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Which modern Doctor Who moments made you cringe, roll your eyes, or simply switch off? We tallied the votes to bring you the ultimate fan-sourced list of the show's most disappointing scenes since 2005.
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00:00The Doctor once said that every life is a pile of good and bad things, and the same is true
00:05of Doctor Who itself.
00:07A little while ago, we shared our least favourite moments in the modern series, and now we thought it would
00:12be fun to hear what you think.
00:15I'm Ellie for Who Culture, and these are the 20 worst moments in modern Doctor Who, according to you.
00:21Coming in at number 20, the scribble monster, Fear Her.
00:25Fear Her was going to make it onto this list somehow, but the daftest moment of all has to be
00:30the moment Rose opens a garage door and is attacked by a great big ball of scribbly-wibbly nothing.
00:36There's no two ways about it, the effect just looks naff.
00:40The blend between live-action and animated elements is horrendous, and the way the scribble suddenly shrinks when the Doctor
00:47freezes it is a bit of a joke.
00:49And what sort of threat was this thing meant to pose?
00:51It's funny watching the Doctor's hero moment as he runs to the rescue, coat flapping, Sonic in hand, when Rose
00:57has all the fear in her eyes of someone swatting away a fly.
01:01This one definitely should have been left on the drawing board.
01:05Drawing board, you see what I did there?
01:08I'll see myself out.
01:10Number 19, Empire of Flashbacks, Empire of Death.
01:14One of the biggest problems with the most recent era of Doctor Who was its over-reliance on nostalgia, including
01:21excessive use of flashbacks.
01:23Nowhere was this more obvious than in Empire of Death, when the Doctor and co. literally watch clips from Pyramids
01:28of Mars on a television monitor.
01:31It's one thing to do repeats or re-edits, so fans can brush up on their knowledge of past stories
01:36in their own time.
01:37But having characters literally just re-watch a story from 1975 feels cheap and lazy.
01:43And more than that, it suggests that knowledge of that story is essential and risks alienating new viewers.
01:49New series, Sue Tech needed to stand on his own feet.
01:52Or paws.
01:54But the clips show stuff dragged it all down and ultimately ended up pleasing no one.
01:59Number 18, The Reaper's Father's Day.
02:02Even an episode as critically acclaimed as Father's Day isn't beyond reproach when it comes to Doctor Who lowlights.
02:09The idea of creatures who are drawn to wounds in time isn't a bad one.
02:13And the Grim Reaper-inspired design, complete with scythe-like tails, is pretty cool.
02:18But the CGI is not entirely convincing.
02:21And beyond expanded media appearances, they've literally never come back.
02:25Given the number of time paradoxes we've had in the years since, it's weird that we've never seen them again.
02:30Particularly in the Moffat era, where time paradoxes were more common than the bloody Daleks.
02:35Above all, they just feel like a bit of an afterthought.
02:37Which is hardly surprising, given that they were only actually added to Father's Day in later drafts.
02:43Following concerns that it lacked a conventional monster of the week.
02:47Number 17, The Series 7 Title Sequences.
02:50One of the few constants in Doctor Who is the iconic opening title sequence.
02:55Well, unless your name rhymes with Peep Moe Floor.
02:58And then there was Series 7A, when they kept changing it every week.
03:02Part of a bigger plan to market each episode like a blockbuster movie.
03:06The problem was, rather than altering the existing titles from the ground up, they just slapped filters on top of
03:12them.
03:12As such, these five unique variants all ended up looking pretty similar.
03:16And really, really bad to boot.
03:19Like a cheap knock-off version of the real thing.
03:21We also got variants of the logo with a texture relating to that week's episode.
03:26Again, it was a cool idea, but they appeared so briefly that you have to wonder whether it was worth
03:30it.
03:31And some textures were more obvious than others.
03:33Yes, those are Dalek bumps on the Asylum of the Daleks logo.
03:37Not just random dots, believe it or not.
03:39We did then get a fully redesigned title sequence for Series 7B.
03:43Albeit one that was inferior to the 2010-2012 version in practically every way.
03:50Speaking of the visuals of the show, we know that Doctor Who fans love to design their own custom title
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05:02Number 16. Ryan Plays Call of Duty, The Ghost Monument
05:07With its sunny South Africa location filming, The Ghost Monument is one beautiful-looking episode.
05:13But the moment everything comes to a halt so Ryan can go and pretend he's in Call of Duty isn't
05:18the greatest thing ever, is it?
