Into The Vortex: Seasons 1 - 22 (1963-1985)

[MacNimon]

The dual celebration of the series anniversary, combined with the launch of the great new PS website, seems to me to be the perfect time to starta new ongoing project...in which we rate every story ever made. From An Unearthly Child all the way through to Doomsday, and beyond.... We seem to love ranking the stories here on PS, not only Doctor Who but other series as well, but to the best of my knowledge no-one has even made an attempt here to compile all the rankings and work out what story is our all-time favourite.

A point or two before we begin...

1. There won't be a seperate poll for every story, as quite simply the boards would soon be completely flooded with polls. Instead, we'll stick to the one thread which will be updated every 7 days.(ie in week 1 we'll rate every story in Season 1, week 2 every story in season 2, and so forth until we've completed the season just finished)

2. As this isn't a poll as such, I'll just ask everyone to rate each story out of 10, and get an average score for each after 7 days. After 29 weeks or so we'll have a pretty clear view of what we collectively think of every story, from best to worst. No bias towards either old or new series, or the TVM for that matter. Quite simply a mark out of 10 for them all.


A seperate thread will be created purely for the results. This is where we'll see the league table grow week by week, and see how ROTC/Age Of Steel etc really compare with Genesis/Talons etc.

To keep things reasonably simple, as I imagine that this will soon get quite complex, voting will only be accepted on the season in question in any particular week. Perhaps once the project has been completed we'll open it up for anyone who has missed a week, or for new members, and then periodically update the results.

As far as comments and reviews go, let's try to take a more personal look at the series rather than just saying "I like this, hate that". (Although the usual sort of reviews are more than welcome...I'm just trying to avoid going over the same old ground more than is necessary).What's your earliest memories of the series, did you watch it all through childhood, did you play Doctor Who games in the school playground? What did you think of the series, or a particular story or season when you were young? How does it compare to watching that same story/season/era now as an adult? Before leaving ezboard, I did one final bit of 'research' ...yes, the DW Birthday list. Which currently looks like this...

Pre(DW)historic...Stephen Morgan
Wayne Jefferies
Ralph Mitchell




Season 2........ MacNimon

Season 5........ Jon Masters
Season 6........Perry Vale;Jonno Simmons



Season 7....Stuart Wallis
Season 8/9......Andrew Curnow;Logo Polish;Stranger In Town
Season 9.........Anthony Cox
Season 9/10....Count Scarlioni
Season 10.......Caroline Baynes
Season 11.......Monkey010101
Season 11/12...James Lindsay



Seasons 12/13....Si Hart;Sutekh 75
Season 13...........Jeff Althoff
Season 16...........Rob McCow
Season 17/18......Goldfinch99;pcculley
Season 18/19.......Simon Rayner


Season 19/20........Sevateemleader

Season 22/23........Phillip Madeley
Season 24.............Ant Williams


As you can see, we have members being born from before the series began, through till the latter years of it's original run. All born at different times in the series history, all with different perspectives on the series. We have 3 members born before An Unearthly Child was broadcast, and only one of them (take a bow, Stephen Morgan! ) was of an age to have actually watched the episode on it's original broadcast. Hopefully here Stephen will comment on what it was like watching the series in it's early days, and how it stands up to repeated viewing nowadays. He's probably the only person here to have watched the series in the sixties, and so have a rather unique view of the era.


So, introductions over...Down to business, at last!
Marks out of 10, please, everyone, for every story from...

Season 1 (otherwise known as The Morgan/Jefferies/Mitchell Era)

An Unearthly Child
The Daleks
The Edge of Destruction
Marco Polo
The Keys of Marinus
The Aztecs
The Sensorites
The Reign of Terror

[Larry]

An Unearthly Child 8/10
The Daleks 9/10
The Edge of Destruction 7/10
Marco Polo 5/10
The Keys of Marinus 6/10
The Aztecs 6/10
The Sensorites 5/10
The Reign of Terr0r 6/10

[Ralph]

An Unearthly Child 8
The Daleks 9
The Edge of Destruction 6
Marco Polo (no vote)
The Keys of Marinus 4
The Aztecs 6
The Sensorites 4
The Reign of Terror 2

The Daleks is the story which guaranteed the survival of the show in those early years

[Andrew Curnow]

An Unearthly Child 10 out of 10 - I know that a lot of people find the caveman episodes dull (even Verity Lambert!) but there's just something so tremendously grim about them, and such a real sense of "Oh My God, they really HAVE gone back in time" about it, that it always packs a punch.

