Doctor Who: Every Doctor's WORST Episode

Find out which adventures in time and space Doctor Who fans love to hate!

Doctor Who Tenth Doctor Rose Tyler Fear Her
BBC Studios

Doctor Who is one of the greatest science fiction shows ever conceived, the versatility of its premise proven by how long it's been on the air for. Simply put, bad shows don't tend to stick around for fifty-seven years.

With that said, it also has a reputation of being somewhat inconsistent. One week you might be served up the best that scripted television has to offer, set in an exciting new location with terrifying monsters and guest characters that stick in your mind long after the credits roll.

And then you might tune in next week to see an uninspired adventure set somewhere that you don't care about, showing people you can't remember the names of fighting against people in awful rubber costumes.

This is, of course, part of Doctor Who's charm. You never know quite what you're going to get from episode to episode, and there's an excitement in that.

But what adventures are the absolute bottom of the pile for each Doctor? Which low points simply aren't worth revisiting, even just to point and laugh at?

Let's see if your least favourite made into this list of "highlights".

13. The Web Planet (The First Doctor)

Doctor Who Tenth Doctor Rose Tyler Fear Her
BBC Studios

One of the joys of watching classic Doctor Who is marvelling at some of the lovably low-budget production values. From dodgy costumes to wobbling sets, it’s a billion miles away from the polished glitz and glam of the 21st century incarnations.

There are few stories that better represent the shoddier aspects of the early years than the 1965 serial The Web Planet. While the team behind it clearly had lofty ideas and wanted to explore big themes about the nature of good versus evil, it just ends up looking... well, distracting, to put it kindly.

The butterfly-like Menoptra and the giant ants known as Zarbi are quite clearly actors in outfits and while yes you can say that about quite a lot of Doctor Who, it's undeniably at its worst here.

Still, despite all this and the glacially-paced story too, the first episode of The Web Planet still managed to achieve record viewership for Doctor Who with 13.5 million viewers – although the Audience Appreciation Index did rapidly fall as the serial progressed, which says it all really.

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Owen Davies hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.