Doctor Who: 10 Unpopular Opinions About Everybody's Favourite Episodes

4. The Last Act Blows With Chunks - The Crimson Horror

Series Seven's The Crimson Horror intriguingly featured a poison-dripping crustacean from the age of the Silurians loose in Victorian England. Okay. So how is this nugget of a story idea translated into a full episode? The prehistoric shrimp is working with a crazy lady and she's building a rocket to spread the toxin far and wide! Whoa there. A rocket? Visually exciting, granted, but more than a smidgeon unbelievable for 1893. In a milieu where venomous prehistoric arthropods seem entirely reasonable, it's a warning sign when the ending for the story is so preposterous it destroys the viewers' willing suspension of disbelief. Let's state things plainly here: Mrs Gillyflower is a religious nutjob, not a rocket scientist. And Mr Sweet is never depicted as anything other than a non-sapient prawn (sorry, "leech") with a salt fixation, so the crimson crustacean can't be supplying her with the technical details. The most uncritical of fans aren't going to agree, but all the funny turns in the world with the Paternoster Gang can't disguise the fact that this episode has a final act that makes no logical sense whatsoever. It's a story with lots of jokes along the way, but ultimately it has nowhere to go.