Top 10 Seventies Stories

 

I ranked, as you may have guessed, my top ten stories from the Seventies. This wasn't a conscious attempt to wind up Talons Bros, but I am absolutely fine with that result because Talons of Weng Chieng is pish. 

Top 10 Sixties Stories

 

I wrote a 'Top 10 1960s Stories' article for Den of Geek. I'm pretty happy with it, the stories came to me quite quickly for the longlist and it felt quite straightforward to whittle them down. It was only after publication that I remembered these are the stories that have had the longest time to consensus to form around, being covered by every guide book and fan publication in detail (for example, Peter Haining's A Celebration). So this and the Top 10 Seventies article are probably going to be mildly controversial - in the sense that some people on the internet might disagree and possibly use exclamation marks - as a result of my going against these conventions. It's not a conscious thing on my part, it's just - and it's depressing how few people get this - my taste rather than some objective governing truth.

Top 10 Chibnall Era Stories

 

'Don't make me choose'

In which I choose, fresh from the broadcast of 'The Power of the Doctor', the top ten stories from Chris Chibnall's time as showrunner. 

There's a lot of obvious jokes here - 'You found 10?', 'This'll be a short article' etc. - but thing is I did find ten and it was actually so long Den of Geek had to edit it down. Finding a top ten was harder here than in any of the other articles in this series. For RTD, Moffat, the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties...I had a longlist that I whittled down. For this I had a longlist of eight stories, and then I got rid of one on rewatch. I considered including the Thirteenth Doctor Mr Men book and that lockdown video Jodie Whittaker recorded, but I was trying to be as positive as possible and felt including them would be against the format of the articles and overly harsh. 

Then I put 'Kerblam!' in because I felt like I should represent the cynical grimdark aspect of the era and frankly it's the only one of those stories that is actually interesting to rewatch. So to be honest that was probably harsher. 

Top 10 Moffat era stories

I asked to do Top 10s rather than Top 20s for these articles because the plan is to do six of them by the Sixtieth anniversary, so sixty stories listed in total. However I could easily have done a top 20 here.

Here's my top 10 stories from Steve Moffat's time as show runner. It was a lot of fun to write.

Top 10 RTD Era Stories

Den of Geek have asked me to write summaries of different eras or decades of Doctor Who with top tens for each one. So here's the one for the first run of Russell T. Davies.

I think I should probably give up hope that people will understand the whole 'subjective/objective' thing on these articles.

**** the Meep

SPOILERS FOR THE 60th ANNIVERSARY 

Based on set reports for a 60th anniversary episode, there's a character from Doctor Who Magazine's comics appearing on screen next year, so Den of Geek asked me to come up with similarly deep spin-off fiction cuts who could make an appearance on telly.

Define 'Greatest'

I wrote this for Den of Geek, in which I prove 100% conclusively that Neil Patrick Harris is playing Kroll.

A Jubilee Worth Celebrating

 

"Powerful explosions hit Ukrainian capital, Kyiv"

I wrote about Rob Shearman's Big Finish audioplay Jubilee for Den of Geek.

I've been meaning to write about this story for a few years, and it became topical enough to pitch successfully due to the Queen's Platinum Jubilee (celebrated above by the curious presence of Daleks). As I mention in the article, it was another weird combination of images and context that inspired me to listen back to the story a few years ago:

We still have the 'Future Time Lord' onesie, mostly because I enjoy the ramifications for canon.

The Doctor Fails

I wrote an article looking at what happens when the Doctor fails for Den of Geek. The starting point was Moffat putting the Doctor into a heroic position and then undermining that (strange that other Doctors only get to do the heroic speeches at conventions), and it developed from there into a more detailed look at how to use failure dramatically in the show.

'We've delivered your fridge."

The Third Cyber War

 If you are so inclined you can read a bit of fanfic called 'The Third Cyber War' that I wrote for Cosmic Masque (issue 15).

