Battle of the Seasons – Quarterfinals
It’s on to the quarterfinals, as we aim to find out which season of Doctor Who was the best ever…
SEASON 13 VS SEASON 17
How do you like your eggs done? Sunny-side up or hard-yolk Gothic? It’s all a matter of taste, and neither season can sustain the flavour long enough to be the ‘definitive’ Fourth Doctor season (if there is such a thing). By Season 17, the series is winging along without a care in the world. Tom Baker could do no wrong, and Lalla Ward was the delight of the nation. The scripts were witty and life was high. But when push comes to shove, it’s Season 13, because spine-chilling cliffhangers built the series, and it’s the programme’s birthright to every young sofa-shielded viewer.
SEASON 16 VS SEASON 19
Now the weak parts begin to show themselves. The Key to Time season – the first ‘arc’ in many a year, is, sadly, an imperfect beast. It has its ups and its downs, and structurally, it’s a bit wobbly with Megaran meanderings and a finale that’s at least one episode and an OTT performance from the lead too long. They say memory cheats, but Season 19 does have a more pleasant ‘aftertaste’ about it that Season 16, more fonder moments. So Season 19 it is. And by God, Season 19 – it’s so YOUNG!
SEASON 5 VS SEASON 14
Mummy! Monsters everywhere – which to choose from? Season 14 definitely has the scares, but Tom in his ‘back off, I’m an alien’ phase does lack the warmth of Pat Troughton’s cosmic fun uncle. If all of Season 5 were still about and intact the answer might be different (as it was with its last-recovered story), but for many it’s still a gem waiting to be unearthed. People, it’s worth the dig. The quality of the stories, the acting and the heart behind Season 5 is a tough call to beat, and Season 14 just hasn’t the chops to stand up to it.
SEASON 26 VS SERIES 1
What a difference fifteen years make, eh? Season 26 is a series in its dotage, still learning new tricks through denial of the old ones. Mysterious? Aloof? Unearthly? Done that – here’s another spin before tea-time and an early night. Truth be told, some of Season 26 creaks a little after all these years, and while Series 1 is by no means self-assured, it symbolically opens with a buzzing alarm clock, the rest has clearly done it good, and those old criticisms and bad jokes about Daleks, stairs and wobbly sets get sent packing. General “fan” opinion certainly makes this match-up a foregone conclusion, but when you consider the scripts and the care that was taken, and the gloss (taking into account the budget available)…well, in this case, the fans are right. Series 1 is the winner.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I think that last one should be titled “Season 26 vs Series 1″
June 13th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
The problem with comments like that is that now people are going ‘What?’
(Although they might have been doing that anyway. How is Series 1 lasting so long??)
June 14th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Being a child of the throwaway age and blessed with the attention span of a gnat, I’ve been known to swap my ‘series’ and ‘season’ references around mid-sentence!
How about we rename Series One ‘The Eccleston Era’?