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Is Love & Monsters REALLY that bad? No, no it isn't.
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00:00Doctor Who has always been a show of varying quality.
00:04Hello, The Caves of Androzani, followed immediately by The Twin Dilemma.
00:07Ooh, yikes.
00:08This obviously gives fans ample fodder for creating best and worst episode lists.
00:13And yes, we do have several of those on the channel, so do go check them out, please.
00:17But today we're here to argue for those episodes that have a bit of an undeserved reputation.
00:22Whether they were unfairly treated at the time and have grown in appreciation in the years since,
00:27or are widely considered bad but have redeeming elements that might just make you think twice.
00:32I'm Ellie for Who Culture and these are 10 Doctor Who episodes we were way too harsh on.
00:37Number 10.
00:38Boomtown
00:39While Series 1 is considered a resounding success after returning Doctor Who to TV screens,
00:45revamping the show's format, and introducing Christopher Eccleston as a new modern take on
00:50The Doctor, one of the episodes generally seen as a low point is Boomtown.
00:54Though not necessarily hated upon first broadcast, it was generally seen as a dud episode,
01:00a low-stakes, slow-paced, filler sandwiched between two all-time great two-parters,
01:05The Empty Child and the Doctor Dances and Bad Wolf and the Parting of the Ways.
01:09Viewed outside of all the excitement and momentum of 2005 and Series 1's success, however,
01:16and Boomtown's perceived negatives become its strengths.
01:19Amidst all the chaos of new companions, world-ending Dalek threats, and regenerating Doctors,
01:25Boomtown allows the TARDIS team to slow down, giving us our only real glimpse of how the
01:30nine-rows Captain Jack dynamic works on an average adventure.
01:34Boomtown also contains one of the best and most underappreciated scenes in all of Series 1,
01:40when the Doctor and Margaret Blaine go for a hot dinner date.
01:43It's a simple dialogue scene that's equal parts funny and dark, providing more valuable insight
01:49into the Ninth Doctor's war-damaged psyche, while giving Eccleston and Annette Badland
01:53some brilliant little moments to play off of each other.
01:569. The TV Movie
01:58The 1996 Doctor Who TV movie has never had a particularly solid reputation within the fandom.
02:06A one-off failed pilot for a prospective American reboot of the series, its melodramatic tone,
02:12greater emphasis on action and romance, and younger, more dashing Doctor was seen as sacrilege
02:17in some corners of the fandom at the time. And to make matters worse, it also failed to capture
02:22the imagination of a new audience, making all of its changes and the development hell it endured to
02:28get there seem utterly futile. But in the years since, so many of the TV movies' perceived sins
02:33have become normalised. Though seen as a massive break with tradition at the time,
02:38it was in fact just the show once again changing with the times, as Doctor Who does better than
02:42any other franchise. The film's more romantic and action-oriented take on the Doctor went on to
02:48serve as something of a blueprint for the revival series, while Paul McGann's 8th Doctor has continued
02:52to grow in appreciation, to the point that he's now a firm fan favourite, and is usually the
02:58first name thrown around whenever potential Hooniverse spin-offs are discussed. In a way,
03:02the TV movie was ahead of its time, though you'd have a hard time convincing fans of that in 1996.
03:088. It Takes You Away
03:10Most people's memories of It Takes You Away tend to be focused on a single moment at the end,
03:16the bit where the Doctor has a heartfelt conversation with a sentient universe posing as a frog.
