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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 WhoCulture and these are 10 Doctor Who episodes we were way too harsh on.
00:3710. Boomtown
00:40While 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,
01:15however, and 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 nine
01:31rows 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.
02:05A 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
02:27to get there seem utterly futile. But in the years since, so many of the TV movies' perceived
02:33sins have 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 eighth Doctor has
02:52continued to grow in appreciation, to the point that he's now a firm fan favourite, and is usually
02:57the first name thrown around whenever potential Hooniverse spin-offs are discussed.
03:01In a way, the TV movie was ahead of its time, though you'd have a hard time convincing fans
03:06of that in 1996.
03:08Number 8. It Takes You Away
03:11Most people's memories of It Takes You Away tend to be focused on a single moment at the
03:15end, the bit where the Doctor has a heartfelt conversation with a sentient universe posing
03:20as a frog. Admittedly, it's a very surreal image, and compared with the rest of the episode's
03:24fairly low-key visuals, we're not hugely surprised it's the bit that has stuck in most fans' minds.
03:29However, its enduring reputation as the one with the talking frog has led to a lot of people
03:34forgetting just how good the rest of the episode is. Rewatch it again with fresh eyes, and It Takes
03:39You Away is actually one of the most heartfelt stories of the Whittaker era, cleverly exploring
03:44themes of loss, abandonment, and grief. Not only that, it's one of the few episodes from series 11
03:49and 12 that uses the four-person TARDIS team to its advantage, with Graham, Ryan, and Yaz all having
03:56their own unique perspectives on what's happened, influenced by their own life experiences.
04:01Even the Doctor's final conversation with the frog can be heart-wrenching if you can look past the
04:06inherent absurdity of the visuals. Saving the day in a way other than simply defeating the baddie is
04:12always a nice change, and Jodie Whittaker really sells that the Doctor genuinely does consider the
04:17soul-attractive friend and is sad to see them go.
04:20Number 7. Day of the Daleks
04:23Updated 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,
04:33or is doing so simply removing the charm that made those original episodes so good?
04:37But if there's one episode where this debate is reasonably one-sided in favour of modern DVD effects,
04:43it's Day of the Daleks. An intriguing political thriller involving human rebels travelling back
04:48in time to try and assassinate someone, only to cause the very war they're trying to avoid,
04:52the story had all the elements that would make it seem like it was on track to be an early
04:5670s
04:57classic. There is, however, one issue. The entire story builds towards one final confrontation
05:02between Unit and the Daleks, a confrontation that is sadly undercut by the episode's budget,
05:07meaning that there were only three Dalek props available. Hardly an epic battle, is it?
05:12Worst 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
05:21wobbling about a field. The end result was so anticlimactic that it completely overshadowed
05:26the rest of the story. This is where the DVD special edition comes in. While there are many
05:30replacement effects and CGI editions, its main selling point is the increase in the Dalek invasion
05:36force, giving the final conflict the scale that was intended, and allowing the rest of the episode
05:41to shine unencumbered.
05:436. Dragonfire
05:46Dragonfire is an episode that regularly crops up in Doctor Who supercuts, compilations, and lists,
05:51and it's almost always for the same reason. It contains one of the worst cliffhangers in Doctor
05:56Who history. And while there's no arguing that the Doctor inexplicably deciding to hang himself
06:00off a cliff for seemingly no other reason than the episode getting close to the 25-minute mark
06:05isn'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
06:15of late 80s Who. It features a unique setting, fun plot, the return of Sabalon Glitz, and,
06:22perhaps most importantly of all, the introduction of fan-favourite companion Ace and her trusty Nitro-9
06:27explosives. And the cherry on top, one of the most shockingly graphic deaths in the show's history,
06:33where the BBC's effects crew pay homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark and melt the villain's face on
06:38screen. And while it's unlikely to end up an example of how the show gained a new lease of
06:42life 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.
