Well, after posting and analysing the Best of Who and Worst of Who polls, the obvious next thing to do is combine them. So, a definitive final judgement by Livejournal: the best of the best, the worst of the worst, and deciding whether those stories that got two or more votes in each poll are Good or Bad.

( poll )

And yes, I will probably do one about the audios next.

There were some surprises here, most of all the surprise that more people voted than in the previous poll. Myself, I find it much easier to decide which story I like least than which I like most; perhaps I am unusual in that regard.

Anyway, as before, going in order of decreasing consensus by Doctor.

( Ninth Doctor: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances )
( Fifth Doctor: The Caves of Androzani )
( First Doctor: The Dalek Invasion of Earth )
( Sixth Doctor: Revelation of the Daleks )
( Seventh Doctor: Remembrance of the Daleks )
( Fourth Doctor: Genesis of the Daleks )
( Second Doctor: The Mind Robber )
( Third Doctor: Inferno )
( Tenth Doctor: Blink )
( Eighth Doctor: Err, yes. )

So that's it. Thanks for playing, and I shall probably do the same this time next year or thereabouts.

( 16) Doctor Who - Warriors of the Deep, by Terrance Dicks )
( 17) Doctor Who - The Awakening, by Eric Pringle )
( 18) Doctor Who - Frontios, by Christopher H. Bidmead )
( 19) Doctor Who - Resurrection of the Daleks, by Paul Scoones )
( 20) Doctor Who - Planet of Fire, by Peter Grimwade )

( Tegan )

( Turlough )

And, since I read Terrance Dicks' rather flat adaptation of The Caves of Androzani a year ago, that takes me to the end of the Fifth Doctor's run as well. My two polls on the best and worst stories of each Doctor's era (full analysis coming soon) were pretty emphatic in their choices here, and I agree with the conventional wisdom: The Caves of Androzani was the best, and Time Flight the worst. The others that I enjoyed were Castrovalva, The Visitation, Snakedance, Enlightenment and The Five Doctors (though the last much more for the nostalgia value than for any artistic merit). But the lows were much lower than for any previous Doctor. Time Flight has particularly poor production values and plotting, but it just happens to be the worst of a generally poor bunch. If I had to sum it up, I would say that this was when Doctor Who started to look cheap rather than magical.

( more on the Fifth Doctor )

Previous summary posts: the Fourth Doctor, Third Doctor novels, Second Doctor novels, First Doctor novels, the first three Doctors on screen.

For those who felt last week's poll was too negative:

( favourite Who stories )

Continuing my project, these are the novelisations of the Season 20 stories, plus one that got away from Season 19 and the anniversary special. A number of these confounded my expectations.

( 5) Doctor Who and the Visitation, by Eric Saward - better than expected )
( 6) Doctor Who - Arc of Infinity, by Terrance Dicks - standard stuff )
( 7) Doctor Who - Snakedance, by Terrance Dicks - standard stuff )
( 8) Doctor Who - Mawdryn Undead, by Peter Grimwade - better than I expected )
( 9) Doctor Who - Terminus, by John Lydecker - the best of this bunch )
( 10) Doctor Who - Enlightenment, by Barbara Clegg - starts well, ends with a whimper )
( 11) Doctor Who - The King's Demons, by Terence Dudley - the least impressive of this bunch )
( 12) Doctor Who - The Five Doctors, by Terrance Dicks - a guilty pleasure )

This brings me to the end of Nyssa's run on the show. As with a lot of the brainier companions, she doesn't transfer particularly memorably to the printed page. Although she does bring with her a tragic back-story, losing first her father and then her whole homeworld, this fades more and more into the background as time goes on. Having said that, there are a couple of stories - eg Black Orchid, Terminus - where she is pretty central to the action and this works well.

Nyssa of course continues to feature on Fifth Doctor audios from time to time, including on several of the best Big Finish stories - The Mutant Phase (with Daleks), Primeval (a sort of prequel to The Keeper of Traken), The Game (which brings back William Russell rather gloriously) and two particular favourites, Creatures of Beauty (which has a very unusual format but none the less works) and most of all Spare Parts (the origin of the Cybermen). Any or all of these would be a decent jumping off point to get into Big Finish, if you haven't already done so.