The Daleks 8 out of 10 - the last few episodes aren't as good as the first, so the high score is mainly down to episodes 1-4.

The Edge of Destruction 8 out of 10 Nonsensical perhaps, but I watched it recently and loved it.

Marco Polo 7 out of 10 Based on the half-hour recon and fond memories of the Target book.

The Keys of Marinus 4 out of 10 I have fond memories again of the Target book, but the episodes are rather, sniff, awful.

The Aztecs 7 out of 10 Maybe not the classic it's sometimes made out to be, but it gets a high score mainly for Barbara and the Doctor.

The Sensorites 5 out of 10 It starts well, but then after a few epizzzzzzzzzz

The Reign of Terror 5 out of 10 It's... OK.

[Wayne]

An Unearthly Child - 7/10
The Daleks - 9.5/10
The Edge of Destruction - 8.5/10
Marco Polo - 3/10
The Keys of Marinus - 7.5/10
The Aztecs - 8/10
The Sensorites - 9/10
The Reign of Terror - 2/10

[Perry Vale]

I wondered what my name was doing there!

Great idea, I ranked S1 in detail about two years ago, when starting an aborted 'start to finish' run.....

An Unearthly Child 9/10
The Daleks 8/10
Edge Of Destruction 8/10
Marco Polo 9.5/10
Keys Of Marinus 6/10
The Aztecs 10/10
The Sensorites 7/10
Reign Of Terror 7.5/10

[Milky Tears]

This will be a doddle for me as I'm sad enough to have kept a database when I was doing my "Big Doctor Who Marathon November 2004-December 2005". I've still got all my percentages on file.




An Unearthly Child - 8/10 (80%) Episode One's 96% pulls it up. Other episodes moved up slghtly when I finally watched the DVD last month. There's some good stuff in there.
The Daleks - 9/10 (86%) First half is excellent and even the padding doesn't drag it down too much for me. Also the first Target book I bought (WH Smith on Argyle Street) back in 1986.
The Edge of Destruction - 7/10 (72%) Up slightly after watching the DVD.
Marco Polo - 8.5/10 (84%) A top five Hartnell classic.
The Keys of Marinus - 6/10 (60%) It's a fun romp!
The Aztecs - 9/10 (92%) It's still my favourite Hartnell.
The Sensorites - 4/10 (40%) Still my least favourite Hartnell, but probably slightly better than I've rated it.
The Reign of Terror - 7/10 (68%) For some decent stuff in the early episodes.

[Pip Madeley]

Nice idea, I'm game!

An Unearthly Child - 8/10
Thrilling stuff, though the scenes without the regulars are a bit tiresome...
some fine moments though, such as the Doctor's 'evil moment'.

The Daleks - 6/10
Too much padding for me, really goes downhill after part four... the Daleks
are a highlight, but I find them a bit boring (Skelton-era for me). Fond
memories of watching this for the first time on UKGold (omnibus-style).

The Edge of Destruction - 5/10
Watchable but it's pretty average stuff about nothing...

Marco Polo - 7/10
The plot isn't great, but it's more than made up for by the characterisations.
It's not about the journey, but the tensions between the travellers.

The Keys of Marinus - 7/10
I like a good adventure story, it's fun to watch & there's some fine moments...
and it's fun to count how many times Jacqueline Hill blinks at the start of episode 6

The Aztecs - 8/10
One of the finest Hartnell stories, one of the first BBC videos I bought,
back in 1997 - it helped me with my History project about Aztec culture!
Again, fine characterisation from John Lucarotti.