06:535. Wild Blue Yonder
06:56At the time of the 60th anniversary special's airing, Wild Blue Yonder seemed like a bit of an
07:01odd one out. Sandwiched between The Return of Don and Noble in The Star Beast and The Toymaker's
07:05Return and 15th Doctor's Arrival in The Giggle, it was hard not to see the comparatively conventional
07:11middle entry as a bit of a placeholder, a single-standard adventure to fill the space between
07:16two important event episodes. In the time since, though, the fandom has broadly come to view
07:21Wild Blue Yonder as the best of 2023's specials. While the aforementioned big events were certainly
07:26exciting to watch live, the episodes that surrounded them weren't necessarily anything
07:31special, and at times arguably struggled under the weight of all the introductions,
07:35reintroductions, and major lore changes. By comparison, Wild Blue Yonder stands out in
07:40being simply a very good episode of Doctor Who. It's intriguing, scary, exciting, and the only real
07:46opportunity for David Tennant and Catherine Tate to slip back into their old roles and have a properly
07:50traditional Doctor companion dynamic, unencumbered by bi-generations, returning 60s villains, and half
07:56the cast of Series 4. And it also got Wilf at the end too. We love to see Wilf. And
08:01as the RTD2 era went
08:03on, it turned out that Wild Blue Yonder might actually be the most important of the three specials,
08:08with the Doctor's salt line having monumental influence on the 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
08:26standpoint, it saw the show returning after an 18-month hiatus, with a reduced episode count
08:31and absolutely decimated budget. The producer's solution? Combine the season's four stories into
08:37one gigantic story arc involving the Doctor being put on trial by the Time Lords for his crimes of
08:42interference. The results are infamously mixed, with the Trial of a Time Lord arc quickly devolving
08:48into a barely followable legal drama that would randomly interrupt stories just to reiterate what
08:53had already been said, and to cram in some more back-and-forth verbal sparring between the Doctor
08:58and his prosecutor and would-be executioner, the Valiard. But while the overarching trial concept
09:03ended up something of a failed experiment, the episodes within this framing device do actually
09:08have some merit to them. The Mysterious Planet is admittedly one of Robert Holmes' weaker efforts,
09:13but Mind Warp is one of the Sixth Doctor's very best outings, with its uniquely bleak tone and
09:19unusually grim fate for Perry proving highly memorable. And Terror of the Vervoids is fun in its own
09:24ridiculously campy way, with some truly terrifying, if slightly iffy-looking creature designs.
09:30Even the trial itself has some redeeming qualities, if only in how unintentionally comedic the Sixth
09:35Doctor's endless reaction faces are, and how funny it can be to try and decipher Gallifrey's utterly
09:41incomprehensible legal system.
09:433. Love and Monsters
09:45Love and Monsters is probably the Revival series' first generally accepted bad episode. There were,
09:51of 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.
10:522. Warriors of the Deep
10:55If there's any story that could hold the undesirable title, the episode that killed
11:00Doctor Who, it's 1984's Warriors of the Deep. Infamously, BBC One controller Michael
11:05Grade used a scene involving the episode's Mirka monster as evidence of why the series
11:10was past its prime and deserving of cancellation. And the thing is, you can see why.
11:15Doctor Who might have a reputation for wobbly sets and bubble wrap monsters, but the Mirka is,
11:20even by 80s Who standards, quite rubbish and impossible to take seriously. And the less
11:25said about someone trying to karate kick it to death, the better. The rest of the production
11:29design doesn't fare much better, with the script's leaky, dangerous undersea base being
11:34primarily realised as bland white corridors. Looking past the production design, however,
11:38and there are still elements worth appreciating in Warriors of the Deep. Contrasting the tensions
11:43of the Cold War with the armies of the Silurians and the Sea Devils is engaging, while the Doctor's
11:48final melancholic statement that there should have been another way is one of the best endings
11:53of any fifth Doctor story. Sure, it has its problems, and I'm not trying to claim that it's
11:58some ignored masterpiece on the levels of the Caves of Androzani, but it's also not as irredeemably
12:03bad as something like The Twin Dilemma, and it's at least worth another watch before dismissing it.
12:08Number 1. Sleep No More
12:11While Series 9 is often heralded as one of the high points of Revival Doctor Who,
12:16if there's an episode that's considered the series' low point, it's undoubtedly Sleep No More.
12:21Its found footage format, which was already overdone at the time, failed to strike a chord with the
12:26fandom at large, and in the years since it has been relegated to the status of a failed experiment
12:30that is the one black mark against an otherwise high-quality series. However, being the worst
12:35episode of a good series isn't necessarily the same thing as being bad, right? Sleep No More
12:41has suffered unfairly under the weight of comparison with such strong episodes like The Zygon Inversion
12:46and Heaven Sent, 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
13:00genuinely quite shocking. And sure, the idea of monsters composed of the sleepy dust found in
13:05the corner of people's eyes might be a little ridiculous, but so are gigantic radioactive maggots,
13:10robotic Egyptian mummies, and shop window dummies with hidden laser guns in their hands.
13:14Just saying. And that concludes our list, but if you think we missed some, then please do let us
13:19know in the comments down below. Which episodes do you think deserve a bit of a reappraisal? In the
13:24meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
13:30So, let's see.
13:30We're here.
13:30We have a couple of questions that we have.
13:30Let's see.
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