Obviously society has changed a lot since the early 1960s, from TV shows, to music, to movies. Is it necessarily bad that Doctor Who seems to have evolved with these times?

In the classic era of Doctor Who, there was never a question about the Doctor being romantically attracted to one of the companions. To be fair, most of the companions were in their teens or early 20s, and most of the Doctors were old enough to be their fathers, if not their grandfathers. The only time we were faced with a young, dare we say “sex-symbol” Doctor, was with the 5th Doctor.

In the case of the 5th Doctor, the BBC wasted no time in making sure the women surrounding him were as attractive as he was. Tegan, Nyssa, and Peri (who also crossed over to a younger 6th Doctor played by Colin Baker) were all dressed in fashionable, modern attire, or at least “space modern.”

Peter Davison has jokingly stated that his final scene was upstaged by Niccola Bryant’s breasts (see video below).

Recently, Carole Ann Ford, who played the Doctor’s original companion, Susan, and and Waris Hussein, the original director, have spoken out about the new sexiness in Doctor Who.

In a terrific interview with The Telegraph, which is a must read for old-time Whovians, Ford stated:

Sometimes I see Matt Smith’s Doctor look at these disgusting alien creatures in front of him and say something like, ‘Oh, you are beautiful.’ It would have been so nice to say that occasionally, instead of running away shouting, ‘Aagh!’…The women are much stronger now, aren’t they? How I envy them when I look at what they do, and what I had to do. They are also more powerful in another way. They do get very sexy, don’t they? I never had such fun in my time.

Though Ford seems to enjoy the show going with modern times, Hussein is not a fan. He told Radio 4:

There is an element now — and I know we’re living in a different era — of sexuality that has crept in. The intriguing thing about the original person was that you never quite knew about him and there was a mystery and an unavailability about him. Now we’ve just had a recent rebirth and another girl has joined us, a companion: she actually snogged him.

Do you think Doctor Who is too sexy? Was it better off with a totally platonic storyline as was the case with Donna Noble?