[
He's saying a bunch of rubbish about Pat, Jon, Tom, Peter and Paul of the Classic Doctors, at the very least. They were all very affectionate (Seven/Ace were also affectionate, but definitely platonic--Sylvester had some acting weaknesses like anger, but was definitely nicer than Colin's performance started), nice or even fanciable Doctors. "Weird" does NOT mean unfanciable to women, as some men like him are convinced of.
It's why I brought up Tom Baker having sex with fangirl groupies who asked him to wear the scarf. There are so many older male fans who are convinced he's the ultimate example of the weirdo male Doctor that no women fancy, when that's painfully not the case. Patrick Troughton had quite the scandalous love life by having a whole other secret family (Frazer even went with him to drop off money at his second family's house).
Jon Pertwee was where the need for a hunky male companion was eliminated, because he was the action hero. You no longer needed Ian Chesterton, Steven Taylor, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (who was introduced in the Troughton era!) to be these action-oriented attractive men there precisely to get women watching. Don't believe me? Seriously, it's written right there in the casting call for Ian Chesterton in 1963 for him to be a leading male type to get women to watch. William Russell was coming off of playing Sir Lancelot. Frazer Hines is quite open about the fact that his role in the show was to get girls to watch (he definitely reveled in the female attention).
While William Hartnell was the crotchety, old grandfather wizard type, William Russell was doing all the heroic swashbuckling, with Ian going from fighting Aztec warriors to spending time as a gladiator. Ian was essentially the template that the Doctor later became and he was the one who taught the Doctor a more heroic morality, starting with when Ian stopped the Doctor from killing a caveman with a rock. Ian was also the one arguing with the Thals that they couldn't be pacifists waiting for the Daleks to kill them all and they had to fight back. Ian and Barbara also had to deal with a Doctor who tricked them into going to Skaro and was incredibly distrusting towards humans initially (bordering on full-blown xenophobia, actually). However, after Ian left and despite being quickly replaced by Peter Purves as Steven Taylor, you do see Hartnell starting to take on a more heroic, swashbuckling role, as you do start to see him swordfighting and such. The Doctor we know today was starting to be born already, but still had a few seismic changes left to go.
Now, Patrick Troughton, as you can see in all the fanvids, was actually very spry, even if he was playing an impish Charlie Chaplin-esque figure. His performance was extremely physical, as you can see in those famous scenes of him jumping and running through mirror rooms and hopping as he avoided explosions. He was actually a former leading man type and was the very first leading man Robin Hood on British television ever. And in comparison to Bill looking decades older than he was and being in extremely fragile health already (arteriosclerosis in the brain was really doing a number on him, so it wasn't just wearing a white wig), even though he was only 55-58, Pat was a very sprightly 46-49 whom the young teen or 20-something companions weren't even outrunning. When you see Pat with his hair brushed back instead of done like a Beatles mop, he was not a bad-looking man, despite being a character actor. Still, like with Ian/Barbara and Ben/Polly, it was Jamie/Victoria who were the unrequited romantic drama storyline there to get the girls watching.
The Doctor is more like a best friend/uncle/partner-in-crime figure to Jamie, in particular. He's definitely not a grandfather who keeps trying to replace his granddaughter (Susan to Vicki) anymore. Actually, I'd say it's Ben and Polly where the Doctor really finds his first companions who feel nothing like replacements for his granddaughter and Ian/Barbara clones. They're way too hip for that and William Hartnell looks hilariously out of place in the Swinging Sixties club that he first meets Ben and Polly in. Enter Pat with a Beatles haircut, who wouldn't look out of place at all. Then when Jamie enters the picture the next story, they're an inseparable Odd Couple buddy comedy for the next three years. There are fatherly moments like the Doctor trying to comfort a distressed Jamie about Victoria leaving by saying he was fond of her, too, but boy, does it turn into more of a best-friend dynamic. Slash 'shippers rejoice (I'm not one, but yeah... they invaded this corner of the fandom).
Then came Jon Pertwee. The Doctor was suddenly this karate-chopping, cape-wearing, bouffant dandy James Bond figure with a Navy tattoo, complete with Pertwee's love of driving every kind of vehicle imaginable (there's a whole episode that is nothing but him driving, flying and motoring--Whomobile, gyrocopter, motorboat, ATV, etc...). While Jon was a bit older than Pat (a year older, but playing the role for five seasons after) at 50-54, he was the first Doctor to really treat the role as a leading man who can do all of his own fighting and at times even got very close to seeming like a romantic leading man in his relationship with Jo. Jo's line in The Green Death followed some scenes with the Doctor in The Curse of Peladon and also later in The Green Death where the Doctor actually seems to be playing a game of oneupmanship with male rivals for his companion's affections. Katy Manning for sure has talked about how that line reads as a confession of non-platonic feelings for the Doctor now, given it was part of the idea behind the Big Finish story The Other Woman.
