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** The most extreme example comes with Seasons 15-17. Just after the show had reached the height of its "dark and intelligent" phase, it was derailed and audiences were treated to three lighter and softer seasons that verged on comedy. As soon as Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe quit as producer his replacement Graham Williams was called in by BBC executives and [[ExecutiveMeddling bluntly ordered]] to reduce the amount of graphic violence and horror, which had caused high-profile condemnations of the show by [[MoralGuardians moral purity campaigners, led by Mary Whitehouse]], and the general press during the previous couple of seasons. The Williams era does have die-hard fans, but most of the child audience seemed to regret the loss of the gore and horror.
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** The most extreme example comes with Seasons 15-17. Just after the show had reached the height of its "dark and intelligent" phase, it was derailed and audiences were treated to three lighter and softer seasons that verged on comedy. As soon as Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe quit as producer his replacement Graham Williams Creator/GrahamWilliams was called in by BBC executives and [[ExecutiveMeddling bluntly ordered]] to reduce the amount of graphic violence and horror, which had caused high-profile condemnations of the show by [[MoralGuardians moral purity campaigners, led by Mary Whitehouse]], and the general press during the previous couple of seasons. The Williams era does have die-hard fans, but most of the child audience seemed to regret the loss of the gore and horror.
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** The most extreme example comes with Seasons 15-17. Just after the show had reached the height of its "dark and intelligent" phase, it was derailed and audiences were treated to three lighter and softer seasons that verged on comedy. As soon as Philip Hinchcliffe quit as producer his replacement Graham Williams was called in by BBC executives and [[ExecutiveMeddling bluntly ordered]] to reduce the amount of graphic violence and horror, which had caused high-profile condemnations of the show by [[MoralGuardians moral purity campaigners, led by Mary Whitehouse]], and the general press during the previous couple of seasons. The Williams era does have die-hard fans, but most of the child audience seemed to regret the loss of the gore and horror.
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** The most extreme example comes with Seasons 15-17. Just after the show had reached the height of its "dark and intelligent" phase, it was derailed and audiences were treated to three lighter and softer seasons that verged on comedy. As soon as Philip Hinchcliffe Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe quit as producer his replacement Graham Williams was called in by BBC executives and [[ExecutiveMeddling bluntly ordered]] to reduce the amount of graphic violence and horror, which had caused high-profile condemnations of the show by [[MoralGuardians moral purity campaigners, led by Mary Whitehouse]], and the general press during the previous couple of seasons. The Williams era does have die-hard fans, but most of the child audience seemed to regret the loss of the gore and horror.
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* ''Series/DoctorWho'' itself has made tone shifts in a lighter direction several times -- sometimes ''during'' a Doctor's tenure, sometimes when Doctors were switched out.
** The seventh season, the Third Doctor's debut in which he was Earthbound and working with UNIT, was quite dark at times, with some brutal fist- and gun-fights, a prickly relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier, one story ending with the Doctor being disgusted by UNIT massacring a group of sentient non-humans who might have been willing to make peace, and another story featuring the Doctor failing to prevent the complete destruction of a parallel Earth. Over the next season, the tone gradually became lighter, with UNIT becoming more MildlyMilitary, the stories generally having happy endings, and the violence becoming more fantastic.
** In Season 14, the character of the Fourth Doctor was made Lighter and Softer. The writers gave him more silly setpieces, funny lines and moments where he would be [[BadassAdorable really cute]], and fewer terrifying impossibly-old alien bits, debates over the morality of genocide and, well, performing outright murders and laughing about it. The writers apparently did this because they hoped it would let them get away with still inserting as much gore, horror and death as they wanted without facing as much objection from MoralGuardians fooled by the lighter tone. It worked... for a little while, anyway. A good example of a story with this tone is ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]'', which is one of the goriest and most violent stories Tom Baker ever did, but unlike the similarly violent ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]'', the Doctor behaves flippantly and childishly about it throughout and the villain is vanquished in a very silly way.
** The most extreme example comes with Seasons 15-17. Just after the show had reached the height of its "dark and intelligent" phase, it was derailed and audiences were treated to three lighter and softer seasons that verged on comedy. As soon as Philip Hinchcliffe quit as producer his replacement Graham Williams was called in by BBC executives and [[ExecutiveMeddling bluntly ordered]] to reduce the amount of graphic violence and horror, which had caused high-profile condemnations of the show by [[MoralGuardians moral purity campaigners, led by Mary Whitehouse]], and the general press during the previous couple of seasons. The Williams era does have die-hard fans, but most of the child audience seemed to regret the loss of the gore and horror.
** Season 23 was also the subject of executive edicts demanding that it be made lighter than the very grim and violent previous season. In this case, many fans share the belief that Seasons 21-2 had got too {{crapsack|World}}.
** Moving on to the revival, debatably the Eleventh Doctor is this to the Tenth. While 'pure horror' episodes are more common in Series 5, the series deals with far less serious themes, and the Doctor is portrayed as a slightly mad gentleman waltzing around the universe as opposed to a shell-shocked veteran riddled with guilt from the murder of his own species. Compare "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" special (the last episode featuring the Tenth Doctor) to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]" (the Eleventh Doctor's first appearance). The MoodWhiplash is ''massive'', although quite well pulled-off. This approach is generally justified by the fact that the writers were aiming to make the show more popular and comprehensible to a younger audience, which it did extremely well without alienating older fans. Series 6 got DenserAndWackier and DarkerAndEdgier, though, and this was partially responsible for its SeasonalRot.
