One Direction vs. Doctor Who: It's War, Apparently...

In a truly bizarre twist to the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary celebrations, it seems that Doctor Who fans are gearing up for online battle against One Direction.

You see, the pop munchkins have decided that they want a bit of the hot, sweet 23rd November action, and have declared the date "One Direction Day", planning on streaming a live concert, amongst other things, in a seven hour event. It's unknown whether this will be online only, or whether ITV will be showing some of the shows.

One Direction (from l-r): Harry Styles, Footballer Alan Smith, Harry Styles, Placeholder Name and Bob

Now while seven hours straight of One Direction is enough to make even the sturdiest of souls want to cry into their Northern Line (NEVER FORGET!!) bedsheets, a vocal minority of Who fans online have really taken umbridge to this, claiming that this is an act of spite or cynical marketing designed to somehow undermine or disrupt the anniversary weekend.

Here are a few direct quotes from across the forums. Names have been removed to prevent embarrassment, but the text is unaltered:

"I wouldn't be surprised if Simon Cowell, a staunch ITV man, has chosen this date deliberately to take some of the gloss of The Day Of The Doctor. Doctor Who's 50th anniversary is a fixed point in time... surely 1D could have chosen any other day?"

"1D aren't sharing the day... Stealing, usurping, infecting, infesting,smothering,..are all far more suitable words."

And, my personal favourite:

"It's down right anti-British of them."

Our grandparents didn't die in the war so that you could pull shit like this, Styles!

Again, it is to be noted that this is merely a vocal minority of Who fans. But still, guys, it's all a bit embarrassing, isn't it?


Yes there are probably a lot of 1D fans who also like Who, and vice versa, so this may be a minor dilemma for them (if only there were some way to watch shows when it suited you, some way of recording them or watching them online later...) but there are also a lot of people out there who don't want to watch Who - the show is taking over all four BBC TV channels and several of the major BBC radio stations that weekend, people need other things to watch, too.

This sense of entitlement and outrage over the fact that people may dare to watch something other than Doctor Who come the 23rd November does nothing but damage the public impression of Doctor Who during its birthday year. Can't we all just get along?

For the record, Sky are also showing West Ham vs. Chelsea while the anniversay ep is on, and some channels are bound to dedicate a lot of programming to the fiftieth annversary of JFK's death over that weekend - both also sure to be big draws. But nobody is complaining about that.

...Yet.

The Day Of The Doctor stars Matt Smith, David Tennant, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper and John Hurt, and airs worldwide on 23rd November (unless One True Voice decide to stage a comeback that day).