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20 terrible moments from 20 years of modern Doctor Who.
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00:00We've already covered the greatest of the great in an earlier video, so now let's take a dive
00:05into the baddest of the bad. I'm Ellie for Who Culture and these are the 20 worst moments in
00:11modern Doctor Who. Number 20. Lazarus' Transformation, The Lazarus Experiment
00:17Criticizing mid-2000s CGI from a 2025 perspective can often seem a little unfair,
00:24and so for the most part I can ignore and accept it. But the transformation of Professor Lazarus
00:29in the Lazarus Experiment was perhaps a little too ambitious for the resources available at the
00:35time. The intention was to create a terrifying hybrid scorpion-human monster, but instead the
00:40creature is laughable in the fact that the head looks completely out of place on top of the skeletal
00:45scorpion body. Poor Mark Gatiss. What did they do to you? The sad part is that the actual concept of
00:51this episode in Lazarus desiring youth and longevity is a very interesting one, but the moment the
00:57monster is revealed, all credibility is lost, and it struggles to regain it for the rest of the
01:01runtime. Let's hope for a special edition remaster one day. Number 19. A Family Conversation, Resolution.
01:10What's frustrating about this particular moment is that writer Chris Chibnall actually makes a really
01:15funny joke at first, only to beat you over the head with it and completely kill that momentum.
01:20Ryan's overly dramatic line,
01:21what a monster, in response to the reconnaissance scout Dalek shutting down all of the UK's
01:26internet on New Year's Day, works really well, only for the gag to drag on, and on, and on,
01:32in the form of a Family Guy-esque cutaway scene in which a horrified mother proclaims,
01:36I suppose we'll have to have a conversation, in front of her equally horrified kids.
01:41The how-do-you-do-fellow-kids energy is off the charts with this one, and it feels terribly
01:46misplaced during a part of the episode where the stakes are ramping up and we're hurtling
01:50towards the climax. You had your cake, Chibnall. Why did you have to try and eat it too?
01:55Number 18. An Unshaktacular Ending. The Power of Three.
02:01It's an open secret why the closing scenes of Stephen Berkhoff in The Power of Three are so
02:05poorly put together. The actor was allegedly so difficult to work with that an alternate
02:10resolution to the plot had to be scrambled together at the last minute, and that resolution
02:14left a lot to be desired. The Shaqree, played by Berkhoff, suddenly disappears,
02:18the Doctor waves his Sonic a bit, everyone looks slightly concerned, they jump through a hole,
02:23and it ends. Uh, what just happened? And why did it happen? Throw in some blatantly obvious close-up
02:29inserts of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan against a green screen, and the scene is so chaotic that
02:33it's hard to follow exactly what you're watching. We also never actually see any of the cubes
02:38defibrillate anyone back to life. There's no tension, no build-up, nothing. It all just amounts
02:43to the Doctor waving his Sonic at a sci-fi TV screen and saving the day. Now, to be fair,
02:47that's roughly 93% of Doctor Who resolutions, but this one was clunkier than most.
02:53Number 17. Male Presenting Time Lord. The Starbeast.
02:58The Starbeast arrived with enormous levels of hype back in 2023, though it ended on a bit of a weird
03:04note with Rose and Donna's lines to the Doctor that he doesn't understand because he's no longer a
03:09male-presenting Time Lord. There's nothing wrong with wanting to empower a particular group of
03:14people, but to put another group of people down in the process feels quite reductive and quite
03:18unlike Doctor Who itself. But what really makes this a misjudge moment is the fact that the Doctor
03:22was literally a woman literally several hours ago, and as a result, the very important gender-fluid
03:28aspect of the character feels like it's being conveniently ignored, at best. Moreover, the Doctor is an
03:33ancient alien from a society that has long since moved beyond our petty human obsession with gender.