** The Twelfth Doctor's era is DarkerAndEdgier tonally than Eleven's era was, owing largely to Twelve being a DarkIsNotEvil, CreepyGood ByronicHero. But while outright {{Breather Episode}}s are extremely rare (there are ''none'' in Series 9, which climaxes with a TraumaCongaLine that temporarily turns him into a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds), episodes like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist Time Heist]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas Last Christmas]]" balance horror/action elements with substantial comedy and whimsy. And post-Series 9 comes the lightest, wackiest adventure for Twelve yet in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]", which has a BittersweetEnding that nevertheless qualifies as ThrowTheDogABone.
* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' is mostly this, but still retains some of the key 'scary' elements that ''Series/DoctorWho'' has... it's just more likely to be off screen. Creator/RussellTDavies has said "there's still death and despair" but added that there's "more hugs".
* The second series of the spin-off series ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' actually airs in two versions, one for adults and one for all-ages (or at least somewhere between PG and 12A). There is little difference in the broadcasts, apart from some removal of swearing and gore, such as [[spoiler: Alan Dale's character being shot (the all-ages version omitted the squib going off)]] in "[[{{Recap/TorchwoodS2E6Reset}} Reset]]".
** The seventh season, the Third Doctor's debut in which he was Earthbound and working with UNIT, was quite dark at times, with some brutal fist- and gun-fights, a prickly relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier, one story ending with the Doctor being disgusted by UNIT massacring a group of sentient non-humans who might have been willing to make peace, and another story featuring the Doctor failing to prevent the complete destruction of a parallel Earth. Over the next season, the tone gradually became lighter, with UNIT becoming more MildlyMilitary, the stories generally having happy endings, and the violence becoming more fantastic.
** In Season 14, the character of the Fourth Doctor was made Lighter and Softer. The writers gave him more silly setpieces, funny lines and moments where he would be [[BadassAdorable really cute]], and fewer terrifying impossibly-old alien bits, debates over the morality of genocide and, well, performing outright murders and laughing about it. The writers apparently did this because they hoped it would let them get away with still inserting as much gore, horror and death as they wanted without facing as much objection from MoralGuardians fooled by the lighter tone. It worked... for a little while, anyway. A good example of a story with this tone is ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]'', which is one of the goriest and most violent stories Tom Baker ever did, but unlike the similarly violent ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]'', the Doctor behaves flippantly and childishly about it throughout and the villain is vanquished in a very silly way.
** The most extreme example comes with Seasons 15-17. Just after the show had reached the height of its "dark and intelligent" phase, it was derailed and audiences were treated to three lighter and softer seasons that verged on comedy. As soon as Philip Hinchcliffe quit as producer his replacement Graham Williams was called in by BBC executives and [[ExecutiveMeddling bluntly ordered]] to reduce the amount of graphic violence and horror, which had caused high-profile condemnations of the show by [[MoralGuardians moral purity campaigners, led by Mary Whitehouse]], and the general press during the previous couple of seasons. The Williams era does have die-hard fans, but most of the child audience seemed to regret the loss of the gore and horror.
** Season 23 was also the subject of executive edicts demanding that it be made lighter than the very grim and violent previous season. In this case, many fans share the belief that Seasons 21-2 had got too {{crapsack|World}}.
** Moving on to the revival, debatably the Eleventh Doctor is this to the Tenth. While 'pure horror' episodes are more common in Series 5, the series deals with far less serious themes, and the Doctor is portrayed as a slightly mad gentleman waltzing around the universe as opposed to a shell-shocked veteran riddled with guilt from the murder of his own species. Compare "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" special (the last episode featuring the Tenth Doctor) to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]" (the Eleventh Doctor's first appearance). The MoodWhiplash is ''massive'', although quite well pulled-off. This approach is generally justified by the fact that the writers were aiming to make the show more popular and comprehensible to a younger audience, which it did extremely well without alienating older fans. Series 6 got DenserAndWackier and DarkerAndEdgier, though, and this was partially responsible for its SeasonalRot.
** The Twelfth Doctor's era is DarkerAndEdgier tonally than Eleven's era was, owing largely to Twelve being a DarkIsNotEvil, CreepyGood ByronicHero. But while outright {{Breather Episode}}s are extremely rare (there are ''none'' in Series 9, which climaxes with a TraumaCongaLine that temporarily turns him into a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds), episodes like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist Time Heist]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas Last Christmas]]" balance horror/action elements with substantial comedy and whimsy. And post-Series 9 comes the lightest, wackiest adventure for Twelve yet in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]", which has a BittersweetEnding that nevertheless qualifies as ThrowTheDogABone.
* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' is mostly this, but still retains some of the key 'scary' elements that ''Series/DoctorWho'' has... it's just more likely to be off screen. Creator/RussellTDavies has said "there's still death and despair" but added that there's "more hugs".
* The second series of the spin-off series ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' actually airs in two versions, one for adults and one for all-ages (or at least somewhere between PG and 12A). There is little difference in the broadcasts, apart from some removal of swearing and gore, such as [[spoiler: Alan Dale's character being shot (the all-ages version omitted the squib going off)]] in "[[{{Recap/TorchwoodS2E6Reset}} Reset]]".
