*OLD VERSION* Top 10 WORST Doctor Who Stories (Classic Series) 

Wingy: “Number Ten Black Orchid” Me: *IT’S TREASON THEN*

I've only borrowed two classic stories from my library; Timelash and Warriors of the Deep. Good to know I was just unlucky.

At least no Troughton stories was mentioned :)

Special Edition of Day of the Daleks made it a lot better.

The awkward moment when I think black orchid is a great story 😅

I really like trial of a timelord.

Wow. Black Orchid is literally my favourite Peter Davison story and one of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time. It just has such a great, simple, slightly cheesy atmosphere but in my opinion that was the biggest charm of this story! You'd expect there to be some alien threat, or the Master appearing after being mentioned in the beginning of the episode, but it was just a simple down-to-Earth drama and I loved that plot twist! Every time I watch it I get such a kick out of the quirky cricket scene (I'm not from an Anglophone country so I had never seen cricket before) and just... EVERYTHING looks fantastically appealing, homey and nostalgic in that episode. But that's just me. Yeah, I'd agree with most of the Day of the Daleks arguments, but I thought that the Special Effects were pretty good for the time. Then again, I'm easily impressed with that kind of stuff. Yeah, the Silver Nemesis was a bit jumbled up and it felt awkward how they left so many loose threads. Also the Cybermen felt overly comical in this episode, which doesn't work in this particular instance. "Is this human madness?" Leisure Hive - yeah, it was boring and not the best. You forgot to mention the fact that K-9 got wrecked in the beginning in the most brutally and emotionally crushing way possible. I was so mad then. Thank God he came back in the very next episode. Timelash - I actually find it pretty enjoyable. I'd say that it's way better than the Revelation of the Daleks. Timelash isn't great by any stretch of the imagination, but I myself would never say that it's bad. But I really can't say what it is that I think is good in this story. Timeflight - Yeah, it was really underwhelming. Also it was an Arabian fat guy. I wouldn't say it was racist, cause his skin was literally made out of blue clay. The Time Monster - Totally agree. The only point to this episode is to provide us with the Brigadier saying "tit". Underworld - Again, I concur 100%. That was one forgettable story. K-9 was cute when he piloted the ship, though. Then again, it's K-9, you can't expect less from him. Trial of the Timelord - I think it was quite a brave experiment for the time because it steered away from a changed format of Season 22 to another format that's closer to the original, but still different. I felt that it was great and loved the court stuff, and even though a lot of stuff was left unexplained and the Valeyard hasn't come back yet, I still really enjoy it, particularly the Terror of the Vervoids and the Ultimate Foe. I only wish that Mel didn't exist and that the Ultimate Foe was longer. Warriors of the Deep - it's a really weird story. Honestly can't quite wrap my mind around it :P Again, not shitting on your opinions, just letting out mine.

4 words. Time and the Rani. Worst doctor who story ever.

Nah. A good half of Trial is great, and it never really dips below mediocrity. And Day, in bottom 10? Whatever.

nearly all these stories have one thing in common, J. N. T.

I bought the five doctors today, and watched it and it turns out someone had put The Lesiure Hive into the wrong box. Gutted

One thing I WILL say for Black Orchid. When Tegan leaves at the end of that foul Dalek Story, she says "It's stopped being fun". WHEN WAS IT EVER FUN??? Black Orchid at least shows us the characters having fun in episode one. Cricket, dancing, playing with your double (who's called a Child despite being a fiance, disturbingly) and eating piles of food. This is the only time we see them having fun. Ever. It's the one thing in Black Orchid's favour to my eyes.

If you want an episode that's hurt by it's budget then look no further than Destiny of the Daleks. Holy crap, that episode looks like it was made on a budget of 10p! If you want some indication as to how bad the production values are, look no further than Davros. They used the same mask that they did for Michael Wisher but they put it on David Gooderson and it clearly didn't fit him. That and it has major continuity issues such as Romana's regeneration and making the Daleks robots (which is doubly insulting when you realise that Terry Nation himself wrote this). Seriously, this episode makes Day of the Daleks look expensive

I just love that my guiltiest Of pleasures, “The Gunfighters”, wasn’t mentioned here or on any other worst lists I’ve seen lately. Haha Great video mate!

