Blindingly belated, but neither belittled nor beknighted. Be-uteous.
#30 — The Doctor’s Wife – What initially could be dismissed from the log line as fanfic instead turned out to be a rather touching meditation on the one long-term relationship which had never really been touched upon before. And it worked.
#29 — The Waters of Mars – While most think of the Tennant era as ‘sunnier’ Doctor Who, this was the flip side. Bleak and unremitting, right up to and through the point where Doctor went demi-god. Mars was a story which felt weighty, and it delivered. It’s important to have these tonally distinct stories within each era to provide contrast for the overall feeling an era has, although, of course, this can be taken too far (i.e. Kill the Moon)
#28 — The Robots of Death – An Agatha Christie mystery set upon a sandminer was not just a triumph of design and style, but in tone. Creepy mechanical men? Nuff said.
#27 — The Dæmons – Magic and mysticism in Doctor Who were never better executed than here. The espirit-de-corps amongst the main cast make this the beloved classic that it is.
#26 — Amy’s Choice – A sneaky, sneaky beast. Quite likely not tilting towards the populist end of Doctor Who stories and instead into more of the esoteric, the first viewing of this story with it’s laconic pacing and lack of the “monster” per se was merely “whelming.” A second, and it has to be said, more alert viewing, brought all sorts of revelations, most notably the nifty plotting and the amazing performances of Toby Jones and Karen Gillan.
#25 — Earthshock – Not unlike The Waters of Mars in the sense that this story seemed to have a sudden, darker tonal shift which set it apart from other Davison stories. Suddenly the 5th Doctor had weight, even though he was largely carried along by events. Also … Adric died.
60 for 60 carries forward, even though we’ll never know if we were right.
