This may be one of my most controversial choices, I’m not sure. On my most recent rewatch, I recall ‘The Sea Devils’ feeling a tad overrated; when I got to Season 9 in my Classic Who marathon, I found I enjoyed the two stories before it and ‘The Mutants’ more! Plus – dated production elements and harmful depictions of foreign cultures aside – ‘The Crusade’ felt more compelling as a piece of drama, a story replete with impeccable performances and a great historical setting. It’s far from a perfect story, but I prefer it more than ‘The Sea Devils’.
The second choice was somewhat harder. ‘The Daleks’ has a rich and haunting atmosphere, a timeless allegory for war and attempts at reconciliation, and boasts the debut of arguably the single most iconic feature of Doctor Who save for the titular character and the TARDIS. However, I find myself both enjoying ‘The Ark in Space’ more frequently and for more reasons than ‘The Daleks’; the Season 12 dynamic is at its most enjoyable here, Baker already proves himself as the Doctor and creates a distinct incarnation without compromising the character, and the Wirrn are among my favourite Classic Who foes of all time. This is a highlight of its season, bested only by ‘Genesis of the Daleks’—in a funny way, I suppose that means the Daleks win either way, haha
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I find The Sea Devils to be pretty forgettable but The Crusade is quite possibly my least favorite Doctor Who TV story. And while Ark in Space is pretty solid it just can’t beat The Daleks’ iconicness factor (for me, anyway. Clearly not the case for a lot of you since the former is winning right now :P).
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I love both, but the Wirrn just pip the Daleks to the post here for me.
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The Sea Devils sinks The Crusade, 19-7: where’s the Doctor when you really need him? 
The second match was tied, 12-12, so my vote was the deciding one. I really do like The Ark in Space and think it’s one of Harry’s best stories. However, I love Barbara, Ian and the First Doctor. So, I gave my vote to The Daleks, which survives, like the Daleks always do, 13-12.
Match 11
- Marco Polo
- The Seeds of Doom
Match 12
- The Dæmons
- The Abominable Snowmen
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Some tension afoot at the time of writing, with ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘The Seeds of Doom’ being understandably tied! The other match-up is less tense, and I’ve joined the majority in choosing ‘The Daemons’.
The first match-up ultimately comes down to preference as they’re both great stories for their respective seasons and Doctors. To that end, ‘The Seeds of Doom’ wins out; I love the Krynoids as a concept and adore how they’re explored with enough of a unique depiction to give them a life of their own while retaining the core horror element running throughout Season 13.
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Krynoids and Azal for me.
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I thought maybe I was going to be the only vote for Abominable Snowmen, so it’s nice to see a little love for the story. It’s the only story that I read the novelization before watching, so I probably do hold it in higher esteem than most because the novelization really was quite good.
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The Seeds of Doom absorbed Marco Polo, 16-11, and The Dæmons exploded The Abominable Snowmen, 17-5.
The final two matches for the first round are now up:
Match 13
- Spearhead from Space
- The Stones of Blood
Match 14
- The Dalek Invasion of Earth
- Genesis of the Daleks
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Gotta be Spearhead and Genesis.
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Same here. I’m just watiing for delta to come in and tell is why were wrong for liking Genesis. 
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Delta is wrong.
If this is my last post in the forum, it was nice knowing you all.
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I don’t know why you’re all acting like @deltaandthebannermen is some violent, aggressive bully. He just has some controversial takes some people might disagree with. 
Anyways, there’s not a lot I’d vote for over Spearhead, but Stones is so fun and might have my favourite guest character in the entire classic series.
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Spearheads’s a great opener and one of the better regeneration stories and I find Stones a confused mess, so that one was easy.
Meanwhile, I find both Dalek Invasion of Earth and Genesis to be wildly overrated but I suppose I prefer the latter because at least it’s not a half-assed remake of an episode from literally one season ago.
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Spearhead From Space bleeds The Stones of Blood dry, 23-8, and Genesis of the Daleks destroys The Dalek Invasion of Earth’s core, 27-4.
The round of 16 starts with the two stories that received byes:
Match 15
Match 16
- The Robots of Death
- Doctor Who and the Silurians
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Ah, I see today we’re doing the stories which I don’t think are as good as you think they are.
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Not me, the Radio Times. BTW, you voted for one of them. 
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Oh, I mean these are four stories that have good or great reputations and that I rated bellow the average score.
To be fair The Invasion finally struck with me when I rewatched to rate it so I gave it 4/5 when its average is 4.16. But for the other three its noticably worse. (Also I’ve said it before but I particularly want to hilight that Inferno is horrible. Easily a contender for worst classic story to me)
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wdym Inferno isn’t sweeping…???
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Robots of Death is one of my all time favourites, and so is Inferno. Easy choices
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