Urban's 'Doctor Who' Thing

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

For some reason that's totally beyond me I've decided that I am going to rate and review (ho ho) every single Doctor Who story from 1963 to the present day. That's a whopping 244 stories (Counting the Christmas special later today).
Thankfully because I've watched the show since I was 4 years old and became a proper fan in 1993 when I began to collect videos & DVDs I can pretty much do most of this from memory.
I won't be doing stories that are completely or mostly missing in the BBC archive (20 in all) but I will be doing ones where most of the story exists.

First Doctor - William Hartnell 1963-66

Series 1
001 An Unearthly Child
002 The Daleks
003 The Edge of Destruction
--- Marco Polo ---
004 The Keys of Marinus
005 The Aztecs
006 The Sensorites
007 The Reign of Terror

Series 2
008 Planet of Giants
009 The Dalek Invasion of Earth
010 The Rescue
011 The Romans
012 The Web Planet
--- The Crusade ---
013 The Space Museum
014 The Chase
015 The Time Meddler

Series 3
--- Galaxy 4 ---
--- Mission to the Unknown ---
--- The Myth Makers ---
--- The Daleks' Master Plan ---
--- The Massacre
016 The Ark
--- The Celestial Toymaker ---
--- 017 The Gunfighters ---
--- The Savages ---
018 The War Machines

Series 4
--- The Smugglers ---
019 The Tenth Planet

Second Doctor - Patrick Troughton 1966-69

--- The Power of the Daleks ---
--- The Highlanders ---
020 The Underwater Menace
021 The Moonbase
--- The Macra Terror ---
--- The Faceless Ones ---
--- The Evil of the Daleks ---

Series 5
022 The Tomb of the Cybermen
--- The Abominable Snowmen ---
023 The Ice Warriors
024 The Enemy of the World
025 The Web of Fear
--- Fury from the Deep ---
--- The Wheel In Space ---

Series 6
026 The Dominators
027 The Mind Robber
028 The Invasion
029 The Krotons
030 The Seeds of Death
--- The Space Pirates ---
032 The War Games

Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee 1970-74

Series 7
033 Spearhead from Space
034 Doctor Who and the Silurians
035 The Ambassadors of Death
036 Inferno

Series 8
037 Terror of the Autons
038 The Mind of Evil
039 The Claws of Axos
040 Colony In Space
041 The Daemons

Series 9
042 Day of the Daleks
043 The Curse of Peladon
044 The Sea Devils
045 The Mutants
046 The Time Monster


Series 10
047 The Three Doctors
048 Carnival of Monsters
049 Frontier In Space
050 Planet of the Daleks
051 The Green Death

Series 11
052 The Time Warrior
053 Invasion of the Dinosaurs
054 Death to the Daleks
055 The Monster of Peladon
056 Planet of the Spiders

Forth Doctor - Tom Baker 1974-81

Series 12
057 Robot
058 The Ark in Space
059 The Sontaran Experiment
060 Genesis of the Daleks
--- 061 Revenge of the Cybermen ---


Series 13
062 Terror of the Zygons
063 Planet of Evil
064 Pyramids of Mars
065 The Android Invasion
066 The Brain of Morbius
067 The Seeds of Doom

Series 14
068 The Masque of Mandragora
069 The Hand of Fear
070 The Deadly Assassin
071 The Face of Evil
072 The Robots of Death
073 The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Series 15
074 Horror of Fang Rock
075 The Invisible Enemy
076 Image of the Fendahl
077 The Sun Makers
--- 078 Underworld ---
079 The Invasion of Time

Series 16
080 The Ribos Operation
081 The Pirate Planet
082 The Stones of Blood
083 The Androids of Tara
084 The Power of Kroll
085 The Armageddon Factor


Series 17
086 Destiny of the Daleks
087 City of Death
088 The Creature from the Pit
089 Nightmare of Eden
*** The Horns of Nimon***
--- Shada (Aborted) ---

Series 18
090 The Leisure Hive
091 Meglos
092 Full Circle
093 State of Decay
094 Warriors' Gate
095 The Keeper of Traken
096 Logopolis

Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison 1981-84

Series 19
097 Castrovalva
098 Four To Doomsday
099 Kinda
100 The Visitation
101 Black Orchid
102 Earthshock
--- 103 Time-Flight ---

