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My Favourite Doctor Who Stories By Tim Harris See also: Doctor Who's Not-So-Classic-Moments |
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| - William Hartnell - |
| An
Unearthly Child A very mysterious first episode gives way to a sombre story set in the stone age. An absolute classic. This was the very first appearance of the Dr, and is a fantastic start to the series. It was directed by Warris Hussein who also directed my all-time favourite film 'Melody', starring Mark Lester, Jack Wild and Tracey Hyde. |
| The
Daleks The second story ever, and the first to feature the Daleks. A superbly directed story that is both intelligent and exciting. |
| Marco
Polo Sadly the original prints don't survive but the audio tracks do and they give a great idea of just how excellent this adventure was. |
| The
Dalek Invasion Of Earth The second appearance of the Daleks who appear in another highly intelligent and exciting adventure. It's very well acted and visually superior to many stories around it. |
| The
Web Planet Intelligent, mostly well acted (aside from one character who has a French accent), mysterious and different. |
| - Patrick Troughton - |
| Power
Of The Daleks Well-cast adventure that only exists as a soundtrack (and stills). |
| The
Web Of Fear The first episode is excellent, very much like a movie, the rest exists as soundtrack. |
| Fury
From The Deep No episodes exist, just the soundtrack, it is absolutely atmospheric though and very intelligent. |
| - Jon Pertwee - |
| Spearhead
From Space The Autons were the only Dr Who monsters that frightened me as a child. A fantastic first story for Jon Pertwee's doctor. |
| The Silurians Very clever, very adult. |
| Day Of
The Daleks My favourite Dr Who story of all time, I like the fact that the Daleks are kept behind the scenes for a lot of it, I love their slaves the Ogrons and I think the Earth Controller (played by Aubrey Woods) is one of the best characters to ever appear in Dr Who. |
| The
Sea Devils Good monsters and the best story to feature the Master. |
| The
Three Doctors A jolly romp with good monsters (Gell Guards), a good villain (Omega) and a lot of humour. |
| The
Green Death Giant maggots and the last story to feature my favourite companion Jo Grant (played by Katy Manning). |
| Planet
Of The Spiders The last Jon Pertwee story, this features giant spiders and is fantastic. |
| - Tom Baker - |
| Robot Tom Baker's first story, amusing and with great pathos. |
| The
Ark In Space Space creatures use humans as host bodies. Great stuff. |
| Genesis
Of The Daleks First story to feature Davros, probably my third favourite Dr Who story of all time. |
| Terror
Of The Zygons Great monsters, great story, well acted. |
| The
Robots Of Death Atmospheric, chilling story of murderous robots. |
| The
Sunmakers Witty, satirical take on tax collection. |
| City
Of Death Very clever, humorous tale with a realistic villain. |
| The
Keeper Of Traken Absorbing and exciting. |
| Logopolis The last Tom Baker story. |
| - Peter Davison - |
| The Visitation Good sets, good cast, good story. |
| Earthshock Full of menace and pace. |
| The Caves Of
Androzani Davison's last story, and very gritty it is too. |
| - Colin Baker - |
| Revelation
Of The Daleks Although the Daleks look terrible, this is a clever story. |
| - Sylvester McCoy - |
| Remembrance
Of The Daleks The Daleks have never looked or sounded worse than in this story but the story itself is highly enjoyable. |
| The
Happiness Patrol At the time this was a story that probably embarrassed a lot of Dr Who fans as it featured a villain who looked like Bertie Bassett - it was hardly the kind of story you'd want to try and convince somebody who didn't already watch it to watch it. Over the years though I have warmed to it very much, and now regret that the Kandyman didn't appear in it more and that it wasn't a 6 part story. It's a very stylised, clever parody of politics gone mad, and is entirely unique. Despite it's candy coloured style, it is a very intelligent story. |
| Silver
Nemesis I like this for all the wrong reasons, in much the same way that the story was scripted and filmed in the wrong way. Cybermen wandering throughout the country (sporting cricket gloves) without so much as a by your leave, Cybermen who seek a bow and arrow and have 'menacing' dialogue such as 'Give me the bow', Cybermen who die after being hit by gold coins catapulted at their chest, a witch who gets in bother with two feeble thugs, a Queen impersonator (complete with korgis), a radio that can pick up signals/pictures from space and the same basic plot as 'Remembrance Of The Daleks', a story from the same series! This, for me, is the Dr Who equivalent of 'Plan 9 From Outer Space', a misshapen mess of a fiasco, almost as if the entire production team had been replaced by Ed Wood. It was made to *celebrate* 25 years of Dr Who, *snigger* and is all the more (unintentionally) funnier for it, best viewed with a pint of lager. |
| The
Curse Of Fenric Enjoyable romp despite the obvious rubber-made fingernails of the Haemovores. The story has faults but is clever enough to be fast paced enough so you don't question the plot holes. |
| Christopher Eccleston |
| Dalek This builds up nicely to the revelation that the captured alien is actually a Dalek. The Dalek dialogue is excellent, Eccleston's Doctor shows fear, and Billie Piper's Rose shows sympathy. The most intelligent Dalek story to date and the voice provided by Nick Briggs is brilliant. The Dalek itself looks excellent. |
| David Tennant |
| Rise
Of The Cybermen / The Age Of Steel A very adult story with real tension throughout. The revelation that Jackie Tyler has been turned into a Cyberman is astonishing for a family show. This remains so far, the best story since the series returned in 2005. |
| The
Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit Another very adult, intelligent story. Evil Toby is excellent and one only wishes the possessed version had been given more air time. The effects of the Beast are brilliant, the Ood are a very good creation and the pace of the story is spot on. |
| Love
And Monsters Elton Pope and this off-beat story is a very different kind of Who story and was a very enjoyable twist on the series' rationale. |
| Human
Nature / The Family Of Blood A clever idea, albeit borrowed from a 'Doctor Who New Adventures' book, very well written, filmed and acted. |
| Blink The Weeping Angels are an awesome enemy, and Carey Mulligan makes a fantastic Sally Sparrow. |
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Utopia A story that appears to be going one way then turns into something entirely different. The return of The Master is done so very cleverly, and Derek Jacobi makes for a very real menace. In story terms I love the fact that Professor Yana is helping the human race only for his real persona to be utterly against it. The next two episodes with John Simm as The Master are very good too but it's this first episode which steals the crown. |
| The
Doctor's Daughter Another clever story, and it gets better with each viewing. |
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Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead Upon first watching the first part I thought it was dull, didn't look forward to part 2 and then found part 2 to be highly enjoyable. Watching both episodes again it is excellent. The Nashta Verada represent one of the best kind of enemies, those that aren't seen but which have an effect. |
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Midnight It took me two viewings to realise how good this one was. The evolution of a species the Doctor hasn't encountered before, and one he doesn't know how to deal with, now that's good. |
| Matt Smith |
| The
Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone Even a cartoon version of Graham Norton couldn't ruin the ending of episode 1 for me. This one simply oozes menace and contains Smith's best performance so far (his first to be filmed in fact). I've watched this many times already. |
