Your worst 10 stories...

[Anthony Williams]

So, since the Top 10 has been so popular, let's hear it for the 10 Doctor Who stories that, for one reason or another, you really don't like. You are not forced to justify your choices, but you can if you want to TV stories only. Oh, and one more rule - Dimensions in Time and The Curse of Fatal Death don't count.

Here are my choices (in no particular order):

Midnight
The Web Planet
The Massacre
Colony in Space
The Sun Makers
Underworld
The Twin Dilemma
Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks
Four to Doomsday
The Sensorites

I would justify them, but it's 8am, I've only been conscious for 15 minutes, and so I'm not properly awake yet

[duncan]

Love and Monsters
Paradise Towers
Time and the Rani
The Long Game
The Sun Makers
The Web Planet
The Dominators
The Krotons
The Ribos Operation
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

I've never enjoyed watching any of these and Love and Monsters is definitely top of the list as my very worst story choice.

[Dino]

Timelash (and even watching it for Paul Darrow isn't worth it)
The Twin Dilemma (Although Colin Baker is a great man, he was just let down by the people who were supposed to be looking after him)
The TV Movie
The Lodger
New Earth
The Space Museum (and it was going so well with part one)
The Krotons
Planet Of The Daleks

And... that's all I can do really. This wasn't easy. And if I look at my list I'll probably think "Why have I put that there?" So there, I agree with the first 7.
Sorry I left off two.

[SiHart]

OK:

Blink
Planet of Evil
Planet of the Daleks
The Space Pirates
The Massacre
The Girl in the Fireplace
42
Underworld
Battlefield
The Celestial Toymaker

[Dirk Gently]

The Twin Dilemma
The Space Pirates
The Twin Dilemma
TimeLash
The Twin Dilemma
Mindwarp
The Twin Dilemma
The Krotons (Really must rewatch it sometime).
The Twin Dilemma
The Mysterious Planet

And if I had room I'd add The Twin Dilemma as well.

[J.R. Southall]

What a TERRIBLE idea for a thread! Nevertheless, on with the motley...

(Although I have to say, I fully agree with Jeremy Bentham in that nobody ever set out to make a bad Doctor Who story - in fact, nobody ever sets out with the intention of making anything less than a great Doctor Who story - it's just that it doesn't always turn out that way...)

Um... The Edge of Destruction. I love the fact that it's two extra episodes of Ian'n'Babs goodness and any time spent in the company of those two is to be cherished, but I really don't think there's anything else of value in these fifty minutes.

And that's about it. Choosing my other nine least-favourite stories would probably be impossible. I might mention Time-Flight or Timelash or The Twin Dilemma or The Sun Makers or Underworld, all of which I've struggled with at one time or another. But then there have been other times when I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the above. It always depends upon whether I'm in the right frame of mind for them.

I suppose if there's one criteria you could include, it would be whether or not the finished product lives up to the author's intentions, or maybe examine what those intentions are. In which case I might add:

Revelation of the Daleks to the list. Eric Saward was desperately trying to be clever while also imitating the best of Robert Holmes. And at the same time he was very evidently deliberately sidelining the Doctor and Peri (and the Daleks, too, oddly enough) as much as possible. Sorry, Eric, but that doesn't make it good Doctor Who, old boy. Especially if you're selling it on the back of the word "Daleks" in the very title.

Pushing myself now to come up with at least a third...

Hmmn, well. Logopolis has always struck me as the absolute antithesis of both a) a good Doctor Who story and b) the kind of send-off that Tom Baker truly deserved. (However, the first episode is quite fun.) So there you go, I managed to make it to three!

[SiHart]

I understand entirely. Mine was a struggle, because really there are very few Doctor Who stories that I hate. There's almost always something of merit in every story, soemthing that makes it worth watching. One moment that makes it bearable.

But I never want to watch Planet of Evil or Blink ever again!

[Anthony Williams]

I understand entirely. Mine was a struggle, because really there are very few Doctor Who stories that I hate.

I'm the same! I thought that the struggle would be half the fun of the thread

[Rob McCow]

Lemmeseenow... I'm much more opinionated these days.