The Sensorites - 7/10
Some people call it boring, but I like it! Okay, it could've been an episode
shorter, but it holds my attention, and the confrontation scenes are fab,
particularly when the Doctor & Ian catch out the lying Sensorite...

The Reign of Terror - 5/10
Starts off well, and episode one's cliffhanger is great, but goes downhill rapidly.

[Dirk Gently]

Ok, for now having not seen any of them for a while I'd rank them as follows: -

An Unearthly Child 7.5/10 (Although I'd like to rank A.U.C seperately from The Tribe of Gum as they seem to be seperate stories to me but always thrown together in which case it would be A.U.C 9/10, T.o.G 6/10)
The Daleks 8/10
The Edge of Destruction 6/10
Marco Polo 5/10
The Keys of Marinus 7/10
The Aztecs 9/10
The Sensorites 6/10
The Reign of Terror 8.5/10

Those are the votes from the Smeghead jury.

[Phillip Culley]

An Unearthly Child: 7/10 - An excellent first episode sadly let down by 3 less so episodes.

The Daleks 8/10 - Again, 4 excellent episodes which are let down by a below-par second half of the story.

The Edge of Destruction 8/10

Marco Polo 10/10 - One of my favourite Who stories - a tragedy it's missing.

The Keys of Marinus 6/10 - Some good moments in this one caught up in a less-so story.

The Aztecs 8/10

The Sensorites 4/10 - An interesting idea let down by a disappointing and over-long story.

The Reign of Terror 7/10

[Paul Clement]

An Unearthly Child 7/10
The Daleks 7/10
The Edge of Destruction 6.5/10
Marco Polo 9.5/10
The Keys of Marinus 6.5/10
The Aztecs 10/10
The Sensorites 7/10
The Reign of Terror 6/10

[SiHart]

An Unearthly Child 8/10
The Daleks 9/10
The Edge of Destruction 4/10
Marco Polo 9/10
The Keys of Marinus 6/10
The Aztecs 9/10
The Sensorites 5/10
The Reign of Terror 6/10

I think that covers it!

Si xx

[Logo Polish]

An Unearthly Child 9/10, spooky and atmospheric.
The Daleks 8/10, weak in parts but memorable.
Edge Of Destruction 6/10, flawed, but effectively claustrophobic.
Marco Polo, 8/10, highly enjoyable.
Keys Of Marinus 6/10, superficial but fun.
The Aztecs, 10/10, excellent, mature, thoughtful.
The Sensorites, 5/10, silly but sinister at times, rather quaint.
Reign Of Terror, 8/10, nicely old fashioned period running about.

[MacNimon]

All votes noted, so far! I might as well add mine while I'm here...

An Unearthly Child 7/10 Like most of you, I think this is an excellent opening episode, with the others being a bit of a let-down.
The Daleks 10/10 The series first real classic. I love this one!
The Edge of Destruction 8/10 An interesting tale, but totally confusing the first time I ever saw it. Mind you, BSB showed it in the wrong order which might explain things a bit...
Marco Polo 4/10...I've got to be honest, I've only read the novelisation of this and it wasn't exactly the most gripping story I've ever read...
The Keys of Marinus 8/10 An under-rated story, this one imo
The Aztecs 9/10 The best historical, ever.
The Sensorites 5/10 Rather dull and boring, but easy to watch at the same time (if that makes any sense!) I feel as if this one talks down to the audience a bit...
The Reign of Terror I honestly don't know how to vote here...it's the only Hartnell story that I haven't watched, heard the soundtrack, or read the novelisation. I could give it a neutral 5, but that wouldn't be an honest answer...so I'll pass on this one!

[Hex]

Unearthly Child - 6/10, and 5 are for the first episode
The Daleks - 9/10, perhaps 1 epsidoe too long?
The Edge of Destruction - 5/10, I find it quite disjointed
Marco Polo - 6/10, but only seen the recon on the Beginnings DVD
The Keys of Marinus - 7/10, quite an enjoyable story, but Hartnell is conspicuous by his absense
The Aztecs - 6/10, does move quite slowly at times
The Sensorites 7/10, again perhaps an episode too long, but there obviously wasn't the budget to realise its potential
Reign of Terror - 3/10, far too slow and I gave up caring.....

