10 Most Hated Classic Doctor Who Episodes
3. Underworld
A Tom Baker serial? In the lower echelons of a Doctor Who ranking? Some mistake surely. Well, no. As untouchable as the Fourth Doctor may be, he does have his fair share of ropey stories.
Underworld is regularly voted as the worst Fourth Doctor adventure, mostly because it's painfully dull. The story of a race of aliens who have suffered badly at the hands of the Time Lords is a strong hook, but the story never gets going. Also, in the minds of young viewers in the 1970s, nobody was really asking why the Time Lords adopted a non-intervention policy.
The major issue with Underworld, however, is the fact that the majority of the serial was shot using colour separation overlay, or CSO. For younger fans, this is essentially green screen/chroma key tech. However, rather than being part of a billion-dollar movie franchise, CSO was used as a cost-cutting measure.
This led to extensive scenes of the Doctor and Leela walking in front of what was essentially a sheet, which hampered their performances and only added to the dull, lifeless tone of the story. It ranked 288 out of 295 in the 2020 poll.