Well said! Most of the new series box sets receive a 12 rating from the BBFC. So it seems bizarre to me that people show such a programme to very young children.

However, one person on this thread talks about "tricky questions from my ten year old". What? Seriously, WHAT?!

I can see both sides really. You can't include 'Santa' without addressing it in a show for all the family, but it's bound to be at least a bit awkard for many on Christmas day.


A very good question imo. The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny, Father Christmas (the last one especially). Basically we spend our early years with the most magical things 'existing' only to have the rug pulled out from under us when some bigger kid on the playground tells us our parents have been lying to us all along.

In my case I think I asked my folks about it, they tried to keep up the pretense, which only caused me more grief back in the playground...

I understand parents mean well but can't help but think the huge subconscious childhood lesson is lying is OK, and go along with lies and you get rewarded. Which is a bit like how politicians operate (except they keep the presents for themselves!!!).

Ah, there are plenty of Christmas movies where characters initially claim Santa is a myth and that they don't believe - only to be proved wrong by the time the credits roll. I would 100% agree with your point if it was one comment made by Clara dismissing Santa outright, but her disbelief changed throughout the episode and the tangerine at the end "confirmed" Santa's existence.

Its a TV show where they say Daleks ARE real. Perhaps you tell your kid that the characters on TV don't believe in him, and in the show he's not real but he is in real life.

Difficult to see how the trailer (which I haven't seen), if it presented Father Christmas on screen in conversation with Clara, revealed unambiguously that he doesn't exist. Am I missing something?

Here's the Children in Need preview. It merely shows that Clara is a non-believer in Santa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsxEenCBRG0

This is the trailer which hopscotch23 said caused "a few tricky questions from my ten year old". Seeing as ten is way too old to believe in Santa, I find it a little disturbing that hopscotch23 regards a positive display of critical thinking as "tricky questions".

Well, I eat my words.

Just watched it with my two and not an eyelid was batted.

However, some of the comments in this thread are just ridiculous, and just one of the many reasons why I am an infrequent poster (on any forum).

Merely?

She said "Santa's not real". That's not very mere to me.

Yet it's entirely truthful. I don't see why characters in a TV programme should be complicit in the lies told to children.

In fact, other blatant lies should be exposed. I hope there's an episode in which Clara states that a family dog being "sent to live on a farm" is a common euphemism for the animal being put down.

I wouldn't allow my young child to watch Dr Who so it wouldn't br a problem. Kids who still believe in Santa shouldn't be watching this. The content isn't appropriate for anyone much younger than a tween. Most of my friends stopped believing in Father Christmas before the age of 10. I wouldn't let a 9 year old child sit and watch Dr Who. It's far too violent and scary and borders on adult content in places.

I don't know why people say this is a kids show. It's a show for teenagers and young adults and upwards. It's certainly not a children's programme. A scary alien life form that wraps itself around your face so it can suck out your brain until your dead. Hardly Mr Tumble is it?

Absolutely. Although you do have to wonder why the BBC put it on at 6.15pm on Christmas Day?

They would never dream of showing a 12-rated movie in that slot.

^this with knobs on

I personally think slot of people nowadays love to be offended full stop,you read the comments section on The Daily Mail and I wonder sometime if folk are for real!
I mean they even think (these people that pick up the phone to complain instead of turning the TV over)that Doctor Who is encouraging homosexuality I mean plurleessee

Coming back to the Christmas special I watched it with my 5year old,my 8year old and 13 year old ( he knows that there's no Santa) grandchildren and their mum and not one of them questioned a thing,the two younger ones were just pleased Santa was on with Doctor Who and found him and the elves funny -all the long dialogue was lost on them anyway,
As for the 5year old this the first Doctor Who she's watched as we do find it too scary for her it's my teenage grandson I find follows it the best but he's nearly 14so no problem with it from our house either 👍

You last sentence made me smile -yes hardly!

I know what you mean,Doctor Who is scary,my 8 year old granddaughter watched a few Matt Smiths episodes -her favourite is The Eleventh Hour only cos she saw it for the first time this year as I have the DVDs so it's easy to pick out certain ones that are not frightening,
like I said above the 5year old wanted to see it as Santa was in it,did they get scared -no it went over their heads as they're not avidly watching like I would,I know my teenage grandson does but he gets scared!
It's watched with a cushion up to his face -always has been,I remember fondly doing that as a child but it has got scarier I suppose with more graphics or do you think it was just as scary in the 70s?
I used to be petrified of the daleks -children now hardly look at them,

But she says it to Santa, the elves then deride the "It's your parents" theory, and the Doctor turns up and is rude to Santa (apparently accepting his existence). All in all, it makes Clara look so much of a booby it's a wonder her feet aren't blue.

[Thanks for the link, be more pacific.]

Personally I think it's highly irresponsible of you to allow a 5 year old to watch stuff like this which let's face it, it's pretty much the film Alien only without so much blood and guts and the foul language. Originally X rated, reclassified as an 18 then recently lowered to a 15 certificate. Tv shows don't come with certificate warnings but the Dr Who DVD box sets do and they are rated 12 for a good reason. These things are not suitable for kids younger than teenagers to be watching. Certainly not a 5 year old. It's far too scary and violent.

