Science fantasy, just like Star Wars

Why not both?? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

So, the mandate is the BBC is (was?) to inform, educate, and entertain, which was the mandate they created Doctor Who under. The entertainment is obvious, but where’s the informing and educating? Go back to the first Doctor: the stories alternated between going back into the past and going forward into the future. To inform and educate the viewer, we had history teacher Ian and science teacher Barbara, who would briefly include some information within the episode.

Also, if you watch the opening credits of (I think, it’s been a long time for some of them!) the Doctors’ color episodes, not only do you have the Doctor/TARDIS going forward and back (movement in time), you also have the colors red and blue in the background colors, denoting red shift/blue shift (movement in space).

Anyway, I would argue that Old Who had a more factual/educational underlayer through most of it’s run, making it the more “science-y” of the two versions; while NuWho, while much flashier and with generally stronger storylines, is much more space opera/space fantasy, without the underlying educational layer.

Depends on the episode but broadly science fantasy

It can be both, or neither, or both at the same time. Depends on the story really.

On the one hand, one of the Doctor’s aliases is Merlin*.

On the other, there’s a surprising amount of technobabble for pure magic.

And then there’s Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

* I subscribe to the notion that this is the Doctor’s true name.

“science fantasy” is just fantasy.

So fantasy.

Soap opera in a fantasy setting.

At its best, I think it’s a science horror show.

Horror is relatively cheap to produce. The stranger and more bizarre the makeup, costumes, sets and effects are, the better it works.

Sci-fi as it’s not based around magic, even though the technology as presented often appears magical in nature.

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Yes

I’d say both. Sci fi means there are elements that the story pretends could be possible, which includes time travel (probably not the tardis, but most other methods), space travel, and most alien races probably including one’s like the daleks and cybermen. Fantasy means there are things that the story fully admits are not possible in our world, which covers time lord regeneration.

There’s plenty of other things that are both sci fi and fantasy: star wars, warhammer 40k, and marvel or dc superheroes.

Sci-fi, Doctor Who is an alien time/space traveller who fights bad aliens. It’s fantastical, yes, but it’s very clearly a sci-fi show first and foremost.

More sci-fa Science fiction fantasty