Doctor Who: Every NuWho Cyberman Story Ranked Worst To Best

9. The Next Doctor

The Evolution Of The Cybermen Doctor Who
BBC

Until very recently, Doctor Who had been a staple of Christmas Day TV since 2005. Despite this very few of the festive specials can be considered great episodes and The Next Doctor is no exception.

In Victorian London, the Tenth Doctor must stop the Cybermen while also dealing with a man who believes himself to be The Doctor played by David Morrissey.

Morrissey's performance is excellent, so much so that whenever a new Doctor is being cast his name is almost guaranteed to be mentioned by fans. Aside from him though, The Next Doctor is a badly written and forgettable episode from David Tennant's time in the TARDIS.

Much like Closing Time, the Cybermen feel completely disposable. You could replace them with another monster and the story would hardly be affected. From the poorly designed and rather silly Cybershades to the utterly ridiculous, Power Rangers/Transformers rip-off, the CyberKing, it appears that Russell T. Davies went for style over substance with this story. That can be forgiven for a more light-hearted Christmas special perhaps, but when the style is so poor it leaves the episode with very few redeeming qualities.

Even Davies himself admitted it wasn't his best script and that he wishes he could have completely rewritten the ending:

"I can't bear that there could have been a better ending than we actually transmitted."
In this post: 
Doctor Who
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

22-year-old journalism graduate from Croydon. When I'm not moaning about or singing the praises of Doctor Who or a great film or two, I'm (unsuccessfully) looking for a job or setting up a podcast. Again usually unsuccessfully.