1. Jamie (funny in the way he always pretended to know what's going on in a way that wasn't cloying or annoying and made viewers feel smart)
2. Romana (the sarcastic wit)
3. K9 (very funny at times)
4. Jo (The Doctor loved her, for good reason)
5. Sarah (In retrospect a little whining but gosh she was a good actress with a lot of good lines)
6. Ace (A bit overwrought but interesting to see the girl companion be the action hero to the Doctor's nebbish personality)
7. Adric (yes, this might seem strange but while the acting was poor, the character was interesting)
8. Ian (Befuddled, yet smart too)
9. Harry (Could have been better; hilariously doltish to the Doctor's arrogant genius)
10. Steven (nice action hero-type)

My 10 Least Favorite Companions by Matt Anderson 31/5/06

1. Mel (every scene was agony)
2. Tegan (just something depressing about her)
3. Nyssa (Lisa Simpson-like)
4. Victoria (voice like breaking glass)
5. Leela (basically Jamie without being able to stay in character for an entire scene)
6. Susan (He ditched her so he wouldn't have to listen to her voice and watch her wooden pratfalling)
7. Vicki (did we need a Susan replacement?)
8. Liz (booooooring in every scene)
9. Polly (anything other than hot legs?)
10. Whoever that was the Doctor kissed in The Enemy Within

My Top Ten post-RTD DVD suggestions by Rob Matthews 16/9/06

City of Death, Genesis of the Daleks, Inferno, The Beginning box set... we've certainly been showered with riches, DVD-wise, over the last few months. Plus of course there's that Invasion release with the animated episodes coming up, as well as promises of some 'lighter' (ie- less extras) releases for some of the smaller stories to be released in addition to - rather than replacing - the more kitchen-sinky style discs to which we're accustomed. In fact it's almost reassuring to know that the next one in the schedule is Mark of the Rani; 2 Entertain have almost been in danger of exhausting all the good 'uns and leaving themselves with nothing but tat for the future!

Though it didn't initially look like it would have any effect at all on the 'classic series' releases or sales, the popularity of the ongoing new series looks to be gradually making its mark. The public haven't of course been snapping up, say, City of Death in the same way they have the Eccleston and Tennant episodes. Nonetheless, Genesis of the Daleks was both the first classic series release I've seen reviewed in the popular press (outside of Time Out) and also in the DVD chart at my local Tesco. The Hand of Fear and The Invasion both seem to have made their way into the schedules thanks to specific episodes in the 2006 season - and I rather suspect, though this may be mere cynicism, that those animated reconstructions of The Invasion wouldn't have been so forthcoming were it not for the reflected prestige of the currrent TV run. The packaging of both Genesis and Hand of Fear came with little sticky labels implicitly advertising their new series relevance using the same wonky typescript as new series merchandise. I say implicitly; one gets the feeling that for some reason this can't be done explicitly - strangely City of Death never got the 'favourite story of Russell T Davies' legend one might have expected, and Davies was equally curiously not amongst the new series writers contibuting to the accompanying special features.

Anyhoo, a couple of years ago I posted a top ten DVD wish list and half of it's now come true (even the Invasion-with-cartoon-episodes one, about which I'm exceptionally smug). So, just on the off-chance there's someone at BBC Worldwide surfing fansites as they dither over what to fill next year's schedule with, I shall here provide ten ligthning bolts of inspiration. Or at the very least six, and four spurious fillers. Aren't I kind?

1. The Deadly Assassin
   Always popular in fandom, it seems a natural follow-up release to The Hand of Fear, given the way that story ended. It has a new series relevance too, because for those new viewers curious about the Time Lords this is the one and only decent story set on Gallifrey. God forbid we should risk introducing 'em to the planet through Invasion of Time or Arc of Infinity. Plus it's one of only about three good Master stories too. And Tom Baker does a voiceover bit at the beginning, like he does on Little Britain. Well okay, not exactly like he does on Little Britain. Special features-wise I'd nominate a documentary called 'Flux and Wither: Why the Time War was a Timely War' covering the greatness of this story and the crapness of all the Gallifrey stories which followed. And also, an idea I've suggested before on site, a 'special edition' with lots of grand yet dingy Gallifreyan vistas CGI-ed into the backgrounds for an epic look, perhaps tying in in some way with the current TARDIS set design. That's 'in addition to' rather than replacing the televised version, mind you. No need to shed any purist tears.
2. Kinda
   A... unique story, and though I'm not over-keen on it, I think all in all it's probably worthy of the DVD treatment. Personally I think of it as a noble failure, but it's more generally seen as a success. The Ghost Light release had a bunch of rather condescending extras which conspired to imply that we can't possibly understand the story as it stands and thus need to have every aspect of it explained to us. Kinda, I think, would benefit far more from such things: speaking for myself I really struggle to get to grips with it so in this case a little condescension wouldn't go amiss, and I'd very much like to see a DVD release with a lot of input from the writer Chris Bailey. It'd be a shame to sacrifice the hilarious Davison/Fielding duo on the commentary track, of course, so perhaps there should be two of 'em - a funny one for the actors, and a nuts'n'bolts one with Bailey and Eric Saward.
3. The Time Warrior
   Another good one for expanding Sarah Jane's DVD presence. There aren't currently any of her 3rd Doctor stories on release IIRC, and this is not only the first but arguably the best of them. It's also the most convincingly realised we've seen the Sontarans and one of the most amusing Robert Holmes scripts. It's got June Brown out of Eastenders in it too, so perhaps she could be persuaded to join the commentary on one of the episodes.
4. The Daemons
   The ultimately rather disappointing Impossible Planet/Satan Pit two-parter was a 21st century addition to what might be called the 'evil from the dawn of time ... with horns!' subgenre of Doctor Who story, so a release of the originator of that genre would be nice - particularly as Daemos even gets a mention in the 2006 series (incidentally, I do enjoy the way actual continuity references in the new series are on the surface indistinguishable from colourful new ones, like 'the fall of Arcadia'). There's only one Roger Delgado Master story on release at the moment too, and the charismatic old so-and-so deserves a better showing. Mind you, this is one serial I'd actually prefer them to 'restore' to black-and-white: it's so much more like a Village of the Damned-style sixties movie in monochrome. A featurette on the history of Who's forays into the pseudo-occult suggests itself as an extra ('Magic or Science: The Devil's in the Details'), covering this story, Pyramids of Mars, Image of the Fendahl, The Awakening, Curse of Fenric and any others I may have forgotten.
5. Terror of the Zygons
   The Loch Ness Monster is, if you believe School Reunion, officially the winner of all arguments about monsters. So, once again shamelessly whoring to the new fans, why not bring out the story in question? Erm, possibly with a CGI-monster option to replace... well, you know... This isn't necessarily the best of stories in the plotting department, but it's an excellent showcase of how thoroughly atmospheric Hinchcliffian Who could be.
6. Survival
   Yet another adventure with a new series relevance, it's rather neatly the 'Classic-Series' story that most closely resembles the RTD revival, or at least the now-departed 'Tyler era'. Ace visting the depressing outer London suburbs to find all her friends going missing is only a hop, skip and a jump from something Rose might have done in any given episode. There's even the first appearance of a council estate in the show, preceding the - excessively maligned - Powell Estate in the new series. And the opening scene very much resembles that of the recent Fear Her. Ace being menaced in the playpark by a Cheetah-person is remarkably new series-y too (note the playpark scene in Father's Day, or the similiarly childhood-invading 'giant bats in a school' scenario in School Reunion). That "flippin' cats" woman is a proto-Jackie Tyler! And as if all that weren't enough, it's also actually a very good story in its own right and another one of the few really excellent outings for the Master. A better tribute to Anthony Ainley than Mark of the Rani, for sure; perhaps a retrospective of his time as the Master could be included as an extra. Additionally, though I'm sure some kind of legal red tape would prevent it, a short documentary bit about how the New Adventures picked up where the classic series left off might be nice. Particularly if you could mention RTD's Damaged Goods. Ooh, I can even see a title - 'Survival: The Wilderness Years.' The New Who brand seems to be distancing itself as much as possible from the latter years of the old run, though - even despite the similiarities (what, the makers of Love and sodding Monsters don't want to be associated with When-It-All-Got-Silly?) - so I guess it ain't too likely.
7. Black Orchid
   Running at about fifty minutes in length, this offers a nice demonstration of what new Who would be like if it got it into its head to do 'a historical'. I see this a 'lesser' release, like The Sontaran Experiment; something that should really ought to be reflected with a smaller RRP - 12.99, say. That'll work out as about 8.99 once it gets onto Amazon or Play. I'm all for prevention of cruelty to wallets, you know.
8. The Rescue
   Another 'mini-release' for this peculiar little twist-in-the-tale two-parter. Or if you're going to go the whole hog, bring it out with a commentary by Maureen O Brien and Carole Ann Ford - in view of the latter's comments on the Dalek Invasion of Earth DVD about her reasons for leaving the show, it'd be interesting to see what she makes of her replacement's debut, and might make for an interesting dynamic (at least if there's a moderator to keep prodding at them).
9. The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
   One of the best-directed Who stories of any era, and by comparison with most Who releases a recent one too, so there should still be plenty of contributors knocking around for a making-of feature. Be interesting to hear something from the story's writer too, as this one doesn't seem to have been given the same kind of good going-over as Remembrance, Fenric and Ghost Light. Additionally, perhaps a disc two documentary on the troubles facing Who's production team back in the days when them upstairs at the Beeb didn't give a shit - 'I Know It's Not As Good As It Used To Be: Doctor Who at the End of the Eighties.' Or possibly 'Ringmaster', a retrospective of John Nathan Turner's contribution to the show.
10. The Brain of Morbius
    There really ought to be a Who DVD on the shelves called 'The Brain of...'something', and this is, perhaps surprisingly, the only contender. You could release Image of the Fendahl for similiar reasons.

Doctor Who event suggestions by Kishor Kale 1/11/06

Here are some offbeat ideas for Doctor Who events:

1. DVD commentaries tend to be made by those who worked on the relevant production. What about producing prolonged interviews (which would not themselves be DVD commentaries, but would serve essentially the same function) on either videotape or DVD in which a single Doctor Who story is discussed in depth by two people, one of whom worked on the story in question, and the other of whom is taken from within the series but outwith (if there is such a word!) that particular show.

   Examples might be:

   (a) Caroline John (Liz Shaw) and Mary Tamm (Romana I) discussing the role of strong-minded female characters in Season 7 or Season 16 stories
   (b) Mary Tamm (Romana I) and Lalla Ward (Romana II) comparing and contrasting the two Romanas in Season 16, Season 17, and Season 18 stories.
   (c) Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart) and another member of the production team comparing and contrasting The Sea Devils with the Brigadier stories.
   (d) Wendy Padbury (Zoe Heriot) and Caroline John (Liz Shaw) comparing the roles of Zoe and Liz, and the differences between the approaches of Doc2 (Troughton) and Doc3 (Pertwee) in the Season 6 and Season 7 stories.
   (e) Caroline John and Katy Manning discussing the companion roles in the Season 7 and Season 8 stories.
   (f) Ditto with Katy Manning and Elisabeth Sladen for the Season 11 and Season 12 stories.

2. What about an event with Lally Bowers (who appeared in The Avengers) and Lalla Ward, just for the similarity of names?

3. I have been able to track down and make contact with a Caroline John who really went to Cambridge, and apparently there was also a real-life Liz Shaw there. How about an event with either or both of those and the "Doctor Who" Caroline John?

   One of the highlights of my book collection is a copy of "The New Magdalen" signed by a real-life "Magdalena"; a DVD cover signed by two Caroline Johns (or by Caroline John and a Liz Shaw who really went to Cambridge) would be something special!

Top ten reasons fandom pisses me off by Joe Ford 10/11/06

Right folks; hold on to your hat because I am about to head into the biggest rant ever, topping even the venomous bile I spouted in my bottom forty stories review. I feel I should give this commentary a classification, lets say ND for Nervous Disposition because I may offend some of you and I think (if you are honest) you will turn up on more than one of these items (most of them apply to me!). Doctor Who is fantastic; what annoys me more than anything is its fans and as such I will not go to a convention in fear that I will massacre everybody in a horrible explosion of violence. Here are the ten reasons why I would never, ever shack up with another Doctor Who fan...

10) We never know when we are better off

Fandom is always moaning about what is current only to re-evaluate it later decide, actually it wasn't that bad at all, especially not compared the shite that is being released now! I really don't include myself in this category because I am generally pleased with what comes out but those fans of the Black and White years moan that it wasn't the same when it went into colour but then are confronted with the horror of the eighties and decide that Pertwee's stuff was the height of fashion. Then they watch the TV Movie and think, my God, that one with Sylvester McCoy and the clowns was paradise compared to this. After watching Boom Town they then decide the TV Movie actually had a lot of charm! It was even worse with the books, everybody bitched about the fact that the New Adventures were too violent and complicated but when the eighth Doctor series came out they were suddenly revered as classics. And now the hardbacks are out the Eighth Doctor Adventures are slowly being re-evaluated as actually having a great deal of potential and worthiness. I guess what I'm really saying is that some people just like to moan and moan and moan.

