Amph The OFFICIAL Doctor Who Episode Countdown - Nos. 3 & 4

79. Daleks in Manhatten

10.36/20

In New York City, 1930, in the midst of the Depression, people are disappearing from among the homeless and jobless masses. Pig-like creatures hide in the sewers, and at the bottom of the Empire State Building, some of the Doctor's greatest and oldest enemies, the Daleks, are at work, preparing their most horrific plan yet.

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Lowest score - 4
Highest score - 17


Again, the 1st episode is better than the 2nd. Seeing as this is pretty much the same as EOTD, I'll post the next one in about 12 hours (when I get up!)

 

Pigs.

 

Three of my bottom five have yet to appear on the list.

 

Hal, do we need to send the Cybermen after you?

 

78. The Curse of the Black Spot

10.45/20

In the episode, the TARDIS materialises in the 17th century on board a pirate ship whose crew is being terrorised by a Siren-like creature. After receiving an injury, however minor, a black spot appears on their palms and then the creature apparently disintegrates them.

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Lowest score - 3
Highest score - 14



I really enjoyed this the first time, but it suffers greatly on repeated viewings. Too many things just don't make sense. One of the crewman disappears without explanation. How does the ship captain know how to fly a spaceship? The whole "nurse" thing is just weird for weirdness' sake. Someone gets a tiny cut and the "nurse" can't heal it and send them back?

The lowest rated Matt Smith episode. I can think of a couple that are worse, but not that worse sadly.

 

Not to mention the fact that everyone who was attacked by the siren immediately went into suspended animation in the bio beds or whatever, except the Doctor, Amy, and the Captain.

 

She didn't know how to fix them. That much at least was explained.

 

If I remember correctly, (and I think I have only seen this episode twice within the first week it was broadcast), when Avery first enters the TARDIS he keeps asking The Doctor what the different controls do. The Doctor is initially somewhat reluctant stating that the controls are 'spacey-wacey' and he wouldn't understand them but after Avery insists, The Doctor then concludes that the controls are similar in nature to any other Ship. Hence as Avery can master one type of Ship, he essentially can master any type.

So yeah, it's just one of the highlights of why it is a weak script.


Personally, I can't fault Matt Smith in this episode. I thought he put in a marvellous performance despite the material he had to work with.

 

Oh, it had some good parts. All the stuff about hats was great

 

I can't remember now, but at the time I had a problem with the way the siren manifested. I seem to recall there being a gaping hole in the plot, but cannot recall what it was, and I certainly have no interest in rewatching the episode to find out. It's kind of hard to believe that this was a sixth season episode--the rest of the season being somewhat fantastic overall. But filler episode is filler.

 

I've actually never seen a Matt Smith episode. I just finished "Last of the Time Lords," so this is the first episode on here that I haven't seen.

Slimy!

 

Why is there a "RE:" in the actual thread title?

 

These three episodes all scored exactly the same, although if you go by the highest score each episode got, then this is 75, 76, and 77

75-77

10.55/20

42


A spaceship hurtles out of control towards an alien sun and The Doctor has 42 minutes to save the ship, but with a mysterious force starting to possess and murder the ship's crew, the Doctor and Martha are running out of time.

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[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c8/42_%28Doctor_Who%29.jpg]



Lowest score - 4
Highest score - 17



Seen this a couple of times back in the day, and was not at all impressed with it. I don't recall much about it to be honest, but the memory lingers on. From what I remember, it just wasn't "Who". It's a poor attempt to cash in on the "24" fad of having something in real time. A great concept (real time), but done in a boring way.






The Doctor's Daughter


Following their unexpected trip in the TARDIS to the planet Messaline, where an endless war is being fought, the Doctor, Martha and Donna meet someone the Doctor never thought he would: his daughter.

