This one is tricky. It’s harder to decide on a least favorite than it is on a most favorite! There are the meh/mediocre stories that I simply don’t find very interesting. There can be some good lines or scenes but as a whole they do not grab my attention that much.
No Classic stories jump to mind. I even like weird ones like Ghostlight. Maybe the Gunfighters? Because of ALL THAT SINGING! Now, I like musicals (The Greatest Showman! *Faints*), but this just did not work in this story. At all.
Even in my post on one of my two favorite series, with my favorite Doctor (other than Tom), I really did not like Face the Raven. It just got me mad because it did not make sense – in a bad way (yeah, the show has way more than one instance of not making sense, but most of the time it doesn’t bother me), and that Clara’s death didn’t seem to mean anything. Frankly, I was glad she was brought back in Hell Bent (and a lot of people did not like Hell Bent). And when I re-watched it earlier this year, I as even more mad because it made even less sense. Though I do want to re-watch it again, to see if I am missing something. And maybe one day I will go into more depth of why I don’t like it…
Next on the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Favorite Couple
The Christmas episodes have become a annual even since the show returned in 2005. And there are 2….3? Great episodes of them
First is A Christmas Carol, a sci fi spin on Charles Dickens’ classic story (which is, sort of sci fi in itself with the time traveling with the ghosts and Scrooge)
(And let’s not forget a earlier episode that took place on Christmas, with Dickens, and ghosts, although it did not air on Christmas: The Unquiet Dead.)
Another favorite Christmas episode is The Husbands of River Song.
This one was a lot of fun, Madcap-y, slapstick-y, with some dark overtones, and an introduction to a new character (Nardole).
One of the best scenes is below, when River doesn’t know that she is with the Doctor (she knew all the previous incarnations of the Doctor, except the current one). So the Doctor sort of plays along with it, but constantly drops hints. Which brings about the below:
I ma not one for romantic movies or romance novels, but even I was kind of hoping they would kiss at the end. It was so sweet!
And the other great Christmas episode was the 2016 Return of Doctor Mysterio (this followed exactly a year of no Who. that was a difficult year, in more ways than one). If you have seen the 1979 Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, the setting and certain scenes will look very familiar. While I am not really into the current super hero movies, I loved the 1979 Superman movie when I was a kid. So seeing this was a pure delight.
Below is shortly after we meet young Grant, who loves comic books
And the ending was a call back to Husbands of River Song and 12’s short speech about things ending was very touching.
A couple weeks after this episode aired, Peter Capaldi announced that the following series would be his last. And a bunch of us cried over that, and referred back to this speech.
Next on the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Favorite Cybermen Story
The enemy of the Doctor who helped save Doctor Who: the Daleks. Probably the most famous enemy that the Doctor has. And they were there from almost day1, While not my favorite enemy (I feel they are used waaay tooo much), they are cool and intimidating, and loud. Also cool to draw.
Again, a tie!
Classic Who
Genesis of the Daleks is my first pick. The story that introduced Davros. And in Tom Baker’s first season as the 4th Doctor., only his 4th story.
My other favorite Classic Who story is Remembrance of the Daleks. Aired during season 25. I think that they should have made this the 25th anniversary episode instead of Silver Nemesis, but the BBC knew better (*clears throat* ahem). It takes place in and around Coal Hill school in November 1963, right after the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara had left. And we see the junkyard again (albeit the door to the junkyard is not right, but that’s me being nit-picky)
And one of my favorite little bits. Made me freak when I first watched it. Weird Real World/In Universe type of things.
https://youtu.be/heaneTFht6s
Sadly, due to weird copyright issues, this one (along with just a few other Classic Who Dalek stories) is not on BritBox.
New Who
Got to be Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar. One of the reasons why I loved series 9.
Side Note
And a special acknowledgement for the Peter Cushing’s films as Dr. Who from the 1960s. Only two were made, and both had the Daleks. I have not seen these since I was a young fan, and have been meaning to re-watch them. After 30 years, it will be like watching it for the first time.
Next on Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Least Favorite Season/Series
It’s time to grab the tissues, because in this installment of the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge, we have the Saddest Moment. Or Moments since I’m so good at having ties. There’s a couple different types of answers I’ll give for this. One is the Real World answer. And three others would be within the show itself.
Real World
December 6, 1989, was when the last part of Survival aired. It would be the last episode of (what is now called) Classic Who since Michael Grade and others at the BBC cancelled it. And there were no new tv stories until 1996 with the single TV movie. And then not again until 2005 with the successful reboot. While there were the books, comics, official magazine, not having Doctor Who on TV was very sad for us old time fans.
Within the Doctor Who Universe
There are several sad moments, both from Classic and New Who. The saddest Classic moment to me is the death of Adric, as he sacrifices himself to save Earth in the story Earthshock. Companions deaths rarely happened in Classic Who, so this was a shock (sorry, bad pun) to me as a young fan.