03:38To quote the Twelfth Doctor. So of course they would understand, regardless of what form they're
03:43currently taking. It's not really clear what Russell T. Davis was trying to say or do here,
03:48and it's a strange moment in an episode that otherwise made important strides with trans
03:52representation in Doctor Who.
03:54Number 16. Rory's Bathroom Accident. The Rebel Flesh.
03:58Doctor Who and dodgy CGI. Name a more iconic duo. While there's a lot of great creepy body horror in
04:04Series 6, The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People, the scene in Part 1 where Jennifer channels her
04:09inner Mr. Fantastic to give Rory the fright of his life in the bathroom is more laughable than
04:14anything else. Just let us live! There's a distracting contrast throughout the story between
04:20the excellent practical effects work of The Flesh Doppelganger's normal humanoid forms and some of
04:25the over-egged CGI monstrosities they turn into. Bonus points in this category for the big hulking
04:30four-legged Jennifer Beast at the end of The Almost People, but it's her earlier toilet encounter with
04:35Rory that truly takes the rubbish biscuit. Number 15. Martha Marries Mickey? The End of Time Part 2.
04:43Poor Martha. She spent the entirety of Series 3 playing second fiddle to Rose in the eyes of
04:48the Doctor, discovered her self-worth and removed herself from an unrequited love situation,
04:53only to be written into a marriage with none other than Rose's rejected ex, Mickey. Seemingly for no
04:58other reason than they were two of the spare characters from RTD1, and he wanted to cram
05:03them both into the End of Time Part 2's already overly self-indulgent farewell tour. Martha was
05:08in a happy relationship with Tom Milligan for crying out loud. He was a great guy! And then
05:12you go and lump her with Mickey the Idiot for literally no reason. Did those two characters
05:16ever share a single line of dialogue together? I mean, come on, Russell. You're making this list
05:20way too easy. Number 14. Dodgy CGI Baby Mouths. Space Babies.
05:26While I can let the mid-2000s CGI issue slide, the same cannot be said for an episode that released
05:33in 2024. Space Babies could have been a stronger episode if it wasn't for the overly distracting
05:39CGI mouth movements of the talking babies. This very much feels like an example of less is more.
05:44The babies could and should have spoken through a toy, or even telepathically. Much less work in
05:50post-production, not to mention cheaper. And yet, by adding the extra detail of moving mouths,
05:55the whole concept fell flat and became more of a gimmick than a clever use of VFX.
06:00Not exactly a great note to start your bold new Doctor Who era out on.
06:04Number 13. The systems aren't the problem. Kablam!
06:09Kablam! is one of the strongest episodes in Jodie Whittaker's first year as the 13th Doctor.
06:14But oh boy does it fumble the bag at the end. Given the current AI boom, the story almost feels ahead
06:19of its time in its warnings about 90% of jobs being overtaken by machines.
06:23They want us to be grateful that 10% of people get to work, bemuses maintenance worker Charlie,
06:28in one of many examples of the episode sticking up for the working man and woman.
06:32That is until writer Pete McTie decides to pivot and give two big thumbs up to the blood-sucking
06:37corporation by having the Doctor declare the systems aren't the problem, before doing very little
06:42to prevent Charlie from being blown to smithereens. McTie either didn't understand his own message,
06:47or worse, willfully ignored it. For the Doctor to not acknowledge that Kablam! exploiting its
06:52workers and treating them like dirt is the problem is just bad writing and very un-Doctor-like,
06:57resulting in a clunky and muddled end to the episode.
07:01Number 12. Farting Slitheen. Aliens of London.
07:05The idea of ugly green aliens with uncontrollable flatulence who disguise themselves as members of
07:09Parliament sounds like something a child would submit to the show, but alas, this gem came from
07:14the mind of Russell T. Davis. Aliens of London is full of many great moments, including a spaceship
07:20crashing into Big Ben, a crossover from what would eventually become Torchwood, Harriet Jones' debut,
07:25Rose returning home after she was believed abducted, and even good old Space Pig. But the Slitheen
07:30letting rip every two seconds is not one of its strong suits. In particular, the scene where a
07:34bemused General Asquith encounters a trio of piping public servants inside a room in Downing Street.
