Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor's Stories Ranked From Worst To Best

7. The Happiness Patrol

This story's villain, the Kandy Man, is often used as evidence that the classic series of Doctor Who descended into parody in its final years. Yet beneath the monster who suspiciously looks like the mascot of a brand of liquorice, The Happiness Patrol is both an intelligent story and that rare thing in Doctor Who - a political satire. Something of a twist on the classic Orwellian dystopia that is glum and colourless, Happiness Patrol presents a world perhaps even more frightening, a world full of garish colour and forced emotion. It sees the TARDIS land on Terra Alpha, a planet where sadness is outlawed and punishable by death. In the face of dictator Helen A, the Doctor and Ace set about starting a revolution. The story is most famous for being a critique of Margaret Thatcher - and beneath Helen A's bright red wig, the similarities are numerous - but really the story is a clever fable about the need for a range of emotions, including sadness, to make life ultimately fulfilling. It's good, just as long as you forget about the Kandy Man.