He ’s an ageless saviour . He ’s a expressive style image to trillion . But sometimes , Doctor Who ’s nameless meter traveller … stumbles . Sometimes , the Time Lord ’s timing is just off , and it ’s cringe - making to watch . Here are 12 moments when Doctor Who became downright sticky .
remark : We mostly steered clean of mocking terrible peculiar effect , except for one or two horrific examples , because life is too short .
In the mid-1960s , two big - screen Doctor Who films starred Peter Cushing as the Doctor . They were both establish closely on the first two televised Dalek storey , and the second one was quite adequate . But the first … holy Hand of Omega , what a mess hall . The Doctor ’s a homo , Cushing seems kind of bemused , and the TARDIS inside is just a shed with wires hang around . But most of all , the Thals , survivor of a terrible nuclear war who are starving to death in a petrified woodland , somehow all manage to have ginormous false lash and Elvira makeup . Because false eyelash are indispensable post - apocalyptical selection gear .
“ The Underwater Menace ” has the earliest surviving episodes of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor , and there are some adorable moments of Troughton being mercurial . But there ’s also a band of severeness , include some campy bits with the malevolent Professor Zaroff , like the cliffhanger where he intones , “ Nuzzink on the Earth can stop me now ! ” And then there are the Fish the great unwashed , who are the piss - free-base slave of the mass of Atlantis , with big googly eyes and washup caps . The Doctor and his acquaintance convert the Fish People to go on strike , but not before we get to see this bizarre “ submersed concert dance ” sequence . It ’s like jazz trip the light fantastic toe on wires !
The Daleks can be genuinely terrifying and intense , when they ’re portrayed as ruthless sea wolf and cyborg mutant Nazis . Just watch the 2005 episode “ Dalek ” or 1975 ’s “ Genesis of the Daleks . ” But the atmospheric pressure of crank up out Dalek episode after Dalek episode has sometimes caused them to turn a loss their mojo — and nowhere so badly as in “ Death to the Daleks , ” where they get Ewoked by a mathematical group of skull - face primitives with spears . The bad snatch is when one Dalek , guard some captive , let on his charges have escaped — and get so disquieted and pee-pee off , he literally has a fit ( “ I have failed ! I have fail ! ” ) until he dies .
This one is mortifying to watch , for very different reasons than the others . It ’s not just to a fault pantomimey or weird , it ’s actually kind of messed up . “ Talons of Weng - Chiang ” is a beloved strait-laced adventure , from one of the show ’s warm era — but it has one crucial , unforgiveable flaw . It rely a mint on Sax Rohmer - esque stereotypes of Chinese masses , who all start worshipping a melty - face lunatic from the future because they believe he ’s their god Weng - Chiang . thespian John Bennettis in “ yellowface”as the sinister ( but admittedly good-hearted ) Li H’Sen - Chang . Even when the report was circularise , it fire protests , notably among Asiatic community in Canada and Australia . I would n’t watch this one with people you desire to get hooked on classic Who .
And now back to the unmistakable absurdity . Tom Baker play a marvelous intensity to the office of the Doctor in his first four or five years , but eventually he started nose fun at the show more and more . And meanwhile , the stories got zanier and zanier . “ Creature from the Pit ” has a peck of clever ideas , but then there ’s the jumbo green blob in the underground tunnel that ca n’t communicate without its magic shield . And in a successiveness believably improvised by Baker himself , the Doctor decide to try and communicate with the beast by grabbing its long priapic tentacle and putting his oral fissure on it .
