a review of all of Who
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neveralarchAll the televised stuff, anyway.
As of last night, I have seen all 11 Doctors worth of televised Who! Or 12 Doctors worth. Or 13. The numbering schemes are becoming increasingly confusing.
Anyway. I finished Classic Who this summer, caught up on New Who in time for the anniversary, and then watched the Christmas Special last night. And I have opinions! About all of Who. Hastily-created, organized by era, very subjective opinions. Here they are.
One Era
Overall: I like One in an abstract sense, but these serials were definitely a slog. I give this era 5 out of 10.
Best Serial: Ahh, I have no clue. I have few strong good feelings about One. It is just a general amiability. The episodes are interesting as insight into the characters and television history, but they're also WAY slow-paced and I tended to space out a lot. The Space Museum is ridiculous and gave us the Doctor hiding in a Dalek, I guess. The Romans is fun. Practically everything about the Time Meddler is perfection.
Yeah, actually, let's go with that. The Time Meddler! It's a lovely pseudo-historical, which is my favorite kind of Who. Also there is a cannon. And Vicki (who is the best). And I love the Meddling Monk as a foil to the Doctor and a kind of example of why NOT to mess around with history. I wish he was in more serials.
Worst Serial: The Daleks' Master Plan. 12 episodes long. 12 episodes long. 13, if we count the prequel! There's a weird not-crossover with Z-Cars. Admittedly there is some cool stuff in this serial (Sara Kingdom, the Meddling Monk, Nicholas Courtney), but it is buried by all of the pointless fluff that makes this 12 EPISODES LONG. That is too many episodes. Also I have just realized that most of my favorite bits are actually in The Chase. So. Watch The Chase instead. It also has Daleks and is written by Terry Nation and is much too long. But it has a haunted house and pushing Daleks off boats and too long here means 6 episodes which is marginally more reasonable.
Favorite Companion: VICKI. Vicki. She is just so active and engaging and fun. Also she has amazing hair. Vicki. I was much sadder about her departure than any of the other companions (but at least she actively chose to leave, which is more than most One companions).
Two Era
Overall: Two! Two. All of the stars.
Best Serial: Am I allowed to say The Enemy of the World if I haven't seen the recovered episodes yet? I am saying it anyway. Even in reconstruction it was amazing. Honorable mentions: The Dominators, which is hilarious, and The Tomb of the Cybermen, which is surprisingly creepy.
Worst Serial: EVERY TWO SERIAL IS A BEAUTIFUL GIFT. I will use this space to discuss more serials that I love. The Underwater Menace. Fury from the Deep. I think I imprinted on Two so much because he feels very Doctor-y after getting through One. He's interested and involved in people's problems, he has a sense of humor, and he's RIDICULOUS. I am sure there were one or two serials that I found tedious at the time, but I can't pick them out of a lineup now.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I skipped writing pieces of So Far Exceeds Expression until I could watch The War Games. This meant that I actually had to figure out the plot of The War Games, which was kind of a strain.
Favorite Companion: Jamie and Zoe. Do not make me choose. One has a kilt, one has an amazing array of outfits (people fixate on the sparkly cat-suit, but all of Zoe's clothes were great). Victoria and Ben etc were fine, but do not match Jamie and Zoe's sartorial excellence.
Three Era
Overall: I like Three SO MUCH. I think this is sort of inevitable when he's combined with UNIT and the Master and has such an interesting dress sense. And a great car. I am shallow. Five thumbs up.
Best Serial: The Daemons. I mean, I realize that there are a lot of serials that are objectively better, but if I had to pick one Three serial to watch over and over it would be The Daemons. The Master disguises himself as a vicar! Angry archaeologists! Menacing maypoles! They exploded a model of a church and it looked so realistic that a bunch of people wrote into the BBC to complain that they had exploded a real church! And I haven't even touched on the gargoyle and the daemons and the nearly incomprehensible resolution. This serial is almost everything I want from Who.
