Christian Cawley and James McLean address some recent show reviews and consider a growing trend in major fandoms: the desire to rewind the clock, and remove episodes, or movies, that don’t align.

Following a surprising Apple Podcasts review that labelled certain eras of Doctor Who as “ersatz,” they dive into the psychology of canon, the reality of “brand positivity,” and why big studios might actually consider wiping the slate clean.

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• The “professional” fans: Christian reads out a selection of listener reviews, including a three-star critique that calls out the “modern abomination” of Doctor Who.

• Defining “ersatz” Who: Where do you draw the line? Is everything off-screen fake? We discuss the subjective nature of what “counts” as real Doctor Who.

• The Star Wars sequel trilogy erasure rumours: Addressing the recurring social media storm that Disney is planning to “delete” the Star Wars sequels. Is it a legitimate business move or just fan wish-fulfilment?

• Canon as an audience construct: James argues that while fans obsess over timelines, producers only care about IP utility. Does “canon” even exist to the people making the movies?

There’s also time to consider how shows like Scrubs and Roseanne used “light-touch revisionism” to ignore unpopular final seasons and return to familiar status quos, and the 1990s Timothy Zahn-penned Star Wars novels.

Let us know what your thoughts are on this matter -- is it useful to remove or ignore multimillion dollar movies from a timeline? Can the same be done to Doctor Who -- or is it simply not necessary?

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