Series 20
--- 104 Arc of Infinity ---
105 Snakedance
106 Mawdryn Undead
107 Terminus
108 Enlightenment
109 The King's Demons

20th Anniversary Special
110 The Five Doctors

Series 21
111 Warriors of the Deep
112 The Awakening
113 Frontios
114 Resurrection of the Daleks
115 Planet of Fire
116 The Caves of Androzani

Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker 1984-86

--- 117 The Twin Dilemma ---

Series 22
118 Attack of the Cybermen
119 Vengeance On Varos
120 The Mark of the Rani
121 The Two Doctors
--- 122 Timelash ---
123 Revelation of the Daleks

Series 23
124 The Trial of a Timelord

Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy 1987-89 /1996

Series 24
--- 125 Time And the Rani ---
--- 126 Paradise Towers ---
127 Delta And the Bannermen
128 Dragonfire

Series 25
129 Remembrance of the Daleks
130 The Happiness Patrol
131 Silver Nemesis
132 The Greatest Show In the Galaxy

Series 26
133 Battlefield
134 Ghost Light
135 The Curse of Fenric
136 Survival

Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann 1996

137 The TV Movie (The Enemy Within)

Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston 2005

Season 1
138 Rose
139 The End of the World
140 The Unquiet Dead
141 Aliens of London / World War III
142 Dalek
143 The Long Game
144 Father's Day
145 The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
146 Boom Town
147 Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

Tenth Doctor - David Tennant 2005-10

2005 Christmas Special
148 The Christmas Invasion

Season 2
149 New Earth
150 Tooth and Claw
151 School Reunion
152 The Girl in the Fireplace
153 Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel
154 The Idiot's Lantern
155 The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit
--- 156 Love & Monsters ---
--- 157 Fear Her ---
158 Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

2006 Christmas Special
159 The Runaway Bride

Season 3
160 Smith and Jones
161 The Shakespeare Code
162 Gridlock
163 Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks
164 The Lazarus Experiment
165 42
166 Human Nature / The Family of Blood
167 Blink
168 Utopia / The Sound of Drums / The Last of the Time Lords

2007 Christmas Special
169 Voyage of the Damned

Season 4
170 Partners in Crime
171 The Fires of Pompeii
172 Planet of the Ood
173 The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky
174 The Doctor's Daughter
175 The Unicorn and the Wasp
176 Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead
177 Midnight
178 Turn Left
179 The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

2008 / 2009 / 2010 Specials
180 The Next Doctor
181 Planet of the Dead
182 The Waters of Mars
183 The End of Time

Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith 2010-13

Season 5
184 The Eleventh Hour
185 The Beast Below
186 Victory of the Daleks
187 The Time of Angels / Flesh And Stone
188 The Vampires of Venice
189 Amy's Choice
190 The Hungry Earth
191 Cold Blood
192 Vincent And The Doctor
193 The Lodger
194 The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang

2010 Christmas Special
195 A Christmas Carol

Season 6
196 The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon
197 The Curse of the Black Spot
198 The Doctor's Wife
199 The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People
200 A Good Man Goes to War
201 Let's Kill Hitler
202 Night Terrors
203 The Girl Who Waited
204 The God Complex
205 Closing Time
206 The Wedding of River Song

2011 Christmas Special
--- 207 The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe ---

Season 7 (Part 1)
208 Asylum of the Daleks
209 Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
--- 210 A Town Called Mercy ---
211 The Power of Three
212 The Angels Take Manhattan

2012 Christmas Special
213 The Snowmen

Season 7 (Part 2)
214 The Bells Of Saint John
215 The Rings Of Akhaten
216 Cold War
217 Hide
218 Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS
219 The Crimson Horror
220 Nightmare In Silver
221 The Name Of The Doctor

50th Anniversary Special
222 The Day Of The Doctor

2013 Christmas Special
223 The Time of the Doctor

Key
YELLOW - Reviewed
BLACK - To Be Reviewed
RED - Episodes Missing From Archive
BLUE - I'll also not be including the Tom Baker story The Horns Of Nimon, but i'll explain why later.

I'll be dividing the whole thing up into 5 sections, The Really Terrible Stories, The Bad Stories, The Average Stories, The Good Stories & finally The Best Stories.