Just because your 5 year old doesn't find it scary doesn't mean it won't have an adverse psychological effect on him when he's older or give him nightmares and if your teenage grandson finds it too scary and has to shove a cushion up against his face then I'd say he wasn't ready to be watching stuff like that and I'd be watching it on my own after he'd gone to bed. I agree with the above post. I have no idea why they think this is appropriate to be shown at 6:15pm but parents should still have some responsibility. I'm not saying Who is post watershed stuff but some parts of it should be. I certainly don't think early evening on Christmas Day when young children are up and about is a time to be showing Moffats ripoff of the film Alien.

Sorry but it's called parental control. Would you allow your 5 year old to watch porn just because he didn't find it frightening? You have no idea what psychological harm this might be doing to your little ones. Personally you sound quite irresponsible if you allow a 5 year old to watch such violent and scary things. I would never expose my young child to scenes of people running around shooting aliens with machine guns and frightening and disturbing scenes of scary life forms that wrap themselves around peoples faces and eat peoples brains out. Dr Who is the stuff of nightmares and the last thing I want is to do is give my kids nightmares about scary monsters. This is not meant for young kids to be watching and anyone that allows their young children to watch such programmes is, in my opinion, irresponsible.

My first memory of Who was the start of 'Robot' when I was 5. Next time I see them, I shall be having very strong words with my parents considering a poor security guard got metal-clawed to death in that sequence. Put me off Who for....ah.

btw, I think Alien ripped off Ark in Space to a certain degree, so all is fair in love and, um, homage. Look at the brilliant Hinchcliffe era.

Wow,..well I was wrong about this thread being nice and friendly,I don't think I'm going to sit and go right through what my 5year old granddaughter does as its nothing to do with me never mind you,but thanks for the parenting tips but I shall refrain from passing them to my daughter as I'm sure she knows what's best for her daughter,
I find it strange how you would presume to know about what my granddaughter actually thinks of Doctor Who as all I said is that she'd enjoyed seeing Santa when Doctor Who came on and none of it went in as she didn't really watch it apart from Looking at Santa ,
As for my grandson I was just having a laugh with you and basically talking about one time he put a cushion up yo his eyes when a weeping angel was on and the fact that I used to do that as a child watching it (but it's done me no harm) but we were all laughing and it was just something I thought I could share on here as a light hearted post without a poster picking my post apart telling me how irresponsible I am as a grand parent

Don't take it to heart... I used to watch Star Trek Next generation as a 5 year old... Some of that was scary... By the time I was 7 I was obsessed...

Endearing post at GB on the matter.

*That's* the spirit.

I'm sorry to see that The Wizard's posting upset you. One of the problems with this forum (and with such communications in general) is how difficult it is, even with emoticons, to judge exactly what is meant by a particular post. Possibly The Wizard mistook the tone of your post (and possibly you mistook the tone of his), but it seems to me that the important thing to take away from this exchange is the knowledge that there are people out there who are willing to go in to bat for your 5-year-old granddaughter (or any other 5-year-old), if they think she is in danger. [They may, of course, be wrong to think so. My own opinion is close to yours, in that I think this sort of scare in childhood is not going to cause harm, even when it is understood by the child (and on your own account the scarier parts of the episode went over your granddaughter's head), but I can also understand the other poster's concern.] On the whole, I think, we are nice and friendly, but due allowance should be made for our different means of showing it.

Thank you Vopiscus,maybe I did over react a tad
my former post to it was meant to be very friendly and light hearted to The said poster so I was just surprised at the post back,
Maybe if I had have been called irresponsible only once in the post I wouldn't have reacted as much as been called it a few times ,especially when it wasn't even my child !

but hey I do appreciate your calmer more sensible explanation that someone was looking out for 5year old children in general,yes I admit in my emotional response I didn't see that,but honestly my lil granddaughter does not notice much about Doctor Who as if she she did and was scared even a tiny bit we'd know,
Thank you once again Vopiscus and a happy new year to you

I used to watch the original Star Trek with my mum from a very early age too -by the way thank you!

BIB: I think that, deep down, it's a "safe" way to let kids know that, in the real, adult world, people lie, for all sorts of reasons. Unfortunately it's often for selfish reasons or not benign.

The first episode I remember at three or four was City of Death and I loved it, but others had me absolutely terrified. Not just behind the sofa stuff when it was on, I could sometimes only get halfway down the stairs because I 'knew' killer worms were going to appear from the next one down. How many nights I spent screaming in terror for hours until parents downstairs heard I'll never know, but also can't say how much of that was connected to Who, though it was the only scary thing I watched that I remember.

I would say that all children are different - in my case that was definitely too early I think, though I was a massive fan of Tom and Peter.

I'd say there's more genuinely chilling stuff on screen in New Who at times, whereas so much of it back then was in atmosphere, often what you didn't see, the cliffhangers, discordant music etc.

I'd also say it's harder to predict these days when we go from a fairly lighthearted romp one episode to a pretty scary one etc.


An interesting take on it. For me I grew up thinking it wasn't a bad thing to lie, but not sure how much it had to do with the people I trusted and depended upon the most lying to me from such an early age. I've since seen the huge error of my ways and would never do what I did in the past again, even though I didn't do any particularly bad things - I just won't lie now, at all.

I think probably when I have kids I'll keep up the tradition without the 'it's real' stuff. Not sure how I'll feel about other parents and school (if I send them to school) hammering it home though, can imagine a few disagreements there!