9) Image

Oh Christ don't get me started on this one! What is the conceived image of the average fan? An anally retentive nerd with specs and a pullover, preferably gay, unable to pull and with no real friends because they are terrified of revealing their secret to the world. What is truly frightening is when you see people like Ian Levine filling your screen in documentaries and you realise that for a large percentage of fandom this image is correct! Watching Doctor Who documentaries has been a real eye-opener for me, especially when you get see these hideously overdramatic and pig-ugly people spewing out about how "deeply emotional" it was when the fourth Doctor regenerated, etc. I don't want to go to a convention because I am scared I will be surrounded by these bizarre people. I work with another fan (and no Paul Clarke it is not you; I think you are fab; he works down in the warehouse) and he conforms to every single stereotype you can imagine, right down to still living with his mother. I am young (well 26), attractive (well Daniel Beddingfield fans never pass me by without a smile!) and am engaged to be married after a six year relationship... I know there are millions of other Doctor Who fans out there in the same situation (look at the lovely Clayton Hickman!) so why oh why are these pustule-faced saddos the ones that people think of when they think of fandom? I'll tell you why, because they make themselves noticed, spouting about this show as though it is the only important thing in their lives. Oi! Get a bloody life! It's only a TV show.

8) Hiding in the Closet

This is the one that mostly relates to me and is the complete antithesis of the previous item but just as annoying in its own way. It's all very well talking about Doctor Who in public but it is those people that refuse to tell anybody they know that they are fans to the point where they are hiding all of their merchandise into one room and barricading the door when they have people over (see my Coming out of the Closet review). I mean, what is so shameful about liking this show? Why did I used go red from head to toe if somebody even mentioned it? Coming out as a homosexual was way easy in comparison to coming out as a Doctor Who fan. I shag men, get over it, I wish I travelled around time and space in a police-- I'll just be over here under the coffee table. Can you believe that I actually covered up all my books and CDs with what is considered to be "cool" and "hip" stuff once, terrified that my friend (who I later discovered had a certain affection for the show too) would pick one up and see the mass of Doctor Who merchandise behind. Oh the shame! Simon my partner regularly used to berate for being so ashamed; when I got reviews in a fanzine and he wanted to show everybody, I very nearly killed him wrestling the rag off him! I even made him buy DVDs and videos from HMV for me, too ashamed to take my purchase to the counter. New fans today are lucky because the show is perceived as the coolest thing ever by everyone anyway but in my teenage years... oooh boy. This is the confession of a shamed Doctor Who fan. And those of you who can relate, shame on you too.

7) Fan writers

This one mostly belongs to the book and audio writers but a few of the New Series writers too. Now, I'm not saying that all fans becoming writers is a bad thing because that would mean the gulf between 1989 and 2005 would have left us with nothing but Star Trek Voyager (ooh what a thought). I genuinely feel that fan writers think they can write for the show better than newcomers (of which some of Telos's writers proved was a load of old toss) or that only they can advise others on how it all works. I would love to see a series of adventures written by all newcomers, I think we could be seeing some of the most fresh and innovative Doctor Who in a long time. The new series is great but in most respects it feels very safe, Saturday night viewing, only occasionally breaking the mould and producing something spectacularly original (like Dalek). This is because Russell T Davies knows what the fans want and he gives it to them. The novels themselves were a real mish-mash, an even mix of fan writers who could genuinely write a good book and fan writers who thought they could write a good yarn. I could never recommend either the NAs or EDAs wholeheartedly because I know the poor fool I suggest this too would have to read The Pit alongside Lucifer Rising and Legacy of the Daleks alongside Seeing I. And as for the audios, the creative team there started out on a real high but for the last three years have been bleeding from the gut, only this year starting to build up any kind of respect again. This is down to fans thinking they know what is best. Continuity. Longer stories. Lush productions over decent scripts. Tut tut.

6) Ignoring the spinoffs

Oh yes! This is one of my favourite items on the list, not because I personally subscribe to it but because it annoys the hell out of me! Doctor Who spinoffs are a growing breed; although I don't personally consider the novels to be spin offs I can see how somebody could (especially when Big Finish actively contradict them, with some bizarre "they are set in an alternative dimension" rubbish). Big Finish themselves have produced a large number of spinoff audios that have successfully taken off (Bernice Summerfield, Sarah Jane, Gallifrey all enjoyed a second series). It is that sort of fan which turns around and says that I'm not going to watch (PROBE), listen (UNIT) or read (Bernice Summerfield again!) that because it's not proper Doctor Who. Oh fuck off up your own arse and die! This is a show which has evolved so much over forty odd years and shown many sides to its character; including spinoffs featuring characters that originally appeared in... Doctor Who! Like the series has total monopoly on everything. Can somebody genuinely tell me that Time and Rani is preferable to The Zero Imperative. That The Mutants is more enjoyable than The Crooked World? That The Sensorites has a greater claim to drama than The Holy Terror? No, I'm not going read that truly excellent book because there is some absolute drivel on UK Gold this week which is "proper" Doctor Who and therefore superior! How fickle are we? I'm not saying that the spinoffs are better than the series, but some of their work rivals the series at its best and it frustrates the hell out of me to see that work dismissed because people are so bloody minded.

5) Being Disrespectful

This is easily the nastiest trait of the fan and we are all capable of it. Aside from starting up my own book threads on Outpost Gallifrey I actively avoid posting on forums most of the time because I have learnt my lesson in the past and been scalded by some of the nastiest people I have had the displeasure of talking to. There are people who lurk on the forum waiting to pounce on people who they disagree with and rip every sentence they say to pieces and reduce them to nothing. You think I exaggerate? I wrote a huge review once and had it dissected line for line, condescended to and insulted by a person who really needs to get out more. I realised the point of these forums is to state your opinion if you disagree with somebody, but there is point where disagreement becomes rudeness and rudeness become nastiness. I am a big boy and can take it but I have seen people chased away from these forums. And it isn't confined there, you set two fans together who have opposing views (hey Matt) and it can get ugly indeed. I know we all think we are right but we should all agree to let everybody have and (most importantly) enjoy their opinion.

4) We spoil the show for ourselves

We want Daleks! We want Cybermen! We want Zarbi! Sod the reason why they are back, bugger the fact that the script isn't dramatic or intelligent, we just want to see them back on our screens. Producers often make the foolish mistake of pandering to the fans and bringing back old monsters because they are popular rather than because they are needed in that particular story and the result is Planet of the Daleks/Revenge of the Cybermen/Silver Nemesis/Rose, stories that would benefit from different monsters entirely. What's worse, we scour the internet gobbling up all the spoilers, dash to the locations to see it being filmed, scrutinise the interviews with the creators and then we watch the episodes and declare them predictable. With series two I have watched the episodes and then read about them afterwards and it has proven far more rewarding, I knew sod all about The Girl in the Fireplace and The Idiot's Lantern.

3) Ungrateful

This applies strongly to the writers of the hardback books at the moment (primarily Justin Richards, Jac Rayner and Stephen Cole) who are doing their damnest to make sure Doctor Who survives in original stories in print and have been actively ripped to pieces by fans of the old novel lines. I genuinely feel these people would rather have no books at all. I'm not going to deny that I miss the more adult books, of course I do, but I have still heartily enjoyed the hardbacks and looking across the board they have been very well-written and enjoyable. Fans moan that they are being spoken down to which NEVER happens in the new series (guess they bypassed Father's Day completely), that the books are childish which the new series NEVER is (guess they missed Aliens of London, End of the World, New Earth and Bad Wolf too!) and that kids should feel patronised by the insulting tone of them. Grow up guys, kids love 'em. The Stone Rose, The Resurrection Casket, Only Human and Stealers of Dreams were all damn excellent.

I suppose this goes back to item 10, moaning for moaning's sakes. I would love to see what these moaners could come up with. I'm willing to bet it would be appalling.

2) Details

When we watch/listen/read a Doctor Who story, we often forget the most important thing (it's there at the beginning of this sentence, the story) and let stupid details get in the way. I don't like Peter Davison's fifth Doctor, which mars that entire era for me despite the fact that he starred in Black Orchid, Frontios and Caves of Androzani. Gary Russell rubs me up the wrong way at times (especially when he whines about us whining about Divergent Universes in DWM) but he directed The Fires of Vulcan, The Council of Nicaea and The One Doctor. These things niggle in the back of your mind when you are enjoying these stories and it actually feels like a victory when a Doctor/writer/producer you like receives acclaim for a story (Revelation of the Daleks). Murray Gold's music is enough to turn some people of the new series despite the amazing production values, excellent acting, strong writing... The fact that The Crooked World has a cartoon of the Doctor on the cover is enough to stop a certain fan from reading it despite the fact it is one of the most mature and compelling reads in any range. I say this (especially to myself): stop these silly prejudices and just enjoy the show. I guess we can't help being opinionated gits. We're only human.

1) We think we can make the show better than the creators

We are ALL guilty of this one. Doctor Who is a huge melting pot of talent, who all brought something different and unique to the show. Hindsight is a beautiful thing and us arrogant, talentless reviewers who critique because we cannot write ourselves very often say "I could have done that better" and start suggesting ways that a particular episode could have been done with more style. Suddenly we are criticizing entire seasons (ooh season eight could have been less cartoony), entire eras (the fifth Doctor era could have been more imaginative and dramatic), entire producers' runs (JNT should have held back the embarrassing guest stars), entire novel lines (the EDAs lost themselves up their own arses), actors (Sylvester McCoy should learn how to act), directors (Pennant Roberts turned two okay scripts into disasters in the 80's). We think we know better than the people who are making this show for us. We think we should be heard. We think we are important. Sometimes, just sometimes I wish we would just SHUT UP and enjoy what has been lavished upon us for over forty years.

I wish I could just watch Doctor Who and not analyse and compare and disect.

But I'm just a fucking annoying fan.

The Episodes of Series 2 ranked in order according to me by Benjamin Bland 14/11/06

I did a similar list earlier of the 2005 series.

1. The Girl In The Fireplace
   As my review of this episode suggests, I loved this episode. Really brilliant writing from Steven Moffatt and great performances all round. Also it's different which really makes a change, no rubbish CGI monsters just really good script and fine acting. 5/5
2. The Impossible Planet
   The scariest Doctor Who episode of the new series. Again great writing with brilliant ideas; The Daemons eat your heart out. The villains may be obvious to the viewer but boy them closing in and gradually stamping out their victims is a joy to watch. 5/5
3. School Reunion
   Sarah Jane Smith is back with a bang. The best acting Lis Sladen has ever put into Doctor Who and the climax is emotional without being crigeworthy. The plot isn't bad either and Anthony Head is excellent as you'd expect. My only complaint is too little K9. 4/5
4. The Satan Pit
   Nowhere compared to the first part but still tense and gripping. Piper being emotional isn't fantastic however. The direction is the best we've seen in the new series so far. The Ood convince more than their evil master, the Beast. 4/5
5. New Earth
   A really fun and witty episode, the best RTD wrote this series. Some of the lines are great and Tennant and Piper both convince. At the centre though there is a plot and it's not too bad either. Tennant's Zoe Wanamaker is a bit too Kenneth Williams though, I think. 4/5
6. Tooth And Claw
   A good plot is ruined slightly by the editing and the lack of explanation. Surprisingly uninvolving too. As an episode supposed to be scary I was surprised to see it wasn't. 3/5
7. Rise Of The Cybermen
   A reasonably mediocre episode which sets up the second half well. A bit more from the actors would be expected though and the Cybermen weren't brilliant. 3/5
8. Fear Her
   Not bad, but not good either. A poor storyline but Billie Piper gives what I think is her best performance yet and the rest of the cast is generally good. Needed a bit more work I think. Like the Doctor lighting the Olympic flame bit. 2/5
9. The Age Of Steel
   Some ridiculous plot threads and unscary and noisy Cybermen combine to make this a poor follow up to Rise Of The Cybermen. Shame. 2/5
10. The Idiot's Lantern
    This was really torture to sit through. The most boring plot ever I think and the actors fail to bring it around. The family subplot wasn't a good idea either. 2/5
11. Army Of Ghosts
    Slightly dull but with some good parts and the introduction of the monster is quite good. The idea of a war seems good but is it really? 2/5
12. Doomsday
    Overemotional, with a rubbish war that happens in the background while we have 6 minute epilogues on Jackie as well as Rose and the Doctor's farewell. 1/5
13. Love And Monsters
    Ridiculous rubbish, a real farce. Surprisingly good acting fails to get this story anywhere because the plot is so useless. A waste of a good guest star in Marc Warren. 1/5

Overall season rating: 38/65, or 57%
Best Thing: David Tennant
Worst Thing: Jackie Tyler

My Top 10 Big Finish Audios by Adrian Loder 12/9/07

It's been a very intriguing last 6 or 7 months, as I've been discovering the Big Finish audio dramas. I've read an awful lot of reviews, probably more than I have of any other part of Doctor Who's gargantuan oeuvre, and over this time I've come to get a good grasp of where people's preferences lie. This is probably the single most useful or practical application of the Ratings Guide - when you get into a reviewer's preferences so well that the guide actually works as a guide. Some people I know if they like it I'll probably not be impressed, others are the opposite. One thing I've noticed is that it seems people have a different expectation from New Who than Old Who; this has created a bit of a gulf in that, for me, the Eighth Doctor audios in particular are not new anymore. I've been skipping around a lot; I'm not really a fan of arcs. So these are my favorite Big Finish audios, from the ones I've listened to anyway.

