It is Wednesday meaning we get another chance to discuss, reminisce, and delve into some more stories. Last week[1] saw a clear divide between top 3 unicorn and the wasp 63%, oxygen 59%, and angles take Manhattan at 49%. Whereas the bottom three have 8%, 6%, and 3%
All previous polls open until mid December but the discussions are always open
Okay so this will be the LAST poll with 2 choices. Starting next week you get 1 choice, since we lose 2 Doctors this week and will be under 5 remaining
Wow… This is a tough list to pick two
Tenth planet I love mondasian Cybermen proper creepy
Armageddon Factor I do like but it is weaker than the rest here
Library 2 parter is great , Donna’s awesome and a great into to river
Snowmen is a good intro to a new 11 era
Extremis I think is great! Picks up the blind plot point from oxygen and is really good, too bad that the subsequent two episodes drag this into down a tad[1]
Power of the doctor is a nice conclusion
But I think I’m going for 1 and 10 but might swap at some point for 12
I know it’s listed as one part here (blame Tardis wiki) ↩︎
This one is pretty hard, some good stories here. I quite like The Armageddon Factor even though I know it’s not a fan favorite and I really enjoyed The Snowmen too so I don’t think you can go wrong with either of those.
But I think I’ll go with The Tenth Planet as there’s something about the creepiness of the early cybermen that I always remember and come back to. My second is Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, which is really just a terrific story.
A surprisingly tough pool to choose only two from. I lament being unable to choose ‘The Tenth Planet’; I love that story and consider it to be one of the best final outings for any Doctor. The Mondasian Cybermen are immediately iconic, all at once uncannily terrifying and viscerally fascinating to watch operate. Ultimately, I’m choosing the Series 4 two-parter and ‘Extremis’.
‘Silence in the Library’ and ‘Forest of the Dead’ are, in my opinion, superlative Doctor Who—if (this era of) NuWho were ever to be distilled into a single story, this would be my choice. Horror, action, and no shortage of compelling emotion with fantastic performances and a great mystery at its core. Watching Donna’s children disappear has only made me cry more as the years have gone on, saying nothing of River’s sacrifice eliciting such pain despite us at the time knowing nothing about who she really is. This is easily one of the strongest Tenth Doctor stories, a worthy candidate of being considered one of the strongest Doctor Who stories of all time, and an easy choice for this poll.
‘Extremis’ is also another incredible story, but for different reasons. The Capaldi years have always represented a growing maturity for Doctor Who, in my eyes; Doctor Who can be and has been mature before it, but this was an era that felt like it was growing up with the audience that had come into the scene with 2005, and ‘Extremis’ is one of the boldest streaks for that. Its central conceit is as intriguing as it is morbid, and the intercutting with the flashbacks to Missy’s ‘execution’ just add more and more to the speculation of what might happen next. A blind Doctor, a terrible truth, and a simulation constructed by a mysterious new threat, all of which culminates in the first cliff-hanger of a monolithic three-parter? Sign me up!
The Tenth Planet is great, but there are better stories with the Cybermen. This was close to getting a vote from me for how unnerving the Cybermen are here.
I voted for Silence/Forest here mainly because of the excellent Alex Kingston being introduced as River Song with plenty of emotional moments despite us having only just met her. I love the concept of River and how complicated her relationship is with the Doctor. Everyone is on their A game here, 10 and Donna are both brilliant.
I also voted for Power of the Doctor partly because it is such camp fun! It goes from being utterly ridiculous to heartbreaking and back again. It feels like a celebration of Doctor Who as a whole, there is so much joy and love put into this it that I can’t help but smile when I think about it. 13’s regeneration is visually the most stunningly beautiful regeneration scene in the entire show to me and the score is perfect. One of my favourite episodes of the show, so enjoyable. If I could only vote for one episode this round this would be my choice.
This one’s easy enough for me. Tenth Planet and Extremis. Silence/Forest is an equally great story, but it loses points for me for… I’ll just keep that part to myself
I really liked The Armageddon Factor I thought it was a great conclusion to the key to time arc and a story with high suspense throughout. Never understood why it’s not regarded higher.
The Library two-parter is fantastic, one of Tennant’s best and one of the real S4 highlights.
The Snowmen is fine but not much more than that.
Extremis is like the best Capaldi story that for some reason doesn’t seem to get mentioned much. It has a good reputation but in my experience when people talk best Twelve stories they bring up MotOE, Flatline, the Lake two-parter, Heaven Sent and the Series 10 finale. I don’t see Extremis mentioned all that much, which is a shame because it’s one of S10’s best.
The Power of the Doctor is fun as all hell, a brilliant conclusion to a rocky era and just like older sibling The Day of the Doctor, it’s got lovely fanservice that doesn’t feel too forced. One of Jodie’s best.
The David, Peter and Jodie stories were the ones in contention here and it was hard to choose the one that wouldn’t get a vote. Ultimately I voted for Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and Extremis.
Tricky. I don’t really like The Armageddon Factor very much, but all the rest I really do. I’m going with Silence/Forest because it is kinda perfect, and Power Of The Doctor because it is an absolute blast from start to finish. But if I had three votes, Extremis would also get it, that’s a brilliant ep.
It always makes me so happy to read something like this. The Armageddon Factor may be flawed but I have a huge soft spot for it and I actually think it is full of lovely ideas. I’m a fan of Graham Williams’ take on Doctor Who. Not a popular position, but I don’t care. I love it (warts and all) because it’s wildly creative and literate. Season 16 is one of my all time favourites and the finale story would be so much more visually epic if made today.
I think the Library 2 parter is the best episode of the rivival at the time it came out, and a good while afterwards too. Easy pick.
Extremis is frankly ruined for me by a byond idiodic RNG system and an ability for this software to connect to the outside world. This is quite possibly the most important device this civilization posesses and its programed by an idiot to the point of probably not being able to do what it was designed for.
These were my picks (though I am soft on The Armageddon Factor). Silence is the cleverer story, but Power is unhinged, absurdly ambitious and one of the most entertaining 87 mins of telly ever. I just love it.
Oh, this one is easy for me! The Library two parter is one of my favorite Doctor Who stories ever! And The Snowmen I like a lot, what with Victorian Clara, the Paternoster gang, TARDIS on a cloud, the talking Snowglobe, and Pond .
I just recently watched The Tenth Planet for the first time, and I liked it, it’s pretty iconic, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Extremis is good, but it had to grow on me over several watches to really appreciate it.
The Power of the Doctor is a bit all over the place, but I like it fairly well. The Master dancing around to Rasputin while pretending to be Rasputin as the Daleks and Cybermen watch in befuddlement will never not be funny to me.
And I don’t believe I’ve watched Armageddon Factor so I have no opinion on it. (Okay, apparently it’s the last part of the Key to Time arc, and I know I’ve watched all of that, but I still remember absolutely nothing about it so my previous point still stands.)
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