05:20In pretty much every single regard, it feels wrong, as if we've briefly strayed into a completely different TV show.
05:26Aside from the question of whether Ryan would seriously be stupid enough to do something like this in the first
05:31place,
05:31why doesn't the Doctor try harder to stop him?
05:33Oh, that's why. Chibnall needed a moment to further hammer home the guns-are-bad message,
05:39and forcing this sequence of utter nonsense was the best he could do to make that happen.
05:43The bullets versus brawn thing just feels like a very textbook oversimplified take on the Doctor's moral code.
05:50No one's defending Ryan's actions, but it does all feel a tad patronising.
05:54And pointless. Surely there are better ways to show that the Doctor doesn't approve of guns.
05:58Also, these sniper bots are meant to be highly skilled, precise, and effective guards.
06:03But they can't shoot this human when he's right in front of them? Come on.
06:08Number 15. The Bogeyman Reveal. Space Babies.
06:12Cast your minds back to May 2024.
06:14It was Doctor Who's big Disney launch, and they decided to go with a double bill comprising the Beatles and
06:20Talking Babies.
06:21We then get to the big reveal of Space Babies, that the Bogeyman stalking the corridors of the baby station
06:27is, drumroll please, made of bogeys.
06:30Beyond feeling far too childish for Doctor Who, it's just the most obvious twist imaginable, yet it's treated like it
06:37was written by bloody M. Night Shyamalan.
06:39Then there's all the it's snot slash it's not pun stuff too, which was just painful to watch.
06:45This isn't a CBBC show, guys.
06:47The sentiment of the Doctor saving the bogeyman is nice enough, but we've seen it all before a million trillion
06:52times.
06:53You have to wonder what the thought process was here.
06:56Did they really think, oh yes, new viewers are going to tune into this and think this is exactly the
07:00type of show we want to watch.
07:02It's honestly baffling to think that the people at the top all thought that this was a good first episode.
07:0714. The Twelfth Doctor's Midlife Crisis – The Magician's Apprentice
07:12Whether or not you agree that they went too far with the Twelfth Doctor's abrasive personality in Series 8, the
07:18transition into Series 9 was something else entirely.
07:22It would have made sense for 12 to mellow gradually over time, but instead we go straight from stern alien
07:27to cool, carefree grandad, as if he's had an off-screen midlife crisis.
07:32See the rockstar entrance in The Magician's Apprentice, where he's playing guitar on top of a tank in a medieval
07:38castle while wearing shades.
07:40We don't know that they're Sonic at this point, so he just looks like one of those twits who wears
07:45sunglasses indoors.
07:46Almost everything about him is different, from his more casual attire to the fact that he's happy to hug Clara.
07:52And don't get us started on the whole dude thing.
07:55We're meant to believe that this has all come on because the Doctor's scared he's going to die, or something.
07:59It's not the absolute worst thing ever to be put on screen, but it's definitely a bit weird.
08:04And you can see why people wouldn't click with it.
08:07Number 13 – The Goblin Song – The Church on Ruby Road
08:10Cast your mind back to December 2023.
08:14Doctor Who's 60th anniversary specials are hurtling towards their climax, and we're gearing up for the 15th Doctor's debut.
08:20The BBC announced that the upcoming Christmas special was going to feature a song sung by baby-eating goblins,
08:26which, naturally, everyone who'd be watching with family was thrilled about.
08:30And sure enough, come Christmas Day, the cringe was palpable for many.
08:34And maybe that was the intent, not least because of the lyrics.
08:37Such gems as,
08:38Baby butter for the baby scones, and eat with our teeth better than beef.
08:43And the Grammy goes to…
08:45No.
08:46Looking back, what we can now say about the Goblin Song is that it feels rather forced.
08:51Doctor Who can be anything, but this goes so far into Disney musical territory,
08:55that it barely feels like Doctor Who anymore.
08:58While Russell T. Davis' mission to make the show a viral hit feels more like the driving influence here,
09:03rather than, you know, the actual story.
09:05We can also say that the Doctor and Ruby somehow keeping the song going,
09:09picking up the tune perfectly, and inventing new lyrics on the spot,
09:12doesn't make a lick of sense.
09:14I mean, is Doctor Who just magic now?
09:16Does have a catchy tune, though, to be fair.
09:19A definite toe-tapper.
09:21Number 12 – The diseased people attack New Earth
09:24Doctor Who has had some truly incredible transformation sequences over the years.
09:29Doctor Constantine becoming a gas-masked zombie.
09:32Mr. Halpin turning into a nude.
