10 Most Controversial Doctor Who Episodes Of All Time

10. The Deadly Assassin

During Tom Baker's third season as the Doctor the show began testing the waters regarding how far it could go which resulted in a story called The Deadly Assassin. This four-parter was flagged by one outraged critic, Mary Whitehouse, who claimed it showed excessive graphic violence being dished out and received by the Doctor.

Whether it was the Doctor appearing to shoot the Time Lord President or the Master appearing as a horrific rotten skeleton in what one critic called one of "the most revolting images presented on teatime TV", the show had certainly taken a darker turn. This is perhaps best encapsulated by the infamous cliffhanger of the Doctor being held down in a river on the verge of drowning before cutting to the end credits.

The last image of the Doctor being essentially waterboarded was deemed so controversial that after Whitehouse publicly campaigned against it the BBC issued an apology and cut out the sequence in repeats. While it may have been pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable for primetime television it is also worth noting that Whitehouse was guilty of pushing her own agenda in the form of her ultra-conservative and bigoted views during this era.