Mine would have to be Genesis of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, and Ghostlight (I’m very original I know)
Too hard to narrow down the entirety of the classic series, so here’s one story for each classic Doctor:
- The Tenth Planet
- The Mind Robber
- Carnival of Monsters
- State of Decay
- Kinda
- The Two Doctors
- The Happiness Patrol
Many have said some brilliant episodes here but I have a massive soft spot for Hartnell’s Planet of the Giants. Today the concept of being shrunk down isn’t all that novel and we’ve seen it a bunch of times, but they do some quite clever things with the episode and there is some really great framing shots.
For its time, I think it shows the ingenuity of the teams that were making the show. Even to this day, it is rare you find an episode that plays with the ‘Space’ part of TARDIS like this one did.
I’d love to see a modern take on this one.
Earthshock - Great locations, scary villains, real consequences, fantastic acting.
Four to Doomsday is a close second, for me. It’s got so much of what makes Dr Who great, in such a wild weird story.
Always have a soft spot for Genesis. I remember watching the repeat showing in the 1980s and being stunned when my Dad told me that “Ronson” was his art teacher at high school.
Spearhead from Space was one of the first stories I bought on VHS and I watched it so many times, so that’s a definite favourite too. Oh, and Ark in Space.
Pyramids of Mars. The City of Death. The Key to Time. Trial of a Timelord. Anytime Jon Pertwee, Roger Delgado and Katy Manning were on screen it was magical.