09:34That one was grim.
09:35Then, at the other end of the scale,
09:37you've got the infections inflicted by the diseased people in New Earth.
09:41First, there's the sequence where they infect Sister Jat.
09:44It should be a huge moment as the diseased people finally get their own back on the creatures who imprisoned
09:49them.
09:49But everything about it looks so fake that it just makes you laugh instead.
09:53Equally laughable is the woman outside the lift,
09:55who stays frozen to the spot as the diseased people infect her,
09:59making basically no attempt to escape.
10:01And the shot that follows Matron Casp's infection,
10:04where we're meant to believe she's falling down a lift shaft,
10:07but the angle and speed are completely off.
10:10It's a shame, because the visual effects elsewhere in the episode,
10:13like the diseased people themselves, are pretty good.
10:15And yes, it is a bit harsh to be ragging on CGI from 20 years ago,
10:20but it is pretty funny, so we do give it points for that.
10:23Number 11.
10:25Splice.
10:26Boom.
10:26Stephen Moffat's 2024 comeback episode, Boom,
10:30was generally deemed to be a success,
10:32and certainly an improvement on the double bill that opened season one.
10:36But there was one thing that got on people's nerves.
10:39Splice.
10:39The first person to stumble upon the Doctor and Ruby,
10:42Splice adds to their problems as soon as she hears her late father's hologram,
10:47and doesn't let up until the very end.
10:49Which is kind of the point.
10:50The whole story is about a situation that goes from bad to worse,
10:54with the Doctor constantly one false move away from death.
10:57But Splice's actions feel so forced that the situation loses credibility at points,
11:02most notably when she goes for a nice sit-down,
11:04right as the proverbial is hitting the fan partway through the episode.
11:08And did we really need to hear her talk about her daddy every five seconds?
11:13Part of the problem is that she's played by a relatively older actor,
11:16but written as though she's about four years old,
11:18and for a kid who lives in a war zone, she just seems a bit dim.
11:22It's difficult to imagine a version of the story without her,
11:24but it's a shame that she couldn't have been a bit more believable.
11:28Number 10.
11:29The Vezperform.
11:31The Unicorn and the Wasp.
11:33Credit where credit's due.
11:34The resolution to the Unicorn and the Wasp's murder mystery is actually pretty smart.
11:40And the Doctor acting all Poirot as he uncovers the truth?
11:42I mean, what more could you want?
11:44But you zzzzimply cannot overlook that damn buzzing
11:48when Reverend Golightly reveals himself as the Vezperform.
11:51This is one of those things that you have to applaud them for trying,
11:55but it just doesn't work at all, does it?
11:57We get a bloke struggling to say words containing an S or a Z,
12:01and awkwardly shaking his head to the side,
12:03all while illuminated by a pink light which is coming from...
12:06where exactly?
12:08It's really funny to watch in fairness,
12:09though that clearly wasn't the intention.
12:11And not to go full-on science nerd here,
12:14but buzzing noises don't even come from a wasp's mouth,
12:17rather the rapid beating of their wings.
12:19But you know, that's by the by.
12:20The Vezperform itself does actually look pretty awesome though,
12:23certainly one of those 2005 era special effects that has held up very well.
12:28Number 9. Oh my god, is that it?
12:32The reality war.
12:33I mean, what more is there to say?
12:35He came, he saw, he underwhelmed, and then he left.
12:38In honour of Omega's cameo,
12:40this entry will be significantly shorter than you'd expect.
12:43Moving on.
12:44Number 8. Humani-wumani,
12:47The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe.
12:49The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe does actually have some touching moments,
12:53from the Doctor's what's-the-point-in-them-being-happy-now speech,
12:56to his reunion with the Ponds at the end.
12:59However, it's no coincidence that it often languishes at the bottom of Christmas special rankings.
13:04The ending is the part that most often gets ridiculed, and with good reason.
13:08Madge's husband Reg being alive and well feels a tad contrived after all that.
13:13It's a stereotypically Christmassy happy ending,
13:15and Stephen Moffat's heart was definitely in the right place,
13:18but you can't help but feel underwhelmed by it all.
13:20It's nothing compared to the Doctor's reaction, though,
13:23with Moffat riffing on his immortal phrase,
13:25timey-wimey,
13:26by having him say the utter abomination that is,
13:29humany-wumany.
13:30At least timey-wimey sort of means something,
13:33or at least it did to begin with,
13:34as a way of explaining events happening out of order in Blink.
13:38But humany-wumany?
