‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special: BBC calls spoilers in national news ‘disappointing’
In the world of television journalism, there are really three different ways in which you can handle the complicated subject of spoilers. The first way is to just sit back and do nothing, and allow your readers to go into an episode completely unaware of anything. The second is to give some teasers and to maybe share a few guest stars, but stay coy on their role in the story. This is more along the lines of “teasing” more so than spoiling.
The final way here is just giving away major plot points, and that is what has so many “Doctor Who” fans upset right now. We’re not going to be revealing the major spoiler to the Christmas special here on the site, as we subscribe to the “teasing” theory only. It’s valuable to share some information in that it allows for excitement to build, but you don’t want it to rise to the level where viewers already know what is going to happen before watching the show. However, the British press seems more intent on publishing almost anything that they can get, as evidenced by a series of recent articles regarding the “Doctor Who” Christmas special.
It’s rare that a network chooses to speak out on it, but in this case, the BBC did. In a statement to the Mirror, a spokesperson for the network had the following to say about the information that has appeared in publications already:
“Doctor Who Christmas is a special moment for fans and while there’s still huge amounts to be revealed it is disappointing to see any spoilers, whether true or untrue, running in national press ahead of the episode.”
So why are so many people in the media deciding ultimately to be their version of Scrooge? The simple answer to that is that these sort of stories bring traffic and money, and they feel like they are a big enough publication that they can get away with it, and will continue to get stories later on. It’s easy to avoid most of these stories if you’re a Whovian; the tragedy comes when someone on your Twitter timeline decides to Grinch it up, and suddenly some major plot points are ruined.
If you want to read more scoop on the “Doctor Who” Christmas special, our advice for now is to go back and watch the first teaser again. This tells you enough without ruining anything.
Photo: BBC One