Doctor Who: 15 Most Disastrous Stories Of All-Time

9. The Dominators

Throughout the 60's, the producers of Doctor Who were always looking for something to match the popularity of the Daleks, with varying degrees of success. 'The Dominators' featured one such experiment; the Quarks. The Quarks in themselves are curious little creations and memorable designs, but they were too easily defeated, being blown apart like cardboard. Their biggest flaw however is their subservience to the titular Dominators. Aside from looking ridiculous, the Dominators spend the whole 5 episodes swabbling like children. As such it is extremely difficult to take them seriously as any form of threat. Together they're like an all conquering Laurel and Hardy. One of the Dominators, Rago is the sensible, measured one. Toba, his second in command is the trigger happy half wit, intent on killing everything in sight. Turns out, Toba actually had the right idea, which communicates a very poor message. The basic plot is the Dominators drilling to the core of the planet and dropping a bomb down the shaft to make the planet nuclear. The whole exercise is padded out with the drilling being held up and started again for various reasons. This tedium lead to the 6 episodes being condensed it into 5. Even that is a stretch. 'The Dominators' was forgotten almost immediately and the Quarks were never seen on screen again, but featured in Doctor Who comics without their Dominator masters.