13:39Nope, that really is just nonsense.
13:41We're dealing with someone who's been around for thousands of years here,
13:44and this is the best he's got?
13:46I mean, it's hardly t-shirt material, is it?
13:49Number 7.
13:50Robertson shoots the spider,
13:52Arachnids in the UK.
13:53In terms of good points,
13:55Arachnids in the UK has some cool Sheffield location filming,
13:59and some honestly quite impressive CGI spiders.
14:01On the flip side,
14:02it's also got a highly controversial ending,
14:05partially because Ryan saving the day with a Stormzy track is absurd,
14:09and partially because of the ethics surrounding Robertson's mercy killing of the mother spider.
14:14The episode is so preoccupied with presenting him as the monster,
14:17that it doesn't stop to consider the view that putting the mother spider out of her misery
14:21might actually be kinder than letting her starve to death.
14:24As with the Ghost Monument's Call of Duty scene,
14:26it's another case of the show being so determined to paint the Doctor in a specific moral light,
14:31that it ignores all other factors and nuance.
14:34The same is true of the other mutated spiders.
14:36Were they eventually going to starve to death too?
14:38Or could the Doctor have given them a new life elsewhere?
14:41Either way, their fates are never clarified.
14:43The episode just ends abruptly,
14:44almost as if it's deliberately avoiding the difficult questions,
14:47which it almost certainly was.
14:49As a result, the episode comes across as oversimplified and self-righteous.
14:546. By Generation
14:56In the lead-up to The Giggle,
14:58a leak surfaced stating that Shooty Gatwa's new Doctor was going to sprout out of David Tennant's,
15:04an idea so daft that fans thought it couldn't possibly be true.
15:07And then it actually happened.
15:09By Generation initially seemed like it was meant to be a bit of fun,
15:12a spin on the idea that the various Doctors are all the same person with a cool visual to boot.
15:18But ultimately, it just opened a convoluted can of worms,
15:21particularly the part about the 14th Doctor sticking around on Earth,
15:24and Russell T. Davis' suggestion that the bi-generation retroactively happened to all the other Doctors as well.
15:30It also destroys the weight and finality of regeneration,
15:32which damages the very fabric of Doctor Who.
15:35Every time we've had an Earth invasion story since, fans have been asking,
15:40well, where's 14?
15:41And while it's pretty obvious why David Tennant's not shown up again every five minutes,
15:45in-universe, there's no excuse.
15:47He's literally right there.
15:49We then had the opposite scenario with the Rani's by Generation,
15:53where Mrs Flood had already been living on Earth like 14.
15:56The problem on this occasion, besides an infinitely worse transition effect,
16:01was that there were now two Rani's vying for our attention,
16:04with Mrs Flood basically becoming subordinate to Archie Panjabi's new incarnation,
16:09despite us following her for two seasons at that point.
16:12I mean, what a waste.
16:13Basically, can we please seal bi-generation in a box in the depths of Unit Tower now?
16:18Thank you very much.
16:25We've had lots of disappointing Doctor Who finales over the years,
16:28but none have been as much of a nothing burger,
16:31or as difficult to spell, as the Battle of Ranskor av something or other.
16:36Where do we even begin with this one?
16:38It felt more like a regular episode than a big concluding showstopper,
16:42partially because Series 11 didn't have much in the way of an arc,
16:45and partially because Tim Shaw just isn't a finale-worthy villain.
16:48If you're going to bring back the Stenza, why not show them en masse?
16:52Why not build them up more throughout the series,
16:54beyond that single mention in the Ghost Monument?
16:57Instead, it was just another solo outing for old Timmy Boy,
17:00plus some random sniper bots they found in the cupboard,
17:03which kind of makes sense,
17:04but also just feels like the props department had run out of money,
17:07which, let's be real, it probably had.
17:09Even Chris Chibnall isn't a big fan of this one,
17:12admitting that the version that reached screens was a first draft.
17:15And really, that says it all.
17:17Number four, The Doctor Strips, The Time of the Doctor.
17:21The 11th Doctor's swan song had a lot riding on it,
17:24given that it was effectively set up in the 11th hour over three years ago.
17:28It had to be big and epic and exciting,
17:32a fitting end for a much-loved Doctor.
17:34So naturally, Stephen Moffat decided to have the first 15 minutes
17:37consist mostly of his trademark weird sex comedy.
17:40First, we actually see the Doctor naked,
17:42with a carefully framed TARDIS console concealing Matt Smith's midriff.
