Doctor Who: 10 Worst "New-Who" Episodes Ever
5. The Next Doctor
The Next Doctor is the 2008 Christmas Special which featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and a guest appearance from future Walking Dead villain David Morrissey as the titular ‘Next Doctor’. Set in Victorian England, the plot revolves around a contingent of Cybermen who seem to be in the service of the mysterious Miss Hartigan.
The episode has several issues including a predictable narrative and some terrible CGI effects near the end. The episode features the return of classic series enemy the Cybershade which is undercut by the unfortunate costume design which leaves this looking more like somebody draped a sheet over a rottweiler and stuck a Cyberman mask on it.
The biggest issue with The Next Doctor is how it deliberately manipulates its audience by teasing something that is never going to turn up. Yes, spoiler alert, David Morrissey is not actually the successor to David Tennant but rather a man named Jackson Lake who just so happens to have absorbed some of The Doctor’s memories. Whilst certainly not as bad as some episodes of the show, The Next Doctor is definitely a weak episode and one of the worst Christmas Specials.