03:21Admittedly, it's a very surreal image, and compared with the rest of the episode's fairly low-key
03:25visuals, we're not hugely surprised it's the bit that has stuck in most fans' minds. However,
03:30its enduring reputation as the one with the talking frog has led to a lot of people forgetting just
03:35how good the rest of the episode is. Rewatch it again with fresh eyes, and It Takes You Away is
03:40actually one of the most heartfelt stories of the Whittaker era, cleverly exploring themes of loss,
03:45abandonment, and grief. Not only that, it's one of the few episodes from series 11 and 12 that uses
03:50the four-person TARDIS team to its advantage, with Graham, Ryan, and Yaz all having their own unique
03:57perspectives on what's happened, influenced by their own life experiences. Even the Doctor's final
04:02conversation with the frog can be heart-wrenching if you can look past the inherent absurdity of the
04:08visuals. Saving the day in a way other than simply defeating the baddie is always a nice change,
04:13and Jodie Whittaker really sells that the Doctor genuinely does consider the sole attractive friend,
04:18and is sad to see them go. 7. Day of the Daleks
04:22Updated special edition DVDs of classic Doctor Who episodes are a contentious issue within the
04:28fandom. Is there anything to be gained from replacing old, outdated effects with new CGI? Or is doing so
04:34simply removing the charm that made those original episodes so good? But if there's one episode where
04:38this debate is reasonably one-sided in favour of modern DVD effects, it's Day of the Daleks. An
04:44intriguing political thriller involving human rebels travelling back in time to try and assassinate
04:49someone, only to cause the very war they're trying to avoid, the story had all the elements that would
04:54make it seem like it was on track to be an early 70s classic. There is, however, one issue. The entire
04:59story builds towards one final confrontation between Unit and the Daleks, a confrontation that is sadly
05:05undercut by the episode's budget, meaning that there were only three Dalek props available. Hardly an epic
05:11battle, is it? Worst of all, one of those was the gold-painted Supreme Dalek, making it impossible for the
05:17production team to disguise that the intended invading army was, in fact, a trio of Daleks wobbling about a
05:22field. The end result was so anticlimactic that it completely overshadowed the rest of the story. This is where the
05:28DVD special edition comes in. While there are many replacement effects and CGI additions, its main selling point is the
05:34increase in the Dalek invasion force, giving the final conflict the scale that was intended, and allowing the rest of the
05:41episode to shine unencumbered.
05:436. Dragonfire
05:45Dragonfire is an episode that regularly crops up in Doctor Who supercuts, compilations, and lists, and it's almost always for the
05:52same reason. It contains one of the worst cliffhangers in Doctor Who history. And while there's no arguing that the Doctor
05:58inexplicably deciding to hang himself off a cliff for seemingly no other reason than the episode getting close to the
06:0425-minute mark isn't utterly ridiculous, it does rather overshadow the rest of the story. Because beyond its bizarrely
06:10literal cliffhanger, Dragonfire is actually a fairly enjoyable and well-put-together example of late 80s Who. It
06:17features a unique setting, fun plot, the return of Sabalon Glitz, and, perhaps most importantly of all, the
06:23introduction of fan-favorite companion Ace and her trusty Nitro-9 explosives. And the cherry on top, one of the
06:30most shockingly graphic deaths in the show's history, where the BBC's effects crew pay homage to Raiders of the
06:36Lost Ark and melt the villain's face on screen. And while it's unlikely to end up an example of how the show gained a new
06:42lease of life right before cancellation, like Remembrance of the Daleks or the Curse of Fenric, it is still
06:47representative of how Doctor Who was still putting out good stories into the late 1980s.
06:525. Wild Blue Yonder
06:55At the time of the 60th anniversary special's airing, Wild Blue Yonder seemed like a bit of an odd one-out.
07:02Sandwiched between the return of Donna Noble in The Starbeast and the Toymaker's return and 15th Doctor's
07:07arrival in The Giggle, it was hard not to see the comparatively conventional middle entry as a bit of
07:12a placeholder, a single-standard adventure to fill the space between two important event episodes.
07:18In the time since, though, the fandom has broadly come to view Wild Blue Yonder as the best
07:22of 2023's specials. While the aforementioned big events were certainly exciting to watch live,
07:28the episodes that surrounded them weren't necessarily anything special, and at times arguably struggled
07:33under the weight of all the introductions, reintroductions, and major lore changes.
07:38By comparison, Wild Blue Yonder stands out in being simply a very good episode of Doctor Who.
07:42It's intriguing, scary, exciting, and the only real opportunity for David Tennant and Catherine Tate to slip
07:48back into their old roles and have a properly traditional Doctor companion dynamic, unencumbered
07:53by bi-generations, returning 60s villains, and half the cast of Series 4. And it also got Wilf at the end
07:59too. We love to see Wilf. And as the RTD2 era went on, it turned out that Wild Blue Yonder might actually
08:05be the most important of the three specials, with the Doctor's salt line having monumental influence on
08:11the subsequent series.
08:134. The Trial of a Time Lord
08:15In many ways, it's actually surprising that Trial of a Time Lord ended up being as good and coherent
08:21as it is. Possibly the season of Doctor Who with the most stacked against it from a production standpoint,
08:27it saw the show returning after an 18-month hiatus, with a reduced episode count and absolutely
08:32decimated budget. The producer's solution? Combine the season's four stories into one gigantic story arc
08:38involving the Doctor being put on trial by the Time Lords for his crimes of interference.
08:43The results are infamously mixed, with the Trial of a Time Lord arc quickly devolving into a barely
08:49followable legal drama that would randomly interrupt stories just to reiterate what had already been
08:54said, and to cram in some more back-and-forth verbal sparring between the Doctor and his prosecutor
08:59and would-be executioner, the Valiard. But while the overarching trial concept ended up something
09:04of a failed experiment, the episodes within this framing device do actually have some merit to them.