SPOILERS:

I'd rewatched Nightmare in Silver and felt confused by the idea of the Cybermen being so mighty as to require the destruction of a whole galaxy, so I wanted to address that. Also I was wanting to see Jodie Whittaker get a scene where she just effortlessly won, just wandered brazenly into a room and upended the power dynamic as if she was ordering a coffee. Because I felt like that wasn't going to happen on TV any time soon I should just write it.

The [Insert number of actors willing and able to meet the filming schedule] Doctors

 I wrote an article about multi-Doctor stories and how, far from being standalone stories, they're just as subject to production context and actor availability as every other story. The Sixtieth Anniversary special - should it be a multi-Doctor story - will be no exception.

Fandom is Full of Terrible People and No Amount of Craft Activities Can Fix This

I wrote this for Den of Geek about the recent racist and sexist responses to the new Amazon Lord of the Rings series. The reason why I'm posting it here is because the draft I sent in had more Doctor Who stuff in it, and I wanted to share it because I think the article is relevant to all fandoms, especially ones where fans like to pretend everything is fine because someone posted a funny gif.

The cuts were made because the involved personal recollections in the first person, which is not part of Den of Geek's house style (take note if you're pitching anything there).

"Who knows if this new adaptation of Lord of the Rings is good? I’m intrigued by what I’ve seen so far but there’s no guarantee that I’ll enjoy it. Having a diverse cast and crew is good but it doesn’t automatically mean the resulting story will be (for example, I’m not a fan of the Chibnall era of Doctor Who). That’s how art works, whether it be sitcoms, comics or Jeff Bezos’ desire to bring prestige television to Amazon Prime with this new adaptation.

This last word is important: this is an adaptation of the written word into a visual medium made in the third decade of the twenty-first century. It is not going to match the books, in the same way as Peter Jackson’s films do not match the books. Adaptations are affected by the change in medium and the context creative decisions are made in. They do not alter the original text, often increasing its availability. Thing is, I understand being annoyed by an adaptation.

I remember being furious leaving the cinema after The Two Towers because I thought it had brought in Arwen too much, and complained to my friends about this on the way back to the bus station. I don’t think I updated my MSN Messenger profile to register my irritation though, which was the nearest thing to Twitter we had at the time.

I can look back on this now and realise that it was based on ignorance (of the Appendices, and of everything I mentioned above about adaptations), unexamined sexism and entitlement (if you look at fan forums during the making of the film you can see more examples of this). If it turns out I dislike this new series, I will probably write about why (on here if you’re lucky), express disappointment, find something else to watch, and maybe write some fanfic. Genuinely, I think writing about your concerns helps a lot: you might start off writing about how much you hate something, but you can’t sustain that forever. Eventually you start getting curious about why the things you hate (and love) ended up the way they did. In other words: it’s easy to say ‘this movie sucked’, but it’s more useful to know why it did.

I started writing for this website around eleven years ago when it was a UK-based site, and have seen fan reactions become more extreme in this time. They started off fairly aggressive too. I wrote something after the TV presenter Fern Britton had been on the BBC show Room 101 – where panellists suggest things they dislike to be entered into the titular room (inspired by 1984) – and she had suggested science-fiction should go in. Her arguments were weak and easily dismissed, but the response online was one of extreme aggression and mocking Britton’s weight. I wrote something naïve about how nice it would be if we could all just enjoy Doctor Who, rather than tweeting Steve Moffat saying he should kill himself and calling Sylvester McCoy a c***, this annoyed people.

The then editor of ‘Doctor Who Magazine’ tweeted me to mention the many great things in fandom (decoupage Bandrils, that sort of thing) and being overawed by this I meekly agreed. I should have said that a papier-mâché Erato doesn’t counteract the negative sides of fandom, and this form of toxic positivity amounts to a suspension of critical faculties and an unwillingness to process difficult truths. There’s a sense of identity being tied up in something make-believe, so a criticism of their favourite stories is a criticism of them. There's a great example of this in the comments of an article I wrote for Cultbox about The Talons of Weng-Chieng (cw/desperate attempts to be perceived as not racist), an episode that frequently gets described as racist because it is. Ignoring these increasingly destructive elements with a kind of toxic positivity amounts to a suspension of critical engagement and an unwillingness to process difficult truths."