Tom Baker very much continued what Jon Pertwee brought for the role. While he might seem really, really odd, he was most certainly not a female audience repellent. His companion relationships (same as Pertwee's) were actually highly 'shippable, especially Sarah Jane and Romana. The Doctor's relationship with Leela was based on Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, and I shouldn't have to tell you that that's a romantic movie, even if it's less so with that one by comparison to how often the Doctor carried and put his arms around Sarah. Once again, it's this ultra affectionate performance where you have a Doctor who is often carrying, hugging and acting very protective around a young female companion who he plays clear favorites with. See "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!" for who was third wheel in that TARDIS team. It's the same with Pertwee towards Jo with those very intrinsically male, possessive interactions towards male rivals like King Peladon and Cliff Jones. Female viewers spot it from a mile away. Tom Baker wasn't even acting anymore when he reacted to the glamorous Mary Tamm and the Honourable Sarah "Lalla" Ward (who is literal British nobility). There was a behind-the-scenes Christmas video with John Leeson doing drunk Christmas carols in his K-9 voice where Tom Baker is asked what he wants for Christmas and he gives a very suggestive leer at Mary Tamm. The whole Doctor/Romana dynamic was the Doctor completely overwhelmed by Romana being better at being a Time Lord/Lady than him, but also him teaching her how to be more worldly, heroic and human with street smarts beyond the stodgy academics of Gallifrey. The idea that the Doctor seemed to be having something more than platonic going on with Romana is far from a new interpretation and it wasn't helped by the fact that Tom Baker married Lalla Ward, even doing in-character computer commercials with the computer flashing "Marry the girl, Doctor" on the screen.
Contrary to what the fanboy culture that took over the fandom in the '80s-'90s that agreed with the very nonsense that killed the show dead in the '80s. It was a time that included much less-affectionate relationships with multiple mouthy companions (well, just Tegan--silent Nyssa couldn't even get in a word edgewise, which is why it's a joy when it's briefly just Davison with Nyssa between Tegan getting left at Heathrow until Amsterdam) who just absolutely swamped a less-strong Doctor like Peter Davison (not to mention the Doctor being openly irritated with Adric and Turlough actually starting his time in the TARDIS as an attempted murderer), the loss of the iconic Pertwee/Baker format of having just one young girl in the TARDIS who seems to be a bit in love with the Doctor (replaced instead by having Colin Baker literally try to strangle Peri--who went from saying how Peter Davison was sweet, nice and attractive in comparison to the "tasteless", abrasive Doctor who didn't care what his companions thought of him--this was literally the worst possible thing to copy when Peter Capaldi started off the same way!) and dramatic narratives and actual character growth amongst Doctors and companions alike that absolutely did exist in the '60s-'70s! I think a lot of fanboys would be shocked if they really compared the character development in the '60s-'70s episodes (note that those American fans were largely watching a lot of Tom Baker reruns on PBS that were a decade old when JNT became obsessed with the American convention circuit) to what is there in the '80s.
I will say that Colin Baker's absolute best moments in his ill-received era are when he suddenly softens up incredibly a lot with Jamie coming back, because otherwise the Two/Jamie vs. Six/Peri comparison would be utterly awful with the difference in how Jamie is treated in comparison to Peri. Colin corrects this a bit by actually having a really good dynamic with Jamie (yeah, it seems all the Doctors love Jamie). Although it was way too late, Colin did have a much-needed deep reaction to when he thought Peri was brutally murdered. "You killed Peri." There have been discussions that things might've been different and the relationship between the Sixth Doctor and Peri would've been better had Jamie remained to soften things. Jamie (always a flirt) even kissed Peri on the cheek at the end of The Two Doctors. As it stands now, because of Patrick Troughton being long dead, Colin Baker has essentially inherited a lot of his companions, including Jamie, Zoe and even Victoria. They've all been used to give him that much-needed softer side and their stories with him get frickin' tragic, given both Jamie and Zoe died while with the Sixth Doctor. Add to that the fact that Peri was retconned from being murdered, as well, only to have a fate possibly worse than death--marriage to Brian Blessed as King Yrcanos. Yikes.
