- 8 hours ago
20 terrible moments from 20 years of modern Doctor Who.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
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
00:18Criticizing 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
00:45skeletal scorpion body. Poor Mark Gatiss. What did they do to you? The sad part is that the actual
00:50concept of this episode in Lazarus desiring youth and longevity is a very interesting one, but the
00:56moment the monster is revealed, all credibility is lost, and it struggles to regain it for the rest
01:01of the runtime. Let's hope for a special edition remaster one day. Number 19. A Family Conversation,
01:08Resolution. What's frustrating about this particular moment is that writer Chris Chibnall actually makes
01:14a really funny 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 in
01:32the
01:32form 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 Shackree, 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
02:28close-up inserts of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan against a green screen, and the scene is so chaotic
02:33that it's hard to follow exactly what you're watching. We also never actually see any of the
02:37cubes defibrillate 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
02:47roughly 93% of Doctor Who resolutions, but this one was clunkier than most.
02:53Number 17. Male Presenting Time Lord. The Starbeast.
02:57The Starbeast arrived with enormous levels of hype back in 2023, though it ended on a bit of a weird
03:03note 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 12th 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,
03:47and it's a strange moment in an episode that otherwise made important strides with trans
03:51representation in Doctor Who. Number 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 inner
04:10Mr. Fantastic to give Rory the fright of his life in the bathroom is more laughable than anything else.
04:15Just let us live! There's a distracting contrast throughout the story between the excellent
04:20practical effects work of The Flesh Doppelganger's normal humanoid forms, and some of the over-egged CGI
04:26monstrosities they turn into. Bonus points in this category for the big hulking four-legged Jennifer
04:31Beast at the end of The Almost People, but it's her earlier toilet encounter with Rory that truly
04:36takes 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 the
04:48Doctor, 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 in
05:08a happy relationship with Tom Milligan for crying out loud. He was a great guy! And then you go and
05:12lump her with Mickey the Idiot for literally no reason. Did those two characters ever share a single
05:17line of dialogue together? I mean, come on, Russell. You're making this list way too easy.
05:21Number 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.
05:45The 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. Not exactly a
06:00great note to start your bold new Doctor Who era out on. Number 13. The systems aren't the problem.
06:07Kablam! Kablam! is one of the strongest episodes in Jodie Whittaker's first year as the 13th Doctor.
06:13But oh boy does it fumble the bag at the end. Given the current AI boom, the story almost feels
06:19ahead of
06:19its 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 in one
06:29of
06:29many examples of the episode sticking up for the working man and woman. That is until writer Pete
06:33McTie decides to pivot and give two big thumbs up to the blood-sucking corporation by having the Doctor
06:39declare the systems aren't the problem, before doing very little to prevent Charlie from being blown to
06:44smithereens. McTie either didn't understand his own message, or worse, willfully ignored it.
06:49For the Doctor to not acknowledge that Kablam! exploiting its workers and treating them like dirt
06:53is the problem is just bad writing and very un-Doctor-like, resulting in a clunky and muddled
06:59end to the episode. Number 12. Farting Slitheen. Aliens of London.
