Worst Moments

[Jason Thompson]

OK, the third and last poll for the moment. We all love Who, but no-one (well, maybe one or two people) could deny that it has it's moments that, well, let's say aren't the best works of television ever broadcast. Effects, writing, performance, occasionally these all come in below-par. So what bits make you cringe, or wish that no-one else was watching at that moment? Do the invading dinosaurs make you want to curl up under a rock? Does the tank in Robot make you close your eyes and hope it will go away? Does Jenny Laird's 'performance' in Planet Of The Spiders embarrass you? Get it all off your chest here.

As ever, mine will come later.

[WhiteCrow]

"No ... notthemindprobe ..."

The Five Doctors - ie the series at "its height".

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Any number of "Rose acting like a chav/The Doctor acting like a chav/Either of them making "comedy" references to Eastenders/fart jokes/pointless continuity references/incredibly overdone "emotional" scenes from the New Series would probably win this, fortunately most have been blotted from my memory. But other than that...

The hopping, blithering Optera. Embarrassing to watch even alone.

Any single minute chosen at random from The Celestial Toymaker. Sixty seconds at a time is about all I can stand.

Jo kissing Cliff.

Any scene with Bonnie Langford in it.

Any scene written by Pip 'n' Jane.

Any scene with the bearded atomic clock professor person in the TV movie...

... or that fat hospital porter.

Any scene with the twins in The Twin Dilemma.

etc

[Larry]

worst moments

The Myrka - oh dear oh dear

Season 24

The Shrimp like monster in Invisable Enemy - pretty much summed up and awfly and embarrassingly cheap story

the factory/warehouse used to substitute for the TARDIS , in Invasion of Time

the awful wigs of the peladon workers in Monster of Peladon


I'll probably think of more later but that's 5 to be getting on with.

[Pip Madeley]

Ten?

• Rick James' bizzare Darkplace-esque acting in "The Mutants"... "We'll all be done for!"
• The burping wheelie bin in "Rose"
• The model dinosaurs in the otherwise fine "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs"
• The migraine-inducing music from "The Sea Devils"
• Ingrid Pitt's attempt at kung fu with the Myrka in "Warriors Of The Deep"
• The horrible cameo by Huw Edwards in the below-par "Fear Her"
• Womulus and Wemus in the god-awful "The Twin Dilemma"
• The whole of "Terminus"
• The seemingly endless boring dancing in the agonisingly dull "Four To Doomsday"
• Jenny Laird's acting in "Planet Of The Spiders"... how the hell did she get an Equity card?!

[Simon R]

The horrible cameo by Huw Edwards in the below-par "Fear Her

And the Doctor carrying the Olympic Torch. And the "let me give you a hug" bit from "The Impossible Planet".

[Pip Madeley]

"The crowd has vanished! Er-- um... they're gone. Everyone has gone. Thousands of people have just gone. Er... um... right in front of my eyes. Um... it's impossible!"



"Bob? Not you too, Bob?"



"It's much more than a torch now, it's a beacon. It's a beacon of hope and fortitude and courage. And it's a beacon of love."



"There's a mystery man - he's picked up the flame... we've no idea who he is... erm... he's carrying the flame, yes! He's carrying the flame and no one wants to stop him. It's more than a flame now, Bob. It's more than heat and light. It's hope. And it's courage. And it's love."

[Simon R]

It was a nice idea on paper but really...

[Andrew Curnow]

Not sure I can come up with Ten for this, but we'll see...

1. Sarah rolling down a virtually flat slope in The Five Doctors. The direction totally fails to sell it, which makes Sarah's dramatic screaming seem all the more daft.

2. The Brigadier being written as a complete prat in The Three Doctors. OK, Nick Courtney still makes him watchable, and the farewell scene is good, but that Cromer nonsense is just... well, it's a disgrace frankly.

3. At the risk of being obvious... the tree in The Mark of the Rani. Don't try and tell me folk were less sophisticated in 1985, or that it looked OK at the time, it was rubbish when I watched it then, and it's still rubbish now.

4. The interminable 'bodyswap' scene as the Doctor/Rose/Cassandra climb the liftshaft in "New Earth".

5. McCoy slipping and sliding in Dragonfire. OK, he's trying to act like it's ice, but since nobody else does it has the unfortunate result of making the Doctor appear to be an idiot, or senile. Why did nobody (not the director, or producer, McCoy, another actor, the bloody tea lady) not say something before they recorded it?

6. Helen Blatch in The Twin Dilemma. Again, another 'at the risk of being obvious' entry. I actually quite like the story, but she is given poor lines, and somehow manages to make them even worse with her performance.

7. The Haunted House episode of The Chase. It's a flimsy idea, which is then weakly-scripted, and is then poorly directed. Maybe, being charitable, it was just too ambitious for the production team of the time, but frankly it's an embarassment to watch.

8. The Android Invasion's eyepatch - "Oh, I have an eye after all, d'oh!" Oh p-lease!!!

9. Ingrid Pitt in The Time Monster. There isn't enough cleavage in the world to justify her getting that part, she's AWFUL!!!!!

10. Sorry, but Troughton's 'comedy running' in The Seeds of Death needs to go on the list too (it's either that, or the appalling lapse of Tom waving a gun around in The Seeds of Doom... )

[Zbigniev Hamson]

It was a nice idea on paper but really...

Was it though? Was it?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I thought Ingrid Pitt and Rick James were both pretty good

[Andrew Curnow]

Well now I know you're mad!!!

[Pip Madeley]

Was it though? Was it?

Yes, it was cringeworthy.

As for Rick James, he's as wooden as the Trojan Horse. It's like watching amateur dramatics!

Well now I know you're mad!!!

You reminded me of that bit in "Tomb" where the Doctor says to Klieg; "Well now I know you're mad, I just wanted to make sure".

[Andrew Curnow]

I thought it sounded familiar when I typed it, but I just assumed it was something Zel had said to me...

[Antony Cox]

Timelash.

That accounts for at least 10 worst moments on its own, and probably 100 or a 1000.....

[WhiteCrow]

the factory/warehouse used to substitute for the TARDIS , in Invasion of Time

You're singling out the Invasion of Time, and that's the best you can come up with???

[Dirk Gently]

Timelash.

That accounts for at least 10 worst moments on its own, and probably 100 or a 1000.....

Transpose 'Timelash' with 'Twin Dilemma' & that about wraps up it up.

[Larry]

Ten?

[*]Ingrid Pitt's attempt at kung fu with the Myrka in "Warriors Of The Deep"[/LIST]

yes I'd completely forgotten about that probably because it was so embarrassingly bad i'd deleted it from the memory.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

She was fine in the Time Monster though!! Not to mention cleavage-tastic. She was at least 17 times better than that Lord Hippias (who in turn was much worse than Rick James).

You're all mad! It's not me!