I’m stealing this from a post on twitter I saw a few months back but I thought it was a good question so I’m positing it here.
What’s your favourite dark Doctor stories? Stories where the Doctor’s acts like a real bastard to get what they want?
Personally, I love stuff like Mummy on the Orient Express as I think it was Series Eight’s best execution of the Am I a Good Man? stuff.
Love and War is a great one, the Doctor basically murders Ace’s boyfriend to stop the monster, which sends her into a downwards spiral leading to her joining the military and getting severe PTSD for the rest of the VNAs.
And of course, because it’s me writing this, I have to namedrop a Rob Shearman story: Scherzo is amazing, as always and Eight really gets to play his nasty side.
Mummy on the Orient Express is one of my favourites. But it doesn’t seem like dark story for me. The Doctor did say some shitty things, but that doesn’t make the story bleak or dark.
I dont know how exactly ‘Dark Doctor’ it is but 11 in series 7A has some very stand out moments for his darker side I think. Most notably his outburst in ‘A Town Called Mercy’ and at the end of ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ where he literally straight up murders that guy
But my favourite is probably ‘Evil of the Daleks’ where he constantly manipulates everyone to get what he wants
Sympathy for the Devil is one that I usually think of when this subject is brought up. It’s a great story and explores the idea of a “dark Doctor” very well.
I think The Invasion of Time is especially strong in its first four parts and that Tom Baker is absolutely brilliant in it, because as an adult viewer and with the benefit of decades of future history of the show to prove otherwise it’s obvious the Doctor hasn’t really gone bad and isn’t really going to bring Gallifrey down, but such a captivating performance is being put in that it still feels like he might.
Throughout the season there are a couple of examples of the Time Lords throwing their weight around that get brought up, I wish that had been folded into the narrative so it can be played on as a motivation for the Doctor to go against the Time Lords, but as it stands it still really works and it’s what I’d describe as a “dark Doctor” of sorts.
Hot take: the absolute best part of The Last Day and what took it from a ‘meh’ to a really great listen for me was just how far the Doctor went and how deep he went into it all.
Rewatched “Ghost Light” a few days ago. Didn’t remember what a f… d… the seventh doctor was in his later years. But as the question was for favourite…
Not sure about a whole story, but one of my favorite moments is in ‘Face the Raven’ (Quotes from episode ‘Face the Raven’ • Doctor Who · TARDIS Guide). At the end, when he briefly reveals the deep darkness in his character. And in a few moments makes me appreciate so much more them most of the time really, really trying not to be the oncoming storm, destroyer of worlds. (Always thought of it as fascinating, that the master run from the time war as the doctor stayed and did horrible things.)
If I remember correctly, the alternate timeline version of the Doctor in ‘The Architects of History’ was quite dark. Next ‘audio listening project’ confirmed.