Unfortunately, you'll have to listen to missing episode reconstructions to hear some of the most emotional content from the '60s like in The Evil of the Daleks when Jamie calls the Doctor "callous" while he's being manipulated into rescuing Victoria and the Doctor is using Jamie to produce the "human factor" to create human-Dalek hybrids or when Jamie does NOT take Victoria leaving well at all. In fact, the entire end of Fury from the Deep, pt. 6 should put all thoughts that Classic Who didn't have "girly" emotions running amok all over it to rest.
This type of dramatic exit wouldn't be out of place in NuWho! And the emotions being non-platonic are subtle as a brick.
These '80s-'90s-era JNT fanboys were absolutely appalled with RTD's appeal to genre savvy female fans who grew up on the wave of serialized drama in '90s genre shows (these are NOT girls who hate sci-fi/fantasy, contrary to what Burun thinks!). By the JNT and New Adventures years, the fanbase was full of incels who thought Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy were the perfect representation of themselves and reveled in how neither one of them were appealing to those icky fangirls. They were also appalled when Paul McGann kissed Grace Holloway in the TV Movie for the same reason they were appalled by Rose Tyler (as if Jo Grant hadn't already hinted as such that she had feelings for the Doctor all the way back in 1973).
The New Adventures books, specifically the infamous Lungbarrow, went out of their way to desexualize Time Lords (despite there being Time Ladies) into a completely asexual species that Looms itself fully-grown from machines.
JNT, of course, had gone out of his way to rewrite Doctor Who history to even eliminate that the Doctor was ever a grandfather in the first place. JNT was highly sensitive about how affectionate young, traditionally-handsome leading man Peter Davison (second-youngest Doctor ever after Matt Smith) could be with female companions (no hugging Tegan and Nyssa, but could hug Adric, despite the Doctor having a notably horrible relationship with Adric until he sacrificed himself) and indeed barred Carole Ann Ford from interacting with any Doctor but Richard Hurndall. Just calling the faux-First Doctor "Grandfather" was a compromise with JNT and Peter Davison went against the script to try to put in a Fifth Doctor/Susan moment (it looks more like a creepy leer). For JNT, it was because the Doctor being a heterosexual breeder with biological family was alienating to the gay audience and so wanted to pretend that the Doctor was asexual (to the point of casting less-fanciable Doctors next--or possibly ones that were more in his league--his partner Gary Downie was an absolute lecherous creep to fans at those American conventions and was accused of sexual assault!) in a way he absolutely was NOT in the '60s-'70s. Colin Baker's performance almost feels reactionary against Peter Davison's leading man looks, to the point where Peri actually comments on this change very negatively (exactly like how Clara had to be reassured by Matt Smith to accept Peter Capaldi going out of his way to be a total prick in series 8). RTD clearly didn't agree with JNT on the Doctor being asexual or that being more appealing to the gay audience!
The show ate itself by kicking out a huge part of the audience that used to watch and was chased out. RTD just went backwards in time to pick up the same audience the show used to be written for before. And news to Burun, women were 'shipping Mulder/Scully (hell, they were also a significant part of the original Star Trek's audience with most of them making up Spock's very female fanbase) in the '90s well before Buffy/Angel made it to the screen. Mulder/Scully, F.Y.I., were the couple that the terms "'ship" and "'shipping" were invented for, despite it taking The X-Files an aggravating seven seasons to get them together romantically (damn you, cockblocker bee!). Isaac Asimov himself wrote a whole essay on the fact that women were more into Spock than Kirk (whose fanbase was overwhelmingly male, despite seeming on paper like he should be the male hero attracting the ladies) and the complete bafflement of male viewers about why all these fangirls preferred Spock. Given that the Doctor isn't wildly different in archetype from Spock at times, it should be less of a surprise that even Classic Doctors get these same fangirls who also like Spock.
Long gone was the BBC internal paperwork that listed how each and every role was being written and cast to appeal to every possible demographic, including the boys (and dads) who wanted to see Zoe's butt in a glittery catsuit perched atop the TARDIS console and famously Peter Davison's entire regeneration sequence (it's a good one--the Fifth Doctor heroically sacrifices himself for Peri) getting overshadowed by Peri's cleavage (definitely got attention for that gratuitous bikini cleavage shot, too, though Turlough gets similar attention amongst gays and gals for stripping down to a Speedo in the same scene), and the girls who got to swoon over the likes of Ian and Jamie, who were written with them to watch precisely in mind. As much as female audiences like female identification figures, people like Burun seem to be in complete denial that the males in the Classic show were ever written for females in mind, including increasingly so the Doctor himself. Yet, a lot of the same gate-keeping male fans in the Doctor Who fanbase will openly go on and on about who the hottest female companions were.