[The Secretive Bus]

An Unearthly Stephen Fry: 9/10 Quite frightening and superbly written and acted. I certainly don't find any of the stone age stuff dull.

The Stephen Fries: 5/10 Used to love it but on recent viewing it really is a load of old tosh, saved only by the first episode and the fact that it's got Billy, Babs and Ian in it. The finale is remarkably unspectacular given we had 7 episodes to get to it.

The Edge of Stephen Fry: 2/10 Amateur theatrics in the TARDIS with even Hartnell giving an uncharacteristically poor performance in episode 1.

Stephen's Polos: 10/10 Has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it ending but the characters, acting and script all combine to create a lovely bit of television (or radio, given that we can't see it).

The Keys of Stephen Fry: 6/10 Badly made but enjoyable. The screaming jungle's rather good and Hartnell's barnstorming in the Millenius scenes.

The Aztephens: 10/10 The historicals in this period really were something special, weren't they?

The Sensorfries: 8/10 Silly but massively enjoyable. Hartnell gets a lot to do.

The Reign of Stephen Fry: 5/10 Going back on my word, this story isn't as well written or plotted as the earlier historicals and episode 6 has nothing to do with the 5 episodes before it. It also isn't funny, no matter what fan historians say. The jailer wants to shag Barbara - hardy har har. My sides are splitting. Hartnell dressed up in a plumed hat and wandering around outside a French prison shouting "I'll have you all shot at dawn!" is something to treasure, though.

[Rob McCow]

"Dammit, I don't remember Stephen Fry being in the first series of Doctor Who, John."
"I sense Marjorie's hand in this!" etc.

An Unearthly Child 9/10
Much better when looked at as an allegory for the discovery of knowledge.
The Daleks 10/10
Atmospheric? This version of the story will never be beat.
The Edge of Destruction 6/10
Just below the threshold of being really enjoyable, sadly.
Marco Polo 8/10
Not as great as some people say, but great enough!
The Keys of Marinus 8/10
Ian and Barbara get an episode to themselves, which on it's own gets 10/10! Fun. Romp. It. Is.
The Aztecs 8/10
Good, but not astounding.
The Sensorites 6/10
I've only seen episode one! It was quite intriguing, but it left things a bit unresolved. As though there was more to come.
The Reign of Terror 7/10
The sets look good.

[Paul Clement]

It looks fairly like there's not much difference in popularity between Aztecs and Daleks. I do wonder how much Marco Polo suffers from being missing as it seems to have either high or low votes and only a few middle range 6's or 7's

[Antony Cox]

An Unearthly Child 6/10 A score based on the entire story, though I havent seen it all the way through for years. The first episode is excellent though, and in isolation would probably score 9/10

The Daleks 6/10 It has some classic bits in it, but its way too long and fairly snoresome in the middle

The Edge Of Destruction 8/10 I love this story to bits! Although its fairly obvious that it was thrown together in a hurry, I love the mysterious and claustrophobic atmosphere of it, and the set pieces within it a great examples of characterisation that we saw a lot less of as the series went on

Marco Polo I cant really rate this as Ive neither seen any of the reconstructions, listened to the soundtrack or read the novelisation

The Keys Of Marinus 6/10 I havent watched this all the way through for ages, but its quite an interesting story if a little long and visibly cheap

The Aztecs 9/10 One of my favourite stories of all, most due to the great conflict of interest between Babs and The Doctor, but also because of the great characterisation and period authenticity

The Sensorites 7/10 I like this one! It has its faults but is still a fun story with some great dramatic scenes in the first two episodes

The Reign Of Terror Again, I cant score this as Ive never seen it!

