10 Times Doctor Who Well And Truly Crossed The Line

7. From Here To Obscurity

Doctor Who has always worked best when it ignores that it's been on for years. Continuity shouldn't get in the way of a good story (or a bad one - hello Underwater Menace and Time Monster!) and it should never be the basis for one. From The Three Doctors the show started an occasional flirtation with what went before but until the 1980s this was more of a gentle kiss to the past than a reason in itself. In the 1980s the show crossed the line from using continuity as occasional inspiration to an end in itself and thus crossed the line from popular show to diminishing cult. The rot set in when producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward started consulting a superfan and serving up tales that had no reason other than to please hard-core Whovians. Earthshock may be popular but it has no real reason to be other than to bring back the Cyberman. Resurrection of the Daleks is equally pointless. The real tipping point and the point that classic Who killed itself was Attack of the Cybermen. The plot revolved around details of 60s tales Tenth Planet and Tomb of the Cybermen that most viewers hadn't seen. Viewers scratched their heads and switched over to ITV.