10 Most Hated Classic Doctor Who Episodes

8. Warriors Of The Deep

Doctor Who Timelash Peri
BBC Studios

Warriors of the Deep is another serial by Arc of Infinity scribe Johnny Byrne, and it doesn't get much better. In its defence, the sequel to Malcolm Hulke's Doctor Who and the Silurians struggles to recover from the first sight of the Myrka.

A terrifying sea creature that looks more like a green pantomime horse, the Myrka has gone down as one of the worst Doctor Who monsters ever. To make matters worse, the set is all stark white plastic and the studio lights are turned up to 11, highlighting the Myrka in all its rubbish glory.

The Myrka doesn't just highlight the issues with Doctor Who's budgetary constraints, it also highlights the tonal problems with Byrne's script. It's a bleak thriller about the human/reptile cost of nuclear war in one moment, but it has Ingrid Pitt delivering a karate kick to the Myrka in the next.

It's likely that this tonal clash led to the story being voted near the bottom of both polls. As the Fifth Doctor says at the end, "There should have been another way."

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.