Counting down in reverse order:

10. The Creed of the Kromon - Lots of dislike for this one, on multiple review sites. Personally, I think the idea of some kind of psychic gestalt entity serving as a guardian/receptionist on a planet partitioned up into zones that have no idea of each other's existence is very interesting and different from what's been done before. Certainly the TARDIS crew traveling on foot, between what amount to the equivalent of different "planets" in the traditional format of Doctor Who, is very different from the usual mode of arrival, and certainly more deliberate in the crew's intentions. As for the Kromon themselves, I find the idea of giant, bureaucrat termites to be endlessly fascinating, but then I've read graduate textbooks on the biology of spiders and kept an ant farm as a child. Having worked for, and within, a massive bureaucracy, there is quite a lot of humor to be found in this story as well, as the entire ethos of corporate life is satirized mercilessly. The last two parts do drag a little, though, so not quite my very favorite but certainly up there.

9. The Sirens of Time - I'm afraid that I really do love multi-Doctor stories, especially long, horribly complicated, multi-Doctor stories featuring all kinds of nods to the past. My principal interest in Doctor Who, the one thing I consider "sacred", is the characterisation of the Doctor. Plot, companions, everything else is secondary. This may explain why I love the 3rd season of RTD Who so much when it has received an endless thrashing in other places. In any event, it definitely explains why I love multi-Doctor stories so much. This one is as long and horribly intricate as they come, and the final part, featuring the 5th, 6th and 7th Doctors is absolutely lovely.

8. The Spectre of Lanyon Moor - Ooh, I do love ancient British tunnels, tumuli and legends. I'm American, but 75% of my ancestry is English/Irish and I rather like to think that's why I prefer British TV and why nearly all my favorite musicians are British. So a story set in a spooky moor near an ancient tumulus was terribly attractive. I think the 6th Doctor was always underrated and on audio he seems to have become even stronger than before. Although his relationship with Peri on audio is less bitchy than on TV, it is with Evelyn Smythe that he really shines. An older companion is perfect for the Doctor: a younger person confronted with an outrageous ego will often feel trampled upon and react very negatively. However, an older person already has an established ego and sense of self of his or her own and consequently the pairing works much, much better. Plus, the reappearance of the Brigadier is marvelous, and while certainly the story evokes memories of Terror of the Zygons, this is still a wondrous audio.

7. The Dark Flame - I also really love being controversial. No one likes this story, either, but for the life of me I can't see why. Perhaps more listeners are familiar with the New Adventures and/or have had a go at the Benny audios and so are less tolerant of retreading similar ground. Me, I've never read a New Adventure in my life. My principal reading is in literature and the only Doctor Who book I've read is that big one where Lawrence Miles pretends he's really, really bright... what was it, oh yeah, Interference. So anyway, I'm not familiar with Bernice Summerfield at all, and her wonderful sarcastic commentary on captor/prisoner cliches is really a delight. And we have a traditional Doctor Who story starring the 7th Doctor, not always a common prospect in the Big Finish range. No dark machinations, no ironic twist at the end where we find out the Doctor has done something really terrible in his past, no experimental hijinx, just a good, solid, traditional story featuring a strong TARDIS team.

6. Winter For The Adept - More spooky atmospherics, with my favorite Doctor and one of my favorite companions, with an appropriately unsettling atmosphere and story and some very well-drawn characters. Despite the strange occurrences this is a story set to slow burn, perfectly evoking the atmosphere of waiting out a hard, cold winter. The Doctor-Nyssa interplay is excellent, as well. "I can't believe you're saying we're talking to a ghost!" "He's not a ghost, he's a being comprised entirely of psychic energy and possessing the memory and intellect of an English mountain climber that died in an avalanche." "In other words, a ghost".

5. Spare Parts - More well-written Fifth Doctor audios is always a treat for me. Constantly mistreated on TV and sometimes in the audio range as well; I think I may even have developed a complex about stories where the Fifth Doctor is characterized poorly or in a negative light. Combining this with a stunning look at the origins of the Cybermen, as the Doctor tries not to get involved and also tries to keep the secret of their location from Nyssa, makes this a sure winner. I've always found the original-look Cybermen to be strangely chilling. Up close, granted, the cloth masks do look a bit like, well, cloth masks, but a more long-range shot depicts a hulking monster of a creature, roughly humanoid but devoid of humanity. And I do love those sing-song voices, as well; in fact, one of the nicest little touches about this audio are the different stages of Cyber-vocalization that are used. And Peter Davison delivers a supremely energetic performance, particularly near the end when the Doctor adopts a devil-may-care, "there's nothing we can do, it's already happened, so let's just go ahead and try anyway" attitude. Excellent.

4. The Twilight Kingdom - I've really grown fond of Paul McGann/the Eighth Doctor, and he makes such a wonderful Doctor it surprises me just how often his stories feature him behaving as if/believing he is someone other than the Eighth Doctor. This story appears fairly typical on the surface, but once again we have the Kro'ka providing a splendid lead-in and lead-out, now revealed to be playing a role in some kind of mass-experiment. The idea that an entire subsection of a planet has been carved out whole and deposited elsewhere is pretty grand in scale and the villain, while used in other pieces of horror and sci-fi over the years, is new to Doctor Who so far as I can tell. Some of the guest cast are a bit forgettable, but the Doctor, Janto and Voth are so powerful and draw your attention so well, it was hard for me not to become emotionally involved in the story. I'm also a sucker for a great story and for once I didn't guess the nature of the monster before its revelation. The ending is tragic but satisfying and the final word spoken is a bit surprising, but definitely welcome. Despite the fact that the Divergent Universe stories were often told in a very traditional format, many of the elements of the stories are very unusual indeed, a fact seemingly missed by some.

3. Terror Firma - This is actually the very first Big Finish audio I listened to. I wanted to see what the Eighth Doctor was like on audio and the prospect of him meeting an old foe seemed like a perfect introduction. The Doctor doesn't do a whole lot aside from chat with Davros, but that chat is wonderful. Davros at times seems almost pathetic and pitiful but in the end is still just as cruel and merciless, and unwilling to change his ways, as ever. Terry Molloy has perhaps finally erased the dominance of Michael Wisher from Genesis. This was also my first introduction to C'rizz, and his character seemed very troubled, but also very interesting - a lizardman is definitely an interesting choice for a companion, and of course this was also my first exposure to Charley, who seemed a fine companion. In retrospect, I enjoyed her much more here than the "plucky lass" she began as in Storm Warning. Speaking of that story, it was between it and this for the third spot and a place on the list at all, and I'm afraid that the fact of the real R101 crash having 7 survivors colored the whole theme of that inital Charley arc negatively for me, so Terror Firma gets the nod.

2. Loups-Garoux - Werewolf stories, in general, do not thrill me. In fact, monsters like werewolves and vampires have been so overused, so ingrained in popular culture that they have lost nearly all of their power to impose awe and fear. Fortunately, Loups-Garoux simply takes this to the next level, presenting them as mixing extensively with humanity in some cases and establishing them as their own race, predating humanity and having a culture of their own. Instead of continuing to try and make us afraid of these utterly overused creatures, the story simply goes with it, and continues to strip them of their terror and fear-inspiring qualities, making them sympathetic in the end. The Fifth Doctor and Turlough are voiced excellently by Davison and Mark Strickson, especially the latter, another underrated actor and character. Davison is superb in his curiosity about what is going on, his desperation to avert conflict, his respect for both humanity and the werewolf culture and in portraying how torn the Doctor is in his obvious affection for Ileana but not being able to stay with her. A little long, maybe, but it does what the best big Finish audios do: immerse you in them, wash over you and, for a couple of hours, you forget about everything else.

1. Singularity - We've had so many stories about the end of man, or humanity's dying days, or their last days on Earth, etc etc. The Ark, The Ark In Space, Frontios, The End of the World... I guess there's room for another, eh? Must be, since I've ranked it my very favorite Big Finish story. Once again, Davison and Strickson are on top form, and they are blessed by an excellent supporting cast. Davison in particular is excellent in scenes such as where he plays off Qel's hatred for Seo and turns them against each other, or when he finds Seo at the very end, dying on the ruins of Ember, the last human, and though showing pity and compassion: "Sleep..." He also shows understanding that nothing lasts forever. An excellent mystery is afoot as well, as the last thing I expected was that the villains would be humans themselves. Just marvelous from start to finish, with a great performance from my favorite Doctor, an underused but companion whom I like a great deal, a near-flawless guest cast and a superb plot; how can you go wrong? Oh, but if only they were all like this....

Now, as an extra "bonus", here is the (much-condensed) list of my least favorite Big Finish audio dramas, with the small note that until you get to number 5 on the list, I didn't actively dislike the story in question, it just doesn't really satisfy me, or capture my attention, or what have you:

10. Colditz
9. Project: Twilight
8. The Sandman
7. The Natural History of Fear
6. Nekromanteia
5. Flip-Flop
4. The Wormery
3. Excelis Dawns
2. The Rapture
1. Sword of Orion

The best and the worst of New who by Hugh Sturgess 6/12/07

I've been reading other people's reviews and other people's top/bottom tens, so I've decided to do my own. Overall, Series 1 was virtually flawless (with only one real 'rather no thanks' episode (Boom Town) and one pointlessly rushed one (The Long Game), Series 2 had New Earth, The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit combo and Rise of the Cybermen, but it also had The Girl in the Fireplace and Tooth and Claw, which makes it overall a great season, while not even Paul Cornell and Steven Moffat can save Series 3, which was largely embarrassing (mainly due to Murray Gold's appalling score).

So, expect no sympathy for:

Bottom Ten of the New Series:

10. New Earth: This story is badly done on a multitude of levels, from David's just-add-time-war performance, the dodgy science, the convenient feel-good 'Cassandra, having spent her entire life fighting death, decides to die in defiance of all logic and aesthetic sense' to the appalling Face of Boe subplot: basically, he summons the Doctor, thinking he's about to die, goes to tell him his 'great secret' and then says 'oh, I feel much better now, byeeeee!'. The Doctor is made to say 'that is enigmatic', as if this glosses over the total lack of originality or resolution on display here. There's nothing wrong with a story with three plots, but none of them connect. Cassandra's story is about David and Billie pretending to be Zoe Wanamaker (and with a moral about accepting death slapped on at the end), the zombies' story is about the ethics of cloning and the morality of animal testing and Boe's is about... well, something. Patience, perhaps. None of them share a similar thread, so the individual plots are just switched off at random so that the main story - the zombies - can take centrestage. Worst of all, this also ruins any chances of doing a story about cloning and animal testing in the foreseeable future.

9. Boom Town: Not as bad as all that, but it's also criminally disjointed. The first half is a jolly good day out in Cardiff, with a fat woman running around, while the second half is the Doctor dining with a monster and defending his right to kill. There's nothing inherently wrong with either of these: the first half is funny ("she's climbing out the window, isn't she?"), the latter half compelling ("only a killer would know that"). But, like New Earth, they're stuck together regardless of whether they are appropriate to each other. And the ending is still risible, even if you know the ending to Parting of the Ways.

8. The Runaway Bride: Inner demons cry "Lower! Lower! Lower!" as Russell dishes out this staid, boring and pedestrian "romp" that fails to engage on any level beyond occasional "oh, that's quite nice" moments. Catherine Tate is, surprisingly and unfortunately, the best thing about it.

7. The Lazarus Experiment: Many other people more eloquent than me have given very, very good reasons to despise this story, so all I'll say is that the murder of that old bitch halfway through is so badly built up and handled that it's a wonder how Russell (who says that a villain 'must have a reason') let this be broadcast. It has two good things: the Doctor's embarrassed "oh, y'know... stuff" and Lazarus's very true statement that avoiding death is our most basic instinct.