We said we would n’t make playfulness of cunning special effects , but here ’s an elision that merit mentioning just because of how goofy it is , after 90 mo of buildup about the awful power of the Mara , the monstrous Snake River god thingy . Above : a video that compares the original version with the CG consequence that are available on the DVD . But “ Kinda ” also contains a contrast of dialogue that compares with “ Nuzzink in the world can stop me now ” — the climax to episode one , where Hindle denote , “ I have the baron of life and death over all of you ! ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjlDqfLqtDI
There ’s a reason why people always point out that “ Timelash ” is an anagram of “ lame jack . ” There ’s pretty much nothing to urge this report . Like most Colin Baker stories , it run at a escargot ’s rate , especially in the first one-half . Blake ’s 7 ’s Paul Darrow is doing some kind of silly Richard III travesty as Tekker . The vicious lizard overlord who wants to couple with the Doctor ’s companion is pretty hilarious . The “ Timelash ” special burden is made of tinsel and funny visible radiation . H.G. Wells is altogether knock off as a guest star . But there are two things that make “ Timelash ” stand out — the obvious deal puppet that keeps appearing on the viewscreens and warning that war is imminent . And the instant where the Doctor kills the lizard overlord while shout out “ Nobody wants you ! Nobody handle ! ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r459736hj98
We ’re skipping over Baker ’s swansong , the tortuous and outlandish “ test of a Timelord ” — but the fib where he actually regenerate into Sylvester McCoy is legendarily awful . Baker resist to come back to the role just to be write out , so the output team put McCoy in a blond wigging so he could pose his predecessor for a moment and have his grimace blurred out . Baker ’s Doctor regenerates by banging his head against the TARDIS console . But the amazing wiggery does n’t finish there — the evil Rani determine to impersonate the Doctor ’s companion Mel by putting a frizzy red wig on , and this goes on for long time and age . This is truly a story drive by wigs .
Now , with the show celebrate its 50th anniversary with immense flourish , it ’s hard to believe how badly the show was limping into its 30th anniversary . The BBCtried to get a bragging reunion TV flick together , but it fell through , and so instead we got a supremely crappy — and wildly ludicrous — particular episode featuring the surviving Doctors , for the “ child in Need ” charity event . The whole thing is embedded above , and it ’s truly excruciating . The bit where Jon Pertwee blurts at the Rani , “ It ’s time for you to start drop off ” always break my heart .
https://gizmodo.com/the-complete-guide-to-every-single-doctor-who-anniversa-5962840
While Doctor Who was off the atmosphere , Virgin Publishing started put out a range of tie - in novel that were more ripe and sophisticated than most of the television stories . And the New Adventures novels included some fantastic storytelling and introduced some slap-up writers to Doctor Who — including Russell T. Davies , Paul Cornell , Mark Gatiss and Gareth Roberts . The more grown - up and introspective tone of some of these novels helped pave the way for the video show ’s revival . But . There were also some lapses , and the range launched with a novel by frequent linkup - in author John Peel , who render to crusade the “ ripe ” thing in this Mesopotamian adventure by having the Doctor team up with Gilgamesh , who ’s depict as a lovable raper . ( As Time ’s Championsnotes , “ It ’s quite toilsome to get around Gilgamesh the comedy raper . ” ) Also , most of the action takes place at a temple with bare - breasted consecrated woman of the street . At one point , the Doctor decides the best way of life to sneak into the temple is by having the cleaning woman accompany him strip half - bare and mask themselves as temple sexual activity actor . One of the woman , a princess , refuses to strip down , precede the Doctor to have an inner soliloquy : “ Do n’t let the fact that it might save all our sprightliness shape you . ” The whole affair is a bit , well , creepy . And not well-nigh as grown - up as it want to be .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fprtOo4bOA
Tom Baker is n’t the only one give birth creepy oral gender on this list . The David Tennant story “ Love and Monsters ” is really a howling story that gets panned purely on the footing of its last five minutes . First , the story ’s villain turns into a weird blobby creature design by a kid for the minor ’s miscellanea show Blue Peter . Then , short Ursula gets partway absorbed , and the Doctor ca n’t save her . But he ’s able to preserve her font , still miraculously alive , in a pave stone . Which lead her swain Elton to observe that they still have a decent sex sprightliness . The genial prototype this conjures are … let ’s just move on .
There are a few candidates for unenviable import in the Matt Smith earned run average . But none stick out out as much as the minute where the Doctor rescues Amy and Rory , plus Rory ’s daddy , from a spaceship above the Earth . Which happens to be full of other barren people , who are all apparently still alive . The Doctor causes the spaceship to self - destruct , and he and his friends jaunt back to Earth without so much as a backward glance at all the the great unwashed they ’re excoriate to expiry . Worse yet , the tale ends with a circumstances of self - congratulation instead of a moment of unhappiness for the masses they callously left to die . A simple mention that all the other citizenry on the ship were idle would have fixed this problem , but as telecast it add up across as worse than mortifying .
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