This is what the poll reveals as the Worst Who stories (listed in order of decreasing consensus by Doctor).

( Fifth Doctor: Time Flight )
( Second Doctor: The Underwater Menace )
( Ninth Doctor: The Long Game )
( Sixth Doctor: Timelash )
( Seventh Doctor: Time and the Rani )
( Third Doctor: The Mutants )
( Tenth Doctor: tie between Love & Monsters and Fear Her )
( Eighth Doctor: what do you think? )
( First Doctor: tie between The Chase and The Gunfighters )
( Fourth Doctor: The Horns of Nimon )

Thus is revealed the accumulated weight of Livejournal. I am in line with the majority on only three of the nine where there is a serious contest; blue_condition, whose debate with me sparked this, does rather better. So basically, Pete wins the argument.

Sparked by a debate between blue_condition and myself, I must ask the following questions:

( which is the worst story of each Doctor? )

Two good ones among this lot, and one total dud.

( 39) Doctor Who - Castrovalva, by Christopher H Bidmead: one of the good ones )
( 40) Cold Fusion, by Lance Parkin )
( 41) Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday, by Terrance Dicks )
( 42) Doctor Who - Kinda, by Terrance Dicks )
( 43) Doctor Who - Black Orchid, by Terence Dudley: very good indeed )
( 44) Doctor Who - Time Flight, by Peter Grimwade: awful )

I've been in the habit of writing up each companion as they leave the sequence of novels. Adric really makes very little impression. His tendency towards siding with the baddies is almost his only interesting characteristic. Terence Dudley does make him rather more filled out in Doctor Who - Black Orchid but that is about the high point of his printed career. (And of course the Seventh Doctor and companions acknowledge his coming fate in Cold Fusion but apart from that he doesn't get much to do.)

Edited to add: I see I forgot to include Eric Saward's Doctor Who and the Visitation in this batch. Nt rushing to it, I must admit.

These were the last two Fifth Doctor gaps in my list. Frontios is not too bad; Enlightenment sheer genius.

( Enlightenment )

( Frontios )

In summary, a decent conclusion to my Fifth Doctor viewing. I will reserve my overall judgement of the Davison era until I have got through the novelisations.

Four Fifth Doctor stories of, er, variable quality with one remarkable point in common: the villains are green. (Though in one case for only half the story.)

( Four To Doomsday: froglike aliens who want to destroy humanity )
( The Visitation: lizardlike aliens who want to destroy humanity )
( Time Flight: the Master wears a green mask as part of his plan to destroy humanity )
( Warriors of the Deep: ancient reptilian creatures who want to destroy humanity )

So, in summary, The Visitation is not too embarrassing; the other three, however, are - with a particular demerit for Time Flight, the worst story since The Mutants.

Not certain that my watching of Old Who will keep ahead of my reading of the novels, but it looks like I will finish both projects before the summer holidays. More or less at random (and out of sequence, but in the order I watched them) here are the most recent four Fifth Doctor stories I've (re) watched.

( The King's Demons: rather dire )
( Planet of Fire: unremarkable stuff )
( Terminus: Bye bye Nyssa, but her skirt goes first )
( The Awakening: fun and Civil War games )

So, my verdict: Terminus definitely one to look out for, The King's Demons definitely one to avoid, the other two OK but not spectacular.

I have finally finished the Tom Baker TV stories, but will save my assessment of the Fourth Doctor until I've finished reading the books. Apologies to those of you reading by RSS, but here are my views on seven Fourth Doctor stories and one Fifth Doctor story for luck.

( The Hand of Fear: The Doctor and Sarah Jane are hoodwinked by Eldrad )
( The Androids of Tara: The Doctor and Romana and android doubles )
( The Power of Kroll: The Doctor and Romana and one of the worst monsters ever )
( The Armageddon Factor: The Doctor and Romana complete the quest )
( The Leisure Hive: The Doctor, Romana and the shape of things to come )
( Full Circle: Introducing Adric )
( State of Decay: Doctor, Romana, Adric and vampires )
( Mawdryn Undead: the Fifth Doctor meets an old friend )

Just because I'm reading the novels doesn't mean I am neglecting my duties to the original classic television series (though I imagine I will finish the novels first). But I realise I've fallen behind a bit in recording my reactions to them since the start of last month.

