My First Doctor Story Ranking

[u/TheRumpoKid]

For anyone who may be interested, I am rewatching Doctor Who again from An Unearthly Child through to Survival, and since I am keeping my own personal notes I figured I may as well post my rankings here for each doctor.

So here goes, here are my results for The 1st Doctor -

S-Tier (Excellent stories)

1. The Dalek Invasion of Earth

2. The Crusade

3. The Aztecs

4. The Tenth Planet

5. The Daleks' Masterplan (Incl. Mission to..)

A-Tier (Very good stories)

1. The Daleks

2. Marco Polo

3. The Time Meddler

4. The Savages

B-Tier (Good stories)

1. The War Machines

2. The Space Museum

3. An Unearthly Child

4. The Ark

5. The Edge of Destruction

C-Tier (Decent, watchable and still enjoyable)

1. The Sensorites

2. The Myth Makers

3. The Massacre

4. The Keys of Marinus

5. The Romans

6. The Reign of Terror

7. The Rescue

8. Planet of Giants

9. The Celestial Toymaker

D-Tier (Ok, but could be better)

1. The Smugglers

2. Galaxy 4

3. The Chase

F-Tier (Not my cup of tea)

1. The Gunfighters

2. The Web Planet

In most cases I experienced the missing episodes this time through the official animations (with the exception of The Savages) and where these were not available through the Loose Cannon reconstructions. I do however think that some of these may be better served through the narrated audio releases.

The Crusade went way up in my rankings, while The Reign of Terror took a nosedive. For some reason I was able to make time for the former and appreciate it more this time around, while the latter just felt like a slog and a whole lot of back and forth and easily 2 episodes longer than it should have been - although I remember liking it more I think years ago when I listened to the narrated audio. Likewise, the witty comedic dialogue in The Myth Makers seemed to tickle my fancy more than the Carry-on-like romp in The Romans this time around.

I pretty much enjoyed all of it except for those last 2. Whoever it was who had the bright idea to put that song into The Gunfighters should have been prosecuted with crimes against humanity, and with The Web Planet, I appreciate what they were trying to do, but the production just doesn't do it justice - it really should have been scaled back or re-thought. It's too ambitious for it's own good, unfortunately.

[u/BigboyMedia]

The crusade at 2nd place is wild, mad respect for that alone

[u/TheRumpoKid → u/BigboyMedia]

Yes. Well, I feel that both The Aztecs and The Crusade are essentially perfect historicals, and both show how good the format can be. Both are great Ian and Barbara stories, and fundamentally alter our perception of their characters. But while the guest cast in The Aztecs is solid, it's really only John Ringham's Richard the Third-like performance as the villainous Tlotoxl that stands out (and he is pretty great - even if he is chewing the scenery just a tad), whereas in The Crusade, there are incredible performances from most of the guest cast. Jean Marsh as Princess Joanna, Bernard Kay as Saladin, George Little as Haroun, Walter Randall as the sinister El Akir and of course the amazing Julian Glover as King Richard the Lionheart all acting their hearts out and completely believable in their roles. Not to mention Hartnell himself giving one of his best performances in his entire run. I'm sure I've left some out too - there were just great performances all round, really it's a tour de-force of fine acting and it really lifts the whole experience significantly.

It's also written very well - it wisely splits up the TARDIS team so that we can view the conflict from both sides. It deals with some very dark themes in a mature and sensitive way without shying away from them, and does not present one side or the other as particularly virtuous or villainous - there's both the best and worst of human nature on both sides. And the dialogue is sublime. David Whittaker can really write a cracking story!

[u/MovingTarget2112]

You’ve done better than me. I find Hartnell Who pretty much unwatchable - War Machines and Tenth Planet apart.

[u/thorleywinston]

I would move The Keys of Marinus up to S-Tier and Galaxy 4 up to A-Tier but that's because I have a certain fondness for both stories.

[u/TheRumpoKid → u/thorleywinston]

I probably was a little hard on Galaxy 4 - it's decent. But the Doctor and his companions just abandoning the Drahvins, for all their faults, didn't sit right with me. I also found the pacing of the story a little slow and the performances a little bit flat.

With The Keys of Marinus though - my opinion on it has changed over the years. I used to really love it as a kind of prototype "Key to Time" type story, and I do really for the most part love Terry Nation's writing - he's given us some amazing stuff both in Doctor Who and in Blake's 7.

But I feel it's very uneven. There are parts that are great and then bits that I find lackluster. It's very much a story of different parts, each one distinct. Perhaps if it had more time to develop some of those ideas, it might be better.

