Doctor Who: Every Russell T Davies Episode Ranked From Worst To Best

36. The Long Game

The first RTD1 story on the list won't come as a surprise. The Long Game is comfortably the worst of Series 1, mostly down to Adam Mitchell and his stupid forehead-hole.

Though the idea of the “companion who couldn’t” is kind of interesting, it hardly makes for compelling telly. Adam is just so thoroughly unlikeable (which is the point, we know), that there's very little joy in watching the episode at all.

Even beyond Adam, the story is pretty dull. It just never quite comes together and almost feels like a hangover from the classic era – which makes sense given that RTD originally pitched it to the Doctor Who production office in the '80s!

In terms of positives Simon Pegg is entertaining as the Editor... aaaaand that's it. The Long Game definitely doesn’t hold a candle to RTD’s other early scripts.