Worst Serial: Probably Death to the Daleks. I just don't care that much. I don't care about Daleks. I don't care about the plague. Also something about Terry Nation's writing/pacing makes me annoyed.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: Ahahaha. I watched The Daemons to write my Radiosonic script, that's one. I've watched every other Master episode in order to write fic several times. I think the only one I watched out of order was The Sea Devils, because I skipped ahead in order to write the shameless height/fencing kink in Differentiation
Favorite Companion: Liz. I would like to say Jo, but it's actually Liz. She's just so annoyed with the Doctor all the time, it's great. More annoyed scientist companions. With great boots.
Four Era
Overall: Tom Baker creeps me out (it's the teeth and the eyes), but there's so much great writing in this era. A round of applause.
Best Serial: The Stones of Blood, omg. I can't even think about this serial without laughing. It is SO absurd and SO self-indulgent and I am very glad it was made. Like, LOoK AT THIS.
City of Death and The Pirate Planet are also great for the same reason, but only The Stones of Blood has murderous troll-rocks and sparkly-fairy security robots.
Worst Serial: Planet of Evil? It wasn't bad, just dull. If I'm not feeling a Four serial, I get distracted by Tom Baker's teeth and start to be too terrified to actually pay attention to the episodes. I do not remember anything about Planet of Evil except teeth, so I think I probably didn't like it.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I skipped way ahead to watch The Deadly Assassin for The Amazon. Understanding the plots in The Deadly Assassin was a huge pain, haha. I think I enjoyed it more in later rewatches, when I didn't really care what was going on.
Favorite Companion: Leeeeela. Or Romana. There is a reason why I love the Gallifrey audios so much. Someone write me an AU where Romana and Leela are the TARDIS crew for all the best Four-era serials, while Four punts around Cambridge or something.
Five Era
Overall: I am a traitor to Classic Who fandom - I can't stand Five. He's just so- put-upon. Also the serials are mostly too serious and the 'funny' ones freaked me out too much. B-.
Best Serial: I just wasn't feeling most of Five's serials, but I will always love Kinda for its weird plotting and giant snake puppet. Or Enlightenment, which is great because it has gods being jerks. What I want out of sci-fi is simple and esoteric.
Worst Serial: I REALLY didn't like The Caves of Androzani. I just found it kind of... exhausting? Five is not for me (as mentioned), and I found him especially annoying in this serial. I guess this is 'the best Doctor Who serial in history' according to fan polls, so maybe I am missing something.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I skipped to The King's Demons for... some reason. I don't know. Ainley!Master voice? I made a friend of mine who is a New Who fan watch it with me, and I think it skewed her perception of Classic Who forever.
Favorite Companion: Turlough? All of Five's companions are a little terrible, but Turlough is aggressively and purposefully terrible. Awesome.
Six Era
Overall: I always thought people were exaggerating about how bad TV Six is. I was wrong. It is very bad. -50 points.
Best Serial: The One Doctor or The Sandman. It is cheating to list BFAs, but I would have been a lot more hostile toward the Six serials if I didn't know that he could be awesome in the audios. If I had to pick a serial it would be The Two Doctors and I didn't really understand what was going on in that so I am just picking it because of Two. Also the ridiculous Androgum cook. And the fashion. And whatever was going on with Oscar and Anita.
Actually I like The Two Doctors a lot.
Worst Serial: Vengeance on Varos. The Doctor pushes a guy into an acid bath. There is confusing AND heavy-handed social commentary, which is a feat. I was not down.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: The Mark of the Rani to get characterization for the Rani in Honeymooners. I do like The Mark of the Rani a lot, mostly because of the tree-bombs. It gave me unrealistically high hopes for the rest of Six.
Favorite Companion: I like Peri despite everything. She is great in the audios, and her depiction in the serials annoys me so much that I like her more in order to counteract that.
Seven Era
Overall: :DDDD
Best Serial: THIS ONE IS HARD. Time and the Rani. Paradise Towers. The Happiness Patrol. Battlefield! I like any serial where there is mysterious things going on and Seven is being clever and a little confused and Mel is running around or Ace is blowing things up. So, like, all of Seven Era.
