Doctor Who - 1st Doctor Ranked

This story is the quintessential First Doctor Story. It's well paced, tense and filled with good character moments. Hartnell's speech at the end is terrific and the dialogue is all round great. The direction is fantastic, the production value is good and the acting is great.

All of the themes present are still relevant today and a lot of the effects and dialogue holds up really well today. The acting, directing and production design are all good. The characters are well developed and the pacing is great.

This story is really good. Sure some of the pacing feels deliberately drawn out, but the plot is still fast paced and covers a lot of interesting ground. The character moments are really good, the writing is great and the direction is great. It's an engaging adventure what pushed it's characters.

I love how this story tests the relationships of it's companions and their trust of one another. There is constant tension and intrigue. The acting is great, the writing is good and the directing is solid. The only weak point is how they explain the ending of the episode, which is a weird explanation.

This has a really unique and experimental plot. It's well directed and well written, however some of the characters are given little to do. The production design is great and the pacing is very suspenseful. Solid all round.

(Animation) The cybermen are a really intimidating and unique villain. The acting is great and all the side characters are good. It's well paced and the themes are great. The regeneration scene is very important and the dialogue is excellent.

(Telesnaps) I love how this episode deals with the effects of actions on history and the motivation for each character makes complete sense and leads to a really interesting conflict between Steven and The Doctor. The dialogue and acting are great. The pacing works well and production design is very good.

(Telesnaps) Parts 1-6 are really good, because they introduce really engaging characters and tie up many other characters in interesting ways. For the first half there's a constant fast pace, then Christmas happens, so they wasted the next 2 parts on irrelevant set pieces and poorly aged dialogue. Thankfully, it improves in the remaining 4 parts, as a real sense of stakes is reinstated and the plot becomes really interesting again. The acting and production design are really good. If you cut out Part 7 and bits of Part 8, this would be incredible.

This story is a load of fun. The acting is good, the directing is great and a lot of effort is put into pulling off an authentic setting. The music and production design are great. The pacing is good and the plot, whilst not too unique is still very fun and tense.

The characters are all given interesting things to do and the dialogue is great. The way the plot explores the past is really interesting and a lot of the production design holds up today. The acting is great and the direction is really good. It just suffers from a lack of depth at certain points.

The first part is excellent and the next 3 are really good. My main problem comes from how the plot suddenly changes in order to extend the story by 3 episodes, which are badly paced. The themes are interesting and the acting is really good.

Each part has something different to offer. The pacing is good and the characters are well developed. The production value is good and I like this story style. Although some parts are rushed and unnecessary.

(Telesnaps) This story is pretty good. The themes and conflict present are all interesting and the characters are given a lot to do. The pacing and production design are good, however certain character choices are weak.

A really good start to the show. The acting is really good and the direction is brilliant. Unfortunately, the cave men parts are very slow and uninteresting and The Doctor does some out of character things. The production design is good and part one is truly brilliant, but most of all the characters that inhabit the TARDIS are the best feature of this story.

(Recreation) This is a pretty good recreation. It interested me the whole way through and the direction is really solid. The production value is great and I think that this episode has a really interesting concept. Its main drawback is that it's a one parter though, so wasn't too invested.

(Telesnaps) A pretty good globe-trotter. The editing is good and some of the characters are well developed, however others have little to do. This story is stretched out a lot unfortunately, with many unnecessary scenes and the plot isn't particularly good, however the character drama holds it together.

(Telesnaps) The dialogue is good and the acting is all solid. The production design seems quite good and the story is well paced, however there's nothing that special. The characters aren't interesting and the plot is a bit shoddy. I enjoyed it, however nothing stands out.

The humor is pretty good and the dialogue is fun, but the overall plot is pretty dumb. Most of the characters are rather 2D, however at least Stephen, The Doctor and The Monk are given good moments. The directing is a bit shoddy, but the Production Value is good.

(Animation) Everything is just fine. There's some good dialogue and the choice to separate companions is a good choice. This episode suffers from bad pacing and a lack of personal investment. The technical aspects are all mediocre and the production value isn't special.

(Telesnaps) This story has some good moments. The direction and production design are all solid and there are some great sequences. Unfortunately, the script is very uninteresting and some of the acting is quite poor. The addition of Katarina didn't work and I'm mixed on Vicki's departure.

This story doesn't have too much going for it. The writing is rather generic and the way Vicki joins wasn't too convincing. The directing was fine and the production value is good, but it never was anything special.

The concept is original and some of the direction is really good. There are some great scenes, but the story is so over long and poorly paced. The characters have things to do, but it's over-serialized to a point where it's a slog to get through.

Nothing special. I like the idea of of a cold being the end of humanity and I like the direction, however none of the characters are that interesting. The pacing is slow and little really happens with the plot. I forgot about it shortly after finishing part 4, because it made no impression.

(Telesnaps) This story has some good and acting and good production design, but unfortunately the rest isn't well handled. The characters and their conflict is rather boring. The pacing and slow and much of the story is poorly directed. Several parts have aged very badly, due to changes in culture as well.

(Telesnaps) This story didn't really grab me. The lack of colour heavily hampers the production value and most of the pacing feels very so and drawn out. The acting is fine and the dialogue is fine, but forgettable. The whole plot didn't need to be this long and is rather uninteresting and predictable. Why is the Toymaker doing this again?

A ridiculously contrived and predictable plot, which leads to an overlong bore. The whole story, whilst having decent links to History is just poorly paced and dull. The story is generic and overall it just lacks scale and vision.

Wasted potential. The production value is cheap and most of the effects are laughable due to the fact they've aged poorly. I can't take this story seriously. It's filled with far fetched plot lines, bad pacing and weak direction, that although the actors and writers are trying, it falls apart.

This episode has a really generic plot and some really cookie cutter characters. Nothing particularly happens here and the direction feels fairly lazy. There isn't much else to say about his story other than how plain and dull it is.

(Telesnaps) This story is so overly long, but unlike other Doctor Who stories, there isn't anything interesting going on. The dialogue is poor and doesn't fit the companions characters. The sound and production design are very repetitive and dull. The plot is so boring and nothing really comes from this story.