Males who think throwing "feisty", "strong" females on the screen will cover the female audience (seems to me it was a lot of males and lesbians reacting to Jodie Whittaker being the hottest Doctor ever more than the straight females were--LOL), despite females arguably being the most resistant to Jodie Whittaker's casting (serious blunder by Chibnall to not realize that that was definitely not what the female audience wanted after years of wishing to be taken away from their lives by the Doctor, not unlike Peter Pan and Wendy), really ought to ask more females about what they like to see on screen. They're a lot like those baffled fanboys who don't understand why fangirls prefer Spock to Kirk or think that the Classic Doctors were all completely repulsive to female audiences, and so think that the massively positive, swooning reaction to David Tennant (who is in fact a very *unconventional* leading man, just like the rest with the exceptions of Peter Davison and Paul McGann--you're not going to see those two playing roles like Barty Crouch, Jr. and Kilgrave any time soon!) means that he was completely unsuitable for the part.
You're arguing against strawman versions of my arguments.
I never said once that there were never any male pin up figures in the classic era. FFS I said for my version, by all means have a hunky male companion and a female companion get off with each other if you think that will get people watching. Just don't change the Doctor.
And again with these unconventional means ugly. You clearly did not read ANYTHING I wrote about that so I'll say it again.
I never said the actors who played the Doctor in classic who were ugly. I never said they were repulsive to women or women couldn't fancy them. I never said that women couldn't like DW? Where are you getting all of this? Do you just skim my posts? I know they are long, but so are yours and I read it all, hence why I am going to respond to all of it. You brought up Lungbarrow as an example of the type of thing I want. I said in response that I HATED that novel and the stupid Time Lords being born in looms crap earlier.
I said
very clearly. Unconventional does not mean ugly, and that actually most of
MY pin ups are unconventional women. Amy Winehouse was my biggest ever crush growing up, whilst I've also always liked Paloma Faith, Florence Welch, Lady Gaga etc.
The likes of Amy and Paloma are obviously unconventional when compared with standard female and male pop stars due to how they dress, talk etc. Their unconventional qualities made them MORE attractive however, IE Paloma clearly has a big imagination, Amy's sense of humour was amazing, both also look more striking and unique because of their unconventional qualities too.
Obviously yes I can imagine a lot of women liking weirdy, off beat guys like Tom Baker for similar reasons. I know full well that the first four actors to play the Doctor were womanizers in their private lives. (I've read all of their biographies.)
However the point is that unconventional people are not going to be cast as
standard leading men in soap operas, rom coms for various reasons. Too weird in how they act, too big a personality, too offbeat (NOT ugly) looking.
Whether you fancy Tom Baker or not is irrelevant in the "do you think he could have played Jack from Titanic, or even a leading man in a soap opera?" Of course not. He's too eccentric!
PS my top choice for the Doctor in the 90s growing up was always Tim Curry based on his performance in Clue. I honestly think he could have been the best Doctor of all time. Tim Curry meanwhile is a sex god to many women LOL. Again that's because of his mad personality, but as a result of that, by his own admission Tim Curry is not a conventional leading man.
William Hartnell's WIDOW even says as such in an interview. She says her problem with Peter Davison was that he wasn't a weird looking guy. She said all the others (including her late HUSBAND) were oddballs, and looked genuinely like men out of time, but Davison in her words looked like some nice boy you'd find down at the cricket club.
Clearly she is not saying that means her HUSBAND was so ugly no women would like him LOL. Just that the Doctor needs to look a bit more offbeat, quirky and like a man out of time, and often a character actor will be better at doing that, than a conventional leading man or a soap actor.
Patrick Troughton, yes in his younger years had played a few leading roles, but by the time of DW he was firmly a character actor. His most famous and enduring performances outside of DW are all offbeat roles like Klove.
Now that's not to say a conventional leading man can't play the role, but only if he plays it as an off beat character. My problem with Tennant was that we had someone who was more conventional, and who played it as such because he was cast to be that. RTD who wrote that he wanted a sex god Doctor, cast Tennant based on his performance as Casanova! That clearly shows a much different direction for the character.