New Who has three that top it for me.
While not a death, the wiping of Donna’s memories of her adventures with the Doctor in Journey’s End was breathtakingly sad. Even though he did it to save her due to the meta-crisis, it still…. just…couldn’t he have wiped out just enough for her to be safe but not everything? Ugh. They did address this a couple times during Capaldi’s era.
The other New Who saddest moment is the death of Amy and Rory in Angels Take Manhattan. Or rather the time adjusted death of them due to the Weeping Angel. I saw this with a large group of fans and we were all balling our eyes out.
The below video takes place shortly after the above scenes (kind of shortly after? Time travel messes with ya). Arthur Darvill who played Rory, did a voiceover for his letter to Rory’s dad. Interesting to point out that P.S. is written by the new showrunner, Chris Chibnall. It was released by teh BBC 3 years after the episode, and nicely concludes the story. Shame they didn’t shoot it!
…. Oh, yeah, The Doctor Falls. Just the whole freaking episode. I was still so emotionally worn out after that episode that when Twice upon a Time aired, it didn’t affect me near as much when he actually regenerated.
Next on the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge- Favorite Spinoff
It’s a tie. Again. If I was doing this 4 years ago, there would have been only one.
Series 4
The 10th Doctor and Donna Noble are my favorite Doctor-Companion matchup in New Who and when ever they are together, it’s just wonderful. Put them in a good story, and that’s even better!
I remember when it was announced that Catherine Tate was going to return, and most fans weren’t that excited because most were “meh” about the Runaway Bride (“Pockets!”). I don’t remember having much of a feeling either way. But then the series started and with everyone getting more familiar with Donna, a large number of us fell in love with her. I like Runaway more after series 4 ended. But uuugh, that ending. Heartbreaking sad :'(.
Favorite episodes were The Fires of Pompeii, and The Unicorn And The Wasp.
Also up high are The Doctor’s Daughter and Silence in the Library/Forrest of the Dead, Turn Left, and the Christmas episode that year: The Next Doctor (I kept guessing the whole time if that other guy was really the Doctor or not). The rest are quite enjoyable (don’t care for Midnight all that much, though many people love it. Maybe because Donna wasn’t in it?).
I am looking forward to the steelbook of this series (already have 1-3, 9 and 10!)
Series 9
When I saw the trailer for series 9, I was not impressed. And then I heard that it would be mostly 2 parters, one of those stories being an “under siege” story. All which I hadn’t really cared for much in the past. So I had low expectations going in.
Then the opening scene happened,
And the boy tells the Doctor his name.
My jaw dropped and said “Nooo waaayy!”, and I was hooked. And later he comes out wearing Ray Bans, playing electric guitar (the Doctor Who theme, btw), on a rolling tank, to a crowd of people (did I mention this is happening during the Middle Ages?)
And Missy was fantastic! Clara and Missy forced to work together was wonderfully wicked. And I loved the second part, “The Witch’s Familiar”
Then “Under The Lake” started. This was the “under siege” story. And I feel in love with this one as well. IT was also nice to see a woman being in charge who also had to be deaf. And don’t even think about messing with her or her crew. And the cards scene shown below is adorable (I need cards like that!)
And Before the Flood started with the below scene and I was having a blast.
Which was immediately followed by the theme song, a special rock version with Peter Capaldi, the Doctor himself, playing the guitar.
There was actual time travel in this episode! Not only traveling back to the same spot many many years earlier, but then later traveling back again and seeing themselves and the Doctor having to tell the others not to be seen by their otherselves. I loved that!
The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived were a disappointment, Didn’t totally buy into the way the reason was given for why 12 chose the face of Caecilius from the Fires of Pompeii story. And Ashildr wasn’t as strong as I was hoping. Good scene of her and the Doctor talking in her library/study. So much potential in this 2 parter, but fell flat for me.
The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion were very good. More Osgood is always good!. And that speech at the end! *GASP* So powerful.
Sleep No More gets an A for trying something new with it’s storytelling Falls kind of flat, but I liked what they were trying to do with it. But every single time I wipe my eyes, I think of this (CURSE YOU GATISS!!)
Face The Raven drives me batty with how much it doesn’t make sense – in a bad way. Loads of fans love it but I tried watching it again a couple month ago to see if time would change my mind, and I disliked it even more the second time than the first. One thing it had that I did like was similarities to a certain John Green book, Paper Towns, but in this episode it’s trap streets rather than paper towns. By coincidence(?), for the Doctor Who The Fan Show where they discussed this episode, one of the guests was Rosianna Halse Rojas who was/is John’s assistant. And I loved her Q&A 🙂 NERDFIGHTERS!) Well, the other thing I liked was the Doctor’s velvet coat. And the line “You’ll find it is a very small universe when I’m angry with you” was very, very good.
https://youtu.be/bV03ZTT_hyc
Heaven’s Sent was amazing with it’s successful different storytelling angle, much stronger than Sleep No ore. Wonderfully directed by Rachel Talalay.
