The last of the individual Doctor heats - covering the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors - has been published in the latest DWM. Both of these Doctors arrived after the last big poll, so we have nothing significant to compare back to. (There will be differences between this and the season polls - but those are rarely reliable. People have a kneejerk reaction, one way or the other, but quickly change their minds after thinking about it later).
Top of the poll for the Peter Capaldi stories is the Series 10 finale - World Enough And Time / The Doctor Falls. The return of the Mondasian Cybermen, and the John Simm Master. Missy and the departures of Bill and Nardole. The actual "killing" of the Twelfth Doctor. (It was supposed to be Capaldi's swansong - until Moffat discovered that Chibnall was abandoning the prestigious Christmas Day slot and was far from ready to produce his first episode).
These episodes could have been called "Genesis of the Cybermen", or "The Two Masters".
In second place is Heaven Sent - the remarkable one-hander episode which sees the Doctor trapped in his own personal torture chamber, hunted by a monster from his childhood fears. It's a remarkable piece of television, with an amazing central performance.
In third place we have a more conventional monster of the week / base under siege set-up in Mummy on the Orient Express.
Just outside the top three were Flatline, and Oxygen.
At the other end of the poll we have, propping up the bottom, In the Forest of the Night in 35th position. A very unconventional story - fairy-tale like, it's the sort of thing you would either love or hate - and most people seem to have hated. It has some of the stupidest science ever seen in the series (trees wilfully growing overnight because they know that a solar flare is approaching - which they have the power to deflect. Then, once the threat is over, the plants and trees vanish as rapidly as they came). At least in the Hartnell / Troughton days they attempted to explain their dodgy science.
Talking of bad science, just above the bottom spot is Kill The Moon. I don't know what is worse about this - the terrible science, or the fact that it promised so much then went downhill so quickly. You know a story is bad when even the Doctor bales out halfway through.
Third from bottom is the dull and derivative Sleep No More. To do a found-footage story when they were already more than a decade out of fashion, and have it used in a story which made little sense, was an idiotic move. All of Mark Gatiss' Twelfth Doctor stories sit in the bottom third of the poll.
Just outside the bottom three are The Caretaker (31) and The Woman Who Lived (32).
A couple of points of interest: whilst Extremis managed a respectable 10th place, its other two episodes - supposedly part of the same overall story - managed only 22nd and 28th positions. (And yes, it was The Lie of the Land which was 28th).
The Husbands of River Song was the most popular Christmas Special, coming in at 9th place overall. The Return of Doctor Mysterio was least favourite special (26th).
In the same way that a recently seen anniversary special topped the DWM poll in 2014, so the BBC Centenary Special The Power of the Doctor tops the Thirteenth Doctor poll this year.
It was Jodie Whittaker's swansong (and Chris Chibnall's) and - as I mentioned in my review at the time - it would be remembered for three things in particular. They being: the old companions, the old Doctors, and the return of David Tennant as a new Doctor, who looks, sounds, and seemingly acts like the popular Tenth one.
Apart from the nostalgia factors, it has a few good points of its own - such as Sacha Dhawan's manic Master and his allying with both Cybermen and Daleks. At the same time it demonstrates a few of the Chibnall problems - like having the Doctor multiplied to resolve the different story strands - a straight steal of the cheat from Flux.
In second place is The Haunting of Villa Diodati. In its review I mentioned that I would like to have seen this as a stand-alone story, rather than as part of a three-part finale. It is certainly strong enough to stand by itself.
In third we have Fugitive of the Judoon. I suspect that this is down to just two things - the return of Captain Jack, and the surprise reveal of a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor. It's really a rather dull story when you take these out.
Just outside the top three are the Series 11 historicals - Rosa and Demons of the Punjab. perfectly fine stories - apart from the fact that the Doctor needn't have bothered turning up for either. They are not good Doctor Who stories.
To the bottom now, and we have Orphan 55 quite rightly bringing up the rear. A dreadful story in every way possible - be it preachy messaging, a stupid squirrel alien, undercooked characters, and that annoying "Benni!" woman. Cheap and unoriginal. The Dregs were good, design-wise, so totally wasted here.
Just above sits The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. To call it this then have everyone turn up after the battle has already ended, and have this a series finale, were just two of the missteps here. Ripping off The Pirate Planet, bringing back an alien no-one actually wanted to see again, and having a religious pair thousands of years old renounce their entire faith system just because the Doctor tells them to, were others.
Third from last is Legend of the Sea Devils. On paper this should have been great. You ignore continuity at your peril, and whoever edited this down to 45 minutes should have been shot. (And if you tell me this was always supposed to be this length, then it's an even worse story than I thought).
Just missing the bottom three was a story I really loathe - The Tsuranga Conundrum.
A couple of points of note here: Flux ended up sitting squarely in the middle of the poll in 12th place. I suspect that had it not been for the Angel episode it wouldn't have fared so well.
Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children came in at No.16. I would say that the first half was dragged down by the second - or the second only did so well because of the first.
Top New Year / Dalek Special was Eve of the Daleks (7th), with Resolution 9th and Revolution 14th. The top New Year story was the only one not to have Daleks - Spyfall - which managed 6th place.
The final stage of the polling process is now to pick your favourite 5 stories from the top three for each Doctor (plus the 1996 Movie) - so a choice of 37 stories overall.
This has flagged up the stupidity of the polling format this time - designed so that certain individuals would not be offended. You can select The Two Doctors and the aforementioned McGann nonsense, but you can't select The Ark in Space, The Talons of Weng-Chiang or Terror of the Zygons, or the first Dalek story or Evil of the Daleks.
The Top Five stories, to be published later this year, will be nothing of the kind.
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