17:46Then there's the whole gag of the Doctor and Clara appearing clothed to themselves,
17:50but naked to everyone else,
17:52which is sort of a little bit funny, maybe?
17:55For Christmas Day family viewing, it's all just a bit weird.
17:58It's almost more distracting than the fact that Clara's dad is played by a new actor,
18:02who looks nothing like the one used previously.
18:04It's frustrating, because once we get past those first 15 minutes,
18:07the bulk of the episode is fantastic.
18:09The time of the Doctor is rarely placed very high in regeneration story rankings,
18:14and maybe its dodgy opening scenes are the reason why.
18:18Number 3. The Doctor is Space Jesus, Last of the Time Lords
18:22Doctor Who bends its own rules all the time,
18:25but the ending of the series 3 finale is a prime example of the show taking things a little too
18:30far.
18:31The visual of the Doctor de-aging while bathed in blue light,
18:34a literal glow-up, is just about acceptable.
18:38And then they make him fly.
18:39Combined with the prayer thing, plus the Doctor forgiving the master,
18:43there are some pretty blatant religious parallels here,
18:46leading many fans to dub this version of the Doctor Space Jesus.
18:50And while basically presenting the Doctor as Jesus probably isn't the best idea,
18:54it just looks really daft.
18:55Which, in a story where we've already had the Doctor become Dobby,
18:59is saying something.
19:00Like, are we meant to believe that all these prayers have made him young again,
19:03and given him the power of flight,
19:05and made him immune to the effects of the laser screwdriver?
19:07If it was that easy,
19:08surely the Doctor would be hooked up to 15 satellites all the time,
19:11like some sort of weird Wi-Fi junkie?
19:13Russell T Davies loves a do-sex Doctor Who finale,
19:16and this is easily the weakest one from his original tenure.
19:20Number 2. Sometimes I think we're all your children.
19:23The Reality War
19:24Nearly a year on, and we're still not over the Reality War's hastily rewritten ending.
19:30It wasn't all bad.
19:31Jodie Whittaker turning up again was a joy,
19:33and the Doctor's interactions with Poppy are kind of touching.
19:35But then there was the character assassination of Belinda Chandra,
19:38the strange choice to regenerate the Doctor into Billy Piper,
19:41and by far the most mortifying moment of all,
19:43Kate Lethbridge-Stewart telling the Doctor that she sometimes thinks we're all his children.
19:47The idea that the Doctor saves all of us, as Kate puts it, isn't untrue.
19:52But everything about the way it's conveyed here is farcical.
19:56From Gemma Redgrave's totally straight-line delivery to Murray Gold's ridiculously over-the-top score,
20:01to the fact that it's followed by a load of characters just staring at the Doctor in silence.
20:05It also just doesn't make sense.
20:08What do you mean, you're his children?
20:10Why would those words form in your brain?
20:12What are you trying to say?
20:13It's also a little odd that Kate moves back to being a side character in awe of the Doctor,
20:19rather than a formidable force in her own right.
20:22Although, the war between the land and the sea would certainly change that back again.
20:26At number one, the burping bin rose.
20:30Although Doctor Who's 2005 revival was an undeniable success,
20:34there were definitely some teething issues.
20:36Chiefly, an inconsistent tone, where the show would mostly be grounded and dramatic,
20:41but occasionally very, very silly.
20:43Of all the examples in that first year, the most jarring is, by far, the burping bin in Rose.
20:48This is the go-to sequence for many fans when naming their least favourite moments in the revival,
20:54and it's easy to see why it's so unfondly remembered.
20:57Again, it's a case of CGI having not aged well,
21:00which is a fair enough criticism,
21:02but you also can't blame them for the technology they had at the time.
21:05But what you can't forgive is that someone then thought,
21:09you know what this needs?
21:10A great big comedy belch.
21:12This was the show's big return to our screens,
21:15a chance to prove that it wasn't just a silly old hokey sci-fi show
21:18and deserved to be taken seriously.
21:20So to include toilet humour of this level was potentially a bit of a risk to the show's survival.
21:26I mean, just look at the juvenile tone of Space Babies
21:28and how that damaged the perception of the Disney era.
21:31It's the kind of thing that would be totally at home in the upcoming See Beebees animated series.
21:35But please, never unleash anything like this on television Doctor Who ever again.
21:42Thank you again, Storyblocks, for sponsoring this video.
21:46Head to storyblocks.com forward slash WhoCulture.
21:50In the meantime, I've been Ellie for WhoCulture,
21:52and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
21:55and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
21:55and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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