07:39We get the metaphor, Russell, but that doesn't make it clever or insightful. While many areas of that
07:44original 2005 series have aged very well indeed, this certainly isn't one of them.
07:49Number 11. Sea Devil Sword Fight. Legend of the Sea Devils.
07:54The climax of Legend of the Sea Devils is a confusing mess, and basically the whole episode
07:59could go on this list. But if I had to pick one moment, it's the thrilling sword fight that
08:04happens near the end. And yes, thrilling is in air quotes. Chopperly edited, badly directed,
08:09and confusing as hell. It's a neat summation of the episode itself, which to be fair, was a bit of
08:14a rush job as we were coming out of the pandemic, which no doubt impacted production. Oh, and it was
08:19also written in basically three days, which I mean, you can kind of tell. This should have been a grand
08:23epic return for the Sea Devils after decades away. And this sequence should have been awesome,
08:28but it wasn't. And what makes it extra rubbish is the painfully obvious ADR'd line from the Doctor,
08:33don't let the swords touch your skin. Really? Gee, thanks for that, Doc. I was totally gonna let
08:38them whack me before you said something. Frankly, it's a relief when Ji-hun finishes off that Sea
08:43Devil on the floor, as it meant we didn't have to watch any more of this scene, and the episode
08:47itself was over quicker. Number 10. Toilet-trained gorilla. The God Complex. The God Complex is a
08:54genuinely unsettling episode of Doctor Who about a hotel with rooms containing everyone's darkest fears.
09:00It co-stars comedian David Walliams, whose room is presumably full of outdated Little
09:05Britain sketches. We see laughing puppets, sad clowns, weeping angels, and even overly stern
09:10parents, all representing the fears of the story's core cast. Most of these fears are effectively
09:15portrayed, but one that doesn't fare so well is this laughable gorilla which attacks Lucy
09:20Hayward during the pre-title sequence. Now sure, the BBC didn't have the budget to call in Andy
09:25Circus for a bit of mo-cap, but was this thing supposed to look so fake? Either way,
09:30this bizarre sight completely destroys the tension of the scene, as does the unusual choice to add
09:35a toilet-flushing sound effect as the gorilla lumbers out of the bathroom. So is Lucy scared
09:39of gorillas in general, or gorillas in toilets? Who trained that gorilla to use an indoor toilet?
09:44Why did it take the toilet paper out of the bathroom? We could go on, but let's just summarise
09:48by saying it's cringey and I don't like it. 9. Random girl appears in a bush in the forest of
09:55the night. In the forest of the night is certainly an episode of Doctor Who. It's actually a pretty
10:00great premise for a Hooniverse story, but it's squandered under a mess of bad child acting and a
10:05dull plot that basically sees our characters walking in the woods for 40 minutes. It then ends on a big
10:10emotional moment that was aiming for Pixar, but lands somewhere closer to the sci-fi channel,
10:15as kid protagonist Maeve is reunited with her sister, hang on, what even was her name again?
10:20Hold on one second, I need to google this.
10:25Annabelle! Ah yes, Annabelle, that very important and memorable Doctor Who character.
10:29By the time you get to the end of the episode, you'll almost certainly have forgotten why this
10:33final scene is relevant, and that's if you cared enough to remember in the first place.
10:36Bonus points for the hilarious sight of Annabelle just crouching in a bush for no reason.
10:41At least we got a laugh out of it.
10:42Number 8, Thumb Sucking, Orphan 55
10:46Honestly, the whole of Orphan 55 could have been on this list, but for the sake of everyone's
10:51health, we've limited our selections to just two moments from the episode. While everyone else is
10:56running around saving the day after things kick off at Tranquility Spa, Ryan is hiding under a table,
11:01sucking his thumb, which apparently stops hallucinations brought on by the Hopper virus.
