In the most recent episode of Radio Free Skaro (#538), a question was posited asking the hosts to name the worst stories for each Doctor. I thought that a rather interesting question especially in light of my most recent review in The Sensorites which did make the list for some of them. Of course, a number of stories they cited were ones that I haven't gotten to yet so I thought it would be interesting as a slight detour to look at my own best and worst stories that I've reviewed so far.
By my count, I've reviewed 143 stories so far out of 269 stories available (when you combine New Series two-parters into single stories). So I'm a little better than halfway through. Now, I've actually seen much more than this. I've seen all the New Series episodes and a number of Classic Series episodes that I've not gotten around to rewatching and reviewing. But, for continuity purposes, I'm going to restrict myself solely to stories that I have actually reviewed. I'll revisit this list as I approach completion and it'll be fun to see what has changed.
First Doctor
Best Story: The Time Meddler - The only 5 I've given in the William Hartnell era. It is interesting, funny, well-directed, and well acted.
Worst Story: The Romans - Perhaps a victim of overhype, but I found the contrast between farce and seriousness highly disjointing and nearly all the jokes failed to land with me.
Second Doctor
Best Story: The War Games - The War Games is just about everyone's default best story of the Troughton era, but it really is so good. The fact that it keeps you entertained for ten solid episodes, many of which have the back and forth that grows tiresome in other stories, just speaks to it's quality.
Worst Story: The Dominators - Again, the common answer. The Dominators is pretty boiler plate and it's supporting cast is not that engaging. It's decent enough to watch, but of what I've seen, it's at the bottom of the Troughton list.
Third Doctor
Best Story: Inferno - The Pertwee era is where my lack of reviews starts to show up as I have a much smaller list to work with. Inferno is pretty good but I recall there being a few flaws that stuck out in my mind. I'm going to be very curious to see if another story supplants it as I get more of the Third Doctor under my belt.
Worst Story: Death to the Daleks - This story felt cheap to me. I don't recall there being anything overly terrible about the story, although it was very standard Terry Nation with a slight twist, but it just looked like the money was gone.
Fourth Doctor
Best Story: The Seeds of Doom - There is so much to like about this story that it takes the top spot easily. I would be a bit surprised if any story manages to top it when I finish with the Tom Baker era.
Worst Story: The Invasion of Time - Four episodes of middling to bad chased by two episodes of dreck. It also has an absolutely terrible dismissal of a pretty good companion.
Fifth Doctor
Best Story: Black Orchid - While I have seen The Caves of Androzani, I have not officially reviewed it so expect this to change in the future. Still, this is a good story and it is one of the few stories with the three primary companions that actually makes good use of all of them.
Worst Story: The Visitation - I have actually not seen Time Flight yet so this also is likely to change. But The Visitation was awash in mediocrity and it set the template for the primary problem of the Davidson era where the three main companions would be sidelined in their incompetence for an actual interesting companion. That the villain in this story was pretty cheesy too didn't help.
Sixth Doctor
Best Story: The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet - The story where they finally got the Doctor and Peri's relationship right. It also had an entertaining story and some whit in the side dialogue. Easily one of the best Colin Baker ones.
Worst Story: The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe - I've not seen The Twin Dilemma yet so again, potential change. This story suffers from the writers being in the dark when they were forced to slap something together in haste. It was also a sorry end to what had been a pretty good set up.
Seventh Doctor
Best Story: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - This story still suffers from not telling the audience enough, but it does well in it's innovative sets and atmosphere. The in-jokes are also highly amusing and hint at the level of satire desired.
Worst Story: Silver Nemesis - I don't hold this story in the contempt that others do, but that doesn't make it a good one. The action is fun but the acting and story are pretty off with many of the worst aspects of the McCoy era showing forth in this story.
Eighth Doctor
I'm intentionally skipping Paul McGann as I have only seen Night of the Doctor. Without the movie or Big Finish, I don't have anything to rate.
Ninth Doctor
Best Story: The Unquiet Dead - I need to watch the two two-parters again to see if I want to change my mind, but this is a pretty good story and one of the best of the celebrity historicals.
Worst Story: Aliens of London/World War Three - The second episode was actually worse than the first but very little about this story worked. It was childish in it's humor and at times painfully drawn out. Easily the worst of the one series Eccleston run.
Tenth Doctor
Best Story: The Waters of Mars - A good villain, a good companion, and David Tennant at both his most sensitive and his most angry. I love the dark Doctor and this story brings it all in spades.
Worst Story: The Shakespeare Code - I debated with several stories here but while I roll my eyes at most of them, only this one genuinely annoyed me. It took everything I liked about Shakespeare and paired it with dumb story and bad acting. It is just painful for me to watch.
Eleventh Doctor
Best Story: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone - I thought very long about whether to go with this two-parter or Amy's Choice but it's so hard not to enjoy an Angel story, even if the second part is not quite as good as the first part. It's still a great story on the whole and one of the defining ones of the Matt Smith era.
Worst Story: Nightmare in Silver - This is another story that genuinely annoys me to watch. In addition to most of the characters being annoying, it feels like such a waste of potential with good actors, a decent writer and some potentially genuinely scary Cybermen. But it just falls so flat.
Twelfth Doctor
Best Story: Heaven Sent - Unquestionably my favorite Capaldi story and possibly my favorite of the New Series. It's just such a tour de force of acting and storytelling.
Worst Story: In the Forest of the Night - This one just annoyed me. Visually impressive but I can't say much beyond that. It's a story where I don't like any of the characters and felt both bored and annoyed while watching.
I look forward to revisiting this list and others like it when I've gone through the full catalogue. Until then though, on with the reviews.
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