'Doctor Who Magazine' later threw its own journalists under the bus when they described 'Talons' as racist but also good in other respects. It was fairly gentle and accurate criticism which instigated a discourse where the racism I mention in the article felt legitimised by the magazine. However, as I said, the article wasn't meant to be in first person and the Doctor Who examples distracted from the central focus of Tolkien.

13's Character Arc is more like a square bracket on its side

 
I wrote about the Thirteenth Doctor's character arc for Den of Geek, because it's now become apparent that she actually has one.

'Oh, another four pages of exposition.'

Every Doctor Who Comments Section

• I couldn’t disagree with this article more. The premise that I imagined it to have that isn’t mentioned anywhere is complete nonsense. More likely is [insert idea already covered in article]

↳ Couldn’t agree more, this really hits the nail on the head.

• I hope they bring back Paul McGann for a special

↳Animated Time War series please

    ↳As long as it’s not th same shitty animation as Fury from the Deep

        ↳Fury from the Derp

    ↳I note with some despondency that they are going to stop making the animations because of funding. The BBC should sell the rights to Netflix so they can afford to do more these.

        ↳The BBC should just let Netflix have the show.Quentin Tarantino as show runner. Make it a  serious drama.

        ↳ RTD will have Sony money to spend on it now so they will keep the animations as part of a                 Marvel style universe.

     ↳They can’t bring back McGann for the Time War, they should bring back John Hurt

        ↳ I don’t think even the Sony money will stretch that far

• I hate Russell T. Davies for making the show successful but not in a way I liked. Doctor Who is not a soap opera.

• I hate Chris Chibdull for making the show woke, really looking forward to this being over with Russell T. Davies

• Bring back David ~Tennant

↳ But as the Valeyard

    ↳ Ugh no David Tennant = gurning emo

• Of course the Morbius Doctors render this argument obselete

↳ Brains of Morbus a classic episode back when they knew how to make televisions

• Leery comment about Nicola Bryant, probably involving a phrase like ‘I say’, ‘’Phwoar’, or ‘Ahem - assets’.

• They should get gattiss as show runner

↳ I think it should be Nick Briggs

    ↳ I don’t know about that but they should def. adapt more Big Finish stories esp. the ones with seven     years worth of continuity that only make sense if you’ve watched Timeflight

• I really liked the Sensorites, hope they come back in an adventure on the Oodsphere

• It needs a rest - ‘ don’t you think it looks tired?’

    ↳ Doctor Who beaten to number 1 in One Show audience list of best BBC shows every by Only             Fools And Horses - how far the show has fallen

        ↳ Back in 2008 it would have been number 1, Chibnall must go

↳ RIP Doctor Who, 1963 to 2017 killed by pc fascists

    ↳ 1963 to 1996, you mean

        ↳ 1963 to 1965! You can't call an episode The Death Of Doctor Who, the character is called the             Doctor!"

    ↳ I haven’t watched since matt smith

• A post with incredible Divorced Dad energy, e.g. “Talons isn’t racist stfu”

Co-written by Mark Harrison.

Ranking Regeneration Stories

I got asked to write this for Den of Geek last year, and to be honest I don't remember writing it. Fortunately I still agree with Past Me, which doesn't always happen. 

Regeneration stories are ones I have quite combative opinions on, it transpires.

Preventing Catharsis

Most Doctor Who stories are nonsense, really. Even the agreed-upon classics have some moments of absolute bibble in them. 

However, the reason they’re still classics is that the stories overcome these issues through other means, because if you enjoy a story you’ll willingly overlook or accept its flaws. This also means if you dislike a story or its creative team you’ll find grievous faults in it that you’d let go if it happened in one of your favourites. These likes and dislikes can also build up momentum, so when you have (for example) three series of Doctor Who your gut instinct says is bad, when you find further flaws you're less inclined to let these pass. Or at least, that's what happens with me.

Am I basically saying ‘Good Doctor Who is about vibes’? Yes. Yes I am.

