10 Most Hated Classic Doctor Who Episodes

It might seem a redundant statement to readers of this list, but Doctor Who fans bloody love making lists. For decades, Doctor Who Magazine has been attempting to construct a definitive ranking of the best stories of all time, most recently with 2014's The First Five Decades poll.

These polls are often published to the chagrin of Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker, who absolutely hates polls. Partly because, unfairly, he often ends up quite low down.

The "best" stories are usually fairly predictable: stories like Genesis of the Daleks and The Caves of Androzani. Stories that are rather grim and unpleasant, and weirdly, sort of the antithesis of Doctor Who's stirring optimism. Often when someone says a Doctor Who story is "the best," it's because the story is more like serious drama, and is therefore less embarrassing.

This list will celebrate those lower entries in the canon of classic Doctor Who. These are the stories that have been classed as "the worst" by way of being the lowest-voted by the fans who hate them. Stories that are "embarrassing", "silly", and "goofy". They're all Doctor Who stories, basically.

To get a sense of which stories are the most hated, this list will refer to The Big Doctor Who Poll (which was conducted via Twitter during the 2020 pandemic), and will reflect on how things have changed since the 2014 poll in DWM.

A psychotic chicken, Peter Davison covered in Rice Krispies, youth hostelling, and Colin Baker's peacock helmet. Arc of Infinity has it all!

So why was it voted so low in the Big Doctor Who Poll? Out of 295 Doctor Who stories, Arc of Infinity came in at 272, dropping 50 places since the DWM poll in 2014.

Well, despite the dynamic location shooting on the streets of Amsterdam, it's a convoluted mess of a story. One of the biggest indicators of how poorly conceived Arc of Infinity is, is that Tegan Jovanka - an air hostess - travels to Amsterdam to search for a missing relative.

Wouldn't it have saved a considerable amount of story time if air hostess Tegan Jovanka had been on a layover in Amsterdam, where a fellow air hostess had gone missing? That's not even the most confusing element in this garbled tale of Time Lord intrigue and mythology. What's worse is that Gallifrey has all the character, atmosphere, and plastic furnishings of an airport departures lounge.

It gains points for a delightfully hammy turn by Colin Baker, but ultimately deserves its place in the lower ranks.