( The Brain of Morbius: Fourth Doctor and Sarah reprise Frankenstein )
( The Pirate Planet: Fourth Doctor, Romana I and K-9 do battle with Douglas Adams )
( Warrior's Gate: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, K-9 and Adric at the junction of the universes )
( Arc of Infinity: Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa meet the future Sixth Doctor and Omega )
( The Two Doctors: Sixth Doctor and Peri meet Second Doctor and Jamie and do battle with the Sontarans )
( Time and the Rani: newly regenerated Seventh Doctor and Mel deal with renegade Time Lady )

So, in summary, The Brain of Morbius and Warrior's Gate are real classics, and The Two Doctors held up better than I had expected; skip the rest.

Occasionally, by accident or design, I read two or more books with a common theme and combine them into a single livejournal entry (indeed, checking back I see I've done that four times this month). And usually I combine my Big Finish reviews into multiple posts, as an act of mercy to the vast majority of readers who aren't interested. But this time, my reading and listening schedules happened to throw up a Who novel and a Who audio play with an identical central theme, though very different in the execution of that shared theme.

The Council of Nicæa is a relatively short audio play in the Big Finish range, by Caroline Symcox (who I last saw at MeCon). It brings the Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, his TV companion Peri Brown and new audio companion Erimem to the year 325 and the theological disputes over the nature of God at the eponymous Council. Supporting characters from history are the Emperor Constantine, his wife Fausta, and the competing theologians Athanasius and Arius.

The Witch Hunters, by Steve Lyons, is an early one of the BBC's Past Doctor Adventures, set pretty firmly in TV chronology between The Sensorites and The Reign of Terror, bringing the First Doctor with companions Ian, Susan and Barbara to the village of Salem in Massachusetts in 1692, just in time for the infamous witch trials.

Both are stories in which there is no sfnal element in the historical context apart from the Doctor and his companions, and thus are very much rooted in the early traditions of the show. Both stories are a kind of response in Who terms to other writers - Symcox reacting against J. N. O. Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrines, Lyons more favourably to Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Both of them feature a historical context where, essentially, the bad guys are the mainstream authority Christians and the listener/reader is invited to sympathise with the underdog (Arius and his followers/the accused "witches"). In both cases, the youngest of the Tardis crew (Erimem/Susan) is instrumental in trying to change history in the favour of the underdogs, in both cases (and this is hardly a spoiler) unsuccessfully.

Symcox takes more liberties with the setting (Arius is portrayed as a young man and Athanasius as somewhat older; in fact the reverse was the case), as she is writing a more standard Doctor Who story and also has less time to do it in (less than 100 minutes, compared to Lyons' 282 pages). As often with Who, the Doctor gains the confidence of the authorities rather implausibly rapidly, which then of course accelerates the amount of trouble he and his friends get into. The two key elements of the story are the didactic part, informing the average listener who is (safely) assumed to know very little of the Council of Nicæa, and the character development of Erimem, who sides with Arius partly out of national solidarity (Arius was from Alexandria, Erimem is an ancient Egyptian pricess) but more out of a sense of fair play. She pleads that because 325 is her future, she should not be accused of trying to change the past. It all worked rather well for me, certainly much better than The Church and the Crown, an earlier audio with a similar concept except that the Doctor intervenes to force history into our timeline.

Lyons makes the reader work harder; he has more characters to follow (not just four in the Tardis crew instead of three, but a large chunk of the population of Salem) and more background knowledge is assumed. He is also sticking closer to the historical sequence of events, though The Crucible is explicitly referenced, with the Doctor and crew taking in the first performance in Bristol in 1954, and the Doctor then returning with Rebecca Nurse to take it in again. Actually Lyons handles the possibility of changing history a bit less convincingly than Symcox, with even the Doctor rather un-Doctorishly seduced by the possibility of intervening to save lives. He also requires the Tardis to operate rather more accurately than we saw at this stage of the show's history. Balanced against this, there are a lot of pleasing references to the first few television stories. The narrative has its own drama, which carries the book in the end, but the Tardis crew rather end up with the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Anyway, I found it interesting to compare and contrast between the two approaches - same basic idea, but different format and different details.

