Analysing The Top Doctor Who Stories (DWM 2009)

Guest contributor Thomas Capon analyses the top episodes according to DWM from 2009.

Previously we’ve considered the 1998 DWM survey

in order to gain an insight into fan favourite Doctors, stories and seasons, all from the classic series. Back in 2009, DWM ran another survey. This survey included New Who stories up to The Planet of the Dead. Here are the results:

The Top 10

1. The Caves of Androzani (5)
2. Blink (10)
3. Genesis of the Daleks (4)
4. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (4)
5. The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances (9)
6. Human Nature/ Family of Blood (10)
7. Pyramids of Mars (4)
8. City of Death (4)
9. The Robots of Death (4)
10. Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways (9)

While Tom Baker succeeds in again securing half of the stories in the top 10, Genesis of the Daleks fails to regain the top spot missing out to Peter Davison’s swansong: The Caves of Androzani. The two new boys on the block, Eccleston and Tennant are able to make a name for themselves by grabbing two places each in the top 10.

The Bottom 10

1. The Twin Dilemma (6)
2. Timelash (6)
3. Time and the Rani (7)
4. Underworld (4)
5. Time-Flight (5)
6. The Space Pirates (2)
7. The Underwater Menace (2)
8. Paradise Towers (7)
9. Fear Her (10)
10. The Dominators (2)

The clear loser here is Colin Baker with the bottom two stories being from his era. But Pat Troughton doesn’t fair much better with three of his stories making it to the bottom 10. Sylvester McCoy’s Season 24 also contributes with two stories while David Tennant’s Fear Her and Tom Baker’s Underworld complete our list.

Average Rankings

Below are the calculated average placing of a story from each Doctor’s era:

Doctor	Average Ranking
9th	73
10th	78
3rd	92
4th	94
2nd	98
5th	111
1st	121
7th	131
8th	135
6th	143

Note: Multi-doctor stories and Mission the the Unknown as part of the era of the incumbent Doctor at the time of airing.

Well I didn’t see that coming. Not only did Chris Eccleston’s era rank the highest, but Jon Pertwee was able to overcome Tom Baker to third place behind Eccleston and Tennant. DWM editor Tom Spilsbury recently stated that New Who fans tend to vote generously and perhaps that explains why Doctors number 9 and 10 did so well in the survey.

Regeneration Story Rankings

1. The Caves of Androzani (1)
2. Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways (10)
3. The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End (13)
4. The War Games (29)
5. Logopolis (53)
6. The Tenth Planet (55)
7. Planet of the Spiders (89)
8. The TV Movie (135)
9. Time and the Rani (198)

Notes: Brackets show the story’s overall ranking out of 200. The Stolen Earth has been included on this list even though it wasn’t strictly speaking a ‘Hand over the key to the TARDIS’ episode.

Not even generous voting New Who fans are able to deny that The Caves of Androzani is the ultimate regeneration story. Nor that Time and the Rani is the worst regeneration story for that matter.

Season Average Ranking

In this section, we’re going to look at each season and find the average ranking for a story in that season.

Top 5 Seasons

Doctor	Season	Average Ranking
4th	13	48
3rd	7	51
4th	14	55
10th	Series 4	68
9th	Series 1	73

The Baker, Hinchcliffe and Holmes combination dominates this list with two of the top three seasons being from their era. RTD’s New Who once again puts up a good performance with last and first series taking spots 4 and 5. Season 7 completes this list.

Bottom 5 Seasons

Doctor	Season	Average Ranking
7th	24	189
6th	23	142
5th	20	137
4th	17	134
6th	22	134

Not many surprises here except perhaps for the inclusion of Season 20, the anniversary season leading up to The Five Doctors. Both of Colin Baker’s seasons also make this list along with McCoy’s first season and Douglas Adam’s season 17.

Full List

Doctor	Season	Average Ranking
5th	The Five Doctors	38
4th	13	48
3rd	7	51
4th	14	55
10th	Series 4	68
9th	Series 1	73
2nd	5	74
4th	12	74
3rd	10	78
10th	Series 3	79
10th	Series 2	81
7th	26	83
3rd	8	95
10th	2009 Specials	103
4th	18	104
5th	19	105
1st/2nd	4	107
1st	1	108
2nd	6	112
3rd	9	114
3rd	11	115
5th/6th	21	118
4th	16	120
7th	25	120
1st	2	126
4th	15	127
1st	3	131
4th	17	134
6th	22	134
8th	The TV Movie	135
5th	20	137
6th	23	142
7th	24	189

Conclusion

Well, I hope you’ve found that interesting. When the results of DWM’s latest survey are out shortly, we’ll go through them and then compare the changes in the fanbase’s taste over the years. We’ll even use some mathematical formulae to help us measure the changes.