Well, they might as well dismantle the TARDIS, give Matt Smith and Steven Moffat their pink slips, and go home. Doctor Who is over. The fans don’t care about it anymore. It’s not popular anymore. No one wants to watch it. It’s time to give it up and watch Glee instead.

At least, that’s the opinion I got from reading some of the fan blogs the last couple days after Doctor Who, for the first time in 6 years, did not win both Favourite Drama and Favourite Actor in the 2011 National Television Awards (think People’s Choice Awards with a British accent) earlier this week. The awards are voted on by the UK public via website. And this year some show no one’s ever heard of outside the UK took the top honour, leaving both Doctor Who and Moffat’s Sherlock going home empty-handed.

Big deal, right? Yet some of the blogs - and no, I won’t call them out here - are treating this as an excuse to ask “What’s gone wrong?” “Has the bubble burst?” and of course it’s no doubt given “nuWho”, Moffat and Smith bashers added ammunition. Never mind that all other evidence is showing that Doctor Who is as popular as it’s ever been, and growing rapidly in its international stature. Not just because of Smith appearing on Craig Ferguson, but you have BBC America and Australia’s ABC1 announcing plans for same day broadcasts of Doctor Who, something unheard of. Space has yet to announce this, but even if they air 24 hours later like they did with the Christmas special, that’s still unprecedented and a lot better than when the CBC (and initially Sci-Fi in the US) forced fans to wait months to see the episodes. If the show wasn’t popular, they wouldn’t bother going through the effort.

Yes, it’s a shame the franchise can’t claim to have won the top 2 awards for 6 years running. But think about it - after a while people start saying “oh no, not again”. It happens with the Emmys all the time. It happens with Doctor Who at the Hugos, where it’s also been a juggernaut for most of the past 5 years.

Sometimes I get the feeling that some fans would like nothing better than for Doctor Who to return to being a private little niche fandom that people fondly remembered from their childhoods, rather than a vibrant show that continues to be watched by millions around the world, and whose stars continue to be treated like rock stars in the UK and, increasingly, the US. Do you think the stars of NCIS would pack the Royal Albert Hall for a concert?

Anyway, I’m glad DW lost the NTAs this year, because it was looking strange to see it win every year. I think the NTA people knew that change was in the air, which is why they arranged for Matt Smith to appear as the Doctor in a great skit featuring the show’s host Dermot O’Leary visiting the stars of numerous TV series - including a cameo by David Hasselhoff. The fact this was produced by ITV1, a rival network - think about that - shows how influential and popular Doctor Who remains, awards be damned.