10 Most Cringeworthy Doctor Who Moments From The 70s

4. Playing Fetch With The Loch Ness Monster - Terror Of The Zygons (1976)

Doctor Who doesn't have the best track record with dinosaurs, does it? We had the aforementioned dinosaurs in a story that revolved around them; and there was a relatively unremarkable one in Doctor Who and the Silurians as well. The 2005 series may render them better, but it tends to stick them in stories that are either awful (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) or merely bland (Deep Breath). And then there's Nessie, as we see it in Terror of the Zygons. In terms of effects work, the shots of Nessie in episodes two and three are far, far better than the work in Invasion, apart from some problems with perspective and the obvious difficulties of marrying filmed location work and filmed FX shots. It's when the team tries to mix the effects together on video that things go all cringey, as in the final moments of episode four. This isn't helped by Tom Baker waggling the monster's call device in front of what must be a blue screen and shouting, "Go on! Fetch it! Fetch it!" This is followed by a far-too-long shot of the creature chewing it. Yes, chewing it. Somehow this one brief scene is far worse than six episodes' worth of dinosaur puppets in the earlier story, if only because the rest of this story is so good. The overall quality of the script, the excellent Zygon costumes, the very well-done sets, and the amazing score all contribute to the cringes being that much more violent when they do come.