Worst Serial: Delta and the Bannermen was weird and confusing as hell. It is objectively not very good. But I can't bring myself to dislike a serial that has shape-shifting tourists and a space bus and bee-themed interludes and Welsh bikers. This is a cop-out on my part, sorry.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I have seen Survival many many times. Prey of the Cheetahs and Cataracts and Cascades both involved Survival watches.
Favorite Companion: Ace! Aaace. I love her explosives and her jacket and her lesbian subtext. I love her weird origin story. I am very predictable.
Eight Era
Overall: I have to bring the BFAs into this because the movie is very- very MOVIE, and it is not enough for a whole era of Doctor Who. I have seen it three times and I still do not understand the point of it. It does have Eric Roberts, so, you know, eight stars for that.
BestSerial BFA: I thought Scherzo was really great and a very good use of the audio format. Zagreus and Caerdroia are both very good also, but I listened to them out of order and had no idea what was going on.
WorstSerial BFA: The Creed of the Kromon is one of those torture porn/body horror epics that freak me out immensely. I don't think I ever finished listening to it. This is very subjective, but- jeez. I just did not see the point of it at all.
Favorite Companion: C'Rizz. Do not ask me for a justification, I don't have any.
Nine Era
Overall: I remember watching Nine on PBS when I was like 15 and being a little disdainful because New Who??? With a budget???? What????? But now I think fondly of Nine. Also the years have made the CGI look a lot worse and a lot more Who-y, so there's that. Standing ovation.
Best Serial: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dance. It's just very fun. Good Nine characterization, great Rose, Jack is excellent, creepy aliens that are actually trying to help. Good, this is what I want.
Worst Serial: I didn't like Father's Day much? It's probably because it is all about Rose and grief and Character Development and I am a terrible person who does not care about characters much. More stuff blowing up please. Also the Reapers were weird and never came up again, despite the fact that Who pretty much runs on paradoxes. The Reapers should have eaten basically all of New Who.
Favorite Companion: Mickey. The more the narrative gives him a hard time, the better I like him.
Ten Era
Overall: I tend to get weird about Ten because so many people in real life/general internet fandom are like "this is Who! The BEST Who!!!" and then I'm all grumbly. But this is mostly good stuff, and I do like it. Sixteen candles, lit in secret.
Best Serial: Almost everything about Partners in Crime makes me happy. It's so fun, and it has Donna. This is important. More Donna being happy and competent.
Worst Serial: I remember being REALLY excited for The End of Time, like I waited to see it with a college friend for a couple weeks while carefully avoiding spoilers and it was going to have the Master in it and it was going to be GREAT- and then it was awful. So awful. I am unreasonably resentful towards this episode for giving me bad associations with the Master in a collar.
Favorite Companion: Donna! I am very in favor of Donna. Her hair is excellent.
Eleven Era
Overall: This era is so fraught for me. I REALLY liked the first series, and then the second series I was sooort of with it and very defensive about Who in general, and then it completely lost me. I started seeing other fandoms, coughing awkwardly when Who was mentioned, and reading angry meta. I'm giving it a wavy hand and some awkward silence right now, but I expect nostalgia to kick in by next year and make me more fond.
Best Serial: Prooobably The Lodger. I am easy for this kind of silly episode. (I really like Love and Monsters, which probably tells you something.) It's just so fun!
The Eleventh Hour is amazing (and also silly). I also remember Let's Kill Hitler being pretty fun, and The Girl Who Waited was almost perfect except I couldn't stand the ending. I wanted older Amy to go on and have more adventures. So there are several runners-up.
Worst Serial: I stopped watching Doctor Who for over a year because of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. At this point I have little memory of what went down, because I have blocked that experience from my mind. I'm cool with that. The Angels Take Manhatten is a close second, just because it seemed like the characters were doing things because the plot wanted them to, rather than because it made any sense. (Which is a shame because there were a couple of good character moments for Rory and Amy otherwise.)
Favorite Companion: Amy. I am ambivalent about some (a lot) of her character development and major life events, but I fell hard for Amy in her first series and I'm not letting go. Also her fingernails were always amazing. Excellent color choices.
