Harbo Wholmes

Harbo Wholmes is an English YouTuber who mainly makes video essays and reviews on a range of movies and television shows, most specifically Doctor Who. He currently resides in the United Kingdom.
==Content==
Harbo makes videos varied from video essays to reviews, mainly on television series. He primarily discusses the BBC action series Doctor Who, including reviews of every single modern episode. However, he's also known to produce discussions and reviews on other movies and television shows, such as: Torchwood, Squid Game and Dune. He uploads every week on Thursdays at 6pm and occasionally Tuesdays too.
He takes video commissions from his Patrons on his Patreon page, specifically for those who are "Diamond" or "Azbantium" level Patrons. These commissions have included Captain Scarlet, Stalked By My Doctor, My Little Pony and The Thing.
Harbo has a second channel called "HarboTwo" where he uploads short clips of all sorts. It also includes his Patreon exclusive Q&A videos.
== Series ==
Harbo has a number of individual series on his channel, ranging from multi-video essays to an entire episodic review of Doctor Who.
=== Defending the Despised ===
Often considered Harbo's flagship series, Defending the Despised is designed to re-examine unpopular or disliked entries in a media franchise in an attempt to change opinions and highlight the more positive aspects of the subject. This series began in January 2019 and has run for 19 videos. The series has almost exclusively featured Doctor Who episodes, with the exception of the Torchwood episode "Cyberwoman" and the TV series "Class". However, Defending the Despised has been on hiatus since September 2021, with Harbo claiming it was too similar to his ongoing review series and had lost its identity. Despite this, he has often expressed interest in expanding the series into other media properties.
=== Doctor Who Episode Reviews ===
In March 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Harbo began to review every episode of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. The videos range from 10 minutes to 50 minutes and go into depth about the themes and technical aspects of the episodes covered. At the end of each video, he gives the episode or series a letter grade on a tier list to rank them. At the conclusion of the Series 5 reviews, Harbo released a video re-grading the first four series of the show due to controversy regarding his harsher grades for the Series 5 episodes. As of August 2022, He has reached the second half of Series 7.
Harbo also gave the same episodic review treatment to first two series of the spinoff show Torchwood, although he has declined to continue the videos due to low viewership, despite repeated calls to cover the popular Series 3.
=== Doctor Who's Untold Stories ===
Starting in January 2020, "Doctor Who's Untold Stories" is an irregular series of videos documenting unmade Doctor Who episodes starting with the First Doctor era and continuing through the subsequent iterations of the show. The videos attempt to bring light to the plots of the stories and explain why they were never made, along with sometimes revealing how existing episodes evolved from very different original ideas. It is currently the only significant content on the channel covering "Classic Who". However, after the 7th upload in June 2021, the series has been on hiatus.
=== Other Series ===
==== Lists ====
Over the years Harbo has occasionally released list videos as bonus content on Tuesdays. Much like his main content, these videos discuss Doctor Who. Harbo has always publicly stated that these videos are simply for ad revenue due to the success of channels like WhoCulture, a channel which he heavily dislikes. 
==== Theory Videos ====
In 2022, Harbo began a new series discussing and deconstructing popular Doctor Who fan theories. The videos usually begin with an explanation of the theory, before introducing arguments and offering evidence as to why the theories are flawed, although there is often also reasoning to support the theory in question for the sake of fairness.
==== Doctor Who in the Land of Videogames ====
Over the course of November 2019, Harbo uploaded a four-part video series chronicling the history of Doctor Who videogames and attempting to review every single one. The videos were inspired by other channels such as JonTron and Scott the Woz. In April 2021, Harbo would add his review of new game The Lonely Assassins to the series without the same branding or style as the 2019 videos.
==== Doctor Who Hunger Games ====
A fan-favourite series during Harbo's early years were four videos of Harbo placing Doctor Who characters in an online simulation of The Hunger Games. These videos were inspired by the content of Drew Durnil and often focused on the ridiculous deaths and actions of the characters in the game. Even though the videos were released in 2020, fans continue to ask for more entries in the series.
==== How RTD Fixed the Daleks ====
Harbo's first Doctor Who content came in late 2018 in the form of a four-part video essay about how previous Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies oversaw a resurgence in the popularity of iconic monsters The Daleks. The first video was an introduction to how the reputation of the villains had declined, before the following three videos focused on the Series 1-4 episodes featuring them. This video essay series was a large part of Harbo's early success, garnering a total of almost 315,000 views. However, due to copyright claims, Harbo has never actually received any ad revenue from these videos.
== Collaborations With Other Creators ==
Over the years, Harbo has made cameo and guest appearances on other Doctor Who-related channels such as Tharries, Crispy Pro, The Confused Adipose and Mr TARDIS, among others. He also co-hosts a news and review podcast on Harry's Moving Media called "Harry and Harbo Discuss." He also had a Patreon-exclusive podcast releasing twice a month for 27 episodes. Tharries and Cynical Who were initially the co-hosts until Harbo moved to a looser model featuring different line-ups each episodes. The podcast was cancelled in September 2021 after 14 months, replaced by a once-monthly Q&A for Patreon supporters.
Harbo has also featured creators on his own channels. In December 2020 he uploaded "Discord Writes Who", a collaborative project where his Discord server wrote a two-part Doctor Who story for Harbo to re-enact on his channel in a style similar to Internet Historian's "Sundance Rejects". The video featured vocal appearances from Tharries, Cynical Who, Harry's Moving Media, Crispy Pro, Time of the Whovians United and a number of members of the Discord.
Another collaboration came during a skit at the beginning of Harbo's "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" review in August 2021, where a number of channels demanded he review the episode, in reference to an inside joke about constant comments telling him to make a review of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
== Twitch ==
Harbo streamed on Twitch most Friday nights with no fixed schedule and also created a variety of content from live reviews of newly aired Doctor Who episodes to playing video games with other streamers and YouTube creators. He would often play games such as Among Us and Minecraft, the latter of which included an ongoing "quest" created by members of his Discord server. However, due to regular technical issues and a lack of time, Harbo ceased streaming in late 2021. 
==Trivia==
*The last part of his username, "Wholmes", is pronounced "Wolwms". It originated as a nickname by a friend which Harbo then adopted as his online username.
*Harbo supports the football team "Manchester United".
*Despite it being the main show discussed on his channel, Harbo hates doing Doctor Who specified content.
*In April 2022, Harbo revealed on Twitter that in 2018 he had unsuccessfully applied for an editing job at wrestling-based channel Cultaholic.
*Alongside Doctor Who, Harbo is also a noted fan of Star Wars, Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul and WWE.
*Reluctantly, Harbo has a ponysona/pony character called "Harbrony".
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:Review YouTubers
Category:English YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2017