"Predictable as ever, Doctor..."
As soon as I heard that DWM was going to embark on a new poll for the diamond anniversary, I made a few predictions. Two of these involved the best and worst of the Fifth and Sixth Doctors - and my predictions have proven to be correct.
I had assumed that the top Davison would be The Caves of Androzani, and the top Baker, C would be Revelation of the Daleks.
Bottom of the pile for each would be Time-Flight, and The Twin Dilemma.
What I hadn't predicted was just how little movement there would be since the last poll in 2014 - or even over the last four polls going back to 1998. That's a quarter of a century between earliest and most recent polls.
In second and third places for Davison we have (2nd) Earthshock then (3rd) The Five Doctors. I think Earthshock was the only Davison story that might have knocked Caves off its perch. As for The Five Doctors: is it really a Fifth Doctor story at all, or does it just happen to fall during his tenure? Did people vote for it due to Troughton or Pertwee as much as for anything else?
Joining Time-Flight at the opposite end of the poll, the lowest rated are (18th) The King's Demons and (19th) Warriors of the Deep.
Of the twenty Fifth Doctor stories, only six have changed position since the 2014 poll, and then only by + / - one place. The only significant moves, over a longer period of time, are Snakedance (up from 13th in 1998 to 9th this time out), and Black Orchid (down from 10th in 1998 to 13th in 2023).
If there has been little movement with the Davison stories, the Colin Baker ones haven't budged an inch since 2014. All 8 stories are placed exactly where they were in the 50th Anniversary poll.
In second place is Vengeance on Varos, and in third is The Two Doctors.
Even when we go back and compare 1998 to 2023, there hasn't been much movement - the odd story swapping with its neighbour only. 1st, 4th, 7th and 8th placed stories have always held those spots over the 25 years.
How significant is it, I wonder, that the top two stories see very little input from the Doctor...? It's patently obvious that he's an afterthought in Revelation, with Saward far more interested in Davros and his own characters, and the Doctor is stuck moping in the TARDIS for half of Varos. They are both very good Doctor Who stories - just not very good Colin Baker / Sixth Doctor stories.
The bottom pair just above The Twin Dilemma are (6th) Attack of the Cybermen, and (7th) Timelash. No surprises with second to bottom, then. It should be noted that Trial of a Time Lord was counted as a single story (as titled on screen and in its publicity), but it would have been interesting to have seen how the four component parts fared on their own.
Interestingly, the more continuity-heavy stories - Attack of the Cybermen, Warriors of the Deep, and Arc of Infinity have all fared badly. As far as writers go, Robert Holmes, Eric Saward and Chris Bailey have fared best.
The next results to be released will cover McCoy to Eccleston. Not entirely sure what they are going to do with The Movie - both the best and the worst Paul McGann story. We'll only know when they finally get round to giving us the whole integrated poll, with the actual individual scores.
Voting is now open for the Tennant and Smith stories. Will Fear Her remain the worst Tennant?
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