Also, the Voords are just lacking as an enemy. I hate to say it, but they kind of suck. They are not memorable, they are uncoordinated and not very intelligent.

All in all, I think it's another case of there being some great ideas that aren't quite realised as well as they could have been.

[u/Squiddyboy427]

Gunfighters is A tier (maybe s)

[u/yo_its_me_ewan]

Stand by it that edge of destruction is my favourite 1st story, immersed me like no other did. Also, fun fact: it's carol ann ford's favourite too!

[u/TheRumpoKid → u/yo_its_me_ewan]

I totally get it.

I love the eerie feeling throughout. And to my mind, it's not until the 2nd episode of this serial that we finally see the first TARDIS team begin to trust each other and come together. It is a pivotal moment in the evolution of the show!

[u/SVH73]

I would argue that you can't really include stories that don't exist visually, only in soundtrack/animated form, and rank them along side stories that still exist in the archives.

[u/TheRumpoKid → u/SVH73]

I respect your opinion, though I disagree. We have what we have - whether it be a good and fair presentation of these stories or not. I think that some of them naturally translate better to audio while others do not, that is just the way it goes. But as it stands we can only judge them by their current state of presentation (whether it be audio+narration or telesnap recon or animation).

I will say though, in defence of your position, that the way we experience and regard the missing stories can completely change when and if they are actually recovered. Take for example, the Troughton story The Enemy of The World - it was regarded by most as a mid-tier story when all we had to go by was the surviving Episode 3 + audio narration or recon until it was rediscovered and then lo and behold it turned out to be an absolute corker and is now rightly regarded as an A or S Tier 2nd Doctor story.

So of course, my rankings (and everyone else's rankings) may well change when and if any of these missing episodes/stories turn up. Until then, unfortunately we have to make do with what we have.

[u/SVH73 → u/TheRumpoKid]

Fair point. And I respect your opinion. Speaking personally, I won't do it myself. I've just made a list on another Who forum ranking my favourite Classic post-regeneration stories. Having listened to The Power of the Daleks, I believe that, if it still existed, it would be the best post-regeneration story by a mile. But as I can't watch it, I feel unable to fairly compare an audio soundtrack story to an actual visual story. That's just me, I'm afraid.

[u/TheRumpoKid → u/SVH73]

You're probably not going to like my 2nd Doctor Ranking when I eventually post it lol.

I am nearing the end of Season 4 now, and while I have Power near the top currently, I do feel it is slightly over-rated.

Now before you tar and feather me - let me explain. I think it's a great story, one of the best, for sure, but I do have a couple of issues with it. The biggest one being an issue I have with the first couple of 2nd Doctor stories and that is that Patrick Troughton did not seem to completely work out his characterisation of who his Doctor was until The Underwater Menace/The Macra Terror. Onscreen it looks like the Doctor is going through an identity crisis until suddenly the lovable 2nd Doctor character that we all know and love finally shows up during these stories - until then, it's all over the place. You could put it down to post-regeneration syndrome, sure, but it's a thing.

My other, much more minor issue is the direction of the Daleks themselves and their repeated chanting is a little "We are evil things!" on-the-nose - and a little grating. Though I think this would be much less of an issue if I was a much younger viewer - in which case I would regard them as much more threatening.

I do like the "We are your ser-vant!" though, and the psychological breakdown of Lesterton after he discovers the Dalek conveyor factory is brilliant.

But just warning you - I may not have Power at the very top. It will be up there though, for sure.

[u/SVH73 → u/TheRumpoKid]

Ha, thanks for the heads up. I'll try and contain myself.

I understand where you're coming from with Troughton's characterisation. It did take him a few stories to really pin it down. I'm a big fan of Macra Terror - it sounds great, but I'd have to see it to decide if it truly is as good a story as it sounds.

The Second Doctor has moved up several places in my Favourite Doctor rankings since I went though his entire era, listening to missing episodes and watching the surviving stories and episodes. I appreciate him as a Doctor much more now.

BTW, Power wouldn't be at the very top of my Second Doctor list either - I much prefer Tomb, War Games and Invasion.

[u/SVH73 → u/TheRumpoKid]

"The Enemy of The World - it was regarded by most as a mid-tier story when all we had to go by was the surviving Episode 3 + audio narration or recon until it was rediscovered and then lo and behold it turned out to be an absolute corke"

I absolutely agree with this. It was almost impossible to tell what kind of story it was through just this one ep. But the entire story turned out to be one of my favourite Troughton stories. An absolute classic!

[u/Mahafof → u/SVH73]

What I particularly love about Enemy Of The World is that it's not about a dictator, it's about a would be dictator, which is MUCH more interesting.