6. The Satan Pit: Marginally better than its appalling Part One, this turkey still features a naff chase through a ventilation shaft (without even the slightest hint of irony), a naff 'heroic death' with no point to it, an appalling resolution to the benighted Ood (they all died, so we don't have to worry about freeing them from slavery) and you'd swear the appearance of the Beast was being deliberately robbed of all its power and drama. The only upside is that David and Billie have shut up and started taking it seriously.

5. Rise of the Cybermen: The teaser to the story features a scientist chatting with Mr Lumic about the Cybermen, and, when he calmly suggests telling the UN about all this, Lumic (rather hurriedly and melodramatically) says 'kill him!', a line which, by definition, should be impossible to overplay (he manages it anyway), and the Cyberman zaps him. This is the story in miniature, as is it a) totally out of keeping with the story's themes of 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' (instead suggesting that the road to hell is paved with the corpses of evil masterminds' cronies), b) done very badly indeed and c) as if Russell has realised that a slow tragedy about a gradual loss of humanity isn't cliffhanger material and has decided to spice it up. Interviewed afterwards, Russell said that the episode was 'hollow' and 'soul-destroying'; the BBC was shocked. As a spokesperson said, "we didn't expect Russell to say those kinds of things: that's why we hired him in the first place".

4. Utopia: What could have been a fairly ordinary story is made dull and boring by a pointlessly rushed reintroduction of Captain Jack, a pointlessly rushed emergence from the TARDIS and subsequent running away from things, a pointlessly rushed subplot about the rocket and, finally, a pointlessly rushed conclusion. And a big hand for Captain Jack: the man who, officially, has no past, no future, no reason for arriving and (ultimately) no reason for leaving, aside from the obvious 'best thing about Torchwood' factor (no, seriously: Captain Jack Harkness was the best episode of the lot).

3. The Impossible Planet: Not remotely scary, not even slightly thought-provoking and as irritating as a planet full of ants. It looks like it is going somewhere when Ida calls the planet 'the Bitter Pill', but then they go and ruin it by having Rose say something smug and tension-destroying like 'I like that' like that fool out of the Burger King adverts.

2. 42: I can't condemn this episode better than Lawrence Miles: 'Love & Monsters and Kinda might have left children behind, but this is the first episode of Doctor Who which doesn't make sense at all unless you're a smug, media-aware adult... If you're unfamiliar with the canon of Jack Bauer [the title is a "subtle" play on 24], then it just looks like a bunch of mediocre actors running up and down corridors. And that's exactly what it is. A 42-minute in-joke, not a proper television programme at all.' It isn't bad, just horribly, horribly mediocre, representing Doctor Who at its most ordinary.

1. The Shakespeare Code: I've spoken at length about this story already, so I'll just say this: Tooth and Claw was a dream of script-writing, direction, acting and pacing, while this is just a nightmare of all of those factors. Just ugly, crass and moronic.

Just missing out: The Sound of Drums (for diabolical music alone), Gridlock (just for being dull and for Phil Collinson's desperate attempt to make it look as though was 'topical' in some way) and The Idiot's Lantern (for being predictable and safe).

And here come the greats. I'm doing Top Five rather than Top Ten only for the sake of saving space.

Top Five of New Who

5. Doomsday: I'm sorry, for all it's flaws, I just love it. It all moves like a story should - except for Jackie-meets-Pete - and has some hilarious Jackie Tyler schtick and great Dalek characterisation, too.

4. Blink: Another gem from Steven Moffat (can that man do no wrong?). A story so brilliantly paced, acted and conceived that it doesn't miss the Doctor or Martha at all, and manages to be funny, scary and heart-warming, all at once.

3. Rose: Brilliant, almost flawless (only the daft Mickey duplicate pulls you out of the illusion), modernises Doctor Who in forty-five minutes and makes it look easy. A highlight of any season.

2. The Family of Blood: Tear-jerking in places (the vision of John Smith's future with Joan, John's hysterical "I just want to John Smith, that's all, John Smith, why can't I be him, isn't he a good man?" and Joan's "The Time Lord has such adventures, but he could never have a life like that"), spine-tingling in others ("war is coming... do you think they will thank the man who taught them it was glorious?", "we wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did") and actually horrifying (the implied murder of the little girl's parents, seemingly by their own young daughter), all at once, and it doesn't jar. The Family is dripping with camp menace and David is on rare form. The Doctor's punishment for the Family, consigning them to appropriate fates, is like the retribution of a Greek god, and is amazing to behold. Son of Mine's soliloquies to the Headmaster (and the look Banes and he share moments before the latter disintegrates the former) and to the audience at the end are brilliant. A triumph that salvages the season from outright disaster.

1. The Girl in the Fireplace: A thing of beauty that deserves to be hung in an art gallery just as much as that picture of Reinette at the end doesn't; a groundbreaking triumph, a genuine Doctor Who love story that stays true to the Doctor and to the concept of the series and has one of the most moving conclusions of any Doctor Who story. Unreservedly the best Doctor Who story in the New Series, and probably in any medium ever. You almost topped it with Blink, Steven: have another go next year.

Just missed out: Human Nature, Tooth and Claw, Aliens of London, The Parting of the Ways and The Christmas Invasion.

Insufferable Gits From The Ministry by Joe Briggs-Ritchie 12/2/08

You all know what the title refers to. Yes, that staple ingredient of the Jon Pertwee era, the pompous government official, the narrow-minded beaurocratic buffoon or, as I like to call them, the Insufferable Gits from the Ministry. Here, for your perusal and delectation is a list of those indispensable oafs. Judge for yourself wether they're mad, bad or just overpaid.

Edward Masters
Edward Masters, from the Ministry of Science is the first proper Ministry Git of the Pertwee era and, to be perfectly honest, he's actually quite likeable. But he bears all the hallmarks of where the series is going to go with these characters. He arrives at the Wenley Moor Research Centre and, shortly after, goes to meet his maker after contracting the Silurian Plague.

Brownrose
Oh, now here we have a somewhat more dislikeable character. Pompous buffoon who manages to annoy the Doctor within about 20 seconds of meeting him. There is a mention of a Lord Tubby Rowlands. Sounds distinctly disagreeable to me. The Doctor later refers to him as an idiot so they obviously didn't get off on the right foot. Oh well.

Chinn
The quintissential Ministry Git. Chinn is arrogant, entirely self-concerned, obsequious to the minister, very unlikeable... In short, he deserves a thoroughly unpleasant death. No such luck, I'm afraid. This fat cat is the one who gets his hands on the Axonite and, therefore, almost causes the complete destruction of Earth. Very remiss of him. Likes driving (or being driven) around in a Daimler.

Sir Reginald Styles
"A trifle obstinate perhaps and vain to the point of arrogance..." So says the Doctor. Well, guess what? Sir Reginald is actually made to be the bad guy when in fact he is, in many ways, the victim. The guerillas from 22nd century Earth believe that he is responsible for the wars that preceeded the Dalek invasion. A case of staggering misrepresentation it seems. Constantly seems as though he's in a bad mood. Probably is...

Walker, Parliamentary Private Secretary
Oh dear God, someone get me a gun. Walker arrives to sort out the Sea Devil crisis. Or at least that's the pretence. The reality is that he arrives to completely eat Captain Hart out of house and home. Or base. This man always seems to be filling his face and is it just me or does he have something of an obsession with toast? This is another one in the Chinn mould. He very nearly starts a war that humanity would have no hope of winning. Dear me, these government officials.

Dr Cook
Dr Cook is just one of the many, many, many, many, many, many many, many, extremely irritating things about The Time Monster. I can't discuss this story for too long, it brings me out in hives. Anyway, I think I stated in my review for this story that Dr Cook should be boiled in cheap sherry. Need I say more?

Charles Grover, Minister with Special Powers
What special powers are those I wonder? Can he bore someone to death at 20 paces? What? Oh, not those kind of special powers. You know that things are just too good to be true when a Ministry Git actually seems pleasant and charming. Grover is completely barking mad. He wants to erase the human race by reversing time back to a point before humanity existed. This makes him by far the worst person on this list. What a bastard. Although he's apparently quite good at making tea so I may just forgive him.

Ten Things I've Learnt About The Old Series From Old Series Fans by Stuart Cottrell 24/3/08

I'm 14 years old, so the first Doctor Who episode I ever saw was of the New Series. I've only seen a few of the old episodes (Tomb of the Cybermen, The Invasion, Terror of the Zygons, Revenge of the Cybermen, An Unearthly Child) and I thought that they were actually very good. However, from reading other reviews I have gathered ten things which fans of the old series seem to think.

1. Colin Baker was rubbish.
   I've never seen him, or any of his episodes, but nearly every review I've read says that Colin Baker's Doctor was, arrogant, stupidly dressed, loudmouthed, not as good as Davison or Baker, and the cause of the breakdown of 'Classic' Who forever. I think Trial of the Time Lord sounds like an interesting idea, but I've found no one who agrees.
2. Tom Baker was the 'only' Doctor
   Everybody seems to love Tom Baker. Maybe it's the fact that he was the Doctor for seven years, and therefore got the most out of his incarnation. Or maybe it's the fact that people grew up with him. Or maybe he was actually really, really good (I saw him and thought he was good, but could only compare him to Troughton and Hartnell). But the impression I get from the majority of fans is that Doctor Who is split into three eras: before Baker, Baker and after Baker.
3. Everyone thinks that companions shouldn't scream.
   Why not?!? What's the big problem with screaming? It's a natural reaction to being scared, which is what Doctor Who aims to do. And the Doctor can't scream, because that would be silly (but ever so funny; imagine Hartnell screaming in terror at the Daleks, probably me that just finds that funny), so it has to be the companions. Everyone else seems to hate it.
4. The Daleks/Cybermen stories are all too overrated.
   There are different opinions about this, but a lot of people think that later Dalek/Cyberman stories were a complete waste of time, with the monsters being the only driving force in the storyline. Is that a problem? You can't have an intelligent, witty, challenging plot line every week. You've got to have some useless episodes with plot holes and weak acting so you can sit and say, 'That was rubbish... but the Daleks/Cyberman were good'. And if there weren't some rubbish storylines, there would be nothing to moan about in reviews.
5. There is far too much spin-off stuff
   No one seems to be able to agree on what's 'real Doctor Who' and what's not. To be honest, I don't care and I'm sure a lot of people don't either. Enough said.
6. Continuity makes life worse
   I pity writers who come up with an amazing storyline to have it demolished because it contradicts one passing comment made in another episode. Does it really matter? As long as the Doctor isn't saying that he's Davros' brother, or that the Daleks were born on Earth's twin planet, then who cares???
7. The New Series is never going to be as good as the Old Series.
   I disagree with this completely. It's very irritating that people try to compare the two series, when actually they are part of the same program. The New Series is made with modern technology and by modern people for a modern audience, just like the Old Series was when it was made. Can we stop this criticism and just enjoy the damn show which has been cancelled for seven years? (Note that this is mainly against comments made by people before the New Series was broadcast. There have been a lot of people who have liked the New Series.)
8. Everybody hates the idea of the Doctor and the Companion having a relationship.
   Why?!? Why does everyone want to see the Doctor lonely for all of time and space? Why can't he fall in love? And why can't people fall in love with him? He's got a time machine, for goodness' sake, that's going to help him score on all kinds of levels. This is the modern era, just let him and Rose fall in love! (Having said that, I think it was beautifully handled by RTD, so that the Doctor never actually says he loves Rose. I cry every time at Doomsday, it's brilliantly done.)
9. Fans often miss the point.
   Doctor Who is being aimed at families; it is a family show, for kids and adults to watch together. It is not aimed at the sorts of fans who get completely obsessed with every little detail about the Doctor Who universe, so, really, we are the wrong people to be criticising the show.
10. No one, however bad the show gets in their opinion, would want to see Doctor axed for a second time.
    The New Series is brilliant on so many levels, for old and new fans. If it went again, then another part of our British heritage would go with it. It is an icon, and I don't want to ever see it go. So let's not be too hard on it, then.

A new-old fan's list of resolutions by Emily Monaghan 19/4/08

Peer pressure is a killer. And hence, I produce the list of eight resolutions that I need to write down so I don't forget them while associating with my fellow fans.

1. I will never stop loving Adric.

When I made the leap back, fate sent a copy of Keeper of Traken into my hands. The first thing that struck me about this pre-Rose world was his character. A companion who isn't a 20-something Earth girl - an alien, a chap and someone who can hold their own in the sci-fi world. I thought his relationship with the Doctor was really watchable. With a show based around a hero with the infectious enthusiasm of a ten year old, the idea of pairing him with a genius child was very appealing. I even liked his costume!

As soon as I got onto the web, I discovered I was in a minority of one.