Well, it appears you and I have very different tastes... Particularly, "The Trial of a Time Lord", for it is my 7th favourite story of all time. Good video though.

The dalek from the day of the daleks sounds like my principal lol

7:32 Even though Tom Baker is my favourite Doctor, I didn't really care much for his costume in Season 18. While I would have preferred to have seen the originally planned Season 23 before Doctor Who was put on a hiatus in 1985, I actually didn't mind "The Trial of a Time Lord". But that's just my opinion.

Day of the Daleks? For worst stories? It's one of the best Pertwee stories.

What about stories like "Paradise Towers" and "The Happiness Patrol" when Doctor Who had essentially become a parody of itself? They were absolutely friggin' awful!

You put Day of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord on this list and left out The Gunfighters and Twin Dilemma? What is this heresy?

I quite enjoyed “Revenge of the Cybermen!”

Have to disagree over the Leisure Hive. First time I hated it, second time I liked it and third time I loved it. I think it definitely feels like a necessary breath of fresh air that the show needed as the second half of the Tom Baker era seemed to run out of steam for me, verging into silliness in series 17.

Tom Tit, Tom Thumb's drunk, unsuccessful brother who lives with his parents even though he is 39 years old ;)

I love Day of The Daleks.... the new version with the added effects.

I’m gonna say it: I LOVE WARRIORS OF THE DEEP

Trial of a Timelord is 4 distinct stories

10. The Horns of Nimon 9. Four to Doomsday 8. invasion of the Dinosaurs 7. The King's Demons 6. Dragonfire 5. Warriors of the Deep 4. Time-Flight 3. The Twin Dilemma 2. Time and the Rani 1. Timelash 40 of the bottom 100 are classic serials. Your presentation was distressing to watch. To quote you - "painful, borning and ridiculous".

i live trial of a timelord

"It wouldn't be a worst Doctor Who list without a Colin Baker story, would it?" That hurts, man. That hurts.

The Web Planet should have been on here 6 episodes of BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

CONGRATS ON 1000 SUBS!!!!

Did you just give a free pass to the entire Hartnell & Troughton eras?! 'The Gunfighters' is by far the very worst story of the entire Classic Who. I dare you to defend it!

I prefer classic doctor who than the reboot

Wingy, I really love your turn of phrase. I was laughing my head off towards the end.

I might get some hate for this but i actually like Timelash. plz dont kill me :'(

1. Black Orchid. 2. Day of the Daleks. 3. Silver Nemesis. 4. The Leisure Hive. 5. Timelash. 6. Time Flight. 7. The Time Monster. 8. Underworld. 9. The Trial of a Timelord (all of it). 10.Warriors of the Deep.

Warriors Gate is even more confusing and dull than Leisure Hive.

I'm really excited because you included two of my Classic Series guilty pleasures on this list: Underworld and my guiltiest pleasure of them all, The time monster. I've got some friends who like low budget crappy-ish scifi and I've talked to them a lot about Kronos, prfo. Thaskalos and TOMTIT jaja. And there are a few memorable moments, such as the first mention to K'anpo Rimpoche, some Jo Grant and Master scenes and naked Benton to name a few. I'd liked you included some First and Second Doctor (The Gunfighters or The Dominators?) stories since I haven't watched 5, 6 and 7 eras yet.

the gunfighters with Hartnell is pretty awful.

Never understood the argument about there "only" being 3 Daleks at the end of Day of the Daleks. They're only going to kill one man, 3 Daleks is more than enough. It's not an invasion.

I agree with a lot of what you say. In particular I agree about the brightness of the lighting in the 80's. If your production values aren't too great then bright lighting is your enemy. Also, if your production values aren't too great, then full-shot, brightly lit depictions of monsters isn't going to work. Imagine if the Merka (spelling?) had just been a tentacle winding around a throat in dimly-lit close-up

The commentary of Time-Flight is absolutely brilliant. You can feel the pain of Peter Davison when he's talking about this disaster of a story.

apparently the budget for warriors of the deep was heavily affected due to margaret thatcher I believe

I have a soft spot for The Time Monster, if only for Pertwee's Daisiest Daisy speech, as it's my favorite performance of his and probably one of my favorite Doctor Who moments ever.

