This is a completely personal account of what I think are the best and worst stories from Doctor Who - the greates sci fi series ever made!



The Best:



"An Unearthly Child"  (It got the ball rolling - part one is a classic!)

"The Mind Robber"  (A very original and clever story, with great acting from Troughton)

"The Invasion"  (Lots of action, classic scenes, and some intelligent sardonic humour from the villainous Tobias Vaughan)

All four stories from season seven  (I loved the action in all the season four stories and the parallel world theory was brilliantly dramatised in "Inferno")

"The Terror of the Autons"  (Roger Delgado's best!....and some classic horror with carnivorous plastic chairs, demonic looking dolls and dangerous plastic flowers!)

"The Claws of Axos"  (I liked this one when I was a child and it is still a very fond memory of my early love for the show)

"The Sea Devils"  (Classic Pertwee action! The duel between Pertwee and The Master was exceptional. My second favourite Master story after "Terror of the Autons")

"The Time Monster"  (Sloman uses some fantastic ideas to develop a really entertaining story that made the most out of the conventions available in the Earth based UNIT era. I think this is the most under underrated Doctor Who story of all)

"The Three Doctors"  (Need I say more?)

"Carnvial of Monsters"  (It took time for me to really like this one, but now I think its great)

"Planet of the Daleks"  (My second favourite Dalek story and the one of that was most action packed)

"The Green Death"  (Pure sentimental indulgence!)

"The Time Warrior"  (Lynx's character and lines are enough on their own to make this story a classic, regardless of Irongron and Bloodaxe, and all of the action)

"Planet of the Spiders"  (Brought out all the best of the Pertwee era of action and moral lessons)

"Genesis of the Daleks"  (Nazi subplots! Perfect script! Fantastic storyline! Excellent dialogue! Davros at his very best! The best moral dilemma ever - "Do I have the right?" Dr Who had come of age with this story. It is without doubt the definitive moment in the show's history where it could be described as intelligent sci fi for ALL audiences, young and old))

"Pyramids of Mars"  (The first Doctor Who video I ever received. Sutekh has to be one of the most diabolical villains The Doctor has ever faced. Do you think the makers of "The Exorcist" borrowed from the introduction to this story - they are both reminiscent of each other?)

"The Brain of Morbius"  (Dr Who goes gothic! Hinchcliffe and Holmes do Hammer horror - and it worked!)

"The Seeds of Doom"  (Classic!!!! The horror really worked in this one. The villains were evil, and the story was definitive of Dr Who becoming a show for older audiences. It scared Mary Whitehouse, and it borrowed all the good aspects of "The Quatermass Experiment" and other sci fi horror series that the UK had produced)

"The Masque of Mandragora"  (From the opening scene to its conclusion, this story was impressive sci fi (with intelligent historical allegory) and was very well scripted, acted and directed)

"The Hand of Fear"  (Another bit of sentimental indulgence - and also a great story in its own right)

"The Face of Evil (Dr Who does Freudian psychoanalysis and does it well. One of the cleverest stories ever written. And the cliffhanger to part 3 was one of the most memorable in the series history. "Who am I?")

"The Deadly Assassin"  (A tense battle of wits and endurance between The Doctor and his nemesis - from the rolling introductory text and Baker's voice over through to The Master's last laugh)

"The Robots of Death"  (Ever since I was a child, this story has been etched in my memory as definitive of Doctor Who)

"The Invisible Enemy"  (The story may have borrowed a lot from 'Fantastic Voyage', but I found it to be well scripted (great dialogue between The Doctor and Leela) and a lot of fun)

"The Image of the Fendahl"  (Classic horror!)

"City of Death"  (Even though it may be accused of being too 'send up', I found it a very witty and intelligent story with great acting from the entire cast)

"Logopolis"  (A gripping story that gave Baker the heroic departure that he deserved)

"Castrovalva"  (One of the best introductory stories ever)

"Kinda" (Dr Who does Buddhism. The most philosophical story ever and it takes the piss out of British imperialism very well. Some really spun out scenes (especially the cliffhanger to part 3 - should be watched when stoned - but how would I know )

"Earthshock"  ("So we meet again, Doctor!" - without doubt this was the best Cybermen story and it brought the best out of Davison's interpretation of The Doctor)

"The Five Doctors"  (CLASSIC!)

"Frontios"  (I don't know why I liked this one so much)

"The Caves of Androzani"  (The best regeneration story ever made)

"The Mark of the Rani"  (Good action and humour - C. Baker's Doctor was likeable in this one)

"Trial of a Timelord" (Colin Baker's recemption.........and a good story, if you can make it through all 14 episodes)

"Battlefield"  (I love Arthurian legend and McCoy gave a great performance)

"The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" (Only Dr Who can make people going around in gas masks asking for their mummy seem scary. And scary it was!!!! this was an echo from the golden years of Hinchcliffe/Holmes and was well written, well acted and very well directed. Eccleston had clearly adjusted to the part and some of his one liner's were fan - tas - tic!!!!)

"Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways" (Reality TV deserved this mockery and Dr Who did it well!!!!! These stories tied the Eccleston era together tightly, and gave Rose something interesting and very meaningful to do. Daleks flying in space! Lots of exterminating! The Emperor Dalek! Daleks with religion! This had it all - a feast for Dr Who fans, and a great way to say 'goodbye' to Eccleston)





The Worst:



"The Gunfighters"  (What were the BBC thinking! A terrible story! That bloody singing and the fake American voices really pissed me off!)

"The Day of the Daleks"  (The Dalek voices were silly. The Ogrons were sillier. The gueirlla fighters were very silly. The story was extremely silly. And the plot twist was about one of the sillies ideas used in Dr Who!!!!)

"The Curse of Peladon"  (A mute, a phalis with a high pitched voice, and a plot that contained good allegory but was told in a boring and meandering style)

"The Mutants"  (There was absolutely nothing that I liked about this story - I can't believe it was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin!)

"Robot"  (It never ceases to amaze me that this was Tom Baker's introduction - it was that bad that the only was they could go from that point was up. And the Robot doing King Kong - how lame can you get!!!!)

"The Talons of Weng - Chiang"  (Even Louise Jameson's wet white blouse couldn't redeem this story in my eyes. I really have no idea why it is considered to be such a classic)

"The Horror of Fang Rock"  (Boring!!!)

"The Power of Kroll"  (What happened to Robert Holmes - a key figure in the classic Doctor Who era? Was he trying to take the piss out of the show and its audience with this one?)

"Nightmare of Eden"  (Possibly the silliest Doctor Who story ever. The acting was shockingly bad.)

"The Horns of Nimon"  (I understand that this story contained a lot of allegorical subtexts, but that still didn't make up for the terrible plot and atrocious acting)

"Meglos"  (Lousy!!!)

"Terminus"  (Possibly one of the worse Doctor Who stories ever made - a terrible way to say 'goodbye' to Nyssa)

"Enlightenment"  (I've watched this one three times and I still can't remember anything about it except for very bad acting and silly ships flying around against a black background!)

"Planet of Fire"  (Kamelion shows up out of the blue - after joining the TARDIS crew a year earlier!!! I've been wondering for years what Kamelion was meant to be doing prior to this story - this narrative anomaly was a real botch up on the part of Eric Saward, and "Planet of Fire" was horribly boring. No, Nicola Bryant in that lovely swimsuit couldn't rescue this one)

"The Twin Dilemma"  (C. Baker  really got off on the wrong foot with this one, what with trying to kill his companion and all! This story, together with "Robot", are perfect examples of how I think a new Doctor should not be introduced)

"Revelation of the Daleks"  (I think this was the worst Dalek story ever. The humour that it was meant to have went right over my head.)

ALL OF THE Mc COY era (except for "Battlefield"):

McCoy's era was infantile, piss weak, had ridculous special effects, lousy stories, terrible production, loose scripts with unnecssarily complicated twists, and was under the reign of that idiot, John Nathan Turner!

"Father's Day" (Dr Who does a 'chick flick'! This was a Rose story, and all it did was keep girls interested in the series. Boring, over - emotional, and too focussed on Rose. Yawn. Snore)

"The Long Game" (Could have been so much better. But it wasn't. Took a long time to get nowhere. And that new character, Adam, was a waste of time. Best thing about it was getting rid of him!)

"Boom Town" (Unnecessary. It was pointless. It seemed as though that one was added in as a space filler before the series finale. I really think this was just a waste of time - and the Slitheen are NOT an impressive adversary)



Ok SFSA ers: Any comments????????????

Whew!  I agree with 80% of your choices there.



But 'The Talons of Weng Chiang' in your Worst list?  Surely you jest????

Pretty on the ball Jimmy



I agree with you totally about 'Talons'. I have never been fond of stories that go back in time... and with the 'Talons' I just switch the TV off when I see that story come on.



Poor stereotypes, slow progression - could have been a four parter, come on a giant rat in the sewers? pure pantomine and just general rubbish



However, how can you kick Remembrance of the Daleks out in the cold? and the Curse of Fenric? ?

The Gunfighters. Hartnell is good in this story, and all his comedic historicals. The novel is better.

The Sea Devils. Average. The moral dillema was so strong in Doctor Who and the Silurians, this one's just going through the motions. Nice score though.

The Five Doctors. Big overfull anniversary story. Pushes the right buttons, dosn't miss Tom becuase it's so crammed, it needed Holmes more than he needed it.

The Mark of the Rani, Kinda and Snakedance for that matter...forgettable. Not that there's anyhing literally wrong with them, I just forgt them when toting up these eras.

