Since it first appeared on our TV screens in 1963, there have been over 850 episodes of Doctor Who – so it’s hardly surprising that the long-running show has generated its fair share of clunkers. Here are ten of the very worst.
10. Mark Of The Rani
The 1987 serial that kicked off season twenty-four and Sylvester McCoy’s tenure as the Seventh Doctor began under a cloud – departing Doctor Colin Baker refused to return for a farewell scene due to a dispute with the BBC – and gets worse from there. Its faults are too numerous to count, but a tension-free plot hardly helps matters, and nor does an uneven performance from McCoy, who only really got into his stride as the Doctor in the second serial, the equally inept but marginally more watchable Paradise Towers.
9. Love and Monsters
This 2006 effort from David Tennant’s first season as the Tenth Doctor was meant as a love letter to the fandom, and while it may be one of the funnier episodes from the Tennant era, the tonal peculiarities make for strange and ultimately unfulfilling viewing. Peter Kay, despite his considerable talents as a stand-up comedian and sitcom actor, is hopelessly miscast as the Abzorbaloff.
8. The Underwater Menace
Fans got all excited in 2011 when one of three missing episodes from this 1967 four-parter was found and returned to the archives. Unfortunately, only the most indulgent – or obsessive – fan found much to like in the risible production values and silly plot, which concerns “Fish People” and the lost city of Atlantis. Patrick Troughton, however, remains watchable as the Second Doctor.
7. Orphan 55
This 2018 episode has its heart in the right place – the overarching message about the urgency of the need to deal with the climate emergency is, of course, prescient and worthwhile. But the unsubtle take on the moral of the story combines with ponderous plotting to produce a distinctly underwhelming story for Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor. Guest star Laura Fraser, however, is excellent as Kane.
6. The Sensorites
For modern-day viewers prepared to accept the slower pacing and rudimentary production values common to scifi serials of the period, 1960s Doctor Who can provide a wealth of interesting serials, but The Sensorites is not one of them. The story is ponderous even by the standards of the period, the plot is telegraphed, and the usually engaged William Hartnell goes through the motions as the First Doctor.
5. Aliens of London
This lackluster 2005 episode might have gotten a pass, were it not for the debut appearance of one of the most ridiculous alien species to appear in a show stuffed full of them. The Slitheen were enormous, insect-like creatures with massive eyes that assume human form by zipping themselves into human beings – a process that causes them to suffer from terrible flatulence. Children may have found the fart jokes hilarious, but the humor wore thin in a hurry. Showrunner Russell T. Davies took the hint, and quickly relegated the aliens to Doctor Who’s children-oriented spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures.
4. Warriors Of The Deep
This 1984 serial aims at earnestness, gravitas, and solemnity, and fails on all three counts. Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor is always watchable, and Davison is game, but the “base under siege” plotline, which had been done to death over a decade previously, is well past its sell-by date, and poor production values, an overwrought script, and dodgy performances from the ensemble cast contribute to the snooze-fest.
3. Timelash
1985’s Timelash is another of the egregious misfires so often found in mid-1980s Doctor Who, and it’s unsurprising that audience figures nosedived the following season. A megalomaniac out to destroy not one but two species should result in high stakes, but somehow doesn’t, there are some truly awful lines, and H. G. Wells turns up for no discernible reason.
2. The Curse Of The Black Spot
Ah, yes – the “pirate” episode. Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) dons a tricorn hat and Matt Smith gurns his way through every ahoy-there-me-hearties trope on offer in this forgettable caper that thinks it’s far funnier than it actually is. Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville does passable work as 17th-century English pirate Henry Avery.
1. The Twin Dilemma
Not even the appearance of a young Kevin McNally – who would later make a name for himself in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as Joshamee Gibbs – saves this dismal 1984 serial from itself. A paper-thin plot involving a pair of teenaged mathematical geniuses and a maniacal scheme to destroy an alien sun does Colin Baker no favors in his inaugural story as the Sixth Doctor, and an attempt to strangle his luckless companion Peri (Nicola Bryant), while framed at the time as a way of portraying the new Doctor as edgy and unpredictable after the warm fuzzies of Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor, today comes across as unpleasant and misogynistic.