Saturday 24 June 2023

DWM 60th Anniversary Poll (4)


The latest issue of DWM includes the poll results for the Seventh to Ninth Doctors. 
Technically, it's just the Seventh and Ninth, because the odd way they've chosen to run the voting this time means that "The Movie" is automatically the top Eighth Doctor story purely because it's the only Eighth Doctor story.
Once again, we have predictable results for the two Doctors featured, and once again - due to their relatively limited output - there is very little change over time.
The top Sylvester McCoy story is Remembrance of the Daleks, whilst the other two making up his top three hail from his final season - The Curse of Fenric (2nd) and Survival (3rd).
The top two stories have always held their positions since 1998, whilst Survival has moved up just the one place over that period.
The other two Season 26 stories are in the top half, with Ghost Light 4th and Battlefield 6th. The latter has always held that position, but Ghost Light once held 3rd place, so has dropped a little over time.

There's a definite dislike for McCoy's first season - with all four stories in the bottom five.
In 10th place is Paradise Towers, 11th is Delta and the Bannermen, and bringing up the rear - as it always has done since 1998 - is Time and the Rani. It was bottom of its season poll in 1987 as well.
The lowest placed Season 25 story is Silver Nemesis (no surprises there) which is in 9th place. It has slowly dropped from 7th, to 8th, to 9th.
In all, 8 of the 12 McCoy stories have held their same position over the last 25 years.


For the Eccleston stories, we can't compare over the same time period as we can with his predecessors. The poll goes back to 2005 for his series, so presumably refers to the magazine's season poll.
Top of the tree is The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, which has been his top ranked from the outset. (8 of the 10 Eccleston stories have never changed position).
In 2nd place we have the series finale, Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways, and in third place we have Dalek.
Bottom of the heap - where it has always lain - is The Long Game.
8th and 9th places are the only ones which have changed over time. The more low key Boom Town now leads over its big two-part cousin Aliens of London / World War Three.

Voting is now open for the remaining two Doctors on the DWM website, having now closed for the Tennant and Smith stories. Their results will be out next issue. FYI, Flux is counted as a single story, as the production team claimed it to be. A breakdown of individual episode scores for it would have been interesting.
Once this initial batch of polling ends, and individual Doctors have had their stories ranked, the next stage will be to have the top three for each compete against each other.

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