The most recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine revealed the results of the biggest fan survey ever conducted – announcing what DWM readers thought were the best stories of the first 50 years. Now they could have saved themselves a lot of work if they had merely consulted the Tour’s own 50 for 50 … The 50 Greatest Stories in Doctor Who History, but sadly they didn’t. Here’s their top five.
Of the top five, it’s #5 that gave Tour Honchos pause, and set the Classic Capitology Team to work. Tour Honchos are conflicted about City of Death. It’s a really nice story (and a glaring omission from my own Top 50 list) but it is also such an outlier at a time when Doctor Who was getting somewhat frayed at the edges, that the opinion here is that it’s always been somewhat overrated, as demonstrated again by the DWM Poll.
Look …. City of Death has Julian Glover, Catherine Schell, Duggan the Brutish PI, lots and lots of running through the actual streets of Paris, a marvelously witty Douglas Adams script, not to mention Tom and Lalla in top form. Little wonder it’s a fan favorite. For Tour purposes, the new caps for City of Death present a great upgrade is quantity and quality that what existed before.
Classic Capitology stays on the case next time, presenting one of the best stories … of 2013? How is that Classic?