So I'll begin right at the bottom with The Really Terrible Stories and The Worst Doctor Who Story EVER....

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

223: Paradise Towers

Doctor : 7th (Sylvester McCoy)
Companion : Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford)
Series : 24
Originally Transmitted: 5 October–26 October 1987

Good points about Paradise Towers: It's Doctor Who's take on J.G. Ballard's brilliant novel High Rise
And sadly that's about it, the idea was a good one after that everything went to shit.

The back story is it's the 22nd Century and a large tower block is designed by the great architect called Kroagnon. There was a big war and all the men went off to fight in it leaving the women & children behind.

Anyway for reasons unknown Kroagnon is a bit of a mentalist who wants to kill everybody who inhabits his building. In the episode we see little of Kroagnon, but we do hear a lot of his voice and he sounds exactly the same as The Cookie Monster. What we do see of him is that he appears to have taken the form of a couple of neon disco tubes that looks like they've been removed from a gay bar that's just closed down.


Kroagnon employs an army of deadly(cough) machines & caretakers to police the place under the control of Chief Caretaker played by Richard Briers famous from the sitcom 'The Good Life'.

Unfortunately Richard Briers can't quite decide how to play the Chief Caretaker and seems to end up playing him part as a childrens pantomime version of Adolf Hitler and part Blakey from 'On the Buses', mostly the latter.

The Chief Caretaker's deadliest machine is this cleaning machine which rumbles around the narrow tower block corridors at approx 2mph killing all in it's wake. For some reason the Chief Caretaker thinks the Doctor is The Great Architect and then wants to kill him.


The woman and children left behind band together in groups. The elderly become known as The Rezzies (Residents)

who have become cannibals due to the lack of food who lure unsuspecting people in by offering them nice cups of tea before killing them and making them into a Sunday roast.

The children (well girls anyway, I assume the boys went off to war too) form in gangs called the Kangs who are identified by colour. There are Red Kangs, Blue Kangs & Yellow Kangs but the last of the Yellow Kangs is killed before the story begins. They have names like Bin Liner and Fire Escape.

The Kangs are supposed to be a tough group living in a post apocalyptic world but sadly they look more like a dance troupe from a musical, they also talk as though they're all middle class and just walked out of stage school which they probably have.

The Doctor arrives looking for a swimming pool for his companion Mel who wants to go swimming. Fortunately there is one on the top floor. Unfortunately Mel didn't account being attacked by a giant plastic crab that looks so silly a 3 year old would probably want to play with it.

She screams.... a lot.
She is rescued (Sadly) by a guy called Pex, Pex is a coward who didn't want to fight in the war and is so wet I won't bother mentioning him again.

Anyway the Doctor gets captured escapes, gets captured and menaced by machines several times that give Sylvester McCoy ample time to gurn a lot throughout the 100 or so minutes these 4 godawful episodes carry on for.

He convinces the Kangs, Wet Boy, and some of caretakers who've not been bumped off yet to join together to fight the gay disco lights while Kroagnon takes over the mind of the Chief Caretaker and bumps him off for some reason. And then thankfully the episode ends.

I'd love to convince you this is so bad it's good, but it's not. It's shit.
In fact it's so bad the first time I watched this story it took me 4 attempts because I kept falling asleep and I've never watched it again since.

If you really want to see this then here is a trailer for it which actually makes it looks 100 times better than it actually is.


And here's the death of the Chief Caretaker in some of the worst acting you'll ever see.


In conclusion: Read J.G. Ballard's novel instead.

[Paul Smeenus]

[Neapolitan]

This is really a great idea, I'm really stoked about it. I already can't wait for the next installment. I'm under suspicion this is going to be epic. (I'm typing this while watching Doctor Who )

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

222: Fear Her

Doctor : 10th (David Tennant)
Companion : Rose Tyler (Billie Piper)
Series : 2 (New)
Originally Transmitted: 24 June 2006

Before seeing this episode it had 2 things going for it. The first was it was written by Matthew Graham who was the guy responsible for the brilliant Life On Mars & Ashes To Ashes. The second being it had Nina Sosanya acting in it who was great in Teachers and Nathan Barley. Unfortunately this was an episode written as a last minute replacement when a script due to be written by Stephen Fry fell through.