11:05Okay then. As luck would have it, he meets fellow thumb sucker Bella, and the two bond over the
11:10course of the episode. Ryan is ultimately forced to leave Bella behind after she chooses to stay
11:15with her estranged mother and fight off the dregs, which could have been a tender goodbye had Bella
11:19not decided to signal it by shoving her thumb in her mouth. It's a laughable attempt at forcing a
11:24meaningful emotional moment with some dramatic music and lingering close-ups. These characters
11:29have no real chemistry, and they both just stood there sucking their thumbs like a pair of babies during
11:33the big action climax. All it's missing is for someone to yell, Benny, in the background, and the
11:38Razzies would be flowing in.
11:41Number 7. Wish Upon a Lamp Post. Empire of Death.
11:45When we first met Ruby Sunday in the church on Ruby Road, we're told that she was named after the road on
11:50which she was abandoned as a baby. And at the end of Empire of Death, it's revealed that Ruby's mother
11:55chose the name by pointing at a street sign that magically appears before our very eyes at the end of
12:00the episode. Literally. It literally just appears out of nothing. Confusingly, Ruby's mother doesn't
12:06point at anything in the church on Ruby Road, she just walks off into the night. The pointing only
12:10starts in Space Babies, where it's framed as a portent of something sinister, which it isn't.
12:15Factor in that both the sign and the pole it's attached to don't even exist in the church on
12:20Ruby Road, and it's a plot development of head-scratchingly baffling proportions. It gets even worse with
12:25Russell T. Davis' recent reveal that Louise wished the lamp post into existence, which
12:30reeks of a guy just making nonsense up after the fact and claiming it was the plan all along.
12:34All we can say is it's a good job she didn't leave Ruby on Butthole Lane, which, before you ask,
12:38is a real street in England. Look, there it is, right there, on Google Maps.
12:43Number 6. Amy Kisses Eleven, Flesh and Stone
12:46The Doctor has had his fair share of kisses in the modern era, but one of the most uncomfortable
12:51moments comes at the end of Flesh and Stone when Amy pounces on Eleven. Firstly, Amy just spent two
12:57episodes watching the Doctor and River flirting to high heaven, and even deduce that River is his
13:03wife. So to then make a move on him seems like a major violation of the girl code, and very messy
13:08when we realise that River is her daughter. But even more egregious is the fact that Amy is literally
13:13set to marry Rory in the morning. The entire basis of their relationship is that Rory always feels
13:18second best compared to the Doctor, and yet Amy always chooses him. But this moment throws that entire
13:23notion out the window and suggests that Rory has good reason to feel uncertain. Obviously,
13:27the writers needed a way to get Rory into the TARDIS team, but this felt like the wrong choice
13:32for Amy's character. Wouldn't it have been more poignant for her to have opened up to her imaginary
13:36friend about her fears, and he then offered a way to help alleviate those worries? This just made Amy
13:41seem shallow and careless. And don't even get me started on how chill Rory seems to be about the
13:45whole thing in the next episode. He doesn't even ask her about it. Number five. Chocolate. The
13:53Vanquishers. If you told someone in 2020 that one of the most divisive Doctor Who moments of the next
13:59few years would be a Sontaran addicted to chocolate, then you know what? They probably believe you. This
14:03is Doctor Who, and crazy stuff does happen. With the Potato Heads having finally conquered our feeble
14:08little rock, they start to get a taste of human culture, which leads to one particular Sontaran
14:13developing an insatiable appetite for our sweet, delicious chocolate. He stuffs it down his
14:17gullet like an excited kid on Christmas morning, before proclaiming CHOCOLATE with a crazy sugar
14:23induced look in his eyes. It's quite gross actually, but also weirdly mesmerising. Chris Chibnall was
14:29initially praised for balancing the comedic and serious aspects of the Sontarans better than in
14:34the Moffat era, where they were 100% comedic relief. But then along came a couple of Mars bars to
