The lighthearted episodes of Doctor Who vary public opinion massively. Some love them, and some loath them. They are often labelled as camp romps, but surely that assessment is unjust for some of the dreary tales the viewers are greeted with. Boom Town, anyone? The universal appeal of Doctor Who is its diversity; in the twelve weeks comprising series eight viewers have had terror from Listen, tales of morality from Into The Dalek, whimsical fairytales from In The Forest of the Night and€ camp romps from Robot of Sherwood. Each series generally follows a similar format of mixing up the types of episodes in order to appeal to everyone. Series eight, touted as the darkest since its return, has been quite dark in parts admittedly, but nowhere near as dark as many had hoped. Its lighthearted episodes are where the Twelfth Doctor stalls, somewhat. Peter Capaldi is much more suited to the dark terrors of Kill The Moon than the lacklustre laughs of The Caretaker. The finale, which begins with Dark Water on Saturday, looks set to be another extremely dark tale so let's take a look through some of the best lighthearted episodes of the past eight series as the calm before the storm.