The story is about a girl called Chloe Webber.


Chloe becomes possessed by an alien called an Isolus an alien life form used to travelling in packs of millions that has crashed on earth. The alien gives Chloe the power to trap people by drawing pictures of them. For some reason the alien causes her to draw a big picture of her now dead abusive father in the closet. the alien also causes her to do some of the most wooden child acting ever witnessed.


The Doctor & Rose arrive and promptly start patronising everybody in the most smug and annoying way possible displaying everything I ever hated about the David Tennant era in one cringe inducing scene where he gets everybody to to be quiet as they put their fingers against their mouths, which I guess is supposed to be funny but just makes you want to punch the irritating twat in the face.


And when I say smug, I mean SMUG


The Doctor realises what's happening, that the alien is abducting people because it wants company and if they can find and repair it's pod it will release all the people trapped, but he is trapped too. Rose finds the pod and the Doctor somehow manages to show her how to power it, with heat & emotion. Meanwhile Chloe wants to trap the entire world


Fortunately the Olympic Torch just happens to be passing the house at that exact moment in time (Thank God this was set in 2012 and not 2006 huh?) so Rose lobs the pod over the flame and powers it up and the alien goes home. This means all the people re-appear but sadly this also means her dead father will appear but they manage to calm Chloe down enough to prevent this.

The Doctor returns there's more smugness and kissing


But the Olympic Torch is lying on the ground, who will save the day!!????!!!!?????
The Doctor runs out and in possibly the most gut wrenchingly over-sentimental pieces of drivel ever committed to celluloid in the name of Doctor Who the Doctor picks up the torch runs to the stadium to the sounds a gushing newscaster broadcasting to the world, and as the saccharine musical score reaches it's vomit inducing crescendo the Doctor lights the Olympic flame and the spirit of the Olympics and the world is saved.


And the Doctor looks smug about it


In short this is the Russell T Davies & David Tennant era displaying it's worst traits. And to make it worse this episode was screened directly after the hideously bad 'Love & Monsters'.
It's a miracle the internet didn't explode.

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

221: Revenge Of The Cybermen

Doctor : 4th (Tom Baker)
Companions : Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter)
Series : 12
Originally Transmitted: 19th April -10th May 1975

The Cybermen are on a mission to destroy Voga, the planet of Gold.Gold being lethal to Cybermen.


They decide to do this using the most phallic spacecraft ever.


After three and a half episodes of pointless running around someone finally realises...
HEY WE'RE STANDING ON A PLANET MADE OF FUCKING GOLD,
LET'S USE IT TO KILL THE CYBERMEN
They use the gold to destroy the Cybermen on the planet which then enables them to get to and fire a rocket at the giant dildo in orbit to bump off the remaining Cybermen

Tom Baker's expression just about sums this story up for me.



Still, on the bright side this story did give us this wonderful scene.

[Unknown Soldier]

Firstly Urban it's great to see you back, this place is not the same without you

Secondly this journal is an amazing coincidence as about three months ago I decided to watch and read again every single Doctor Who story. Recently I picked up about 100+ novelisations of the TV series cheaply and decided to read and watch them at the same time and adding the ones that I don't have bit by bit. For example I'll read the Giant Robot novel and then watch the Giant Robot series, as the books quite often go into more depth than the TV series and then compare them.

Instead of starting in order, I decided to follow the novelisations release dates which started back in 1973, so most of the stuff that I've been reading and watching is the from the Jon Pertwee era. At the moment I've covered (using the novel titles here):

The Daleks, The Zarbi, The Crusaders, Auton Invasion, Cave Monsters, Doomsday Weapon, Day of the Daleks, The Daemons, Sea Devils, Abominable Snowmen, Curse of Peladon, The Cybermen, Giant Robot, Terror of the Autons and The Green Death .

I see that you've left Moonbase and Abominable Snowmen off your list, but I thought there was enough available to get an overall feel to rate both stories.

As for your list so far:

I always liked Paradise Towers as it was Doctor Who at its tackiest, but I'll admit I'd be damned embarrassed to watch it with a non-Doctor Who fan. Revenge of the Cybermen is a strange one, it was the long return of the Cybermen and the first Tom Baker season closer. It also came after the classic Genesis of the Daleks (possibly the greatest Who story) so it's a mystery why it was so bad.