I'm not sure where the hate comes from. Like liking one Baker, or disliking the other, this just seems to be one of those things you do. He's bratty and annoying - but how many 14-year-old kids do you know? Or people who are really clever, and know it? I'm also not sure where anyone got the idea his acting is worse than anyone else's, especially when paired with Tegan (who would improve somewhere after Time-Flight) and Nyssa (who, to my knowledge, doesn't have the faintest idea what acting is or what possible use it could have). But a dodgy performance never prevented me from loving Nyssa, or coming to love Tegan, and it sure as hell won't put me off Adric.

Is it just a generation of bitter kids who've grown up and realised with the cynicism of middle age that he was meant to persuade them to study hard at school? In any case, kudos to the writers who granted him one of the most brilliant companion exits ever. It's hard to deny Earthshock is a good episode and even his militant haters couldn't ignore the impact of its ending. (I speak from experience here - somewhere a few episodes into Logopolis, me and Miss Jovanka fell out. From that point, she annoyed me no end - I cheered when she was temporarily left behind at Heathrow. I was quite looking forward to her real departure - but when it came, it was so good I rethought her whole character, fell in love and watched her remaining episodes in a totally new light.)

2. I will never stop loving Rose.

I never had an opinion one way or the other on Rose. Adorable, certainly, and also my benchmark for what a companion should look like.

Wheras enquiring after Adric brought me a barrage of baseless hate, meeting the Rose fans had quite the opposite effect. Somehow, her character is inextricably tangled with the were-they-weren't-they of the first series. The people making videos to Coldplay tunes, and overlaying romantic lyrics on colour-tinted wallpapers. The other people, carrying the "you're a beautiful woman, probably" quote as a banner of distinction.

For the record: I don't have an objection to the Doctor being in love; I think it's highly unlikely someone as caring as he could spend that long alone and not be. I think there are several people in the Doctor's history you can point to and argue for perfectly eloquently (Jo and Rose being two of them). But please, it's done subtle in the show, so leave it subtle in the fanon...

But I digress. Dealing with these people was like dealing with the religious. There are hundreds of quietly practicing Rose fans out there, happily loving her and whatever relationship she may or may not have shared with our favourite Timelord. And then there are the extremists, the people who come to your door and give you leaflets, and start wars about it.

It's not the idea of it, but the way it was done - not by the show, but by that slice of fandom. The sheer cheesiness of the fanfiction. The use of Coldplay; never forgiveable. The implication that she was the love of his life. A love, yes, but life does go on. It might be hard, but he will get over it eventually. After all, it's not like she's dead; separated from him, but with everybody she loves (see: #1 Adric)

For me, the Ninth Doctor was all about the Time War. He ended it, resulting in the destruction of his planet, his race and the Daleks - and after that, his every act was one of repentance. From trying to help the Gelth and Nestine Consciousness whom he robbed of a home, to refusing to make the same decision a second time in Parting of the Ways. He's even thinking like a Gallifreyan when he arrives on Earth, with his callous comment about Mickey's death being insignificant compared to the bigger picture, while the concept of destroying the planet to save the universe is the ultimate Sensible Time Lord Decision. Rose is everything the Time Lords weren't. They are old and wise, she's nineteen and filled with life. She cares about a single Dalek, despite the threat it poses; the High Council were prepared to execute the Doctor for the potential threat he posed in Arc of Infinity. And he's on his own. Under the circumstances, we can allow him to lose at least one of his hearts.

Watching Sarah Jane's relationship with the Fourth Doctor has restored my faith (very similar to the Doctor and Rose in series 2; larking around the universe in a pretty cute way, and occasionally rescuing it from peril), while selective internet browsing has cut down on the amount of infuriating people I have to put up with. Let me revel in how nice Rose really was.

3. I will never compare the old and new series.

I've got a better perspective on this than most here, starting in 2005 and working backwards. Chrisopher Eccleston is my nostalga Doctor, and he's only two years gone. There's really nothing to choose between them. It's all one show. It's all one character. Books count too. And audios. And comics. Though not the bad ones. That's the comfort of the canonicity debate: if a piece of non-TV fiction rubs you the wrong way, then you have an excuse to forget it entirely. 4. I will never admit to having a favourite Doctor.

I don't have a favourite Hamlet. I don't even have a favourite James Bond. I love them all in different ways, because they all show up different aspects of the same character. This is slightly hypocritical; my random approach to the series means I still haven't seen 1, 2, 6 and 7 (properly), but it's highly unlikely given the before examples that I will find any serious problems.

5. I will never stop loving Resurrection of the Daleks.

After Logopolis, I continued as chronologically as the BBC DVD releases would let me, and the first one which really hit me on an emotional level was this. Peter Davison instantly became one of my top ten favourite Doctors (irony intentional), Tegan really did become one of my favourite companions. Turlough excited my curiosity enough to order the entire Black Guardian trilogy off Amazon. I loved the punishing level of unecessary violence (it's still got the highest death toll of any story I've counted: 57), thought the "minor characters we want you to sympathise with" were actually sympathetic, and was, for the first time ever, properly scared by the Daleks. New series ones don't quite cut it in the same way. And all this in a story where the Doc spends two episodes tied to a table.

Since then, it has paled. I never understood the plot, it just gets more unnecessarily tangled. Cloning is done better in Android Invasion. Everything is done better in Genesis of the Daleks. Mind control is just overdone.

Maybe I've been watching better episodes - Mawdryn Undead is now my favourite oldie - or maybe the hate it gets online has got to me. My affection for it remains the same, even if my respect has dipped. There's nothing as horrible as falling out of love and, even though I feel colder from afar, I know that if I rewatched it now, I'd enjoy it just as much.

But pity my friend. Her first favourite of the old series was Time-Flight. Imagine her disappointment when she discovered it was against the club rules!

6. I will watch Caves of Androzani.

First it was after I've finished the other DVDs. Then the other videos. Then once I order Planet of Fire. Then after all the other episodes. Then after Series Four. I'm not putting it off, honest.

This is my first proper regeneration from a Doctor I really care about and have followed for a long time. I claimed above that I love them all equally, and that's true, but the Fifth Doctor has, so far and from sheer chance, been the only one I've done properly. I've seen over half the episodes, and most of them in the right order. I've got to like all his companions. It's going to be the End, and no matter how many novels and audios I stockpile, that'll be it. It's like Mr Tennant announcing he's going to leave, only worse because it's already happened.

The irony is, excepting Mr Tennant when it comes, he's one of the few Doctors I'm ever going to go through this for. Somebody who knows their stuff better than me should really make a guide for confused new-fans making the leap backwards, because in retrospect I got it wrong. I watched as large a spread of Doctor Who as I could get my hands on, and fate presented me with an insanely high number of regeneration stories. Planet of the Spiders was my first Pertwee. Logopolis was my second Baker. I got to know the Seventh Doctor minutes, nay, seconds before he walks out of the TARDIS and into the TV-movie. At the time, I wasn't particularly upset because I didn't have the background - and once I do, I'll have already gone through it, so I shouldn't be too distressed second time around. I only caught the first series from Dalek, so even Parting of the Ways wasn't that big a deal. I'm anticipating War Games and Survival to be kickers when I get there however...

It's a small consolation that Caves is Everybody's Second Favourite Episode After Genesis of the Daleks. It's another consolation that even the Davison-haters admit its brilliant. It'd help if everyone was less negative about Colin Baker though...

7. I will never again read a novel about a Doctor I haven't seen first.

Human Nature was the first pdf I plucked off the BBC website. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant, just like its episode. I fell in love with Benny, like everyone else in the known universe (even if it took me a few chapters to establish she was female).

It's gorgeously written, an excellent novel in its own right. Afterwards, seeing the Seventh Doctor on screen (yes, in Dimensions in Time, but it's really the same thing) was a horrible shock. His voice was plain wrong; in my mind, it was something mossy, like Ian Holm's. I'll get over this in time, I suppose, but it's a rule I'm sticking to. I recently gave up on The Eight Doctors halfway through, because I had really enjoyed appearances by the Fifth and Third Doctors, and missed the point of the rest.

Consequently, along with Day of the Daleks, Terror of the Autons, Four to Doomsday and (still) Planet of Fire, ANYTHING with Mr McCoy and Ace is on my list of must-buys. Chiefly so I can read Love and War; it's set in my home town, during the only interesting historical event which has ever affected us... I've been dying to read it, but can't in the name of goodness. Half the joy of both The Dying Days and Sands of Time was enjoying how well its respective Doctors had been captured on the page.

8. I love 6's coat and I'm proud.

Still ain't seen an episode of his, but I think its fantastic. Wait, tell a lie - he's in Dimensions in Time. Telling Ace her new jacket clashes.

List of New Who Adaptations from the "Dark Era" by Graham Pilato 6/9/08

Anyone who needs to ask how many adaptations have there been from the "dark era" of the 90s and early 00s to be used as stories for the new series need look no further. Some of the adaptations in this list are merely homage, or perhaps, inspiration as opposed to a full-blooded direct adaptation (e.g. Smith and Jones). In chronological order from the new series stories, this all I've found so far.

1. Dalek, the first season episode of the new series, was based on an audio story produced by a company called Big Finish; you may have heard of it. It's called Jubilee on the original, also written by the brilliant Rob Shearman. There's a lot more going on there, but it's no masterpiece - just mostly brilliant and strung out a little too long. The single Dalek still represents all that's evil in humanity, but it does begin to be a bit more of a darkly satirical and quite moody epic, as opposed to the 45 minute TV corker. It deals with a lot of the same stuff, but the Dalek in Jubilee is kept in the Tower of London instead of an underground museum in Utah, and the split-in-two 6th Doctor is very, very different from the damaged-Time-War-veteran 9th.

2. Father's Day, Paul Cornell's first season episode of the new series, features a very specific set of plot and setting ingredients picked out by Russell T. Davies for him to use in his script that resemble things Cornell had used before in his Doctor Who writing. Specifically, it resembles his Timewyrm: Revelation New Adventure novel. The setting of the old fortress of a church that is removed from the real world via a quirk in spacetime - in this case, a paradox - sounds exactly like one of the main locales of that novel, without the talking walls. Also, the plot greatly resembles Revelation, as a paradox created at the beginning of the story looms over the survival of a main character; in Revelation, it's Ace, but here it was Rose's father's existence that is threatened. The big twist here is that this time the paradox is Rose's, the companion's, fault.

   One more possible inspiration for this episode from the novels - that may be a bit of a stretch, but who cares - is the winged beasties here, the eaters of paradox people with the nasty red eyes and the giant maws. This was probably Paul Cornell's idea, because I doubt that RTD was still reading any Who novels at this point. These otherworldly baddies were exactly like the threat that faced the Doctor and company in Lawrence Miles' The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, only in the form of vicious Apelike beasties there. These guys' nature is the same as Miles' horror of the universe fighting back for the pain put to it by some reckless time travelers. There is a hole in the heart of the universe in the latter days of the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, and it may be the same hole that RTD has brought to his new series of Doctor Who: the missing Gallifrey and Time Lords, but the shame of it is that the continuity of the novels never allowed for the Daleks to be the big enemy in the Time War, so who knows what to call this connection. It might have been intended to be, despite what everyone says, exactly the same continuity as what's in the novels, but unfortunately Lance Parkin has had some trouble tying these things together too well in his Gallifrey Chronicles and AHistory. Other than adaptation, this might well have been better called "continuation". Regardless, this is a pretty interesting connection to some of fandom's biggest ideas of the "dark era".

3. The Empty Child, while mostly original as a Steven Moffat creation, is very reminiscent of Rob Shearman's Big Finish audio The Holy Terror, which features another terrifying child wondering around doing awful things to people just by touching them. And he says "Are you my daddy?" That's it, really. It's "daddy" and not "mummy". How much this is an adaptation is actually only as much as one wants to perceive it that way. It's obviously not a direct adaptation at all. But, suffice to say, Moffat and Shearman know each other and they might have talked about this beforehand...

4. Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel is an adaptation from what Marc Platt accomplished in Big Finish's Spare Parts. Widely recognized along with The Holy Terror as one of the best Who-related audios of all (and there are more than a hundred and fifty now), this an origin-of-the-Cybermen story that is really the same story, just not on Earth, quite, and it has nothing to do with Mickey's and Rose's families' alternative existences. The alternative in Spare Parts was the alternative Earth on a twin planet called Mondas that went rogue and roved around the solar system for millions of years only to come back and meet up with Earth again in the Cybermen's first appearance on the original TV series in the story The Tenth Planet from 1966. Spare Parts is quite different in its scope, certainly more intimate than The Age of Steel, but it features several of the same emotional beats for characters and the exact same horror of an alternative Earth gone awry, even if these stories are superficially quite different.