And while many loved Face the Raven, it seems like just as many hate Hell Bent. And I love it. The repeating throughout the series of the Doctor’s “duty of care” of Clara (well, all of his companions, really) is very moving. And this story was also directed by Rachel Talalay.
I’ll end this here. One day, I might do a more analysis of the episodes from both series, but these are my major ones 🙂
Next in the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Favorite Theme Song
Rolling right along with the Doctor Who challenges, we have the hardest question. Hundreds of stories. Only one winner. (“There must be only one” – Highlander voice).
This. This is really difficult. I could choose one story from each Doctor. Or one from Classic Who and another from New Who.
Hmmmm…. I might do the latter.
Yes, yes, I think I might…
Classic Who (1963-1989)
Just picking one story from the classic era is hard enough. Seven Doctors. Dozens of companions. Still hundreds of stories.
An Unearthly Child
Have to give it to the one that started everything. The first part, not so much the caveman story that followed. Just An Unearthly Child. What introduces the world to the companions everyday life, their curiosity about one of their students. The Doctor, who is not very social. And his ship that his granddaughter nick-named the TARDIS – Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.
I have seen this a number of times, and never have gotten tired of it. I love how things have remained, like the console (well, the things on the console and how it looks change over time but the basic purpose has remained). Commenting on how the TARDIS is alive. The sound of the TARDIS taking off.
https://youtu.be/aXBmQz2r2M8
https://youtu.be/hRsfKK34SFY
New Who (2005-Present)
Not nearly as many stories, but still a difficult pick.
Day of the Doctor
But it goes to The Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary episode bonanza. Multi-Doctor story featuring the 11th, 10th, and a “new” Doctor – the War Doctor. Had classic bickering of the Doctors yet also finding a way to work together because they knew what was at stake.
Plus a big cameo towards the end, so big it caught me totally by surprise that I tweeted all in caps after I caught my breath. And when I saw it in the theaters a couple days later, everyone in the theater went crazy (and some of us had already seen by then and we were still excited by it). But I won’t say who it is for any new fans who haven’t seen it yet. Spoilers 😉
Well, there was another very brief cameo, which everyone also was very excited about and cheered loudly in the theater. I even had a screen-capture of his eyes on the top of my blog before his episodes even aired because I had a feeling I would like him.
Of, course, there are many, many, episodes/stories that I love,And maybe I’ll write about my “Top Ten episodes”, or something. But this will have to do for now 🙂
To help get this blog going again, I’m going to take on a Doctor Who 30 Day challenge (there are several out there, I picked one I liked). The image below is the lineup of challenges, and I hope to have them done by the time the new Doctor makes her (it is weird to write that) appearance. If I am really lucky, I can do it on consecutive days. The below challenge is one I found on the Doctor Who group on Amino.
Day 1 – Favorite Doctor
Right, let’s start with the most asked/biggest question, shall we?
Most of my 30+ years of being a Whovian, the 4th Doctor – the jelly baby offering, loooong scarf wearing, teethy grinning, “Do I have the right?” saying – has always been at the very top of my list. I love them all, but the 4th just has not been out-beaten. Not exactly a controversial favorite since almost everyone loves him, some exclusively only him.
But a couple years ago he became tied by the 12th Doctor. The angry eyebrows, hair of amazing, sonic shade wearing, guitar playing actor who was an ultra Doctor Who fan from toddler age and wrote sooo many fan letters to the BBC as a child and teen that some people at the BBC wished he would go away – has been tied with 4 since the end of series 9. (And I noticed that he is the 4th numbered Doctor in New Who. Coincidence?). Part of the reason why he is tied is how he played the role. Another reason is how Peter interacts with fans, going above and beyond the normal expectations of someone famous.I’m going to miss him sooo much! :'(
Recommended episodes
4th Doctor
Genesis of the Daleks
City of Death
Shada
12th Doctor
The Magician’s Apprentice/Witch’s Familiar (2 parts)
Undere the Lake/Before the Flood (another 2 parts – and immediately follows the 2 parter above)
The Eaters of Light
Post Script – It took me 5 days to write this (well, and the fitting of things onto the page). Don’t think I can do one everyday, but I hope to finish the challenge before series 11 starts!
But it goes to The Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary episode bonanza. Multi-Doctor story featuring the 11th, 10th, and a “new” Doctor – the War Doctor. Had classic bickering of the Doctors yet also finding a way to work together because they knew what was at stake.
.
Most of my 30+ years of being a Whovian, the 4th Doctor – the jelly baby offering, loooong scarf wearing, teethy grinning, “Do I have the right?” saying – has always been at the very top of my list. I love them all, but the 4th just has not been out-beaten. Not exactly a controversial favorite since almost everyone loves him, some exclusively only him.