( The Game: Five and Nyssa bring peace to a vicious planet, with William Russell )

( Dreamtime: Seven, Ace and Hex find Ayers' Rock/Uluru in space )

( Catch-1782: Six and Mel make some genealogical discoveries )

In summary, three unexceptional but decent plays.

Three more Big Finish audios, the last one slightly out of sequence:

( Her Final Flight: Sixth Doctor meets Peri many years on - or does he? )

( The Juggernauts: Sixth Doctor and Mel meet Davros and the Daleks )

( Three's a Crowd: Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem face angst and agoraphobia )

In summary, three good 'uns.
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Those of you who care will have noticed that I'm working my way through classic Who in vaguely historical order; so since I finished the first three Doctors last year, I've been gradually ticking off the Tom Baker stories. The result of this has been that I am now least well versed in the Davison era, so I have been compensating a bit - Logopolis, Tom Baker's last story, ends with Davison's first though wordless appearance in the role, and Kinda and Snakedance are an interesting pairing, featuring the only returning monster of the Davison era (guest appearances in The Five Doctors aside). Also, all three stories are, in a deep sense, weird, trying to fit a lot more intellectual concepts into the Who format that usual, with varying degrees of success.

( Logopolis: it's the end, but the moment has been prepared for )

( Kinda: the one which has a giant pink snake trying to penetrate Tegan's inner recesses, not that there's any heavy-handed Freudian symbolism, oh no, not at all )

( Snakedance: young Men Behaving Badly )

Actually I've listened to five since my last big write-up but already did The Harvest here.

( The Axis of Insanity: Five, Peri and Erimem in interdimensional confusion )

( Arrangements for War: Six and Evelyn and a Romeo-and-Juliet situation )

( The Roof of the World: Five, Peri and Erimem play cricket in Tibet )

( Medicinal Purposes: Six and Evelyn go body-snatching )

I'm coming to realise that the Big Finish audios are a bit hit and miss; but then, so was the classic series, and so is the new version too. Sturgeon's Law, I suppose.

...although none of these five really deserves to be called a "classic" in its own right, and one of them is quite possibly the worst of the show's original run.

( Planet of Evil: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane and anti-matter monsters )

( The Invasion of Time: Fourth Doctor, Leela, and K9 on Gallifrey fighting Sontarans )

( The Horns of Nimon: Fourth Doctor, Romana II and K9 re-enact ancient Greek myth )

( Black Orchid: Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric in the 1930s )

( The Twin Dilemma: The Sixth Doctor's first story, with Peri, and possibly the worst of the original run of Doctor Who )

So, in summary, Black Orchid and The Invasion of Time are surprisingly watchable despite their flaws; Planet of Evil not quite as convincing; The Horns of Nimon decidedly less so; and The Twin Dilemma should be skipped. It is firmly at the bottom of the Dynamic Rankings site and likely to stay there.

The four Excelis plays were apparently run as a parallel track to the first Eighth Doctor audios from Big Finish. They link the established Big Finish central characters - the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, and Bernice Summerfield - with (in the first three) the marvellous Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy) and (in the first and last) Katy Manning as Iris Wyldthyme, a renegade Time Lord rather different in character from Jo Grant. They are fairly self-contained as stories; I thought the third, Excelis Decays, was the best.