5. Smith and Jones has the barest of connections to "dark era" Who, but it's undeniably there. First, there's the hospital that is plucked from England and plopped down on the moon. This is exactly what happened in Paul Cornell's Timewyrm: Revelation, clearly a touchstone story of sorts for the new series in its extremity of imagery and emotionality of its storytelling. Of course, it's that talking country church that ends up on the moon, not a London hospital, but it's still that event, that horrifying impossibility that's so powerful and works so well to show a new companion for what level of tenacity and open-mindedness she has.

   Also, this episode had the quirk of introducing a companion whose last name is "Jones", alongside a Doctor who often went by the false last name of "Smith", a companion who happens to fall hard for the Doctor, a man who is not a man that happens to have two hearts and is close but not intimate. This, infamously, perhaps too much so, was exactly what went on in the early days of the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, specifically in Kate Orman's and Jonathan Blum's Vampire Science, but featured right the way through those books from mid '97 through '99 in the character of a fairly unpopular teenager companion named Sam Jones. For the best of the possible inspiration from those days for Martha, look at any of Orman and Blum's novels of that era for her best characterization.

6. Human Nature/The Family of Blood, based on a novel from Virgin publishing's Doctor Who New Adventures series made into a lovely Ebook available online at the BBC website's Classic Doctor Who pages, this is a very precise adaptation, here. However, the TV version's successes were quite different from the novel's. And even as Paul Cornell adapted it himself, it would appear that the powerful pacifist political commentary has fallen out of his TV story a bit, only to have a masterful set of new scarecrow monsters and a far more enjoyable set of baddies to watch in the menacing "family of blood" than in the annoying family of the Aubertides. Also, Paul's got a lot less room to maneuver here. The novel was a lot more epic than there was time for in a TV two-parter. There was enough story there for a four-parter, let alone two or three. And, effective as this adaptation is with the menacing family and the fine performances of Tennant and Hynes, we really get an unfortunate opening episode here, where the two just don't have enough time to grow on each other. The 7th Doctor of the novel also had a very different sort of sacrifice to make here than the almost virginal 10th does in comparison.

7. Blink - although it doesn't really count for my list, exactly, so much as still demonstrate exactly why I'm making it. Coming immediately after #6, this is expanded on Steven Moffat's own 2006 short story "What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow." Go to the BBC website and read it. It's attached to the page for this episode. This isn't a "dark era" story at all. But it's still an adaptation. And it's all about Russell T. Davies being wise to the fact that the best ideas for this wild, impossible TV show have often come from fan writers doing what they do best for the sake of simply enjoying the mythology so much. And, despite how wise Russell is to that and a lot else about how to make great, impossible sci-fi, I really do think Steven Moffat will make a superior showrunner.

Top Ten Tennant by Joe Ford 8/5/09

Although there are still a few more specials to go before David Tennant bows out of the TARDIS, I feel compelled to write up my favourites of the majority of tenure so far. It surprised me when I looked up a thread on Outpost Gallifrey the other day discussing "your least favourite Doctor" and there were many people who voted for the tenth for a variety of reasons. I feel now that there are far too many Doctors to pick any one favourite (every time I think I'm settled on one I remember something fabulous about one of the others). I do think that Tennant has given some of the best performances of an actor in the role. His overall portrayal is strong and full of conviction, but sometimes too much so. So I'm raising a glass here to Doctor number Ten before he bows out and a quick reminder of how good some of his stories were...

10) Tooth and Claw

I can still remember watching this and buzzing with excitement throughout. Once it had gotten dark I watched it again with the lights off. Whilst it is a little conveniently plotted, this is still a gripping and stylishly shot horror which exploits the dynamism of the historical genre. The warewolf transformation is an excellent example of how far we have come since The Greatest Show in the Galaxy; it is gloriously lit and surprisingly graphic. I know a lot of people want to strangle Rose Tyler at this point for her smugness but she makes an effective action heroine, stirring up the gentry and protecting the maids. I love the colours of this episode, the shocking reds of the monks, the harsh blue moon hitting the warewolf, the stunning countryside.. you could not tell this was not shot in Scotland. The pace is furious and maintained and the threat feels very real. Pauline Collins' distinguished take on Queen Victoria is the icing on the cake.

Best moment: The Doctor and the wolf face to face, a wall separating them.

Tennant magic: I love the scene in the library, hair bedraggled, slipping on his glasses and arming himself with books. If I was unconvinced by his comedy routines in New Earth it was here where I thought "the Doctor has arrived".

9) Midnight

A real marmite episode that does seem to have gone down very well with fandom, although Simon hated it. Midnight is such a brave piece of work it deserves praise just for its audacity. One scene is half an hour long. That's the equivalent of an episode of classic Who and then some. It is another sterling example of that old adage that all you need is one set and some really good actors and you can create magic. The characterisation is some Russell T Davies' best and his dialogue sizzles. I can't remember ever feeling quite as uncomfortable watching an episode of Doctor Who and it's a feeling I enjoy when watching the TV. The direction draws attention to itself due to the limitations of the script and the cast deliver some really powerful work locked in a tin box. An invisible threat is always more terrifying than a visible one and Lesley Sharp delivers a marvellously alien performance. The moment she turns on the crew for the first time after the crash is truly terrifying. The reason this hits the lists is its portrayal of the tenth Doctor. After three years of confidently shouting people down and being a bit of a know-all, his ego takes one hell of a battering when he completely misreads the situation, almost resulting in his death. Have we ever seen the Doctor this helpless? Let's hope we never do again.

Best moment and best Tennant moment: When the Hostess agrees to the suggestion that they throw the Doctor overboard. Tennant's panicked performance perfectly captures the horror of the moment and the viewer realises that things are never going to be the same again for this bunch of people. Top stuff.

8) Army of Ghosts/Doomsday

Each year, the finales try to outdo each other but really, how can you top Daleks vs. Cybermen? It's a story of firsts and lasts. Whilst we are saying goodbye to all the Tylers (and Mickey), it is the introduction of Torchwood. Army of Ghosts is a superb buildup episode, revelations pile up (the ghosts, Torchwood, the Cybermen, the Daleks) and increase the excitement but it still moves at a nice pace with some lovely character moments (especially Jackie's moment with Rose in the TARDIS). Doomsday hits the ground running and never lets up. The Dalek and Cyberman bitch fight is everything I hoped for and the actions sequences as they take their fight onto the streets of London are truly spectacular. Whilst Rose has become generic in the second half of season two this story redeems her completely and serves to remind us what an impact she had on the show. The last ten minutes of Doomsday are unprecedented in Doctor Who; the departure of a companion has never been given such gravitas and emotional resonance. Rose crying her eyes out and smashing her fists on the wall that separates her and the Doctor is a vivid image and a stunning end to her travels with the Doctor. Packed with typically excellent RTD dialogue, top-notch characterisation and a glossy production, this is a series finale to be proud of.

Best moment: Rose taunting the Daleks with her tale of how she killed the Emperor. Look how far she has come.

Tennant magic: All of his scenes with Yvonne which crackle with tension, but especially the bit where he objects loudly to the next shift and then sits back and lets it happen. He terrifies her with just a look.

7) Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords

Okay, maybe I'm cheating by include three in one but this is my list so my rules apply. This is truly epic storytelling when taken as a whole, with such a wide variety of locations and set over a vast expanse of time. Concepts such as immortal Jack, the quest for Utopia, the Toclafane, the successful invasion of the Earth, New Gallifrey... this is complicated stuff but thanks to Russell T Davies' ability to turn his hand to any genre (we have a SF parable, a political thriller and a post-apocalyptic nightmare consecutively) and fill his scripts full of magical moments it is all very easy to digest. The Sound of Drums is my favourite, effortlessly entertaining and featuring some astonishing sequences (the peek at Gallifrey, Martha's family round up, the Toclafane descending on the Earth). Utopia has Derek Jacobi's season-stealing turn as the Professor (and a tantalising glimpse at a more menacing Master) and its breathlessly exciting finale. Last of the Time Lords puts Martha centre stage, something I much admire and Freema Agyeman proves quite adept at stepping into the Doctor's shoes. The Master deserved a wham-bam return to the show and John Simm's delightfully energetic, silly, intimidating and powerful turn as the rogue Time Lord more than lives up to his predecessors. A mention must be made for the production values, which are of a movie quality and rarely topped. Few television shows look this good.

Best moment: Too many to mention but the scariest ever"I am the Master" in Utopia must take the crown.

Tennant Magic: Look at the manic rage in Tennant's face when the Doctor turns on Martha in Utopia and screams "What did he say?" That, or his flirtatious conversation with Jack through the door. Or his pleading with the Master to regenerate. Oh, too many to mention.

6) The Fires of Pompeii

Gorgeous to look at, with a winding central dilemma and too many good lines to mention. I have recently written a fan letter to this episode on the Ratings Guide and everything I felt then still stands. This is top-notch Doctor Who on every level; the writing is crisp and can be both hilarious ("There's lovely") and terrifying ("The sky is burning!"). The director exploits the scripts action and its character moments, the musical score is atmospheric and the performances shine. The story grips from the teaser onwards, the second we know that mountain is due to erupt you have to see the episode through. Filming in Italy gives this episode a strong visual identity and the special FX (the Pyrovilles are very convincing) rock. Despite all these strengths, it is one central performance that wins me over with this episode, it is the time when Catherine Tate convinced me she would be the best companion for the tenth Doctor. Her confrontation with him in the console room at the climax is a classic Doctor Who moment, as is the moment she joins hands with him and helps him make one of his hardest ever decisions. A story that demands repeated viewings, Fires of Pompeii stands proud as one of Doctor Who's all-time historical classics.

Best moment and Tennant Magic: "Sometimes I do need someone." "Yeah."

5) The Girl in the Fireplace

Look at the versatility of stories on this list already. Another bold step here, a Doctor Who romance for the ladies and who better than Steven Moffat to pull it off. The central relationship between the Doctor and Renette gives this episode a curiously intimate feel, but not alienating. The plotting is intricate and enjoyable, the mystery of why the clockwork soldiers are after Madame de Pompadour is only revealed at the last second. It is another look at how lonely a character the Doctor can be, even when he is surrounded by people he loves. As a historical, it is blessed with some of the most divine sets and costumes and an emotive musical score. There is a lightness of touch with the direction that really sets this episode apart from others; the episode is not concerned with universal threats, merely the life of a woman the Doctor has grown to love. This atypical, lyrical and lush piece has gone down as one of the best examples of new Doctor Who and was popular with fans and non fans alike. Simply beautiful.

Best moment: The Doctor charging through the mirror on horseback. How wonderful.

Tennant Magic: He had lots to explore in this but my favourite scene comes at the end. This was before we saw the Doctor heartbroken and alone at the end of every season; Tennant looks genuinely heartbroken and alone.

4) The Impossible Planet

I'm not the greatest fan of its conclusion but there is no denying that The Impossible Planet is a sterling example of what the new series can offer. One of my favourite Doctor Who scenes ever comes when Toby, taken over by the devil, stands outside in the airless vacuum grinning and drags Scooti to her death. Everything about this episode feels real. The filthy, brutal setting is captured in all its glory by newcomer James Strong and there is a palpable sense that the ground beneath might either collapse or be sucked into the black hole. Trapping the Doctor and Rose here is a terrific way to get the audience involved, and Tennant and Piper develop a fabulous chemistry with the stellar guest cast. Everything builds to a gripping climax and one of the best cliffhangers ever.

Best moment: "Don't look. Don't look at me. If you look at me you will die..."

Tennant Magic: His awkward conversation with Rose about settling down. The sheer horror of having to get a mortgage and obtain money.

3) The Stolen Earth/Journey's End

Russell T Davies goes bananas writing a love letter how own era. In doing so, he writes the biggest, fastest, nuttiest Doctor Who story of all time, with many stupendous scenes that make you want to break down and cry at how much you love this show. Davros returns and he is creepier than ever. The Dalek Empire has never seems scarier. The threat has never been this apocalyptic. All of the Doctor's latest companions get a chance to prove how resourceful they are. All of the spinoffs are bound together with their parent show effortlessly. It is an incredible piece of work, balancing kisses to the past with incredible action, an examination of the Doctor with the tear jerking farewell of Donna. On first viewing, The Stolen Earth was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. Period. Journey's End felt like a letdown but with subsequent re-viewings I have come enjoy its wacky concepts and its attempts to make this as epic as it can possibly be. Every character gets a moment to shine, even the minor ones. And Donna knocks Rose of the top spot by having the most unfair departure of any companion. Terrifyingly huge and insane, this climax to three seasons of adventures is brilliantly addictive and rewarding television.

Best moment: Oh geez, so much to choose from. Probably Davros opening up his tunic.

Tennant Magic: I just love his turn as the second tenth Doctor. Especially the scenes in the TARDIS with Donna.