Spock meanwhile is totally different to the Doctor. Spock was intended from the start to be somewhat romantic. Sure he is emotionless, but he is capable of having human emotions.
To be honest I'm not surprised that Spock would be more popular among the ladies than Kirk. Kirk is more of a guys fantasy. IE a big macho man, that women constantly fall in love with. Spock is definitely more of a female fantasy. He is brooding, tortured underneath, and when he falls in love with a woman it's special because she has got through his icy exterior and his romances therefore are more meaningful and tragic.
It's not the same as the Doctor though. The Doctor wasn't intended to be a big brooding, tortured character. He was intended to be a crazy old uncle that loved the life he lived, going on adventures, having no responsibilities. He was in some ways quite mature as he'd already from our perspective had a full life back on Gallifrey before he left. We know from the few details we are given that back on Gallifrey the Doctor married, had kids, a grandchild, and that his family obviously died. He talks about them as though they were in the past in Tomb and they are never even mentioned when he goes back to Gallifrey. Even if they were on bad terms you'd think they'd be interested if he were on trial for murdering the President, breaking their laws or carrying out a genocide. Hell you'd think that they'd be called forward as character witness. Also why was Susan in his care?
Clearly the Doctor back on Gallifrey always wanted to explore, but like a lot of people he put his crazy dream aside and fell in love, had a family, and then when they died, Susan fell into his care and he decided to live out his dream of exploring as there wasn't anything tying him back to Gallifrey.
As a result when we see the Doctor he is now totally devoted to exploring the universe to the point where he doesn't want to have a normal life anymore. That's why he is asexual. He's had his normal life, and no one can replace his family and his work keeps him going. As a result the Doctor can cope with things like grief and loss throughout the classic era, like when Adric dies. However at the same time he can also be immature in that he thinks, since he had his normal life and raised a family, he should be allowed to do whatever he wants now. Hence why he hates being made to do anything. Even when he is asked to save the universe, he hates having to do something on someone else's time like in Key to Time.
Now does this mean the Doctor is a sexless robot? No. Obviously not, hence why I hate the stupid Loom idea. However it does mean that he is more interested in exploring, doesn't want to settle down, and this coupled with the fact that his companions are often HUMANS, and far, far, far too young means that romance is off the table.
Sure if you did it carefully, brought in a Time Lady or another old and powerful alien and had them develop a connection that might work. Hence why of all his companions, Romana is the only one from the classic era that would work as a love interest.
Still even then like I said the Doctor just isn't built for romance. He is an alien, distant character, who is constantly on the move and constantly goes through new sidekicks. Therefore if you have him fall in love with one, when she leaves, it's going to have to be a big deal, and you can't keep repeating that or else you undermine it. (In fact ironically you make the Doctor more like Captain Kirk, who was frequently criticised for having a different "one true love" every week.)
That's the real reason, again coupled with the characters age, the fact that he was still meant to be the same character as William Hartnell underneath as to why romance WAS generally off the table in the classic era.
And no, there was no romance between Jon Pertwee and Jo Grant. Jon Pertwee was horrified when someone said that. Watch a 90s docu, I'll try and dig it up if it's on youtube where he says that point blank and states that and this is a quote "the Doctor is completely and utterly asexual."
How does that tie into JNT pushing it just to make the Doctor a gay icon?
Sorry but you are rewriting the past and this is why I want New Who snipped away from old who, or at the very least not to serve as the only sequel.
In order to make it fit with the original, people are now going back and rewriting the original. Ignoring what the stories were actually meant to be to fit whatever retcon has been shoehorned into the 21st century version.
For instance now we have to have it that William Hartnell was interested romantically in an Aztec teenager, that Jon Pertwee wanted to get off with Jo Grant, that Tom Baker wanted to get off with Sarah Jane and Leela of all characters.
Similarly with the Doctor and the Master, in order to make that abominable character Missy fit in, people are now going back and saying that Roger Delgado's Master wanted to shag Jon Pertwee! I wouldn't mind if it was just fans saying this, but it's the fact that we are getting people writing this into official websites, books etc as facts and covering up what the actual point of those stories and characters was meant to be.
I'm no prude (I would hardly like Buffy if that were the case.) However not every relationship has to be about sex. The Doctor and the Master were a brilliant, vicious feud, that has now been turned into an inappropriate Mills and Boone story, whilst similarly the Doctor stood out from other characters by having platonic relationships with his female companions. All those moments you pointed out of the Doctor being caring to his companions are true, but they aren't romantic. Why can't a guy care for a woman as just a friend?