For example: In Genesis of the Daleks we have the giant clam scene, how easy it is to travel between the Thal and Kaled cities, Sarah’s radiation poisoning not being mentioned again, the fact that a BBC studio explosion is not going to take the Daleks a thousand years to clear, and of course the fact that the ‘Have I the Right?’ scene only works as a clip out of context. 

I don’t think Genesis is a bad story though - it’s a strong war story that’s impressively realised - but if my initial impression was less positive these are aspects I could seize on to bolster my opinion. 

Which brings me to Eve of the Daleks. 

Eve of the Daleks (2022)

It has numerous flaws. However, overall I’d say I enjoyed the episode in spite of them. To contrast this with The Vanquishers (where the more I thought about it the more the story fell apart) here I thought about it, but didn’t find the problems totally overwhelmed the positives.

However, I think there are enough positives and negatives here for it to go either way. I think there are a lot of interesting aspects to Eve of the Daleks, such as how Sarah and Nick had enough going on to suggest internality in the space of fifty minutes and we’ve only just got to that stage with Yaz and the Doctor after three years (and with two episodes left). Dan is still not a character, he’s just John Bishop in Doctor Who doing whatever the plot needs him to do. Casting comedians is clearly a good shout though because Aisling Bea is great, really lifting her character beyond contrivances and masking over the implausibility of her situation.  

With a small cast and location, the story is able to generate some pathos and shock with the initial deaths and builds up a lot of tension about exactly how everyone will get out alive (even though, again, the fact that there’s a fortunately open door and the unseen Jeff left exactly what was needed for them to escape is clearly hugely contrived). In the bewildering swirl of the final few time loops (well, time loops-ish, not sure how they kept their memories beyond ‘the plot needed them to’) the Doctor emerges as a figure of authority because she gives a big speech (that was almost there but needed an edit, IMO) and there’s a genuine sense of catharsis when they get out alive and the building explodes (they hide about twenty yards away and are fine).

In that description is a lot of nonsense, but it’s a New Year special and I feel like they should have a bit of leeway. It’s not a classic but it’s an okay way to spend an hour. What really sold me on it was that the ending featured the Doctor doing stuff and saving people. There’s a proper sense of catharsis which has been sorely lacking from the Thirteenth Doctor’s adventures, contributing to the sense of overwhelming grimness I get from them. 

So I get why people would overlook the unease over Nick and Sarah (the tone and Adjani Salmon’s performance says ‘it’ll be alright’, but Nick’s actions are creepy and say a lot about romcom conventions), and worry about Yaz and the Doctor’s relationship (is there time for it to go anywhere, is it not a bit late to be moving this forward?) but also given Chibnall’s last two series finales it’s a relief that he’s even attempting a happy ending. 

This is, though, not exactly a ringing endorsement. If the most positive review I can come up with is ‘this time not everything was shit at the end' then obviously something’s gone wrong.

Also, I’m fairly sure format has determined this as much as authorial intent. I’ve read a lot of smart and insightful threads about Eve of the Daleks being a foreshadowing of the Thirteenth Doctor's inevitable regeneration, and maybe it is, but to be honest I reckon Chris Chibnall's starting point was 'How come the Daleks don't just shoot the Doctor?' 

To which the obvious answer is ‘there’d be no show’, but this means writers keep having to come up with in-story explanations that don’t diminish the Daleks too much. Chibnall manages to have his cake and eat it here, keeping the Daleks threatening for long enough to generate tension before their inevitable failure.

One of Chibnall’s constants is mistaking grimness for seriousness, so here he makes the Daleks feel more efficient and threatening by getting them to shoot almost the entire cast. However, the format of Doctor Who and romantic comedies (which this was marketed as) determines that the regulars cannot die very often (if they did then we’d all be yelling at potential companions ‘Run away! Everyone dies!’) and that couples get paired off at the end. 

Doctor Who’s format has saved the day here, forcing a release of tension generated by the showrunner’s grimdark tendencies and finishing the story in into a happier place (assuming Nick has a very sharp learning curve about relationships in that taxi).