A Christmas Carol - I've never felt so un-involved in a story.
Planet of The Dead - Special? It was scarcely good enough to be classed as mid-season filler.
The Tenth Planet - Dullest Hartnell, dullest Who.
The Girl In The Fireplace - The production team raise their game with some gorgeous design - but Doctor Who falls in love with aristocratic French Tart? No thanks!
Delta and The Bannermen - It's probably OK really, but it seems like a fan-production rather than a real show.
Arc of Infinity - Actually, this story stinks on every level. Above and below sea level.
Time Flight - I showed this one to a group of friends after a trip down the pub one night - I've never been so embarrassed.
The Monster Of Peladon - The wheels come off the entire Pertwee era in spectacular fashion.
The Celestial Toymaker - Hartnell had the right idea: make me invisible and don't bring me back until it's all over.
The Curse of the Black Spot - I bet they thought they could get away with this wretched, nonsensical, perfunctory effort, didn't they? I bet sneaking it in after the Arc-heavy opener and the wonderful The Doctor's Wife would mean no-one noticed. Well I spotted it! Oh, let's see, how do you write a Doctor Who script about Pirates? Get out your 'Big Book of Pirates (illustrated)', crib a few notes, do all of the most obvious pirate things as though you've got an effing tick list, give it a sci-fi explanation, have a damaged father-son relationship, bish bash bosh I IZ FINISHED CAN HAVE DOCTOR WHO MONEY NOW PLZ? LOL - LUV U MUCHLY! There is a good thing about 'Curse of The Black Spot' - it's that we now have a benchmark for how lazy and cruddy a Pirate story can be. "OH HELLO I IZ AMY I WILL PUT ON DA PIRATEZ HATZ LOL!" The whole thing stinks worse than Captain Avery's pantaloons. "OH PIRATEZ CANZ FLYS SPAYCSHIP COS IS JUST LIKE SEASHIP!" Yeah, look at all the f***ing rigging in the TARDIS. I can drive a car, does that mean I can fly a rocket to the moon and back? The answer in the world of The Curse of The Black Spot is "YES YOUZ CAN FLY MOONSHIP." As for the stupid bloody 'Ship's Computer That Doesn't Understand How People Work So It Kidnaps Them and Puts Them All On Life Support If They So Much As Sneeze' - ARGH! "WHAT HAZ HAPNED TO THOSE 2 CHARS WHO WAZ ON DER SHIP, BOSS?" Who cares. Everyone likes Pirates of The Caribbean, don't they? Oh wait they don't actually! They just like Johnny Depp! Did this story have Johnny Depp in it? No? Oh what a pity! ...


...and so on.

[SiHart]

I wish I'd put in The End of Time, but I'd forgotten all about it.

[Anthony Williams]

That rant was... inspired!

[SiHart]

He's like that at home. You should hear the reviews of my dinners...

[Darren]

Ok....

Love & Monsters
Midnight
Curse of the Black Spot
Frontier in Space
Four to Doomsday
The Sound of Drums
The Last of the Time Lords
A Christmas Carol
The Next Doctor
The Long Game

[stuartdg]

Every story has something of merit no matter how bad it is,so these aren't my worst,just most unloved

Planet Of Giants
Galaxy 4
The Space Pirates
The Monster Of Peladon
Revenge Of The Cybermen
Arc Of Infinity
Warriors Of The Deep
Fear Her
The Next Doctor
The Beast Below

[Andrew Curnow]

There aren't many stories I actively dislike, arguably the worst fault a DW story can have is to be boring. Twin Dilemma, for example, may be garish and all over the place, and a bit of a mess... but it's never dull! There are a few stories I don't at this moment love, and these are they...


The Monster of Peladon
New Earth
The Doctor's Daughter
Timeflight
The Seeds of Doom
The Mark of the Rani
Dragonfire
The Chase
The Keys of Marinus

Hmm, that's nine. I'm open to offers for the other one!!

[Rob McCow]

Andrew - May I make a humble suggestion?

[SiHart]

Sorry, which one was it you didn't like?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Hmm, not sure I know the specific ten, but the top 3 would definitely be....

The Web Planet
The Celestial Toymaker
Midnight

after that, maybe...

The Dominators
Father's Day
The Idiot's Lantern
Doomsday (if I'm allowed to pick half stories)
The Sound of Drums/Last of the Timelords (which I'm counting as one)
The Stolen Earth/Journey's End (there's a pattern developing here)
What the heck then... The End of Time

[Andrew Curnow]

@ Rob.

Although I didn't love the pirate one (although everyone keeps saying how pirate-y it is, I didn't think so - I can't help but think that under RTD it would have really been a proper, piratical, "Yo ho ho", "Yaaar", romp) I didn't hate it as much as the opening two-parter (at the time anyway). So good suggestion Rob, but... no!

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh yes, Zbigniev's reminded me (how could I forget?) that I don't like The Celestial Toymaker much at all. We have a number ten, hoorah!

[Stuart Wallis]

A Christmas Carol
The Myth Makers
The Eleventh Hour
Boom Town
The Long Game
The Beast Below
Logopolis
The Space Pirates
School Reunion
Castrovalva

[Paul Clement]

Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Gunfighters
Web Planet
Mutants
Brain of Morbius
Leisue Hive
Meglos
Warriors of the Deep
Twin Dilemma
Timelash

[Darren]

Andrew, you don't like The Seeds of Doom? I'm genuinely amazed as that may be my favourite Tom Baker story.

[Andrew Curnow]

There may be a bit more flesh on the bare bones of my dislike, on a thread not that far away Darren - the "Classics you don't get" thread I think.

BTW, I'm tempted to take The Mark of the Rani off my list and replace it with Let's Kill Hitler.

[Anthony Williams]

My choices have been revised and actually ranked after today:

1. The Web Planet
2. The Sun Makers
3. Let's Kill Hitler
4. Midnight
5. The Massacre
6. Colony in Space
7. Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks
8. Underworld
9. The Twin Dilemma
10. Four to Doomsday
(11. The Sensorites)