Also no point in mentioning On the Buses and Blakey here, as I doubt any American readers will know what and who they are

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

I see that you've left Moonbase and Abominable Snowmen off your list, but I thought there was enough available to get an overall feel to rate both stories.

The reason I left The Moonbase and The Abominable Snowmen off the list is simply because I only wanted to include stories that have more than half of the story still existing. In fact I just realised I forgot put The Crusade in that list too which is going to screw my numbering up.
Both have 4 episodes and have 2 missing. I don't mind doing a 6 or an 8 parter with 2 missing like Reign of Terror, Ice Warriors or The Invasion, but I think 2 out of 4 is pushing it. Plus I wanted to stick to the ones that are commercially available, or will be.

I never read the Target books as a kid. I think I'm the next generation after you, it was all about Fighting Fantasy books when I was a kid. In fact I didn't even know Target books existed till I was about 16 or 17. I do remember buying the novelisation of The Enemy Of The World because I found it interesting that it was totally different to the usual monster stories of the Troughton era, plus I was thinking I would never get to see that story. I was really happy it was that story they discovered last month.
I was more about the New Adventures books which had just started being released around that time.

I also love the Pertwee era, in fact I'm hard pressed to find a Pertwee era stinker. Even Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a great story, it's just the dinosaur moments are total crap. But there's a cracking story going on around it.

And I'll never get tired of mentioning Blakey, no matter what Americans think.
I bet Holiday On The Buses is on TV sometime over the next week.

[Trollheart]

I echo the sentiments here, especially WELCOME BACK! You have been seriously missed! No, really, you have.

It's also something of a little coincidence you're doing this, as Unknown Soldier tried to get me to include DW as part of The Couch Potato, but I told him that I really only know properly the "new" Who. Although like you I watched the classic Who as a kid I was a kid and don't remember much of it. So it's great you're doing this. This also gets the Trollheart/Couch Potato Seal of Approval.

I'll be reading with interest.

Happy Christmas man! And again,welcome back!

[Unknown Soldier]

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

The reason I left The Moonbase and The Abominable Snowmen off the list is simply because I only wanted to include stories that have more than half of the story still existing. In fact I just realised I forgot put The Crusade in that list too which is going to screw my numbering up.
Both have 4 episodes and have 2 missing. I don't mind doing a 6 or an 8 parter with 2 missing like Reign of Terror, Ice Warriors or The Invasion, but I think 2 out of 4 is pushing it. Plus I wanted to stick to the ones that are commercially available, or will be.

Moonbase is one of my favourite Cybermen stories and its also one of the most underrated as well, as it sits near the far better known Tenth Planet, Invasion and the masterpiece Tomb of the Cybermen (surely a candidate for top spot)

I never read the Target books as a kid. I think I'm the next generation after you, it was all about Fighting Fantasy books when I was a kid. In fact I didn't even know Target books existed till I was about 16 or 17. I do remember buying the novelisation of The Enemy Of The World because I found it interesting that it was totally different to the usual monster stories of the Troughton era, plus I was thinking I would never get to see that story. I was really happy it was that story they discovered last month.
I was more about the New Adventures books which had just started being released around that time.

The Target books are superb and I'd say that around 50% of them are actually better than the TV versions. For example The Cave Monsters book is better than the TV version, as it adds more depth to the history of the Silurians and also gives them individual names etc. On the other hand the Sea Devils book is not as great as the Sea Devils TV version (which is probably one of the very best Pertwee stories) Sure Enemy of the World is an oddity in the Troughton era.

I also love the Pertwee era, in fact I'm hard pressed to find a Pertwee era stinker. Even Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a great story, it's just the dinosaur moments are total crap. But there's a cracking story going on around it.

The Pertwee era was quite revolutionary at the time as it was obviously the first season in colour, the Doctor initially grounded to Earth and no recognised enemy until his third season. The first season was unique (some I know regard it as the best season ever in Who) and the second with the Master in every story was also special with the legendary Roger Delgado.

I always think of the Jon Pertwee era as being solid throughout with no real weaknesses and the only weak link being the constant use of UNIT which by the end of his era, had long gone by their use by date.