( Excelis Dawns )

( Excelis Rising )

( Excelis Decays )

( The Plague Herds of Excelis )

1) About Time: The Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who, 1980-1984, by Laurence Miles and Tat Wood

This is the fifth and latest so far published in this superb series of reference guides to Doctor Who (see previous reviews of volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4). It's the only one that doesn't begin or end with a change of Doctors - it encapsulates the whole Peter Davison era, plus Tom Baker's last season and Colin Baker's first story; it also, of course, covers roughly the first half of John Nathan-Turner's time as producer. It's an era where my memory is variable - I saw every episode of seasons 18 and 19 when first broadcast, but remember only about half of season 20 and a bit less of season 21. Since I started watching old Who again in 2005, I've seen only five stories from this period (out of 29), so on the whole it is less fresh for me.

Still, Miles and Wood deliver the goods, explaining what the intellectual and cultural roots of each story are, usually finding good things to say despite their general anti-John Nathan-Turner snarking as well as blistering specific critiques of each one (eg, under The Twin Dilemma, they point out that there doesn't actually appear to be a dilemma in the story). Their inserted essays are, I think, more analytical on the whole than in the other volumes, starting and finishing with the cases for the defence and prosecution of JNT, and including also reflections on the effects of Doctor Who Monthly and the 1983 Longleat celebration on Doctor Who fandom.

wwhyte thinks they miss the importance of the Renaissance in Season 18. They also mourn the fact that Graeme Harper directed only two stories - fortunately, this turns out not to be true.

I have another three Who books on my reading pile, but this series is the best I have seen so far.

Thanks to the long flights to and from Cyprus, I was able to catch up with some more Old Who: Castrovalva, Doctor Who and the Silurians, and The Time Monster.

( Castrovalva: the first of Five )

( Doctor Who and the Silurians: Third Doctor, Liz, UNIT and ancient reptiles coming back to life )

( The Time Monster: better than I expected )

Anyway, none of these makes my personal top ten, maybe not even my top twenty, but I quite enjoyed all three.
------------------

We got F out of bed last night to watch Time Crash (we're an hour ahead of you guys in Ireland and UK-land, so it wasn't on until twenty past nine, way past his usual bed-time even on a Friday). He loved every minute of it, though some of the jokes were a bit above his head. And this morning we sat down and watched the Doctor Who Confidential (which consists entirely of fannish squeeing from Collinson, Davies, Moffat, Harper, Davison and Tennant). And then we watched The Runaway Bride. And we finished off with a few scenes from episode one of Castrovalva, so that he could see what the Fifth Doctor looked like first time round. And then after a break we watched both episodes of Revenge of the Slitheen.

F has only really got into Whodom in the last few months. He was aware of it as something his parents watched after his Saturday bedtime, but then his cousin J raced through our DVDs of the 2005 and 2006 seasons while we were staying with them in July, and then the Sarah Jane Adventures began and he is now completely hooked. Now it is again past his bedtime, but he is spontaneously redesigning my filing system for my Tenth Doctor episodes. Excellent.

Wasn't it great???!!!???

Two rather routine stories, followed by four very experimental ones and three stories revisiting old Who themes.

Nekromanteia: listened to it some time ago. Five, Peri and Erimem, rather incoherent plot with witches and planetary invasion, nice touch with the cat at the end.

The Dark Flame: felt this worked a bit better. Seven, Ace and Benny and a rather complex tale of identities and possession - seemed to borrow bits from Image of the Fendahl and The Hand of Fear, but no harm in that.

Doctor Who and the Pirates: billed as the Six and Evelyn musical story, though in fact the Gilbert and Sullivan songs are restricted to the third episode of the four. Bill Oddie as the pirate captain! But a very successful leavening of the comic overtones with a serious and tragic foundation.

Creatures of Beauty: Another experiment in format, with the plot fragmented non-sequentially across the four episodes, so that the crucial contribution of Five and Nyssa to the very beginning of the story only really becomes clear at the end. Very well done.

Project: Lazarus is a story in two parts, the first of which is (another) tragic tale with Six and Evelyn, and the second featuring Seven and Six together - or is it really Six? Rather on the horrific side for my taste, but well done.

Flip-Flop: Like Creatures of Beauty, requires some intellectual work from the listener. The two discs are alternate versions of the same planet's history, in each case changed into the other by the intervention of the Doctor and Mel. Really very well done.

