly, a testosterone-fueled “anti-woke” campaign to keep our mainstream shows “traditional”. This simply shows a lack of understanding for a show that championed LGBTQ+ characters in its 2005 debut season, has explored gender roles since its 1963 inception, and has perpetually opened forward-thinking discussions about race and attitudes via the mask of alien species.

The latest addition to the TARDIS team, Sethu, is ready and waiting for the backlash to Season 2, with it painfully inevitable that some will take umbrage with both the titular Time Lord and their companion being non-white for the first time in the show’s history. Speaking earlier in the month, Sethu said, “There’s been a couple of Doctor Woke [references] or whatever, but I just think we’re doing the right thing if we’re getting comments like that.” She continued, “Woke just means inclusive, progressive, and that you care about people. And, as far as I know, the core of Doctor Who is kindness, love and doing the right thing.”

Doctor Who Season 2’s premiere episode is available to stream now on Disney+. For more updates on your favorite shows, stay tuned to Collider.