I love the Courtroom scenes on Trial of a Timelord. Yes, they bring down the pace and are not that great but I'm a sucker for people shouting legal jargon in courtrooms, specially if it involves space politics.

The Ambassadors Of Death, Ghost Light, The Mind Of Evil, The Awakening, The Mutants, The Horns Of The Nimon, The Creature From The Pit, Planet Of The Giants, The Krotons & The Gunfighters.

Aw man, I actually Liked Day of the Daleks, It was the Episode that got me into Doctor Who.

I liked and subbed great show!

Dishonorable mentions: The Web Planet Four to Doomsday Underworld The Dominators Meglos The Twin Dilemma The Underwater Menace The Invisible Enemy Mark of the Rani Time and the Rani

The Time Monster isn't great over all, but it has some really good moments. Namely, when the Doctor and Jo are captured and the Doctor tells her about the worst day of his life, and then the climax with the time ram.

I actually enjoy Black Orchid. But I can see why people don't.

Here are my 10 worst Doctor Who Stories The Dominators (So boring and so stupid) The Space Pirates (The fact that episodes 1 and 3-6 are missing really hurt this) Underworld (The blue screen was so bad it gave me a headache) Time-Flight (I have no idea what was even happening for half the episode) The Twin Dilemma (Do I even need to explain this one?) Attack of the Cybermen (This episode was a mess) Timelash (Terrible) Time and the Rani (The worst one, IMO) Paradise Towers (An alright story with awful acting) Delta and the Bannermen (The Bannermen are the worst antagonists in Doctor Who, IMO)

The worst with these serials really has to go to the ones that just bore. A terrible costume or alien can be endearing whilst the greatest 8 parter is not. I oddly really dislike Robot, bad start to a great tenure. Also Attack of the Cybermen and early 7 more out of resentment for how badly they were wasting their lead actors. (As proven by Big Finish)

Great video. I agree with your choices, with maybe the exception of day of the Daleks. though that's because of the remastered version on the DVD which has Nick Briggs voicing the Daleks and the effects updated, making the story more watchable. Since you didn't mention it, have you seen it?

silver nemesis was terrific!!! the Nemesis coming alive is one of the iconic moments in the entire series.

Discovered you today. You're funny and you talk about my favorite thing ever, Classic Who. I own it all on DVD. I started collecting back in 2012. I pick a story from time to time and rewatch it. I've probably seen Genesis of the Daleks the most. Followed by Pyramids of Mars.

If, when watching any 7th Doctor story, you think "This needed another episode" odds are they were forced to cut about an episodes worth of material. When asked about the literal cliff hanger at the end of Dragonfire, the writer said that it made sense in the script he wrote. Apparently, a scene that explained everything was cut...

Davison was so great as Tristan in All Creatures.

I actually like all of these except day of the daleks, and warriors of the deep, those two aren't very good, but the rest I liked, my list would be very different (they are in order from watchable to plain awful) 10: the king's demons 9: colony in space 8: underworld 7: the Dominators 6: the smugglers 5: the power of kroll 4: the awakening 3: the mutants 2: the twin dilemma 1: paradise towers

On a side note, look - it's not ILM level special effects, but if you buy the Day of the Daleks DVD, there's a redoing that is awesome! First off, they digitally redid a bunch of the special effects, and they did a halfway decent job. Better yet, the modern guy who does the dalek voices (who I totally know, but am just blanking on right now), has redone all the Dalek voices in the epp. Seriously, the epp is much better with all these fixes. By the way, Silver Nemesis is, indeed, god awful

When you did your Colin Baker impersonation from the Trial cliffhangers.....I laughed my ass off.

The underlying fact that runs throughout this Top (bottom) 10 video, is the show suffered enormously with John Nathan-Turners interference with an established format that was working fairly well. He reminds me of Andy from Toy Story playing with his toys, and making up little scenarios for them. Sadly, Andy had a far more fertile and creative mind.

I didn't like ghost light, it was like a LSD seizure

Soooooo...no stories from the William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton era? The Gunslingers? Anybody?

I don't mind time flight

Apologies if this point was made, but I believe that The Twin Dilemma was actually the final story of Davidson last season... ruining the effect of what should have been the perfect end of his season AND era: Caves of Androzanni. So Colin Baker actually had 2 seasons + one story.