[Anthony Williams]

An Unearthly Child 7/10 - the first episode is just brilliant, and the rest is reasonably good, with a fantastic atmosphere
The Daleks 8/10 - I've always been a fan of the first Dalek story. Sure, it's strung out, but it's wonderfully tense in places (such as the mission through the caves)
The Edge of Destruction 4/10 - nothing of huge interest here. It's fairly dull, and it's only saving grace is that it's got the original TARDIS crew.
Marco Polo 6/10 - I've never seen what all the fuss is about this story. Sure, the characterisation is great, but that's not everything a story needs.
The Keys of Marinus 7/10 - I enjoy this story quiet a bit. Sure, it's not brilliantly made, but it is a lot of fun.
The Aztecs 6/10 - I've never been too enamoured with the Hartnell historicals, and this is no exception. Like Marco Polo, I just don't see what all the fuss is about.
The Sensorites 5/10 - dull, dull, dull. There IS a great story in there somewhere!
The Reign of Terror 5/10 - same as the Sensorites. It doesn't help that two episodes are missing, though.

Ant x

[MacNimon]

It looks fairly like there's not much difference in popularity between Aztecs and Daleks.

Taking all the scores up till Antony Cox's, it's currently a tie between The Daleks and The Aztecs, both with a 7.5 average.

I do wonder how much Marco Polo suffers from being missing as it seems to have either high or low votes and only a few middle range 6's or 7's

I wondered that myself. I haven't seen the reconstruction myself, or heard the soundtrack. In this case all I know is the novelisation I read once a long time ago, which I didn't think was particularly exciting. And it's going to be the same for many of the missing stories for me, I'll be basing my score on the novels (and often, where the stories actually exist, the novels are better than the televised story! The Chase being a prime example) but there's no real way of being more accurate.

[Paul Clement]

A lot of the missing episodes that I've seen the recons of will still be rated taking the novelisations into account. The Recons are good, but I sometimes lose concentration on them. Marco Polo was a good case in point. I think I tried to go through too many episodes in one go, and didn't take it in as much as I should have. I love the Target novelisation though.

[Jonno]

AUC - 8/10 Excellent start to the series, and as I like grim scenarios, the caveman stuff is just fine by me! Very nostalgic too, as it was my first b&w story 25 years ago this very month!

Daleks - 7/10 I agree that it loses it way somewhat after the first four episodes and that excellent 4th cliffhanger, but hey it's the Daleks and you can't go too far wrong when they're involved!

EOD - 6/10 Hard to judge this two part filler as a story in its own right, but it works well enough given that I love that initial TARDIS crew.

Marco Polo 9/10 Only listened to it twice (both in the last 3 years or so since the tin came out) but I fell in love with it instantly and love the epic feel to it. Would probably rate higher if only it existed visually.

Marinus - 7/10 It's good fun and the constant changing locations keep it (relatively) fast moving and like watching lots of different stories! Ian and Barbara are so great that they can hold those middle two episodes by themselves no problem!

Aztecs 10/10 Loved this ever since I first saw the video in the early 90s. Sheer perfection and a story I shall never tire of watching. Barbara's shouting match with the Doctor sends a chill down my spine every time.

Sensorites 6.5/10 Bit of a step down in quality from the preceding stories, but again it's quite fun and not as dull as lots of people make out - try watching it in smaller portions, people!

Reign 5.5/10 - Very hard to judge as I've only ever seen the existing episodes twice, and I've never heard the two missing episodes (the only two Who eps I don't own in one format or another). Decent start to the story but I've lost the plot (!) by the final episode.

[Stuart Wallis]

An Unearthly Child - 4
The Daleks - 8
The Edge Of Destruction - 2
Marco Polo - 8
The Keys Of Marinus - 6
The Aztecs - 9
The Sensorites - 6
The Reign Of Terror -3

[MacNimon]

AUC - 8/10 Very nostalgic too, as it was my first b&w story 25 years ago this very month!

SNAP! Same here, I hadn't given the Five Faces season a thought till I read your post, Jonno. One of the best Doctor Who seasons ever, imo!