In fairness, they hadn't really established The Doctor (or Dr. Who) as being a guy who intervenes and saves people at that point. The episode from that exact era called "The Aztecs" even had The Doctor chastising Barbara for trying to bring modern attitudes to the past; "You cannot rewrite history, not one line!"
As a second, out-of-universe point, you couldn't really have a TV show that premiered the day of the Assassination and have your main character go back and save the guy that just got assassinated. That would be in poor taste whether you were for or against Kennedy.
This was current events. The show was more focused on being educational, which is why the first two companions were schoolteachers.
You get your history lessons in "the past", exciting scientific concepts for "the future", and current events were basically restricted to advertising The Beatles and the mod scene.
What The Doctor started as, and what he became, are quite different.
The "coincidence" between the Kennedy Assassination and Doctor Who's first episode has been a pretty well known bit of Trivia in the Who fandom for a long time.
Looking back though, is it saying "ha ha, look, we referenced the thing", or is it saying "ha ha, we killed your guy and decades later our cult still flaunts it".
Did you ever notice that the "British Invasion" happened directly after, essentially with "culture bombs" instead of weapons?
In fairness, they hadn't really established The Doctor (or Dr. Who) as being a guy who intervenes and saves people at that point. The episode from that exact era called "The Aztecs" even had The Doctor chastising Barbara for trying to bring modern attitudes to the past; "You cannot rewrite history, not one line!"
As a second, out-of-universe point, you couldn't really have a TV show that premiered the day of the Assassination and have your main character go back and save the guy that just got assassinated. That would be in poor taste whether you were for or against Kennedy.
This was current events. The show was more focused on being educational, which is why the first two companions were schoolteachers.
You get your history lessons in "the past", exciting scientific concepts for "the future", and current events were basically restricted to advertising The Beatles and the mod scene.
What The Doctor started as, and what he became, are quite different.
The "coincidence" between the Kennedy Assassination and Doctor Who's first episode has been a pretty well known bit of Trivia in the Who fandom for a long time.
Looking back though, is it saying "ha ha, look, we referenced the thing", or is it saying "ha ha, we killed your guy and decades later our cult still flaunts it".
Did you ever notice that the "British Invasion" happened directly after, essentially with "culture bombs" instead of weapons?