2) Human Nature/The Family of Blood

It was so hard to choose between this and number one but in the end I went for the story that affected me more on first viewing. This and number one are both perfect examples of how good Doctor Who can be in its new format if it really tries. Paul Cornell's scripts are so powerful and moving I was grabbing at tissues before the end. It is a story that allows both the Doctor and Martha grow so much and gives David Tennant a chance to truly stretch his wings and show his audience what he is capable of. It is a very adult show, a historical with a fine eye for detail and the bravery to tackle some weighty themes. The love story between the Doctor and Joan is very sensitively handled and believable and Jessica Hynes gives possibly the strongest guest performance in the new series. The Family of Blood are a chilling new monster race and Harry Lloyd gives a fulsome performance as Son of Mine, a terrific Doctor Who villain. I love how the story is not afraid to examine the human condition, to look at warfare and cowardess and to portray the very real horror of sending young men to fight. It is a benchmark Doctor Who story for its experimental characterisation and its novelistic roots.

Best moment: It has one of the best cliffhangers ever.

Tennant Magic: "Aren't I a good man?" Tennant gives one of his best performances here, and one of the best performances of any Doctor. His portrayal of John Smith is heartbreaking and the scene where he slips between the two characters is mesmerising.

1) The Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

Complex storytelling and a strong emotional drive, this stands head and shoulders with the best of Doctor Who. Everything from the stunning setting to the terrifying monsters works so well it bodes extremely well for the future. Moffat has a second stab at a love story for the Doctor and again gives it a fascinating twist. River Song is an intriguing addition to the mythology of the show offering a wealth of untelevised adventures we can only dream of. The way the story develops making the Doctor's first encounter with this woman her last with him is quietly devastating and ends the story on a real emotional high. The Silence in the Library is a dark and menacing scene setter, taking its time to build up the tension and explore the environment. It ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. Forest of the Dead is an amazing piece of work, emotionally charged, extremely chilling and challenging television. The fact that this went out at 7.00pm as a family show is astonishing; it is simply one of the most innovative pieces of work I have seen in years. David Tennant gets to explore a myriad of emotions but as usual with season it is Catherine Tate who makes the difference. Her experiences in the virtual world are a whole world of character development and she leaves the story as bruised as the Doctor. The story ends on a terrific note, with lots of questions about the future.

Best moment: Donna's world being torn to pieces.

Tennant Magic: Just look at his face when the Doctor offers Donna the chance to look at her future. Another powerhouse performance that lets Tennant explode like a firework but also enjoy some intimate, understated moments.

My Ten Favourite Musical Scores by Joe Briggs-Ritchie 26/6/09

As a musician, the scores for Doctor Who stories are an essential part of the viewing experience for me. Although many of them are merely functional, some of them stand out as excellently composed TV soundtracks. Here, in no particular order, are my favourite ones.

City of Death: Dudley Simpson's best score by a country mile. It sounds far classier than anything else in Season 17 and it fits the Paris location perfectly. The main theme that you hear as the Doctor and Romana are strolling through Paris is wonderful. These scenes just wouldn't be the same if it weren't for Dudley's music. Even though they go on quite long, I think they should have been even longer.

Death to the Daleks: Yes, that's right! The Saxophone of Doom! I don't care what anyone says about Carey Blyton's music, I like it! This score sounds unique and there isn't really anything like it in the rest of the Pertwee era. The theme that is used for the Exxilon city and chanting is very reminiscent of Aztec/Inca/Mayan style music and the constant variations on are very effective. And whatever you think of a saxophone quartet, it makes a change from wall-to-wall synthesizers.

The Ark in Space: Creepy. Very creepy. Doom laden. Menacing. 'Nuff said.

The Claws of Axos: Another score that sometimes gets a rough ride and I really can't see why. The music is fairly wall-to-wall in this one. All the music for Season 8 was realised on the EMS Synthi-100, a state-of-the-art synthesiser at the time. The downside of this is that the music for all five stories sounds fairly interchangeable, but this score stands out for me. As with The Ark in Space, Dudley Simpson provides a real sense of menace. Just listen to the music in that opening scene as Axos journeys across the cosmos towards Earth. It completely establishes the tone of the entire story. Oh and there's also Pigbin Josh's eminently hummable "sea shanty" type theme.

Terror of the Zygons: Geoffrey Burgon provides a completely different style of score to Dudley Simpson. It's eerie, beautiful and sinister. It works especially well when Angus is telling Sarah about Tulloch Moor.

Revenge of the Cybermen: Another Carey Blyton score and another one, for reasons that I can only guess at, that receives a regular bashing. That slow, heavy Cyberman theme as the silver giants march unstoppably through Voga's caverns is extremely effective as is the atmospheric music used on Nerva and the scenes of the approaching Cybership. All in all, a great mix of acoustic instrumentation and synth.

State of Decay: Paddy Kingsland was possibly the best Doctor Who composer after Dudley Simpson. His score for this story is a beautiful, menacing work of Radiophonic synth. Superbly atmospheric.

Logopolis: This story wouldn't be half as heart-rending as it is without Paddy Kingsland's music. It's just as atmospheric as anything else in Season 18 but much more haunting. Particularly effective is the scene where the entropy field destroys Traken right before Nyssa's eyes. Magnificently played by Sarah Sutton and magnificently scored by Kingsland.

Castrovalva: Kingsland does it again! Nowhere near as intense or profound as Logopolis, this is just absolutely beautiful on the ear. I love the theme as Nyssa and Tegan push the Zero Cabinet through the scenic Castrovalvan countryside.

The Curse of Fenric: All hail Mark Ayres! Keff McCulloch's dire drivel pales in comparison to this. I'm not sure what kind of synths Mark Ayres was using, but the music takes on a grand, almost orchestral quality. Nice militaristic rhythm at times which fits the story perfectly.

Top Ten DVDs 2|entertain should release next by John Wood 24/10/09

It's over five years since Rob Matthews posted his Top Ten DVDs he'd like to see, and he's not done too bad: 7/10 to date. My list is slightly different: a year's worth of releases I'd buy which nevertheless leaves me with some more favourites to look forward to.

1. Kinda/Snakedance (box set)
   It seems as if almost everyone admires one or other of these, so it makes good commercial sense to release them as a pair (unlike Time-Flight/Arc of Infinity, where misery doubled keeps it at the bottom of my buying list). I've never seen either of them, so I want both anyway. Next year should definitely include Frontios, though.
2. The Curse of Peladon/The Monster of Peladon (box set)
   Same reasoning, except that most people agree on which is the classic and which is the stinker. I recently heard Bride of Peladon for the first time, and it made me want to see Alpha Centauri in the flesh again. Of course, they also feature another long-absent alien race...
3. The Ice Warriors (special edition)
   Can I possibly have seen this? I was three when it was first broadcast, so it seems unlikely; but I was scared out of watching Troughton-era Who by a cliffhanger involving foam pouring into a room, which (from reading synopses and watching my original suspect, Seeds of Death) sounds like it must have been Fury From The Deep. And I definitely remember the Yeti. Anyway, an Invasion-style reconstruction of the missing episodes would make this a great release. In later years, you can do The Reign of Terror and The Tenth Planet, but I realise you've got to give the Cosgrove-Hall chaps a bit of time to do these things right.
4. The Ambassadors of Death (standard edition)
   I really like season 7 (the first I watched after my terror-induced break), and you've got all these different colour-restoring techniques now. Let's finish the set. You can do Invasion of the Dinosaurs next year or the year after.
5. Terror of the Zygons (standard edition)
   One of the stories that really stuck in my mind as a child, and a popular choice in the recent DWM poll. No reconstructive work required, so it should be the easiest one on my list so far. Next year could include Seeds of Doom as the Tom Baker high spot.
6. The Greatest Show In The Galaxy (special edition)
   The only unreleased McCoy story I really want to see. Substitute another one if you think this year is too rich in the good stuff, but if you do that make it a standard edition and bump up Terror of the Zygons to special edition.
7. Planet of the Spiders (special edition)
   Since I've already postponed The Tenth Planet, let's have the one remaining regeneration story. Hang on, I forgot Time and the Rani; the one remaining real regeneration story. This one's a good'un anyway, if memory serves.
8. The Chase (special edition)
   You've got to have a Dalek story, and after the Pertwee overload above I thought I'd better shift to the only other option. Do Day of the Daleks next year, though.
9. The Gunfighters (standard edition)
   On the whole I like wacky, experimental stories, and I like Steven. And historicals. So I stand a good chance of liking this, unlike some other people.
10. Revenge of the Cybermen (standard edition)
    Just to finish up season 12. You can substitute Meglos to complete season 18 instead, if you want.

Update: After writing this but before submitting it, I read the announcement that the Peladon boxed set is coming out in January. Yesss! It also said that 2010's other Pertwee release would be The Time Monster. Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

Fifty Things That Show You're Obsessed by Tom Marshall 15/3/10

1. You can't eat jacket potatoes without mentioning Sontarans at least once.

2. You daren't watch your dusty videos of Jon Pertwee episodes just in case when you enthuse about the 'Golden Age' your memory is cheating you.

3. You interrupt yourself regularly with a cool, casual 'Well...'

4. After The Shakespeare Code, you took a sudden and unhealthy interest in Shakespeare and decided to write your English Literature thesis on the real mystery behind Love's Labour's Won.

5. You fast forward the bit in Timelash where the Sixth Doctor contradicts Terror of the Zygons by saying that the Borad is the Loch Ness Monster, because it mucks up continuity.

6. You give Planet of the Ood a ten out of ten review because it mentions the Sense-Sphere.

7. Your friends know better than to watch Alien with you, because all the time you will be blathering on about how Ridley Scott nicked the idea off The Ark in Space.

8. You own at least one copy of every single Doctor Who story available, and many of them in novelisation, audiobook, and restoration format as well.

9. In the 70s, you thought it was the height of fashion to wear a long scarf and a floppy hat. These days, you're more comfortable in a brown pinstripe suit and ankle-length tan coat..

10. In numerous situations, you come up with quips such as 'There's always something to look at if you open your eyes' and your friends wonder where your new-found intelligence has sprung from.

11. In a BBC survey entitled 'Best Confectionery' you staunchly vote for jelly babies even though you secretly can't stand them.

12. You ring up Geneva on the 23rd of November every year to check the accuracy of your watch, so that when you start watching Episode One of An Unearthly Child, which you do at this time every year, it can be bang on at 5.25pm: the anniversary, to the minute.

13. Unlike everyone else, you count George Lazenby as one of the James Bonds, because if you didn't you couldn't count Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and that would muck up continuity.

14. You only got into reading because of the New Adventures books.

15. When a Doctor Who-related question comes up in a pub quiz, your friends hand it over to you without a word.

16. You've seen almost everything each of the eleven Doctors has been in, just to see if outside of the show they retain their Doctorishness.

17. Your friends often cite you as 'oh, he'd be brilliant as the next Doctor' to which you respond with a smug 'A-thank you' (a la Planet of the Dead).

18. You practise your Tenth-Doctor-cheeky-wink in the mirror.

19. You remember the exact date of the first time you ever went bowling because it was the same night that The Curse of Fenric Part Two was on, and you had to rush back in case you missed it.

20. You correct 'if only that was possible' whenever you hear it, with a self-satisfied 'Conditional Clause' tacked on to the end of your correction for good measure.

21. You can't see a gasmask without blurting out 'Are you my mummy?'

22. When people make jokes about the incident 65 millions of years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, you tell them off, saying it's disrespectful to the memory of Adric.

23. When showing friends Death to the Daleks, you time your phone to ring as it approaches the Part Three cliffhanger, so that when it arrives and they ask 'Well, what's so important about a floor?' you say, 'Oh, you missed the Doc's explanation earlier. Pity.'

24. You voted for David Tennant in the NTA awards several times, to be sure he would win in the 'Best Actor' category.

25. Whenever you see Mars in the sky, you shudder.

26. You walk around the house humming the Doctor Who theme music, with a different era for each week: Sunday the 60s theme, Monday the 70s theme, etc.

27. You regularly shine your sonic pen and your sonic screwdriver toy together and make a face as if the noise produced was unbearable.

28. Everyone is astonished when you are able to tell them anything they want to know about the Aztecs. Or Northumbria in 1066. Or Culloden in 1746. Or Renaissance Italy.

29. You rank your friends by how into Doctor Who they are.

30. You can tell someone's age by which Doctor they were a fan of.

31. You only know important dates because you can remember which episode was on at the time.

32. You order a banana split in a restaurant, proudly proclaiming 'bananas are good' to a bemused waiter..

33. Without looking, you can list every Doctor Who story in order. From the start. Right up until The End of Time. Including mini-episodes, the Peter Cushing films and The Curse of Fatal Death. And it takes only 4 minutes.

