@shauny - our numbers are growing - I demand a exclusive forum area for us to discuss how wonderful Delta and the Bannermen is and how it beats Heaven Sent into a cocked hat…
4 Likes
Even Mr DeVries?
I’m well aware I’m a contrarian when it comes to Doctor Who but I think it stems partly from being at the forefront of ‘received fan wisdom’ being slowly dismantled as the Wilderness Years progressed and as the modern series brought Doctor Who to a wider audience who were able to share their opinions much more easily and much more widely than fans were ever able to do during the Classic era.
A lot of what we ‘believed’ to be true about Doctor Who was dictated to us by the fans writing the books and the fanzines and it was only when we starting seeing the older stories that people started to realise we didn’t actually need to venerate Tomb of the Cybermen or lambast The Gunfighters. We’d been at the mercy of a small group of fans’ opinions and memories.
I know I joke but I honestly do rank Delta and the Bannermen as my favourite ever Doctor Who story and always have. To counter that, though, I also think Inferno is 10/10.
As for my other controversial opinions - please remember, all of these are given in good faith and I still love every little bit of Doctor Who and will rewatch every single one of these stories regardless of my overall opinion. Any Doctor Who is worth watching more than once (although K9 is determined to test that theory to its limit…)
- Genesis of the Daleks is hugely overrated.
- Season 5 is repetitive and the best story in it is The Enemy of the World
- The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear are dull (with Snowmen being the worst offender).
- Marco Polo, The Massacre and The Crusade are to varying degrees, way too long, boring and involve the regulars being completely inconsequential to the story. The Gunfighters also suffers from depicting the Doctor as a complete idiot.
- Elisabeth Sladen has a really odd way of delivering dialogue.
- Dicks and Letts putting the Master in every single Season 8 story was a terrible idea (and he isn’t Moriarty to the Doctor’s Sherlock Holmes if you have any understanding of how Moriarty actually functions in the original stories).
- 13’s zest for adventuring and making friends through time and space is far more appealing, entertaining and what the Doctor should be like than any of the grumpy incarnations.
10 Likes
I agree that @deltaandthebannermen is good, but how could he be any longer? I mean, he seems to be a never-ending source for opinions, information, trivia, and love for Doctor Who 
4 Likes
Oh and Listen is self-indulgent and desperately in need of an actual plot.
(Wouldn’t want to disappoint my fans 
)
3 Likes
Yes, even that one.
I’ve only seen Delta and the Bannermen once but that was once too many times 
I honestly don’t get the appeal!
3 Likes
My main issue with 12 is that his character is all over the place for his first two series, for that I blame Moffat. Series 10’s 12th Doctor is so much better, I started to really enjoy DW again at this point.
3 Likes
HS is a tour de force of writing, acting, direction et al! Really is a wonderful episode. Not a fan of 12 or the entirety of S8 and S9, but this is a top story of all time for me.
1 Like
David Tennant is better as Crowley in Good Omens then as the Doctor. Similarly, Jenna Coleman is better as Joanna Constantine in Sandman then as Clara.
I… actually prefer serialized episodes like in classic. I often feel like new Who doesn’t dedicate enough time to any particular story, or flesh out the side characters enough. Sometimes classic is too long, but new is too short.
You know, I often feel rather differently about episodes after things settle then right after I’ve watched them. Sometimes I didn’t care for things as I was watching, but liked it better after I knew where it was going, and sometimes I was just ignoring the flaws as I was watching, and they all started clicking in afterwards.
Two episodes that I actually quite enjoyed on first watch were the Tsuranga Conundrum and Orphan 55.
With the Tsuranga Conundrum, I like stories set on spaceships and space stations, as well as base under siege. The confontation between the Doctor and the Captain was great, and I was highly disappointed when he died. The way pilotting worked rather reminded me of the way it works in Cordwainer Smith stories, like “A Game of Rat and Dragon”, which I’m always a fan of, I loved how much the Doctor was loving technology. I was even a fan of the sonic being eaten! The pregnant guy, not so much, not due to the subject, but more because I wanted to get back to the other parts I was enjoying.
With Orphan 55, it was campy in a way that I might’ve expected out of something 6/7 era, and I enjoyed that. I actually feel it’ve been better as a two parter, because my main complaint was that it didn’t feel like things tied together enough. I needed more backstory on the mother/daughter thing, and I needed more of the kid who was good at tech. “Benni!” was not a bad part of the episode. (The last ‘look at the camera and preach’ bit wasn’t good, though.)
I’m actually going to agree that I generally approved of the ideas Chibnall had for the show, and that the implementation was the issue. His era would’ve been a lot better if he hadn’t done so much of the writing.