07:04The 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 Britain
09:05sketches. We see laughing puppets, sad clowns, weeping angels, and even overly stern parents,
09:11all representing the fears of the story's core cast. Most of these fears are effectively portrayed,
09:15but one that doesn't fare so well is this laughable gorilla which attacks Lucy Hayward during the
09:21pre-title sequence. Now, sure, the BBC didn't have the budget to call in Andy Serkis for a bit of
09:26mo-cap, but was this thing supposed to look so fake? Either way, this bizarre sight completely
09:32destroys the tension of the scene, as does the unusual choice to add a toilet-flushing sound
09:36effect as the gorilla lumbers out of the bathroom. So, is Lucy scared of gorillas in general or
09:41gorillas in toilets? Who trained that gorilla to use an indoor toilet? Why did it take the toilet
09:45paper out of the bathroom? We could go on, but let's just summarise by saying it's cringy and I
09:50don't like it. 9. Random Girl Appears in a Bush in the Forest of the Night
09:55In the Forest of the Night is certainly an episode of Doctor Who. It's actually a pretty great premise
10:01for a Hooniverse story, but it's squandered under a mess of bad child acting and a dull plot that
10:06basically sees our characters walking in the woods for 40 minutes. It then ends on a big emotional
10:11moment that was aiming for Pixar but lands somewhere closer to the sci-fi channel, as kid protagonist
10:16Maeve is reunited with her sister- hang on, what even was her name again? Hold on one second,
10:21I need to google this. Annabelle! Ah yes, Annabelle, that very important and memorable Doctor Who
10:28character. By the time you get to the end of the episode, you'll almost certainly have forgotten
10:32why this final 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. At least
10:41we got a laugh out of it. Number 8, Thumb Sucking, Orphan 55. Honestly, the whole of Orphan 55 could
10:49have been on this list, but for the sake of everyone's health, we've limited our selections
10:53to just two moments from the episode. While everyone else is running around saving the day after things
10:58kick off at Tranquility Spa, Ryan is hiding under a table, sucking his thumb, which apparently stops
11:03hallucinations brought on by the Hopper virus. Okay then. As luck would have it, he meets fellow
11:07thumb sucker Bella, and the two bond over the course of the episode. Ryan is ultimately forced
11:12to leave Bella behind after she chooses to stay with her estranged mother and fight off the dregs,
11:17which could have been a tender goodbye, had Bella not decided to signal it by shoving her thumb in
11:22her mouth. It's a laughable attempt at forcing a meaningful emotional moment with some dramatic
11:26music and lingering close-ups. These characters have no real chemistry, and they're both just stood
11:31there sucking their thumbs like a pair of babies during the big action climax. All it's missing is for
11:35someone to yell Benny in the background, and the Razzies 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
11:50road
11:50on which she was abandoned as a baby. And at the end of Empire of Death, it's revealed that Ruby's
11:55mother chose the name by pointing at a street sign that magically appears before our very eyes at the
12:00end of the episode. Literally. It literally just appears out of nothing. Confusingly, Ruby's mother
12:05doesn't point at anything in the church on Ruby Road, she just walks off into the night. The
12:09pointing only starts in Space Babies, where it's framed as a portent of something sinister,
12:14which it isn't. Factor in that both the sign and the pole it's attached to don't even exist in the
12:19church on Ruby Road, and it's a plot development of head-scratchingly baffling proportions.
12:24It gets even worse with Russell T. Davis' recent reveal that Louise wished the lamp post
12:28into existence, which reeks of a guy just making nonsense up after the fact and claiming it was
12:33the plan all along. All we can say is it's a good job she didn't leave Ruby on Butthole Lane,
12:37which, before you ask, is 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
13:08messy
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
13:23entire notion out the window and suggests that Rory has good reason to feel uncertain.
13:27Obviously, the writers needed a way to get Rory into the TARDIS team, but this felt like the wrong
13:31choice for Amy's character. Wouldn't it have been more poignant for her to have opened up to her
13:36imaginary friend about her fears, and he then offered a way to help alleviate those worries?
13:40This just made Amy seem shallow and careless. And don't even get me started on how chill Rory seems to
13:45be about the whole thing in the next episode. He doesn't even ask her about it.
13:49Number 5. Chocolate.
13:51Chocolate. The Vanquishers.
13:54If you told someone in 2020 that one of the most divisive Doctor Who moments of the next few years
13:59would be a Sontaran addicted to chocolate, then you know what? They probably believe you.
14:03This is Doctor Who, and crazy stuff does happen. With the Potato Heads having finally conquered our
14:07feeble little rock, they start to get a taste of human culture, which leads to one particular
14:12Sontaran developing an insatiable appetite for our sweet, delicious chocolate.