14:39completely destroy all that good work. We don't remember any of the great Sontaran scenes in Flux
14:43anymore. All we remember is CHOCOLATE! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to scoff some Maltesers before
14:49the next entry. Number four. The slab who loved me. Love and Monsters. Love and Monsters is often
14:57labelled as the worst episode of Series 2. And while I might disagree with that statement, I can absolutely
15:02agree that it includes one of the worst moments in the entirety of modern Doctor Who. We spend the
15:07whole episode waiting for Elton to pluck up the courage to admit his feelings to Ursula. Only for
15:11her to end up being absorbed by the Absorbaloft before their relationship can blossom. Or so we
15:16thought. The ending vlog reveals that the Doctor managed to sort of save Ursula as a strange pavement
15:22face. A weird but happy ending then. That is until Elton reveals that they've even got a bit of a love
15:27life. Leaving the older viewers with some truly horrific mental images and a lot of logistical
15:33questions. Did we really need to know about their love life? No. But as ever, Russell T. Davis just
15:38couldn't help himself. No doubt he was absolutely hooting while his keyboard typed these cursed words
15:43into the script. Number three. Plastic Mickey. Rose. It's sort of a miracle that Rose was as successful
15:50in launching New Who as it was when you consider that it contains one of the worst moments in the
15:55modern era. Again, we can ignore the of the time CGI. But what we can't ignore is Plastic Mickey.
16:01His slapstick behaviour is pretty cringy and so on the nose that it really doesn't make sense that
16:06Rose doesn't notice it immediately. I mean, his reckless driving alone should have had alarm bells
16:11ringing. Some might argue that Rose being oblivious to it was meant to highlight her obsession with
16:15the Doctor and missing what's right in front of her. But it was a stretch too silly for me to
16:20believe that she wouldn't have gone, why are you being so weird? And don't even get me started on
16:24pizza! Pizza! Or that rubbish wheelie bin. Pun intended.
16:28Number two. Benny! Orphan 55. Good lord, where do I even start with this one? Within one of the
16:37worst Doctor Who episodes ever made, we also have one of its cringiest moments for good measure,
16:42as poor sweet Vilma repeatedly cries out for her husband, Benny, after he's taken by the dregs.
16:49It's hard to know whether the acting or the writing is at fault, but practically every single time
16:53Vilma speaks, it's utterly laughable. Clearly aiming for heartwarming, but missing in spectacular
16:58fashion. The worst moment is Vilma and Benny's interaction inside the truck, where Benny's
17:05disembodied voice politely asks that he be put out of his misery rather than be left to the dregs.
17:10Despite the shell-shocked faces on the rest of the cast, it's just funny. On the plus side,
17:14Benny is now a truly iconic character in Doctor Who history, but not for the right reasons.
17:19Number one. The Absorbaloff, Love and Monsters.
17:24Love and Monsters is so bad that it holds the dubious honour of being given a second entry in
17:29this list. While the rest of the episode is actually pretty sweet and an interesting story to tell,
17:34it all goes down the toilet in the final 15 minutes. Every single second that Peter K is on
17:39screen as the Absorbaloff is just bad. Bad, bad, bad. And not good bad either. The kind of bad that
17:46gives Doctor Who a bad reputation. The kind of bad that wouldn't feel out of place in a comedy sketch.
17:51This alien may have been designed by a child, but that doesn't excuse the woeful direction and
17:57performance that brought it to life. And in fact, the world would be a better place had it never
18:01been brought to life at all. Peter K has since admitted that this episode is one of the only
18:05regrets of his career. And you know what? I can see why.
18:09And that concludes our list. But please do let us know in the comments down below if you think we
18:14missed a really obvious one. What is your worst moment in modern Doctor Who? In the meantime,
18:19I've been Ellie for Who Culture and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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