Every cliff hanger of Trial of a Time Lord is just Colin Baker pulling a face.

One of my biggest mistakes was choosing Warriors of the Deep as my first Fifth Doctor story. Thankfully, Four to Doomsday and The Visitation got the bad taste out of my mouth. Anyway, here's my list: 10. The Web Planet 9. Planet of the Daleks 8. The Monster of Peladon 7. Revenge of the Cybermen 6. Time and the Rani 5. The Twin Dilemma 4. The Ribos Operation 3. The Claws of Axos 2. Warriors of the Deep 1. The Time Monster

The Power of Kroll?

I absolutely love "Warriors Of The Deep" - genuinely one of my favourite episodes ever. I also really like "Trial Of A Timelord" and "Timelash"... I'm fully aware they're total shit - but for some reason I find myself watching them over and over again! Anyway, love love love your style of video! Great to see a Who fan not biased towards the new or classic series, but treating it all as the same canon :) My worst classic episodes would be: 10. Dragonfire 9. An Unearthly Child (except for part 1, obviously) 8. Revenge Of The Cybermen 7. Four To Doomsday 6. Paradise Towers 5. Death To The Daleks 4. The Web Planet 3. The TV Movie 2. The Dominators (jesus christ, make it stop!) 1. Delta & The Bannermen (genuinely can't believe this wasn't on your list!)

About your last choice. Blame Mrs T wanting a election in 1983 so the production waa cut by 2 weeks and some of the stuff was done on a single take. Ouch.

I have to admit up front that I haven't watched most of classic Who for about twenty years, but the lack of mention of one particular story in the video or in any of the comments surprises me. Did The Horns of Nimon get a pass as a "so bad, it's good" entry? Or was it better than I remember?

How could you forget the first Doctor in the old West the Ballad alone makes the story one of the very worst Dr. Who atrocities.

Power of Kroll...

Great list! I'd add Twin Dilemma though.

Space Museum, Time Monster, Monster of Peladon, Underworld, Armageddon Factor, Leisure Hive, Warriors Gate, Castrovalva, Warriors of the Deep, Twin Dilemma. And Day of the Daleks is very good; excellent first episode. In fact perhaps my 3rd favourite first episode in all of classic Who, right behind Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Death to the Daleks.

17:37 I was crying! Great list, I am really happy Day of the Daleks is on this list, it is so overrated and I dont know why. One thing I do disagree with is The Trial of a Time Lord, I do agree with your points, but I think it's a big chunk of fun, but that's your opinion. Great list, I think you are so funny! :)

While I can totally see why you and others dislike it, I really enjoyed Trial of a Timelord and it is one of my favourite seasons of Classic Doctor Who. My least favourite classic series episode would probably either be The Armageddon Factor or Attack of the Cybermen.

I Still haven't seen trial of a timelord to this Day

*cough* destiny of the daleks *cough*

My list of worst classic doctor who stories in no particular order. 1. The Space Museum 2. The Chase 3. The Space Pirate's 4. The Time Monster 5. Underworld 6. The Horns Of Nimon 7. Time-Flight 8. The Twin Dilemma 9. Timelash 10. Anything From Season 24

Great list alex! I have a question for you. What do you think of Kinda? Personally, I really like it but I hear some people saying it's mediocre at best. What do you think?

WoTD is fine with me. That ending was sad and so Davison . Yes it could have been great but it is still a good yarn. Twin Dilemma however is atrocious. The rest of the season was too notch esp. Frontios and The Awakening and Planet of Fire.

Lord, the bad ground music/noise was really distracting. I think it made me grumpier about this list than I would have been otherwise.

1) THE TWIN DILEMMA. 2) - 10) The rest of Colin Baker's era. Plus, maybe, McCoy's first. That's it.