And the show did not die in the 80s because the Doctor was asexual. To start with the 80s had the youngest, most conventionally handsome Doctor in the shape of Peter Davison.
Second, JNT actually helped bring a lot of women to the fandom. In the 80s DW was more popular in America than it was in the uk. It got over 9 million viewers in the US in America, and the DW fan club of America was the biggest in the world. Now in all fairness a lot this was down to the Tom Baker stories being shown, but even then JNT did a lot to promote DW stateside and Barry Letts even credited him with playing a big role in catching on in America.
The only reason I bring this up is that over 90 percent of its fans in America were women! Also according to JNT's biography he enjoyed visiting American conventions more because they were populated by fun, outgoing, cheerful women, as opposed to sad, loner guys like in the UK. I very much doubt he wouldn't have wanted more women watching.
Also it's worth noting that a lot of these censors came from the BBC. JNT mentioned that they were the ones who didn't want to have a reference to the Doctor and Susan being related. To be fair though most shows were censored that way. JNT also mentioned something about not being allowed to have characters eat as that would imply they are going to take a shit later LOL.
Fair enough you can argue that these stupid censors stopped the show from having romances between the companions in the 80s. (Though even then to be honest that's not true. Ace has plenty of love interests. In fact she even has a lesbian love interest in Survival.)
Still that's not why the show died in the 80s. It died quite simply because the BBC screwed it over. The Beeb to start with slashed its budget. Axed it when its viewers were nowhere near low enough for cancellation. (In fact both the end of the Hartnell and the Troughton years in the 60s represent far greater low points for viewers than anything in the 80s. At the end of Troughton's time its viewers were 3 million or so. That's back when there were only two channels. Now I like the Troughton era just to be clear. The Mind Robber from that very season is top 10 for me. Still that is the lowest point in viewers as 3 million when there are only two channels is really bad. The end of Tom's era also represents a low point for viewers.)
After axing it in 85, they were forced to bring it back due to public demand, and then shelved it for 18 months. (Being off the air that long will harm any show.) They then gave it NO publicity. (It got one radio times cover in the 80s.) They put it opposite the A-Team and then Coronation Street a British soap that was getting over 30 million viewers (half the population of Britain.)
In fact the lowest rated episode of the McCoy era was put opposite Corrie on one side, and an England qualifier for the World Cup on the other.
In America meanwhile the BBC raised prices of the stories to the point where no one could buy them, killing its overseas following overnight.
See here.
All of these things are what killed the show. Meanwhile in the 90s it actually thrived on video and DVD and was still popular enough to produce merchandise, but it got a bad rap from the mainstream media as the same people who killed it, obviously didn't want to be shown up, so they made sure it was attacked at every corner to try and kill the following it had left.
This in turn led to its reputation as being a nerdy thing, and as a result men gravitated towards it more, as back then that was the stigma that only men like sci fi.
That is why it died. That's not to say there weren't some legit problems with 80s Who, but ultimately all of these things were a far bigger factor.
And finally I did not say women don't like sci fi. I said that RTD himself said the only way he could get women to watch DW is if he toned down the sci fi, made it more about Rose's home life, and all about romance. You can see Julie Gardner say this in an ep of DW Confidential.
My response to this was that actually that's not true. Whilst women like those things, they also have a need for adventure, and as long as you have good identification characters, they can get caught up in that too. Hence why Batman despite not really having any soap opera, and rarely focusing on romance apart from a few stories, is more popular than Spider-Man, who has both of those things.
That does not translate however into let's just write female characters as generic strong female characters and it certainly does not translate into lets have female characters hate on men, or be Mary Sue's.
It translates into women can like adventure stories like men do. And also obviously men and women can like series starring the opposite sex, but still in terms of people who need an identification figure (which I don't for the record but I know plenty of people who do.) Most young boys are going to look to a guy, most young girls are going to look to a woman. So if your show has plenty of strong roles for both you will win a large audience.
Hence Buffy and Classic Who that had strong roles for both being a big hit with both genders. Of course there is nothing wrong with a show being aimed at one gender more btw. I think it's stupid when people say that is sexist, but still if you want a wider audience that is a better way of doing it.
Even having said all of this, I still wasn't objecting to romance in Doctor Who, or even romance with the Doctor. Romance between the companions is fine. Romance with the Doctor meanwhile should be very, very fleeting as he is just not built for those types of stories, and it should always be done with care. IE not have him get off with someone only 3 years older than Susan who is a human like Rose.