Pyramids of Mars and The Robots of Death are about as good as it gets. Choose these ones to show any Who sceptics.



And while we're here...



The Talons of Weng - Chiang  DWM ran a story once on possible Who spinoffs, one of which was the continuing adventures of Jago and Litefoot. Never known if that was a joke or not.

I thought Talons was a really interesting and scary story that had all the right ingrediants that made me love the Baker era so much.  The only bad thing about that one was the fake sewer rat - that was pretty terrible, even by Dr Who standards!



As for worse story.....  I have to admit, I never cared for the historical stories of the 1st & 2nd Drs.  Everything seemed too slow and all of those stories seemed very heavy handed in trying to 'teach the audience about history'.



Most of the stories of the Colin Baker/McCoy era weren't as good as they should have been - I place the blame on that entirely on the production team.



The Davidson era had its ups and downs, but there were more good stories than bad ones.



Tom Baker - The Power of Kroll never did anything for me at all.  Not one of Holmes's best ones.



As for Pertwee, well my thoughts on Season 11 are well known by now, and they contain some of the worst stories of his era.



(hides from Jimmy after that comment)!!!!!

Don't knock the overgrown sewer rat.  I have it on good authority that it is the same overgrown sewer rat used in "The Goodies" "Kitten Kong" episode.

ooops sorry to all those who loved the sewer rat!



The Goodies was a fantastic show.  One of my many fave episodes is the one where they run a disco.  Very clever.

Ross told Matthew it was the same rat in the cantina in the Star Wars Holiday Special, but he didn't beleive it.

oh lordy not the infamous SW holiday special!



I had to take counselling sessions just to get over it!



Carrie Fisher singing a song to the SW theme was quite horrific.

Carrie Fisher is not horrific in any way, shape or form.  She's still a babe

Well I wasnt talking about the person, just her song.



I remember seeing some of the SW cast members on 'The Muppets' once too. 



Much better than the SW Holiday Special thats for sure!!!

I got to interview Peter Mayhew and David Prowse on the subject three years ago. They were both quite adamant that it was George Lucas' project, which is interesting considering that'd be heresy if you put it across to fans today!

I heard that Lucas licenced the SW characters for a tv show, but was so fed up with the usual interference from the tv networks, that he disowned it.



The tv executives changed it from being a planned series tv special to a Xmas singalong thing.



Last time I saw it must have been 1980.  It's very big on the bootleg market apparantly....

That's what I've always read and heard, until I talked to them!

well that may explain why Lucas populated Return of the Jedi with the cute fury Ewoks.  To appeal to the mass market to sell more toys.



On that note - The Phantom Menace was pretty bad.

"The Phantom Meanace" was appalling. And watching "Attack of the Clones" again about a month ago, I'd say that only the last half hour is worth viewing.



Hayden Christensen couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. And the 'love story' was so piss weak.

I was glad to see him get cut to pieces by Obi Wan......."Revenge of the Sith" - now, that WAS a good film! Just as good as the 'first' three.



Now, what's all this I've been reading about "the Talons of Weng Chiang"???? What on Earth was good about that story????

It was so camp, over acted and plain bloody boring, yet so many Dr Who fans rank that story as one of the best. I have no idea why!

Those Chinese steeotypes and cliches were that badly done that they were offensive, and I'm as Chinese as Mickey Mouse!!!!

Talons had it all - mystery, strange characters, wonderful costumes, and a Doctor in Tom Baker at the height of his abilities.



It was one of the first stories I remember seeing as a small boy, and I've seen it several times, and it still stands up as a good piece of entertainment.



At the end of the day, everyone has a fave story that someone else might hate.



I agree about Revenge of the Sith - it was definately the best of the new trilogy.

Ok - viva la difference! (bugger the French vernacular!!!!!)



"Revenge of the Sith" was wild!!!! It really made up for the shockingly bad Parts 1 and 2. I loved the way Ian Mc Diarmid played Palpatine - he really was insidious. And I enjoyed watching all the stoies coming together. Lucas did the series justice with this one - but why did he choose to make Parts 1 and 2 so terribly bad???? Surely some one of his ability knew that he was making a load of rubbish. the lines were weak. The acting was terrible. and the love story was just so corny. Yuk! They did not even compare with Parts 4 - 6.



And re Part 3 - wasn't Yoda wild with a lightsabre! Just loved the battle he has with Palpatine. I think he has to be one of the greates characters ever created in science fiction (he stole the show in "Empire Strikes Back"  )

Lucas could easily have condenced the first 2 films into Phantom Menace.  Honestly, what was the whole point of seeing a young Anakin racing in that pod race?



It was a good spectacle, but didnt really add anything to the story.



I wont even go into the fact that Padme was a good 10 years older than Anakin.....the cradle snatcher!!!

I don't think Lucas intended them to be bad...