>pure historicals >trial of a time lord >bad wew

Black Orchid - agreed , a weak story, which misses the point that Hartnell historical stories were usually about actual historical events. This is just a stately home murder mystery (without the mystery) made to sell to US TV because a lot of Americans think that this is what the UK is like! But I agree, the DVD commentary is the most entertaining bit!Day of the Daleks - Decent story let down by the poor execution of the Dalek scenes, as if they thought just putting the Daleks in it would be enough.Silver Nemesis - Saw episode 1 at the time, I didn't bother with the restThe Leisure Hive - weird because this was seen as a big step forward in Dr Who's production values at the time. It's dated badly , and it's hard to follow in places , but it's not one of the top 10 worstTimelash - Yep. Generic Dr Who written by an inexperienced writer. Time Flight - Yes. Ridiculous story from beginning to end, summed up by the fact that halfway through the final episode we get dramatic scenes of .... the cabin crew tightening bolts on the plane! Bizarre that it was written by a director (and a good one) who seems to have no idea of what would work on screenThe Time Monster - Yep! Underworld - Just plain dull, the least enjoyable Tom Baker story. Apparently it was going to be 6 parts originally!Trial Of A Time Lord - Haven't watched it since 1986 , not in a rush to watch it againWarriors Of The Deep - Yep. Not just a shoddy production but an utterly boring story. Silurians / Sea Devils raid a base and that's about it. The whole sub plot about the enemy agents is pointless because then the Silurians just walk in and kill them. But yes me and a couple of mates had a great time watching it one night and falling around laughing.I agree with most of your list and better still you didn't include Horns Of Nimon which is great.

I didnt realise earthshock was between two bad serials

The Peladon stories have to be the worst. Along with Hartnell's "The Web Planet". "Time And The Rani" is a shocker as well.

Day of the Daleks was the first classic story I watched with the Daleks. At that time I remember thinking what was up with their voices.

Black Orchid? Silver Nemesis? The Time Monster? Ha ha. No. I can think of many worse stories. Curse of Peladon? Horns of Nimon?

leisure hive had some really good moments example: "arrest the scarf then" and the moment when the doctor says "there are two unauthorised visitors on the premise's..." and it may just be me but I'm never bored watching it

Just FYI, the "orange people" in The Leisure Hive are called Argolins, from the planet...Argolis! The lady in charge of them (and her preposterous hairdo), was called Adrienne Corri, who some may remember from Kubrick's version of A Clockwork Orange. She played the wife of The Writer, who is raped in front of her husband, and we find out later she killed herself. Good times!

I think I would have included 'Twin Dilemma', 'The Gunfighters', 'The Chase', 'The Happiness Patrol' and 'Dragonfire'. Yeah 'Silver Nemesis' was such a disappointment!

For me no list would be complete without Frontios, Time and the Rani and worst of all: Twin Dilemma.

i like the leisure hive (AND MEGLOS), the time monster, and trial of a timelord the ultimate foe.

I think that the "Mindwarp" part of Trial could have done really well as a stand alone story. Especially if Peri still died at the end. It would have set up a very nasty reunion with the Doctor and Sil in a later story as well. And it could have gone down as one of the greatest episodes in Doctor Who history.

I'm so glad that Nicholas Briggs provided the Dalek voices in the special edition of 'Day of the Daleks'. I agree that they really didn't need to be in it though.

I'm surprised by the exclusion of Invasion of Time. It has some moments, but the highlight is still a Sontaran being eaten by a plant. The monsters are set up in a mysterious way, with the backs of some chairs, but having the main monsters stay as "shimmering shapes" (ie, plastic wrap being wiggled when they are supposed to talk) for the first few episodes was a huge disappointment, and when they finally appeared they're just some dudes in jumpsuits. They are defeated easily, and then the Sontarans come in. They're not much better, Stor in particular being very nonthreatening at all. The last few episodes turn into a giant chase through the TARDIS corridors that looked like disused stairwells in an elementary school. And then the Doctor puts a key in a gun an blows them all to hell. And then Leela just suddenly falls in love with a Time Lord who tried to kill the Doctor in the last 5 minutes and stays on Gallifrey, K-9 staying with. It's just boring. P.S.: Why do all the bad classic stories have the word "Time" in their name? P.P.S. :Why is it called the Invasion of Time. Gallifrey was invaded. The TARDIS was invaded. Time wasn't.

10.silver nemesis 9.time lash 8.leisure hive 7.time flight 6.two doctors 5.invasion of the dinosaurs 4.warriors of the deep 3.time and the rani 2.mark of the rani 1.twin dilemma