09:10The Mysterious Planet is admittedly one of Robert Holmes' weaker efforts, but Mind Warp is one of the
09:15Sixth Doctor's very best outings, with its uniquely bleak tone and unusually grim fate for Perry proving
09:21highly memorable. And Terror of the Vervoids is fun in its own ridiculously campy way, with some truly
09:26terrifying, if slightly iffy-looking, creature designs. Even The Trial itself has some redeeming qualities,
09:32if only in how unintentionally comedic the Sixth Doctor's endless reaction faces are,
09:37and how funny it can be to try and decipher Gallifrey's utterly incomprehensible legal system.
09:433. Love and Monsters
09:45Love and Monsters is probably the Revival series' first generally accepted bad episode. There were,
09:52of course, mixed reactions beforehand, with episodes like The Long Game, Boomtown,
09:56and The Idiot's Lantern coming in for a fair amount of criticism. But Love and Monsters might just be the
10:01first time since Rose that the entire fandom came together and agreed, this episode sucks.
10:06Recently, though, Love and Monsters has undergone a bit of a reappraisal. There are still some dodgy
10:11elements, like the Absorbloth's design never quite working on screen, or the extremely misguided and
10:16bizarre slab fetish joke. But other elements, like the relentlessly down-to-earth approach,
10:21even by Russell T. Davis's standards, and Linda's dynamic as a group, have aged pretty well.
10:26It could be argued that, in a lot of ways, the episode was damned by being the first proper
10:31Doctor Light episode in the show's history. And while later episodes like Blink and Turn Left
10:36would inarguably improve on this format, they also massively benefited from Love and Monsters
10:40having set the precedent that not every episode is going to have the Doctor. Watching it back
10:45knowing this, rather than expecting a more traditional episode, it's easier to appreciate
10:49the things it does right, as well as its missteps. 2. Warriors of the Deep
10:55If there's any story that could hold the undesirable title, the episode that killed Doctor Who,
11:01it's 1984's Warriors of the Deep. Infamously, BBC One controller Michael Grade used a scene
11:06involving the episode's Murka monster as evidence of why the series was past its prime and deserving
11:12of cancellation. And the thing is, you can see why. Doctor Who might have a reputation for wobbly
11:18sets and bubble wrap monsters, but the Murka is, even by 80s Who standards, quite rubbish and
11:23impossible to take seriously. And the less said about someone trying to karate kick it to death,
11:28the better. The rest of the production design doesn't fare much better, with the script's
11:32leaky, dangerous undersea base being primarily realised as bland white corridors. Looking past
11:37the production design, however, and there are still elements worth appreciating in Warriors of
11:42the Deep. Contrasting the tensions of the Cold War with the armies of the Silurians and the
11:46Sea Devils is engaging, while the Doctor's final melancholic statement that there should have
11:51been another way is one of the best endings of any Fifth Doctor story. Sure, it has its problems,
11:56and I'm not trying to claim that it's some ignored masterpiece on the levels of the Caves
12:00of Andrazani, but it's also not as irredeemably bad as something like The Twin Dilemma, and it's
12:05at least worth another watch before dismissing it.
12:091. Sleep No More
12:11While Series 9 is often heralded as one of the high points of Revival Doctor Who, if there's an
12:16episode that's considered the series' low point, it's undoubtedly Sleep No More. Its found footage
12:22format, which was already overdone at the time, failed to strike a chord with the fandom at large,
12:27and in the years since it has been relegated to the status of a failed experiment that is the one
12:31black mark against an otherwise high-quality series. However, being the worst episode of a good
12:36series isn't necessarily the same thing as being bad, right? Sleep No More has suffered unfairly
12:42under the weight of comparison with such strong episodes like The Zygon Inversion and Heaven
12:46Sent, and it made a respectable attempt at bringing the found footage genre to Doctor Who.
12:51It also incorporated it into the episode's narrative in a unique way, with the twist reveal that the
12:56episode has been created by its villain as a way of spreading the sleep virus proving genuinely quite
13:01shocking. And sure, the idea of monsters composed of the sleepy dust found in the corner of people's
13:06eyes might be a little ridiculous, but so are gigantic radioactive maggots, robotic Egyptian mummies,
13:11and shop window dummies with hidden laser guns in their hands. Just saying.
13:16And that concludes our list, but if you think we missed some, then please do let us know in the
13:20comments down below. Which episodes do you think deserve a bit of a reappraisal? In the meantime,
13:24I've been Ellie for WhoCulture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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