6 Likes
My controversial opinion is that no one Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver any more than another in Nu-Who. I know this as a few years ago I tallied up their uses for an argument on Twitter
1 Like
Agreed. It’s still good and possibly Nation’s best Dalek story (though it’s debatable how much of the finished product is Nation and how much is Holmes), but it’s not the best ever.
Also agree. I enjoy some of the stories this season, but the monsters and concepts that came out of this season are more interesting than the stories themselves. You can only tell the same story so many times in row before it gets boring. 
I like Zagreus, but I can see why people wouldn’t like it. It’s over-long, lore-heavy, and not a great jumping on point. It tries to cram every living Doctor Who actor it could into it. It’s also not a traditional multi-Doctor story which might be what people are expecting based on the cover.
I agree. I’m not a huge fan of Jodie era, but that’s not necessarily a dig at Jodie. It’s more that the writing wasn’t that great (could’ve used a few more drafts) and the political messaging seemed more forced than usual (looking at you Orphan 55). I don’t think the companions were as fleshed out as they could’ve been. Ryan just kinda faded into the background and Yaz just didn’t resonate with me. I found I liked this team better in the Titan run than on TV. Of the four, I think Graham and Dan are my favorites, and Dan left way too abruptly.
Totally agree. Maybe a little dark, but definitely beautiful, and very alien. That said, I also love Ncuti’s TARDIS interior as well.
I’ll agree there. I’ve only listened to this first set, and while I enjoyed the second two stories (the first just left me confused), they weren’t as linked as seemingly advertized.
I mean, I’ve enjoyed them in the handful of Doctor Who stories I’ve heard them in (never delved into their solo series), but I don’t find them super amazing. And I never got the love fandom has for Talons. I mean, plot-wise it’s fine, but just fine, not the best Doctor Who story ever.
It’s okay, it grew on me as it progressed, but wasn’t as good as some of what had come before. And the Covid ending just kind of felt forced.
Agreed. The Orson Pink stuff might’ve worked better if they hadn’t killed off Danny in the finale.
4 Likes
I liked the first and last episodes of Unbound: Doctor of War, and I found it’s consistent refusal to engage with it’s main premise to be very funny (half if not most of the stories feature some variant on the twist that we’re not actually following the new Doctor at all).
I also enjoy the (related) fact that the first 2 episodes take place over the course of about 10 minutes, and the 3rd takes place after a massive time jump.
1 Like
You know, I’m just going to talk a little about Davros, too. The character, not the wheelchair.
While I do think Genesis of the Daleks is overrated, I’m starting to suspect I like it a little more than some others here, and a lot of that was Davros. He was brilliantly acted and an absolutely chilling villain. I love mad scientists, and meeting his end at the plungers of his own creations was absolutely fitting.
They shouldn’t have brought him back.
I feel like he’s been a less interesting character since then, and his presence takes away from the Daleks. When he’s around, all the cleverness is him, and I’d rather have clever, manipulative Daleks. (Say, Power of the Daleks?) The Daleks should be highly intelligent in and of themselves, not minions.
He was used properly in Remembrance of the Daleks, mind. But that episode did a lot right, and is where the Daleks should be at…
9 Likes
For me it’s that the 9th/10th Doctors’ TARDIS interior was just plain ugly. I get that it’s meant to feel alien and different and new and whatever else, but when you compare it to literally any of the other ones to follow it just has to come last - aside from perhaps the War Doctor’s TARDIS, which is essentially just coral-lite, but with parts of the console being upside down.
The 13th Doctor’s interior does a much better job of feeling alien in my opinion, and I don’t even like it that much.
10 Likes
Davros is a brilliant character and Michael Wisher is amazing, but I disagree that he shouldn’t have returned. The Molloy Davros is also brilliant - especially so in his Big Finish appearances. I don’t think he works particularly well in the modern series and I definitely didn’t like the whole ‘eye-opening’ nonsense in The Witch’s Familiar. Another weird choice from Moffat.
And the BF series I, Davros is one of their absolute best releases ever.
2 Likes
total opposite for me, honestly! I hated it more as it went on haha I just felt it wasn’t really true to Liv or Helen because I don’t feel that Liv would ever be happy staying in one place and I can’t see Helen as a housewife ever, and the covid ending was the final nail in the coffin for me
1 Like
My most controversial opinion is probably that Underworld is good, its interesting to me how it adds to the time lord lore, everyone is just distracted by bad special effects
6 Likes
The addition to the history of the Time Lords is very interesting but it’s more than bad special effects that let it down. The guest cast are pretty shoddy too.
2 Likes
Just thought of another one:
With the exception of Genesis, not a single Terry Nation Dalek story is better than one done by literally any other writer for Classic Who
8 Likes