There. It is done. Feel free to discuss/disagree/etc - I'm interested in what other people think about Who as this kind of huge canon now that we've had it for 50 years. Also I am happy to give more opinions about specific episodes or elaborate on the opinions here, if anyone really wants me to.
As of last night, I have seen all 11 Doctors worth of televised Who! Or 12 Doctors worth. Or 13. The numbering schemes are becoming increasingly confusing.
Anyway. I finished Classic Who this summer, caught up on New Who in time for the anniversary, and then watched the Christmas Special last night. And I have opinions! About all of Who. Hastily-created, organized by era, very subjective opinions. Here they are.
One Era
Overall: I like One in an abstract sense, but these serials were definitely a slog. I give this era 5 out of 10.
Best Serial: Ahh, I have no clue. I have few strong good feelings about One. It is just a general amiability. The episodes are interesting as insight into the characters and television history, but they're also WAY slow-paced and I tended to space out a lot. The Space Museum is ridiculous and gave us the Doctor hiding in a Dalek, I guess. The Romans is fun. Practically everything about the Time Meddler is perfection.
Yeah, actually, let's go with that. The Time Meddler! It's a lovely pseudo-historical, which is my favorite kind of Who. Also there is a cannon. And Vicki (who is the best). And I love the Meddling Monk as a foil to the Doctor and a kind of example of why NOT to mess around with history. I wish he was in more serials.
Worst Serial: The Daleks' Master Plan. 12 episodes long. 12 episodes long. 13, if we count the prequel! There's a weird not-crossover with Z-Cars. Admittedly there is some cool stuff in this serial (Sara Kingdom, the Meddling Monk, Nicholas Courtney), but it is buried by all of the pointless fluff that makes this 12 EPISODES LONG. That is too many episodes. Also I have just realized that most of my favorite bits are actually in The Chase. So. Watch The Chase instead. It also has Daleks and is written by Terry Nation and is much too long. But it has a haunted house and pushing Daleks off boats and too long here means 6 episodes which is marginally more reasonable.
Favorite Companion: VICKI. Vicki. She is just so active and engaging and fun. Also she has amazing hair. Vicki. I was much sadder about her departure than any of the other companions (but at least she actively chose to leave, which is more than most One companions).
Two Era
Overall: Two! Two. All of the stars.
Best Serial: Am I allowed to say The Enemy of the World if I haven't seen the recovered episodes yet? I am saying it anyway. Even in reconstruction it was amazing. Honorable mentions: The Dominators, which is hilarious, and The Tomb of the Cybermen, which is surprisingly creepy.
Worst Serial: EVERY TWO SERIAL IS A BEAUTIFUL GIFT. I will use this space to discuss more serials that I love. The Underwater Menace. Fury from the Deep. I think I imprinted on Two so much because he feels very Doctor-y after getting through One. He's interested and involved in people's problems, he has a sense of humor, and he's RIDICULOUS. I am sure there were one or two serials that I found tedious at the time, but I can't pick them out of a lineup now.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I skipped writing pieces of So Far Exceeds Expression until I could watch The War Games. This meant that I actually had to figure out the plot of The War Games, which was kind of a strain.
Favorite Companion: Jamie and Zoe. Do not make me choose. One has a kilt, one has an amazing array of outfits (people fixate on the sparkly cat-suit, but all of Zoe's clothes were great). Victoria and Ben etc were fine, but do not match Jamie and Zoe's sartorial excellence.
Three Era
Overall: I like Three SO MUCH. I think this is sort of inevitable when he's combined with UNIT and the Master and has such an interesting dress sense. And a great car. I am shallow. Five thumbs up.
Best Serial: The Daemons. I mean, I realize that there are a lot of serials that are objectively better, but if I had to pick one Three serial to watch over and over it would be The Daemons. The Master disguises himself as a vicar! Angry archaeologists! Menacing maypoles! They exploded a model of a church and it looked so realistic that a bunch of people wrote into the BBC to complain that they had exploded a real church! And I haven't even touched on the gargoyle and the daemons and the nearly incomprehensible resolution. This serial is almost everything I want from Who.