14:16He stuffs it down his gullet like an excited kid on Christmas morning, before proclaiming
14:21CHOCOLATE with a crazy sugar-induced look in his eyes. It's quite gross actually, but
14:26also weirdly mesmerising. Chris Chibnall was initially praised for balancing the comedic
14:31and serious aspects of the Sontarans better than in the Moffat era, where they were 100%
14:36comedic relief. But then along came a couple of Mars bars to completely destroy all that good
14:40work. We don't remember any of the great Sontaran scenes in Flux anymore. All we remember
14:45is CHOCOLATE! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to scoff some Maltesers before the next entry.
14:51Number 4. The Slab Who Loved Me, Love and Monsters.
14:55Love and Monsters is often labelled as the worst episode of Series 2. And while I might disagree
15:00with that statement, I can absolutely agree that it includes one of the worst moments in the entirety
15:05of modern Doctor Who. We spend the whole episode waiting for Elton to pluck up the courage to admit
15:10his feelings to Ursula, only for her to end up being absorbed by the Absorbaloth before their
15:14relationship can blossom. Or so we thought. The ending vlog reveals that the Doctor managed to
15:19sort of save Ursula as a strange pavement face. A weird but happy ending then. That is until Elton
15:25reveals that they've even got a bit of a love life, leaving the older viewers with some truly horrific
15:30mental images and a lot of logistical questions. Did we really need to know about their love life?
15:36No. But as ever, Russell T. Davis just couldn't help himself. No doubt he was absolutely hooting while
15:41his keyboard typed these cursed words into the script.
15:44Number 3. Plastic Mickey, Rose.
15:47It's sort of a miracle that Rose was as successful in launching New Who as it was when you consider
15:53that it contains one of the worst moments in the modern era. Again, we can ignore the
15:57of the time CGI. But what we can't ignore is Plastic Mickey. His slapstick behaviour is pretty cringey and so
16:04on the nose that it really doesn't make sense that Rose doesn't notice it immediately. I mean,
16:09his reckless driving alone should have had alarm bells ringing. Some might argue that Rose being
16:13oblivious to it was meant to highlight her obsession with the Doctor and missing what's
16:17right in front of her. But it was a stretch too silly for me to believe that she wouldn't have
16:21gone, why are you being so weird? And don't even get me started on pizza, pizza, or that rubbish
16:27wheelie bin. Pun intended.
16:30Number 2. Benny! Orphan 55.
16:34Good lord, where do I even start with this one?
16:36Within one of the worst Doctor Who episodes ever made, we also have one of its cringiest
16:41moments for good measure, as poor sweet Vilma repeatedly cries out for her husband,
16:46Benny, after he's taken by the dregs. It's hard to know whether the acting or the writing
16:51is at fault, but practically every single time Vilma speaks, it's utterly laughable,
16:55clearly aiming for heartwarming but missing in spectacular fashion. The worst moment is Vilma
17:00and Benny's interaction inside the truck, where Benny's disembodied voice politely asks that
17:07he be put out of his misery rather than be left to the dregs. Despite the shell-shocked faces
17:11on the rest of the cast, it's just funny. On the plus side, Benny is now a truly iconic
17:16character in Doctor Who history, but not for the right reasons.
17:20Number 1. 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 this
17:29list.
17:30While 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 Kay
17:39is on screen as the Absorbaloff is just bad. Bad, bad, bad. And not good bad either. The kind
17:46of bad that gives Doctor Who a bad reputation. The kind of bad that wouldn't feel out of place
17:50in a comedy sketch. This alien may have been designed by a child, but that doesn't excuse
17:55the woeful direction and performance that brought it to life. And in fact, the world would
18:00be a better place had it never been brought to life at all. Peter Kay has since admitted
18:04that this episode is one of the only regrets of his career. And you know what? I can see
18:08why.
18:09And that concludes our list, but please do let us know in the comments down below if you
18:13think we missed a really obvious one. What is your worst moment in modern Doctor Who?
18:18In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself,
18:22goodbye, sweeties.
Comments