Doctor Who fans were astonished to be told that the latest set of episodes could upset them – due to “exploitative” and “discriminatory” aliens. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) slapped the trigger warning on the offending four-part series – an animated version of William Hartnell’s 1966 story The Savages.

The BBC synopsis explains: “The Tardis arrives on a world [where] a seemingly utopian society enjoy fulfilling, happy lives but it’s discovered they hunt ‘savages’ outside their city to extract their life force.” The First Doctor, who appears on screen with companions Dodo (Jackie Lane) and Steven (Peter Purves), quickly springs to action on the mysterious planet – but fans were warned about the emotional impact of the content. In a statement that had many fans’ eyes rolling, the PG warning for episode two stated: “References are made to discrimination and to the exploitation of people by more technologically advanced civilisations.”

Meanwhile, the debut episode carried a warning as well, due to the show “reflecting the broadcast standards, language and attitudes of its time”.

The master recordings from the 1960s had been wiped, but BBC studios were still able to use the original audio in the remake of the animation, and changed very little of the plot.

On episode four, the trigger warning cautions: “There are verbal references to discrimination and to the discriminatory social structure of an alien society but these are brief, undetailed, and framed within the fictional world of the story.”

Episode five, meanwhile, sees the Doctor encounter a “racist” species, with the warning confirming that “a group of white characters refuse [his] help for reasons that are implicitly to do with his race”.

The series is just one of numerous Doctor Who shows that have recently riled up the public, with many complaining of wokeness, while one Bridgerton-inspired episode set in 1800s England caused a stir last year.

The show, depicting Doctor Ncuti Gatwa in aristocratic period costume, was quite a departure from traditional Doctor Who, and left fans fuming over the “tortuous corsetted c**p” they were seeing on screen.

Meanwhile, Matt Smith, who played the 11th Doctor for four years, has spoken out against the culture of trigger warnings, quizzing in the Sunday Times: “Isn’t being shocked, surprised, stirred the point?”

He added: “‘It’s OK to feel uncomfortable or provoked while looking at a painting or watching a play, but I worry everything’s being dialled and dumbed down. We’re telling audiences they’re going to be scared before they’ve watched something.”