Worst Serial: Probably Death to the Daleks. I just don't care that much. I don't care about Daleks. I don't care about the plague. Also something about Terry Nation's writing/pacing makes me annoyed.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: Ahahaha. I watched The Daemons to write my Radiosonic script, that's one. I've watched every other Master episode in order to write fic several times. I think the only one I watched out of order was The Sea Devils, because I skipped ahead in order to write the shameless height/fencing kink in Differentiation
Favorite Companion: Liz. I would like to say Jo, but it's actually Liz. She's just so annoyed with the Doctor all the time, it's great. More annoyed scientist companions. With great boots.
Four Era
Overall: Tom Baker creeps me out (it's the teeth and the eyes), but there's so much great writing in this era. A round of applause.
Best Serial: The Stones of Blood, omg. I can't even think about this serial without laughing. It is SO absurd and SO self-indulgent and I am very glad it was made. Like, LOoK AT THIS.
City of Death and The Pirate Planet are also great for the same reason, but only The Stones of Blood has murderous troll-rocks and sparkly-fairy security robots.
Worst Serial: Planet of Evil? It wasn't bad, just dull. If I'm not feeling a Four serial, I get distracted by Tom Baker's teeth and start to be too terrified to actually pay attention to the episodes. I do not remember anything about Planet of Evil except teeth, so I think I probably didn't like it.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I skipped way ahead to watch The Deadly Assassin for The Amazon. Understanding the plots in The Deadly Assassin was a huge pain, haha. I think I enjoyed it more in later rewatches, when I didn't really care what was going on.
Favorite Companion: Leeeeela. Or Romana. There is a reason why I love the Gallifrey audios so much. Someone write me an AU where Romana and Leela are the TARDIS crew for all the best Four-era serials, while Four punts around Cambridge or something.
Five Era
Overall: I am a traitor to Classic Who fandom - I can't stand Five. He's just so- put-upon. Also the serials are mostly too serious and the 'funny' ones freaked me out too much. B-.
Best Serial: I just wasn't feeling most of Five's serials, but I will always love Kinda for its weird plotting and giant snake puppet. Or Enlightenment, which is great because it has gods being jerks. What I want out of sci-fi is simple and esoteric.
Worst Serial: I REALLY didn't like The Caves of Androzani. I just found it kind of... exhausting? Five is not for me (as mentioned), and I found him especially annoying in this serial. I guess this is 'the best Doctor Who serial in history' according to fan polls, so maybe I am missing something.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I skipped to The King's Demons for... some reason. I don't know. Ainley!Master voice? I made a friend of mine who is a New Who fan watch it with me, and I think it skewed her perception of Classic Who forever.
Favorite Companion: Turlough? All of Five's companions are a little terrible, but Turlough is aggressively and purposefully terrible. Awesome.
Six Era
Overall: I always thought people were exaggerating about how bad TV Six is. I was wrong. It is very bad. -50 points.
Best Serial: The One Doctor or The Sandman. It is cheating to list BFAs, but I would have been a lot more hostile toward the Six serials if I didn't know that he could be awesome in the audios. If I had to pick a serial it would be The Two Doctors and I didn't really understand what was going on in that so I am just picking it because of Two. Also the ridiculous Androgum cook. And the fashion. And whatever was going on with Oscar and Anita.
Actually I like The Two Doctors a lot.
Worst Serial: Vengeance on Varos. The Doctor pushes a guy into an acid bath. There is confusing AND heavy-handed social commentary, which is a feat. I was not down.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: The Mark of the Rani to get characterization for the Rani in Honeymooners. I do like The Mark of the Rani a lot, mostly because of the tree-bombs. It gave me unrealistically high hopes for the rest of Six.
Favorite Companion: I like Peri despite everything. She is great in the audios, and her depiction in the serials annoys me so much that I like her more in order to counteract that.
Seven Era
Overall: :DDDD
Best Serial: THIS ONE IS HARD. Time and the Rani. Paradise Towers. The Happiness Patrol. Battlefield! I like any serial where there is mysterious things going on and Seven is being clever and a little confused and Mel is running around or Ace is blowing things up. So, like, all of Seven Era.