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Lowest score - 4
Highest score - 16



As bad as this episode is, there's one thing that REALLY grated me the first time I saw it, and still does. The alien who sacrifices his life for Martha. It's meaningless. There's no emotion in it. And it's just not needed. It's a poor plot device that serves only to attempt to stir emotions in the audience. But it fails. Big time. We don't care about this character and there's no reason for him to care about Martha. Add to that Martha's over-reaction and ridiculous dramatic score, and you get an awful combination. Yuk.





Night Terrors


The Doctor receives a distress call from the scariest place in the Universe: a child?s bedroom. Every night George lies awake, terrorised by every fear imaginable ? fears that live in his bedroom cupboard. His parents are getting desperate ? George needs a doctor. Fortunately for George, his pleas for help break through the barriers of all time and space and the Doctor makes a house call. But allaying his fears won?t be easy. George?s monsters are real.

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Lowest score - 6
Highest score - 13



And another episode from Season Six makes it low on the list. I believe that the only series yet to make an appearance is Season 5.

Technically this episode should be lower on the list. For some reason I can't fathom I scored it 12/20 (For the record, I did all my scores before anyone else voted to keep me impartial).

It's a poor episode, although I felt the similar God Complex was worse.

And I know that Everton and Mar will disagree with me, but I don't like Daniel Mays. Well, I don't like what he did with Alex. He just seemed "off".

That said, the Confidential episode was pretty cool.

 

42 had a very interesting concept: a sentient star.

But it loses points for being too similar to The Impossible Planet and not having any reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, despite being titled "42".

 

The great thing about 42 is that it was the debut (at least as far as I noticed it) of the music track "All the Strange, Strange Creatures (trailer music)," which would, obviously, be used in trailers for next episodes, as well as in "Utopia." It' an incredibly exciting track, and, being that this was it's first use, made the scene, where the doctor is on the outside of the ship trying to get to the controls, really exciting.

Slimy!

 

Night Terrors was my lowest rated out of that lot (10). I liked Doctors Daughter for some reason, and didn't mind 42. I rated those two a point apart (14 & 13)

 

I enjoyed all of them on first viewing, to varying degrees, which is standard for me. But the only one out of those three that has held up for me is Doctor's Daughter, which I do like. Yes, the Haff's (or however it's spelled) sacrifice was stupid. I agree with that. Other than that I thought it was a lot of fun.

And you take that back about The God Complex. It's one of my highest rated episodes for a reason.

 

I liked Mays, but not the episode.

 

Umm hey...is this a daily thread?

 

74. Planet of the Dead

11.1/20



The episode depicts Christina fleeing the police from a museum robbery by boarding a bus that accidentally travels from London to the desert planet of San Helios, trapping her, the Doctor, and several passengers on board the damaged vehicle. After the bus driver dies trying to return to Earth, the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, headed by Captain Erisa Magambo (Noma Dumezweni) and scientific advisor Malcolm Taylor (Lee Evans), attempt to return the bus while preventing a race of metallic stingray aliens from posing a threat to Earth. At the end of the episode, one of the passengers delivers a warning to the Doctor which foreshadows the remaining three specials.

[image=http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/972/972550/planet-of-the-dead-20090414071332483.jpg]

Lowest score - 5
Highest score - 16



Urgh, what a piece of rubbish. I was distinctly unimpressed with all the "specials", but this one was the lowest of the low. I've seen it once, and have no intention of watching it again, certainly not in the near future. It's so bad, that it doesn't even deserve 2 pictures. Utterly forgettable.

That said, I've driven through the tunnel that the bus flies through, so that was nice.

 

I enjoyed some of the banter in Planet of the Dead, but it wasn't my favorite. So we have yet to see episodes from season 4 and 5.

 

The Doctor's Daughter is season 4

 

I knew that

 

The plot of Planet of the Dead was nothing to write home about, but I also didn't think it was particularly worse than the average Who episode, plus I LOVED Lady Christina

 

This. I thought this was a fun romp.

EDIT: It certainly was better than The Next Doctor, IMO.