10 Most Hated Doctor Who Episodes

Surprise!

We're kidding. As if any other episode could hold a candle to The Timeless Children in terms of the sheer outrage it caused.

Perhaps in an attempt to respond to comments that Series 11 was flat and uninteresting, Chibnall decided to make his mark and shake up the status quo in Series 12. For the most part, this resulted in a much stronger series, with some decent intrigue to sink our teeth into. That was, until the finale rolled round, and The Timeless Children dropped the canon bomb that sent Doctor Who fans into hysteria, by revealing that William Hartnell was not the first Doctor.

Ballsy move, but surely Chibnall must've known that this was not going to go down well. Sure enough, it didn't, and it proved to be a point of no return for many fans, who turned against the show en masse. Perhaps because the fallout from this episode was so bad, it was barely touched on again, save from some unresolved babbling about the Doctor's time at Division. And honestly, we'd be surprised if it ever was touched on again - it'll just be one of those weird tidbits (like the Doctor being half-human), that everyone chooses to ignore.

The episode made a second ill-judged move too, one that often passes under the radar of fan vitriol: the re-destruction of Gallifrey, which happens earlier in the series but is never undone. This reveal is completely unnecessary, goes absolutely nowhere, and the Doctor seems relatively unfazed by it. All this pointless plot does is undermine the arc of the revived show and nullify the traumatic journey the Doctor went through, including that triumphant resolution in The Day of The Doctor.