How do you judge the best and worst of a series like Doctor Who? Not only are episodes from the early series missing, two of the Doctors (Paul McGann and John Hurt) never actually were in the television series for a full episode of their own; further there were so many great highs and lows to the series (particularly toward the end of the original show) that picking a "best" or a single "worst" was very hard to do. In the end, the best option would be to handle this like Oscars, mostly to address more of the shining (and not-so-shining) moments in the series, with additional categories like Best and Worst Aliens and Best and Worst Companion. It should be noted in the latter case, it generally isn't the actor's fault, but rather the parts, or the scripts that they were sometimes given. This is best seen with the character of Tegan, who in her first story alongside Tom Baker, serves to do little but flail her arms and break down in tears; however, by the time she leaves in the Peter Davison era, she's far more than "a mouth on legs," as she was described at one point. The goal here is to revisit a favourite show that has gone on to become a creative phenomenon and look at it critically, remembering its charm even when it was at its worst...
Michael Marcus is a game designer, author, and mad scientist living in Hamtramck, Michigan; his current project list include a series of comic short-stories collectively called "One-Punch," a book on hypnosis and language called "The Prometheus Codex," a collaborative game project called "Art War," and a fun spy story called "The Adventures of Jack Uzi" at http://tinyurl.com/JackUziChannel (for those interested).
