6. The Gothic Horror
AKA the Hinchcliffe era. AKA the golden era of Doctor Who. In the Fourth Doctors first three series we were introduced to wonderful stories filled with black humour and the macabre, sinister characters, terrifying monsters and horrific deaths - so much so that Mary Whitehouse became a verbal opponent of the show, claiming that Doctor Who had nightmarish qualities, containing some of the sickest, most horrible material, a "teatime brutality for tots". Over reaction? Perhaps. Its the era where Davros committed genocide on his own people (Genesis Of The Daleks), hapless victims were strangled by killer plants and turned to mulch inside a plant shredder (The Seeds Of Doom) and the Doctor himself is almost drowned (The Deadly Assassin.) But you know what, theres far more to this era that violencethough there is an element of dread in a number of the Fourth Doctors early stories. Its the mist rising across Victorian London in The Talons of Weng. Its the fiendish, visually horrifying characters particular the deranged Frankensteins monster-like Morbius, resurrected and out for revenge (The Brain Of Morbius.) Its the atmosphere of these stories that make them visually as well as narratively interesting. While not part of the Hinchliffe era, this continued with two stories in the Fourth Doctors fourth series, starting with the extremely atmospheric Horror Of Fang Rock. You cant get more sinister than a lighthouse sitting in a rocky outcrop in the mist, raging waves in the night. And of course everyone dies But the best moment for me is the possession of poor Thea in Image Of The Fendahl. A god like entity that turns all humans into the slug-like Fendahleen at the blink of an eye. It was surely an inspiration for the deadly hosts in the Tenth Doctors Voyage Of The Damned. Its that moment this force of all evil turns on the cult members in the basement of the old manor house in the middle of the night night. This is my favourite gothic horror of them all.