Who’s on top?
Doctor Who Magazine 413 has published a reader poll ranking Doctor Who episodes. The last time this was done was in 1998, well before the series made its triumphant return to our screens. Back then, the Tom Baker classic Genesis of the Daleks took the top spot… but what has 11 years done to public opinion?
Over a decade later, and over 4 new series of the revamped show, Classic Who still reigns as king (though dominates the low end, too) with Peter Davison’s swan song Caves of Androzani taking top prize. After all, who can blame the fans for voting it the best ever? Robert Holmes. Graeme Harper. Sharaz Jek. Stotzie. Morgus. The Magma Beast. Peri’s cleavage overshadowing the regeneration sequence. What’s not to love about it?
The Top 10 and Bottom 10 are as follow:
001. The Caves of Androzani
002. Blink
003. Genesis of the Daleks
004. The Talons of Weng-Chiang
005. The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
006. Human Nature / The Family of Blood
007. Pyramids of Mars
008. City of Death
009. The Robots of Death
010. Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways
191. The Dominators
192. Fear Her
193. Paradise Towers
194. The Underwater Menace
195. The Space Pirates
196. Time-Flight
197. Underworld
198. Time and the Rani
199. Timelash
200. The Twin Dilemma
11 Comments on “Who’s on top?”
Leave a reply to Erik Cancel reply
SUPPORT THE PODCAST
WHERE TO LISTEN
WHERE TO FIND US
Doctor Who: Radio Free Skaro 
I wonder how Fear Her would be thought of if more people could turn a blind eye to all the cringemaking Olympics-related stuff as well as I can.
It probably could have beat The Dominators, surely.
My tastes must be a bit off, because I have very little affection for three of the top ten and find Fear Her only marginally bad. Personally, I *like* the whole Olympics hooey.
I still hated it. The Olympics sequence was just the poison icing on an already fetid cake.
As for the top ten…no Utopia? And no Deadly Assassin either. For shame, list-making nerds.
Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords is 27 above Ark in Space and The War Games… DWM count it as one story in order to reach the 200 mark as of Planet of the Dead…
In five years I’d be very surprised if many people think Blink was the second best story ever. Dare I say that there may be some ‘perceived wisdom’ affecting votes? Fear Her, Timelash and The Twin Dilemma are famous for being bad, it will be interesting to see if they all stay down there in the future or if any of them go the way of The Gunfighters. Fear Her may suffer in the future that way Paradise Towers does for me, in that Paradise Towers was on as my interest in Who was waning a bit and all I really remember is that cliffhanger cliffhanger, so I couldn’t really judge it fairly, similarly a kid who thought the scribble monster was stupid twenty years from now might not be able to remember anything else!
@Keir – the cliffhanger cliffhanger was in Dragonfire rather than Paradise Towers, however I know where you’re coming from. I’ve known a few folks who have said their interest waned in the midst of Season 24 and for some it took a very long time for it to come back.
I am not as big a fan of Androzani as so many others and am not impressed to see it take top spot. That being said, it is quite likely my favourite Davison serial from a technical perspective (with The Five Doctors winning out for the sentimental perspective). It or Earthshock, anyhow.
Blink is not the second best Who episode IMO… it’s a wonderful episode to be sure but really, there should never be a “Doctor Lite” episode in second place. I know us fans are a fickle and strange lot but what does it say about us as a group when we say the second best story is one barely featuring the main character?
What *is* best? Who knows. Ask me now and I’ll say one answer. Ask me in a day or a month or a year and my top 10 could be vastly different. It’s a very fluid thing, the top 10 list.
As for Fear Her, it’s one of the weaker S2 stories but it’s surely not as dire (overall) as this poll ranks it, not to me anyhow. The Olympics stuff was horrible but given the plot of the story is there anything else that could have been substituted that wasn’t equally as silly or cheesy?
And having just revisited The Twin Dilemma yesterday, for the first time in many years, I have to say the memory does cheat and it’s not as bad as I recall. However some of those bottom 10 certainly deserve to be there. The Underwater Menace, Paradise Towers and Timelash for certain.
Remember – the DWM poll in 1990 resulted in Sylvester McCoy being voted the best Doctor. Not saying, just saying.
Your point obviously being, back in 1990 they got their polls completely spot-on 😀 😉
Pretty decent list overall, pleased Remembrance came 14th.
About the only one in the top thirty or so I would take big issue with was Utopia/Sound/Last coming in at 27. No ta.
I wouldnt put one episode of new who in the top 20.
And I say that as someone who enjoys and supports the new series.
I quite like Paradise Towers, I would swap it with the very camp ‘Sliver Nemesis’ every time!
‘Fear Her’ was a massive let down, considering the writer is Matthew Graham, the co-creator of Life on Mars. To be fair, I don’t think he was given much to work with in terms of budget and storyline ideas.