Top 10 Worst Doctor Who Episodes

The idea behind “Underworld” isn’t entirely terrible - Jason and the Golden Fleece, but in space! However, the execution of the concept is let down by some production constraints. Shooting an entire story using green screen now would look bad, but imagine someone decided to do so in 1978! You don’t have to, because “Underworld” exists. The primitive color separation overlay leaves every moment of the 4th Doctor and Leela walking down obviously fake caves feeling like test footage instead of a real episode of “Doctor Who.” Sure, it was done to save on budget, but “Underworld” has arguably some of the worst looking special effects in the show’s history - and that threshold is vast.

First impressions can be crucial for a new Doctor. So, when Colin Baker’s 6th Doctor debuted with this much reviled episode, is it any wonder he acquired a less than stellar reputation? The new Doctor is selfish, pompous, cowardly, and tries to strangle multiple people, including his companion, Peri, whom he just spent the previous episode going through hell to save! Add in an overly complicated plot involving the irritating titular twins and some disgusting slugs, and you have a recipe for a “Doctor Who” episode frequently voted the absolute worst of them all.

It’s a premiere episode, and Russell T. Davies was back as the showrunner of “Doctor Who.” Ncuti Gatwa was starring as the 15th Doctor. There were fewer episodes, but surely that would translate to better effects and tighter storytelling! And what did they choose to start this new Disney+ era of the show with? A spaceship run by talking babies being terrorized by a literal bogey man. To say this did not inspire confidence in the show’s new direction would be an understatement as gross as the episode’s monster. While the episode does have some smaller moments of wonder, there’s just no getting around how uncanny talking infants look.

Giant spiders are nothing new for “Doctor Who.” And while the CGI on these is actually pretty good, the plot around them is abysmal. A half-hearted environmental message is jammed together with a Donald Trump stand-in in a hotel overrun with 8-legged horrors. Badly executed political statements aren’t great, but what truly drags “Arachnids in the UK” down is the 13th Doctor herself. “Don’t use a gun to shoot the spiders! Guns are bad! Instead, let’s lock them in a small, airtight room to slowly suffocate to death in agony!” Hypocrisy is never a good look on the Doctor.

With a name like that, you’d probably expect some excitement. However, there’s very little of it to be found in this absolute bore. A forgettable villain returns for revenge on the Doctor, there’s a soldier with amnesia, and there are 2 hopelessly naive zealots whose mass murder of entire planets the 13th Doctor somehow doesn’t take them to task over. If all that sounds too busy and like the writer’s first draft, that’s because it literally is. Some elements, like Ryan and Graham’s desire for revenge could have been better with another pass, what made it to air is shockingly dull for a series finale. While there are worse episodes, sometimes being forgettably bad is worse than being memorably bad.

Many classic “Doctor Who” episodes have ambitious ideas that outstrip their budgets…or scripts. The peak, or nadir, of this is “Time-Flight.” Passengers of a supersonic airline are being kidnapped to the Jurassic era at Heathrow airport to open a spaceship by a super racist alien…who’s actually the Master in disguise. There’s the seed of a good idea somewhere in “Time-Flight.” But it’s buried under some atrocious dialogue, terrible monster and set design, and a shoestring budget. At least Anthony Ainley’s having a good time as the Master, because nobody else is - particularly the audience.

The 13th Doctor’s era has some real clunkers, and “Orphan 55” is one of the most reviled. The idea of a holiday spa on a ruined world isn’t the worst one in the world, but everything else about the episode fails to deliver on an interesting premise. The monsters look cheap in the light of day. The guest cast is too big, too irritating, and too disposable. The twist that it was Earth all along is utterly predictable. Even the direction is terrible. And the environmental messaging is about as subtle as the old lady from the episode shouting “Benni!” every other minute. Although no child should have to grow up alone, many are of the opinion that “Orphan 55” deserves abandonment.

Rewriting a show’s history and its protagonist’s origins is bound to be contentious, and “The Timeless Children” certainly proved to be that. The 13th Doctor is essentially imprisoned by the Master and forced to watch his video presentation on the Doctor’s origins and how they essentially created the Time Lords, which she just believes without corroborating evidence. Even if you leave aside the plot holes this creates and the fact that it arguably makes the Doctor a lesser character, as yet another chosen one, this revelation has nothing to do with the rest of the episode’s plot! The fam are off fighting the Cybermen, and the day isn’t saved by the Doctor but by some old guy! “The Timeless Children” proved dated soon after airing.

When almost everyone involved in the making of “Warriors of the Deep” has lambasted it, you know it’s terrible. The core idea is solid - ancient intelligent reptiles interrupt the struggle between 2 global superpowers over nuclear weapons, with the 5th Doctor and company in the middle. However, everything about the production was mired in problems and it shows on screen. Poor direction, actors unsure of their lines, a Pantomime sea monster whose paint is still drying while filming - its budget “Doctor Who” at its most atrocious. And worst of all, clips of the episode were used by ex-BBC One controller Michael Grade to justify the show’s original cancellation! “There should have been another way,” indeed.

A quiet neighborhood where children are disappearing during the 2012 Olympics is a decent pitch for a story. But it’s everything else that’s wrong with “Fear Her.” The central child actor’s absurd whispering makes her plight hard to take seriously - which is a problem, considering the undercurrent of domestic abuse around her! And for an episode with that kind of harrowing subject matter lurking in the background, the silliness of the rest of the episode feels especially jarring! Even the 10th Doctor and Rose are kind of insufferable here. “Fear Her” is an episode with so little going for it, it’s no wonder fans fear revisiting it. Is there an awful “Doctor Who” episode we forgot? Tell us a “Pting” or two about your most hated in the comments!