Worst Serial: Delta and the Bannermen was weird and confusing as hell. It is objectively not very good. But I can't bring myself to dislike a serial that has shape-shifting tourists and a space bus and bee-themed interludes and Welsh bikers. This is a cop-out on my part, sorry.
Serial I watched in order to write fanfic: I have seen Survival many many times. Prey of the Cheetahs and Cataracts and Cascades both involved Survival watches.
Favorite Companion: Ace! Aaace. I love her explosives and her jacket and her lesbian subtext. I love her weird origin story. I am very predictable.
Eight Era
Overall: I have to bring the BFAs into this because the movie is very- very MOVIE, and it is not enough for a whole era of Doctor Who. I have seen it three times and I still do not understand the point of it. It does have Eric Roberts, so, you know, eight stars for that.
Best
Worst
Favorite Companion: C'Rizz. Do not ask me for a justification, I don't have any.
Nine Era
Overall: I remember watching Nine on PBS when I was like 15 and being a little disdainful because New Who??? With a budget???? What????? But now I think fondly of Nine. Also the years have made the CGI look a lot worse and a lot more Who-y, so there's that. Standing ovation.
Best Serial: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dance. It's just very fun. Good Nine characterization, great Rose, Jack is excellent, creepy aliens that are actually trying to help. Good, this is what I want.
Worst Serial: I didn't like Father's Day much? It's probably because it is all about Rose and grief and Character Development and I am a terrible person who does not care about characters much. More stuff blowing up please. Also the Reapers were weird and never came up again, despite the fact that Who pretty much runs on paradoxes. The Reapers should have eaten basically all of New Who.
Favorite Companion: Mickey. The more the narrative gives him a hard time, the better I like him.
Ten Era
Overall: I tend to get weird about Ten because so many people in real life/general internet fandom are like "this is Who! The BEST Who!!!" and then I'm all grumbly. But this is mostly good stuff, and I do like it. Sixteen candles, lit in secret.
Best Serial: Almost everything about Partners in Crime makes me happy. It's so fun, and it has Donna. This is important. More Donna being happy and competent.
Worst Serial: I remember being REALLY excited for The End of Time, like I waited to see it with a college friend for a couple weeks while carefully avoiding spoilers and it was going to have the Master in it and it was going to be GREAT- and then it was awful. So awful. I am unreasonably resentful towards this episode for giving me bad associations with the Master in a collar.
Favorite Companion: Donna! I am very in favor of Donna. Her hair is excellent.
Eleven Era
Overall: This era is so fraught for me. I REALLY liked the first series, and then the second series I was sooort of with it and very defensive about Who in general, and then it completely lost me. I started seeing other fandoms, coughing awkwardly when Who was mentioned, and reading angry meta. I'm giving it a wavy hand and some awkward silence right now, but I expect nostalgia to kick in by next year and make me more fond.
Best Serial: Prooobably The Lodger. I am easy for this kind of silly episode. (I really like Love and Monsters, which probably tells you something.) It's just so fun!
The Eleventh Hour is amazing (and also silly). I also remember Let's Kill Hitler being pretty fun, and The Girl Who Waited was almost perfect except I couldn't stand the ending. I wanted older Amy to go on and have more adventures. So there are several runners-up.
Worst Serial: I stopped watching Doctor Who for over a year because of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. At this point I have little memory of what went down, because I have blocked that experience from my mind. I'm cool with that. The Angels Take Manhatten is a close second, just because it seemed like the characters were doing things because the plot wanted them to, rather than because it made any sense. (Which is a shame because there were a couple of good character moments for Rory and Amy otherwise.)
Favorite Companion: Amy. I am ambivalent about some (a lot) of her character development and major life events, but I fell hard for Amy in her first series and I'm not letting go. Also her fingernails were always amazing. Excellent color choices.
There. It is done. Feel free to discuss/disagree/etc - I'm interested in what other people think about Who as this kind of huge canon now that we've had it for 50 years. Also I am happy to give more opinions about specific episodes or elaborate on the opinions here, if anyone really wants me to.