Omega: Five on his own, dealing with Omega who is attempting to re-manifest in this universe. Lots of creative playing with the listener's head, culminating in a brilliant moment at the end of episode three. And an Irish time lord - Professor Ertikus, played by Patrick Duggan. Really liked it despite my lack of familiarity with Arc of Infinity. Despite the serious theme I thought it borrowed more than a few elements from Douglas Adams.

Davros: Alas, despite resurrecting Terry Molloy to play Davros, ex-Gulliver/Time Lord/Thal Bernard Horsfall to play the chief human villain, and the fantastic Wendy Padbury to play his wife, I felt the brilliant cast was let down by the plot, which has an episode of silly office bickering between the Sixth Doctor and Davros and then the predictable mayhem and slaughter.

Master: Again, alas, decent performances by all, rather let down by the plot which is an extended piece of the type of fan-fic we have all read so much of since June. (Except this is Seven/Beevers Master rather than Ten/Simm Master.)

In summary, the middle five of these are all excellent; not so sure about the two on either side, though Davros does have nostalgia value.

I discovered that I had been missing out on the Doctor Who Monthly CDs issued as companion pieces for the Big Finish sequence of audio plays - I had heard one of them, The Maltese Penguin, but in the wrong place - so have caught up with the first three to take me to roughly the right place in internal continuity.

( The Ratings War )

( No Place Like Home )

( Living Legend )

Am revisiting some Old Who soundtracks for the rest of this week's listening.

Well, the current rumour about the guest star in this year's Children in Need Doctor Who special is very interesting!

Three Old Who stories that I've been watching.

( The Dæmons )

( Resurrection of the Daleks )

( Robot )

In summary, Robot is recommended; the other two really for completists.

( The Rapture: Seventh Doctor, Ace and Tony Blackburn on Ibiza )
( The Sandman: Sixth Doctor and Evelyn and some aliens )
( The Church and the Crown: Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem in the France of the Three Musketeers )
( Bang-Bang-A-Boom! Seventh Doctor and Mel in a far-future version of the Eurovision Song Contest )
( Jubilee: Sixth Doctor, Evelyn and the Daleks, in a story which was later revised for television )

So, in summary, all good stuff, with The Rapture the best and The Sandman the least impressive.

19) Doctor Who – the Caves of Androzani, by Terrance Dicks
20) Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin, by Terrance Dicks
21) Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders, by Terrance Dicks
22) Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive, by David Fisher

Four Target novelisations of Doctor Who stories from the original series here. The first two are average Terrance Dicks treatments of two of Robert Holmes’ best scripts, The Deadly Assassin being regarded by many as the Fourth Doctor’s greatest story, and The Caves of Androzani regarded by almost everyone as the Fifth Doctor’s best moment.

But with Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders, Dicks has taken a Third Doctor TV story which by all accounts (I haven’t seen it) was decidedly average and turned it into a cracking good read. It was one of the first of his many many Doctor Who books (and he’s still at it), and for those of us (like me) who occasionally mock the by-the-numbers approach of his later efforts, it’s very much worth re-reading the earlier ones to remind ourselves of how good he was at turning dodgy special effects and occasionally wooden acting into a novel that caught the spirit of what he, as script editor, had no doubt hoped and intended the original TV version to be. (Like The Caves of Androzani, Planet of the Spiders has the Doctor regenerating after an adventure climbing around in caves. But I think that’s a coincidence.)

David Fisher wrote two Doctor Who novels based on his own scripts for the Fourth Doctor stories Creature from the Pit and The Leisure Hive. (He also wrote the original scripts for two Fourth Doctor Key to Time stories, The Stones of Blood and the Androids of Tara, but the novelisations of those were done by – of course – Terrance Dicks.) I remember really enjoying his Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit when it first came out, and Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive is, for the same reasons, also a hilarious read – Fisher has a Douglas Adams-like ability to build in circumstantial detail and hilarious commentary to make you feel that this is a real, zany universe in which the Doctor and Romana are dealing with complex alien societies as well as future technology. I saw the series when it was first broadcast, but missed the last episode for some reason – I see it’s now on DVD, and after reading this I am very much inclined to add that to my collection too.