It's been what feels like quite a long road, but we're finally pretty much here- the return of Doctor Who to our screens for its anniversary season is just around the corner. In the final two Best Of Who Awards features before the hiatus we'll take over the course of the new season's broadcast, we'll be rounding up the very best episodes of the two eras of Doctor Who in its fifty-year history. Later this year, there will be a 'Best Doctor Who Episodes Ever' list, rest assured, but for at least this week it's the turn of the 1963-1989 Classic Era to go under the radar. Let's not beat around the best any more, then- here's my pick of the Top 5 Greatest Classic Stories...
5. CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS (1973)- There's a distinct sense of unique individualism about Carnival Of Monsters which is rare to find in just about any other show in the history of television. Sure there's modern satire in this Jon Pertwee tale, yet in reality, it's a fascinating trip into the bizarre unknown for the Doctor and Jo, where everything that seems to be real could well be a part of Vorg's distortion and mind games. Where The Celestial Toymaker hinted at playfulness with reality, Carnival was a stunning 10th Anniversary season adventure which defied expectations to become one of the most memorable Doctor Who episodes yet!
4. AN UNEARTHLY CHILD (1963)- They say that to discover how a legend became what it is, you need only refer to its source. In the case of Doctor Who's premiere story An Unearthly Child, that certainly rings true- the mystery, the gravitas and the ambiguity surrounding the old man who resided with his granddaughter in an old police box on 14 Totter's Lane still remains such compelling viewing. How a team of writers could come up with such a diverse premise, bringing two school teachers into the TARDIS for an adventure to the time of cavemen, is beyond me. Yet without An Unearthly Child, a subtle yet often bold spectacular, we wouldn't be where we are with the legend of the Doctor in 2013, so the source of the show's greatness should not and can never be forgotten.
3. THE FIVE DOCTORS (1983)- "So you're just going to leave, on the run from your own race in a rickety old TARDIS?" "Why not? After all, that's how it all started."...And nostalgia wave complete! In few instances can a science-fiction show, or rather any show, successfully engage in narrative odes to the past as well as The Five Doctors does. Yes, there is a somewhat lingering sense of it being a tad coincidental that the First Doctor, Susan, the Second Doctor, Jamie, the Third Doctor, Sarah-Jane, Rassilon, the Fourth Doctor, Leela, the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, Cybermen and the Daleks all end up embroiled in one Gallifreyan mystery, yet when this 20th Anniversary blockbuster does so many things right on so many levels, it's extremely difficult to complain...
2. THE TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN (1967)- It's little wonder that in penning a modern Cybermen adventure that aims to make those iconic adversaries of the Doctor scary again, Neil Gaiman cites The Tomb Of The Cybermen as the main source of inspiration for 2013's The Last Cyberman. There's so much fear and scale of threat present in the portrayal of these foes here, with the latest incarnation of the metallic menaces looking stunning and the introduction of the Cybermats a very neat surprise. Tomb remains a stunning rendition of the Patrick Troughton era at its finest, its leads effortlessly brilliant and its revived antagonists truly endorsing the sense of needing to head behind the sofa!
1. GENESIS OF THE DALEKS (1975)- Until I had watched Genesis Of The Daleks, I could never possibly have envisioned a Dalek adventure as topping the Top 5 Greatest Classic Stories list. For all their bombast and action, Dalek tales have usually been rather predictable and one-dimensional. Not Genesis, though: here, we're posed some of the ultimate dilemmas of time and space, as the Fourth Doctor is sent back in time to avert the creation of his greatest enemies. Not only are Davros and the Daleks at their most terrifying here, the fear factor reaches its crux because those adversaries are so clever here, justifying every move they make in a way that rings worryingly true of the history of humanity. You can see a clip below to get a glance of this brilliant moral dilemma. What's most fascinating is to see whether a Time Lord who has fought the descendants of Skaro for centuries can rise above his hatred and commit genocide with nothing to lose- and while it all turns out alright in the end, that the Doctor truly begins to consider this horrific action is something which resonates in Resurrection Of The Daleks, The End Of Time, A Good Man Goes To War and indeed throughout the fifty grand years of Doctor Who history...
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