34. You've written an essay on the real UNIT HQ.

35. You defend the effects in Blake's 7 and Red Dwarf, even though you can't stand them, because you secretly know if you condemn them, then your beloved show is even more in harm's way.

36. When you go clay pigeon shooting, you aim every shot as if the target were Mary Whitehouse, Michael Grade or Jonathan Powell.

37. You only enjoy Bob Dylan's music because he stated in The Complete Seventh Doctor that he was a fan of the show.

38. You vote for Labour because David Tennant does.

39. You spend all Sunday watching last night's episode.

40. Every Saturday evening, every single electric device apart from the TV is turned off, so you won't be disturbed.

41. You turn your nose up at films like Transformers because they are the opposite of classic Who: style over substance, compared to Who and its... well, substance over style.

42. You cheer when Doctor Who is mentioned on a radio or TV programme.

43. You buy Mary Tamm's autobiography because it has unreleased colour stills from The Pirate Planet.

44. You are dedicated to causes such as global warming simply because it is a theme in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky.

45. You insist that you have been watching since the very first moments of the show even if you were only a few weeks old in November 1963.

46. You write reviews and episodes of your own, but no one ever reads them apart from you.

47. You will never watch Star Trek, and if you meet a Trekkie you shout in their face 'sixty-six! Sixty-six!'

48. Everyone who knows you is aware that after a new Doctor's debut you will tell them 'not as good as Peter Davison was'.

49. You maintain that Dalek and Cybermen are words in the English language, but so often that nobody wants to play Scrabble with you anymore.

50. You know you're obsessed, but since Doctor Who is the greatest thing on Earth, who cares?

Moments where each of the actors playing the Doctor is the Doctor by Tom Marshall 1/4/10

Sorry for the slightly ambiguous title, but it was as concise a one as I could come up with. To cut a long story short, the title refers to those bits - and there is at least one per Doctor; some can boast several - when you truly, truly believe that the actor who is playing the Doctor is not just an actor, but an ancient, world-weary, heroic Time Lord who walks eternity.

01. The First Doctor

Well, he started it all really, didn't he? Somehow there's a marvellous shot of him wearing glasses and holding test tubes - it could be The Rescue - and he looks very Doctorish in that shot. But the ultimate 'whoa, this guy actually is an alien' one is the cliffhanger to Part Three of The War Machines, every time. The Doctor cloaked and hatted, stepping forward, a monumental stare-down with the creature itself. It's funny, that cliffhanger, cos it's more of a cliffhanger for the bad guy than for the Doctor! How is the War Machine going to escape this ancient, formidable power?

02. The Second Doctor

He's got a fair few: one of my favourites is that beautiful quiet moment in The Tomb of the Cybermen, where he talks about remembering his family. It's so wonderful because it is simultaneously domestic and distant. But the number one spot must go to that confrontation with the Dalek in Part Two of The Evil of the Daleks. The bit where the Dalek says its first line and Troughton turns round with an absolutely magical look on his face. Weary, I-should-have-realised, looking every one of his 650 years. Stunning stuff.

03. The Third Doctor

Regrettably, for the most part Pertwee played the Doctor as an action-hero/eccentric scientist who could well have been a human, but when he is slightly alien, he does it well. I'm thinking mainly of the "daisiest daisy" speech in The Time Monster. His last words to Jo about all of time and space he can show to her is another winner too.

04. The Fourth Doctor

Well, it's impossible really? Tom Baker is so eccentric he practically is the Doctor and therefore an alien himself. The two have become one. I suppose if I really had to go for the best moments where he truly convinces, the "Homo sapiens" speech in The Ark in Space is top-notch, delivered with Shakespearean eloquence, and "Do I have the right?" also gets top marks, as do any lines which he delivers in an age-old, sonorous voice. I'm thinking mainly of the speeches in State of Decay and the brilliant opening text of The Deadly Assassin.

05. The Fifth Doctor

At times he is perhaps a little too human in some respects, a bit like Pertwee, but there are some moments where one cannot fail to be impressed. I would have to plump for his heroic striding across Androzani Minor, carrying Peri and all the while being poisoned himself, in The Caves of Androzani. It might just be my favourite scene in the entire show because it defines the Doctor's compassion so well. No ordinary human would ever do so much for someone they'd just met and so for me this scene highlights the Doctor as an alien being.

06. The Sixth Doctor

Colin Baker might just win out on these stakes because his is surely the most alien, inaccessible Doctor yet. In a good way, of course. My three moments would have to include him striding across snowy Necros, exuding cool and authority, in a blue cape, in Revelation of the Daleks; that bit in The Twin Dilemma where he lies on the lab bench in his garish suit, a blank expression on his face and one palm raised, it's just so alien; and finally the moment in Vengeance on Varos where he raises his hand to point to the screen, helped by the eerie flashing of violet and green. He looks truly age-old in that one shot. Marvellous.

07. The Seventh Doctor

Oooh, there's a fair few for Sylv McCoy as well. His madcap comedy is alien, but in a circus kind of way and I prefer his deeper side. The "look me in my eye... end my life" scene from The Happiness Patrol is right up there in terms of unnerving presence; and who could possibly forget the sheer magic of the Seventh Doctor walking out of the tent exploding in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy?

08. The Eighth Doctor

"These shoes... they fit perfectly!" Yes, they do, they fit no one else better. In this scene McGann is the Doctor. Nuff said.

09. The Ninth Doctor

He might look and sound like the everyman on a Mancunian street, but the Ninth Doctor is at once both less and more alien than the others. His top I-really-am-900-years-old moment is definitely in The Parting of the Ways, where he turns round and sends the TARDIS back with a flick of the sonic screwdriver. Look at his eyes. He genuinely seems older than any geriatric you'd care to mention. It is a magical shot: you can see the other eight Doctors staring right back at you.

10. The Tenth Doctor

There's a fair few, because RTD was good at making these alien moments: I'd plump for the beautiful description of Gallifrey at the end of Gridlock, as well as almost anything from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, where Tennant plays the most Doctorish Doctor we've ever seen; but specifically the end bit where he's determined to save River Song. Just perfect.

11. The Eleventh Doctor

Obviously nothing has been seen of Matt Smith in the role, but for now I can say his most alien moment based on the trailers comes with the sheer magic of the line "The universe is vast and complicated, and sometimes impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. All of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will, where d'you wanna start?" Classic...

Top Ten Doctors by Howard Martin 5/4/10

With 10 Doctors come and gone now seems a good time to, amongst other things, rank the Doctors:

1. Tom Baker 10/10 - There were times when he didn't take the part very seriously, but when he was on top of his game he was the best. Unlike some of his successors, his eccentricity never seemed labored and he possessed erudition and dignity, qualities that were sorely lacking in David Tennant's Doctor.
2. Jon Pertwee 9.75/10 - Though he never reached Tom Baker's heights, he never sank to his lows either. In fact, he managed the remarkable feat of never looking silly as the Doctor; this despite the frilly shirts and opera capes, the weird hairdo during the last half of his era and the fact that he was routinely burdened with the dumbest lines any Doctor ever had to say.
3. Peter Davison 9/10 - Not the best Doctor, but easily the most underrated. A lot more resourceful and charismatic than he's given credit for.
4. William Hartnell 8/10 - Lost a lot of his appeal when he became nice and grandfatherly on a regular basis, but due to an extraordinary headstart still merits a high ranking.
5. Christopher Eccleston 8/10 - The best actor to play the Doctor. With better scripts he would probably have been the best Doctor.
6. Paul McGann 8/10 - Energetic and heroic, he made a good enough impression on me in his one on-screen appearance to make me forgive the "half-human" crap. His performance in the one Big Finish adventure I've heard him in annoyed me near to the point of insanity, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he would have been just as good in a TV series as he was in the movie.
7. Colin Baker 7/10 - Was dogged from day one by a tendency to overact and became a little too buffoonish during the Trial of a Time Lord season, but his performance in Vengeance on Varos is still one of the finest any actor ever gave as the Doctor and the rest of Season 22 features many good moments.
8. Patrick Troughton 6/10 - I suspect that if we held a seance and told Troughton's ghost just how impressed we were with his sinister and mysterious take on the Doctor he wouldn't have the slightest idea what we were talking about. A good actor, but spent too much time trying to be funny and loveable for the children in the audience.
9. Sylvester McCoy 6/10 - It's a testament to just how good he was whenever he managed to settle down and give a measured performance that he gets a 6/10 in this list, despite the fact that I only liked him for about 30% of his screen time.
10. David Tennant 1.5/10 - When will his legion of fans admit to themselves that he played every scene either as Kermit introducing a new act on the Muppet Show or like he'd just been squirted by the Despair Squid?

Ranking RTD's era by Jamie Beckwith 20/4/10

As is Who fans' wont to rank and file things, now that the RTD era has come to an end here's my overall ranking of those stories.

1: Turn Left
2: Blink
3: The Fires of Pompeii
4: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
5: Father's Day
6: Dalek
7: Utopia
8: Human Nature/The Family of Blood
9: School Reunion
10: The Christmas Invasion
11: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
12: The End of the World
13: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
14: The Waters of Mars
15: The Shakespeare Code
16: Gridlock
17: Smith and Jones
18: The Girl in the Fireplace
19: Midnight
20: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
21: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel
22: Rose
23: Planet of the Ood
24: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
25: The Unicorn and the Wasp
26: Partners in Crime
27: Silence in the Library/The Forest of the Dead
28: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky
29: The End of Time
30: The Unquiet Dead
31: Aliens of London/World War Three
32: Voyage of the Damned
33: The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords
34: Fear Her
35: Tooth and Claw
36: New Earth
37: Boom Town
38: The Runaway Bride
39: Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
40: The Idiot's Lantern
41: The Planet of the Dead
42: The Next Doctor
43: The Long Game
44: 42
45: Love & Monsters
46: The Doctor's Daughter
47: The Lazarus Experiment

Top 10 Should've Been Companions by Howard Martin 27/4/10

(I know this list has already appeared at least three times on this site, but I thought I'd add my two cents anyway.)

1. Condo, The Brain of Morbius - I know he wouldn't have lasted long; even if he weren't going to get booted off the TARDIS with Sarah when the Doctor goes back to Gallifrey, I doubt Phillip Hinchcliffe would have liked the dynamics of two noble savages aboard the TARDIS at the same time. But having the Doctor and Sarah accompanied for a few stories by this big, loyal galoot with a hook for a hand would have been fabulous entertainment. I managed to force myself to watch one episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures and if Condo had been in it I might have watched a few more.
2. Mags, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - The Mags Season would have made much more compelling TV than the Ace Season. If it's a choice between seeing an alien girl struggle with her inner werewolf and a human girl struggling with her self-esteem problems, I just don't see that there's any competition.
3. Richard Mace, The Visitation - I appear to be one of the very few fans who actually like Adric and Tegan, but if they'd been written out and replaced by Richard Mace I wouldn't be complaining. He'd be good for a few yuks when paired with the eminently law-abiding Nyssa and he could pick locks, fire a gun, and charm his way out of trouble.
4. Bigon, Four to Doomsday - It would be difficult for the fifth Doctor's critics to keep babbling about his alleged lack of authority if he were treated on a regular basis as an equal or even a superior by a two-thousand-year-old Greek philosopher. Plus, his being a robot probably means that he could break through thick walls and plug himself into databases and so forth.
5. Todd, Kinda - Could have been the fifth Doctor's Romana. Much as I admired Janet Fielding's acting, Todd would have been much better than Tegan as a companion in the long run.
6. Biroc, Warriors' Gate - Maybe with Romana staying in E-Space, he could have tagged along with the Doctor and Adric as a sort of exchange student. It would have been interesting to see how the fourth Doctor coped in his last two stories with a companion even odder than he was.
7. Vorg, Carnival of Monsters - Doctor Who's Harry Mudd. There have definitely been times during the Doctor's adventures when the services of a first-rate con man would have been invaluable. On the downside, Vorg's hucksterism would probably have landed the Doctor in the kinds of trouble that would make him long for the days when companions only needed to be rescued from monsters.
8. Captain Munro/Hawkins, Spearhead From Space/Doctor Who and the Silurians - Neither was particularly memorable, but for reasons I don't really understand and that probably are no fault of Richard Franklin's, I've just never liked Captain Yates very much. I'd probably give the edge to Hawkins because I can't imagine the UNIT personnel degenerating into a cute family with Paul Darrow around.
9. Tyssan, Destiny of the Daleks - I just liked the guy for some reason.
10. Laszlo, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks - Apart from the fact that it seems cruel for the Doctor to leave him on Earth now that he's a freak, I'd challenge even Russell T. Davies to make a half-man/half-pork character consistently boring. (That said, if anyone could do it, it'd be him.) Interesting for his snout, teeth and ears if for no other reasons.